Exclusive interview with Solana: When the entire industry sentenced Solana to death, I was full of motivation

Source of the interview: Silicon Valley Girl

Compilation and organization: Compare BitpushNews

Introduction: In this interview, Solana co-founder Raj Gokal shares his entrepreneurial journey in the cryptocurrency space, his story of working with co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, and Solana’s vision for growth and future. He emphasized the importance of a good co-founder relationship to entrepreneurial success, and in-depth discussions on the value attributes of Bitcoin, Solana's technological innovation, the potential of NFT, and the application of DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure network) in business . In addition, Raj also reviewed the most difficult moments in Solana's development and shared his firm belief in the future of the cryptocurrency industry.

The following is the full text of the interview, which is compiled for the convenience of reading:

Host: lRaj, you are building an exciting project, Solana is now valued so high. Today, we want to talk about your entrepreneurial story and how you built Solana. Raj, your LinkedIn information shows that you started many companies before joining Solana. Can you share with us your entrepreneurial journey?

Raj Gokal : I didn't list all the companies I started because most of them failed. But this has always been my commitment to myself - I will continue to try to start a business in the tech industry in San Francisco and Silicon Valley until I find the direction of real success.

My earliest entrepreneurial experience was when I was in my early twenties, when I co-founded a glucose sensor company with a good friend from college, which is mainly aimed at consumers and athletes. Although it did not enter the market in the end, the company was acquired by One Drop. This is the starting point of my entrepreneurial journey.

Host: Did your first company be acquired?

Raj Gokal : Yes, but it's mainly my co-founder's credit. I left before the acquisition because I realized it would be a long process. This experience has taught me an important experience - finding a suitable co-founder is one of the most important things in entrepreneurship. For me, the core of entrepreneurship is to go through this journey with the right partners, and I never thought of fighting alone.

My co-founder Ashwin continued to lead the company after I left, and finally completed the acquisition after about six years. I hope that technology will be released soon! This experience also made me realize that in a highly regulated industry, if you want to reshape a key link, you must be clear about your product value and understand when you will encounter those vested people who want to maintain the status quo. stakeholder.

Host: Later you entered the field of health technology?

Raj Gokal : Yes, I've been in the health technology industry for the next six years. I used to work at Omada Health, where I exposed me to cryptocurrencies. In the field of health technology, I found that health insurance companies and regulators (mainly FDA) in the United States are extremely conservative and have the right to decide the entire industry. Without their approval, no new product will be available for market access and payments will be available.

I have always wanted to reshape these fields with technology. Because these giants have long avoided reforms through various means. But then I realized that the vested interests in the medical industry were too strong and almost impossible to shake in the short term.

Of course, the situation is slowly changing. For example, Apple is developing many sensing technologies that allow consumers to directly obtain health data without relying on insurance companies. These changes need to be driven by tech giants like Apple, Amazon, and Google.

Host: So how did you enter the crypto industry?

Raj Gokal : Yes, the crypto industry is also strictly regulated, but there is a little difference - many regulatory rules in the financial industry are formulated around "intermediaries". In the traditional financial system, all transactions must be completed through intermediaries such as banks, and cryptocurrencies are de-intermediated, which allows us to reshape this industry faster.

Different from the medical industry, you can’t bypass doctors or professional licensed practitioners, but in the financial field, we can directly implement peer-to-peer transactions. This makes it harder for cryptocurrencies to be fully controlled by existing financial giants.

Host: But the crypto market is very volatile. How did you adjust your mentality?

Raj Gokal : Any truly important innovation will experience drastic fluctuations when it first enters the market. The same is true during the Internet bubble period, with many companies experiencing roller coaster ups and downs, but the companies that remained behind became industry giants.

I think the more disruptive a technology is, the greater the bubbles and shocks it will experience. We now see that the development of technology is getting faster and faster, and the growth curve of users is getting steeper. From electricity, telephone, Internet, mobile devices to now AI and cryptocurrencies, the popularity of technology has been greatly accelerated. Therefore, the speculative sentiment in the market is understandable because these technologies can indeed change our lives quickly.

Host: But compared to the medical industry, the value of cryptocurrencies seems to depend more on people 's "beliefs". If celebrities spread the word "Bitcoin is a scam" on social media, the entire market may be affected. What do you think of this?

Raj Gokal : That's a good question. The value of Bitcoin does depend on people’s beliefs, but this is also one of its core attributes. Bitcoin is the weather vane for the entire crypto industry, and it is the first asset to prove that decentralized ledgers can exist.

Bitcoin has experienced various challenges over the past few years, but it still survives. Now, we're seeing financial giants like BlackRock launching Bitcoin ETFs, and CEOs are also discussing the value of Bitcoin in public. In addition, some countries, such as El Salvador, have used Bitcoin as fiat currency. These trends suggest that Bitcoin has grown from a "crazy idea" to a truly globally recognized store of value tool.

Host: So do you think Bitcoin has crossed the gap of faith?

Raj Gokal : Yes, Bitcoin has entered the asset class similar to gold and art, and it is a decentralized, global value storage tool.

Of course, the payment field is still in its early stages, but we have seen Visa choose Solana as a settlement network between banks, merchants and card issuers. This shows that even companies with huge technical teams and huge opportunity costs are beginning to adopt encryption technology.

Host: How do you view the future of this technology and make judgments independently of the market cycle, believing that future settlement systems will be built on these chains?

Raj Gokal : We have seen some companies have begun to make layouts, such as Stripe that has restarted the acceptance function of crypto payments. In the demo, John Collison showed off the USDC deal on Solana, which was completed almost instantly. For them, the speed and reliability of networks like Solana are crucial. So, in the payment field, we have seen some progress.

But in other use cases, the market still has a lot of volatility. However, this reminds me of the popularization of the Internet between 1995 and 2005. At that time, the Internet was not just a single product, and new things would appear every once in a while. At first, people needed an email address because it was the way to access various services, and over time, different major applications gradually emerged, eventually bringing billions of users to the Internet.

Host: You joined Solana before it was widely recognized. What is this opportunity?

Raj Gokal : Yes, that was in 2017 to 2018. At that time, Ethereum had proven that blockchain was not just a tool for storing value, it could also serve as a programmable decentralized application platform. The concept is very novel, and projects like CryptoKitties have emerged and attracted tens of thousands of users, but the high gas fees and network latency that come with it suggest that Ethereum is facing huge challenges in scalability.

The bottleneck of infrastructure is obvious, and the consensus within the industry is that new expansion solutions must be explored, so expansion research in all directions has been supported by financial support. Solana's idea is that we believe that sharding should be the final extension choice, and the most priority should be parallel transaction processing and creating a decentralized time synchronization mechanism in the network. This allows us to build a high-throughput, non-slicing global state machine that can scale as Moore's Law advances.

Host: So, your idea is to start from scratch and focus on optimizing performance?

Raj Gokal : That's right, our idea is to start from the scalability problem of Ethereum, assuming that hardware costs will continue to decline, and using the advantages of Moore's Law to design a brand new system. Every engineering decision we make revolving around performance optimization, so that when truly high-performance application scenarios appear, our platform can become the best choice.

Host: In the initial stage, do you have clear ideas about the specific application scenarios of blockchain?

Raj Gokal : Actually, it doesn't. There was a lot of discussion about how blockchain could change the world, like in the mid-1990s, when people tried to imagine the future of YouTube, Uber, or Instacart. Although these visions are valuable, more importantly, first of all, we must build an infrastructure that can support future applications.

We believe that truly successful products can grow from 30,000 users to 300,000 or even 3 billion users in a short period of time, so the infrastructure must be able to support this level of expansion. For example, is it possible that CryptoKitties will grow to 3 million users within six months? Maybe, but the high transaction costs at the time made this impossible. So, our bet is: first solve the extension problem, and then wait for the application scenario to appear naturally. These applications proved to be coming faster than we expected.

Host: Regarding Solana 's idea, how did you form a team?

Raj Gokal : This idea comes entirely from Anatoly (Yakovenko). He has always focused on the scaling of distributed systems, and we met at Omada. At the time, I worked closely with Eric Williams, a former particle physicist who was in charge of data science and I was in charge of product management. Later, he told me that Anatoly was working on the scalability of blockchain and was passionate about this direction. He suggested that I meet Anatoly.

Host: Before that, you mainly started a business in HealthTech, right?

Raj Gokal : Yes, Omada is my second company, and although I am not the founder, I have been involved very early. After that, I tried nine different medical technology startup projects in a year.

Host: Nine companies within a year? What is the process like? How did you decide when to give up an idea?

Raj Gokal : At the beginning, my idea was based on results. I hope to quickly find the product market fit (Product-Market Fit), have high funding efficiency, technical breakthroughs, and can achieve it with the minimum amount of funds. Influential products. I don’t want to just create a company that makes money, but I want to really improve the healthcare industry.

There are two main criteria for judgment: 1. Is there sufficient potential -does this product have the opportunity to change the industry within a reasonable time? 2. Team matching degree - Are the partners and teams suitable?

Host: How did you find the right partner?

Raj Gokal : During my time in Silicon Valley, I have been meeting potential entrepreneurial partners. My idea is that finding someone who can really work with for a long time is as important as finding a life partner. I will keep meeting people to see if they are in line and see if they know the right person.

Usually, we write code together on weekends, and even do a small project first to see if the collaboration is smooth. Just like musicians often go to jam session with different people in the studio to see if the style fits.

Host: After trying multiple entrepreneurial projects that year, how did you finally decide to join Anatoly?

Raj Gokal: I have tried many times, and even went deep into the stage of talking about equity allocation and financing planning with some people, but in the end, I didn’t have the confidence to work together for a long time. However, when Eric told me that Anatoly had a deep understanding of blockchain scalability and couldn't stop thinking about it, I decided to meet him.

Anatoly made me realize that the main bottleneck of blockchain is indeed scalability, and we have solved similar problems in other areas such as wireless networks, the Internet and data centers. Blockchain is not the only distributed system that needs to be expanded, so existing solutions can be learned from.

At that time, I didn’t want to invest ten years to do this project. I just wanted to give Anatoly six months first to help him raise funds and recruit teams correctly. I know how to build a startup team, and the earliest 10 people have a huge impact on the future of the entire company. In the process, I gradually became attracted by the potential of this project and finally decided to join in full time.

Host: It sounds like your decision is first of all the idea itself, and secondly the team, and the team is the most critical factor. This is also one of the reasons that prompts you to change directions?

Raj Gokal : Yes, that's a big mindset for me. I realized that instead of focusing on a particular problem and then forming the most suitable team, it would be better to spend time working with someone I know can work well with, and this person happens to be the top talent in the world to solve this problem.

Host: Can you explain the overall structure of Solana? For example, Solana Labs and Solana Foundation, what are their respective functions? If he was a person from a traditional business background, how would he understand this structure, such as ownership, valuation, etc.? Because the trading price of Solana tokens in the market and the valuation of the company are different, right?

Raj Gokal : Yes. In my opinion, the gold standard for the industry is Bitcoin. Bitcoin does not have a centralized foundation or management organization, it is completely community-driven. Satoshi Nakamoto is a person, or a group of people. We don’t even know his true identity, and this identity has disappeared and no longer appeared. So, I think an important feature of encrypted networks is that it should eventually become something like a public resource, just like the Internet. No one cares who is maintaining the Internet because it is a decentralized ecosystem, and the companies that maintain it are only part of it, and their influence may even be greater than those developers who actually build, use and contribute to the Internet. Small.

From this perspective, even Solana is currently moving in this direction. The same is true for Ethereum.

Anatoly and I have created two organizations: Solana Labs and Solana Foundation. Both organizations are small now, with only a few dozen people, and many people will leave to build new companies and start businesses in the Solana ecosystem.

Solana Labs focuses on building products on the Solana network. Initially, it built some DeFi-related reference implementations, such as lending protocols, automated market makers (AMM) protocols, etc., which are the infrastructure people need to conduct transactions and financial activities. In addition, it has launched Metaplex, the protocol that supports all NFT markets that have now grown into multi-billion dollar business.

Host: So how does Solana Labs make a profit?

Raj Gokal: Solana Labs will launch these products and hold a small stake in them, just like investors. But our team is small, so we don’t need to make much money to keep it running.

Host: So, suppose you create Solana, you will keep some tokens to support the operation, and these tokens increase in value, and your capital will also grow accordingly? Or is it that investors buy Solana tokens instead of giving you funds directly? I 'm trying to understand this process from the perspective of Satoshi Nakamoto. If you want to raise funds, how exactly is it done?

Raj Gokal : Yes, Ethereum was ICO when it was launched, and anyone could buy ETH, which became the basic model for many similar projects. But later, in the United States, regulators made it clear that they could not sell tokens to everyone at will, regardless of whether they were qualified investors or not.

When we started Solana, we could no longer issue token financing at will like Ethereum, so we must be more cautious and compliant. Our early financing method is to sell SOL tokens, but through SAFT (Simple Protocol Future Tokens). These tokens were reserved in the Genesis block for early financing.

At that time, the scale of funds we raised was very small, for example, the first round of financing was only US$20 million, while the financing scale of many other networks reached hundreds of millions of dollars during the same period. However, our financing methods meet the regulatory requirements of the United States, and the funds are mainly qualified investors in the United States and overseas investors.

However, this model is different from traditional centralized enterprises, and we organizations do not charge fees from online transactions. Just building products in the Solana ecosystem is enough to support an excellent engineering team.

Host: Are you building an ecosystem, and you are developing products in this ecosystem and making profits through these products?

Raj Gokal: Yes, that's right. I think at some stage in the future, the network itself can meet all needs and the entire ecosystem can independently build all the products needed. The initial development team no longer has unique professional advantages, but the entire developer community is promoting ecological development. If that's the case, Solana Labs may no longer exist.

The same applies to Solana Foundation. It currently manages the fiscal reserves of a SOL token with the main goal of improving the network's decentralization and censorship resistance. For example, Solana Foundation supports newly joined validators by delegating tokens, which may be difficult to compete in the early stages. The foundation provides certain support and gradually withdraw these entrusted funds when they mature.

In the long run, Solana Foundation’s responsibilities will gradually decrease, ultimately focusing on the core issues that really affect the next century.

But at this stage, the foundation can do some things that other ecological participants are difficult to accomplish. For example, if Visa wants to evaluate the design of the Solana network, their team of engineers needs to study in depth, and they want to communicate directly with the people who built the network in the first place. At present, we are not in a fully mature stage, and Visa still needs to consult with the Solana team. But I expect this to change soon, and it may even happen this year.

Like PayPal has issued their stablecoins on Solana, Stripe has just completed Solana integration. These things happen not because Solana Labs is involved, but because developers are already familiar with the network, just like they know how to use email protocols or Internet protocols.

Host: Do these companies, such as PayPal and Stripe, pay you any fees?

Raj Gokal: No, they are completely independent. If they come to us, it's just to better understand how the network works.

Host: So these companies won’t pay you any fees? And will Solana Labs or Solana Foundation not get any direct benefits from these projects?

Raj Gokal: Yes. In fact, we can get more income in different ways, but that is not our goal. If an organization’s primary goal is to make profits from the network, it may be more like a commercial company than a public infrastructure provider. We hope that the Solana ecosystem can grow independently rather than relying on Solana Labs for intervention.

Our goal is to make the entire network more diverse, sustainable and have the ability to grow by itself. From the current perspective, I think the Solana ecosystem has basically reached this state. Many times, people ask us, "What did you do to make a project come about?" In fact, we know the same thing about this project as they do, and we all know it from the news or on Twitter. This feeling is great, meaning that the development of the ecosystem is organic and happens autonomously.

Host: So what is your specific role now?

Raj Gokal: I am currently on the board of Solana Foundation and I am also president of Solana Labs. Anatoly and I focused on Solana Labs, focusing on developing new products, such as the launch of our Saga phone, and there are subsequent versions to be released soon. In addition, we are developing and launching other new products at Solana Labs. Solana Foundation also has a very good team, I am involved in management at the board level, but I am not responsible for the day-to-day operations of the foundation.

Host: Then you are the co-founder of Solana, right? From the perspective of company structure, how are your shares or equity calculated? Will the founding team receive Solana tokens?

Raj Gokal: Yes, our founding team has obtained some tokens. This information is public because they are all recorded on the blockchain.

During the Genesis block generation, we reserved a portion of tokens to reward team members who contributed to the network construction. This model is also very common in the field of open source software, such as operating systems, development tools, etc. Many people develop software not for direct profit, but because they hope that these software can be used to solve real problems.

But in the crypto space, tokens have an additional role: they are not only incentive mechanisms to reward developers, but also functions of network governance and security. Because these protocols manage real-world value and involve assets that can be converted into fiat currency, they are easily targeted.

To some extent, tokens are like a "spam prevention mechanism" of the network. Without tokens, anyone can abuse network resources at will, causing the system to crash. Therefore, holding tokens is not just an economic return, it also means a contribution to cybersecurity and long-term development.

Host: In the design of encryption protocols, how to prevent potential attacks and abuses?

Raj Gokal: You might try to attack the protocol by brushing orders, trade torrents, maybe try to do a denial of service attack (Dos), and there are many ways to manipulate the protocol if it is completely free. So you need some mechanism to pay for the use of the agreement. This is also a way we can understand tokens, it is like an anti-spam mechanism. Like if the cost of sending an email is one thousandth of a cent per email, which company will let you pay? Without a company, you have to have a mechanism to pay for the use of the agreement. So, many early Internet designers, including founders of Mark Andreessen and Netscape, would say that if they could go back in time, they would consider a form of value and anti-spam mechanism that would allow you to pay for open protocols cost. If we could think of the second and third order effects without this mechanism, it might look like cryptocurrencies today.

Host: So to some extent, do you think there is some similarity between cryptocurrencies and early Internet protocols?

Raj Gokal: Yes, it's really new, and I think the way the company starts, especially for those who are used to equity startups, is a mentality change. But I prefer to think of it as how to build anti-spam open source software, and I don't think anyone serious would be overthinking things like "exit". Saga is the first device we launched, it is a high-end device made of titanium, which was designed by the chief designer of the iPad Pro long before the iPhone was titanium. This is a truly high-end crypto device with no restrictions on NFTs and tokens. Today, on the App Store, as a developer, you cannot publish encryption-related content as you like. In fact, it is very limited. The App Store's fee model, such as the 30% fee for digital content, for me, If I create an NFT and want to sell it to you, I don't want to pay 30% or let 30% go to Apple. This is a point-to-point relationship. Many of the models we see in the encryption world don't work in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. It turns out that many people in the United States are satisfied with this.

Host: Can you briefly introduce the background of the Saga device? It seems to have received a lot of response in the market.

Raj Gokal: A total of 20,000 units of the Saga equipment were produced and sold out in about two days at the end of 2023. We found that encrypted heavy users, if they live in the United States and use mainly Apple phones, usually carry two phones. Many people use it to work, trade, and sign very urgent transactions. It's not really like a cell phone, and there are actually some people who use it to make calls, and I'm not sure if we have tools to track and analyze, but I know I've ever told me they were answering the phone on Saga. It is an Android phone, but I think its use cases will be more used in transactions and other scenarios. Ledger has also launched a display, which is a more configurable interface that facilitates interaction with transaction signing, but they are less focused on making the device available anytime, anywhere.

Host: It sounds like the use scenarios of Saga devices are very diverse. So, compared with mainstream platforms such as Ethereum, in what aspects does it have obvious advantages?

Raj Gokal: We see that the frequency of NFT transactions on the Solana network is 5 to 20 times higher than that of users on slow networks like Ethereum. Its user base is very active. So, I think unlocking the mobile is a very important bet, and no other company in the industry seems ready or willing to make this bet. So we made this decision. As for the sales of 20,000 units, this is just a proof of concept. We see that there are now more than 150,000 bookings, and the next batch of device bookings has far exceeded the number of users of most applications in the crypto industry at present. We haven't started delivering these devices yet, but we've seen developers line up to develop applications for these devices because they actually match very well their target market. So, we call it Saga because we know it will be a long-term story. This is not a bet that will work in one or two years, similar to the decisions that start the Solana network and bet on the future that will require high-performance applications. You must continue to increase your investment and investment.

Host: Is the success of Saga a little challenging? For example, a game with large technology companies?

Raj Gokal: We thought all these signals would be delivered to Apple in the end, and we expect them to have a great product launch. However, the result is nothing at all. You see, as I mentioned just now, Apple is an existing giant, and its business model is to extract 30% of the fees from digital content, which is a business model that is likely to be subverted by cryptocurrencies. So, Apple is not in a hurry to make positive changes in the crypto space. As part of the crypto industry, we should invest in mobile, rather than wait for these giants to give us permission.

Host: Can you imagine using Solana phone in two years? For example, myself, I just use it to buy cryptocurrency without any transactions, but what will the future look like if you expect it?

Raj Gokal: There is a phenomenon that 23,000 new tokens are posted on Solana every day, almost as simple as posting YouTube videos or Instagram images. Taking NFT as an example, the issuance cost of NFTs on Solana was once several thousand dollars, and with the development of compressed NFT technology, the cost of issuing 10,000 NFTs has been reduced to $100, or even lower. It almost became as cheap as sending an email.

Just imagine, if NFT was just a way to communicate with a large audience, the audience might even have the “message” they received, like a letter. The same is true for tokens. If you interact with your audience by issuing tokens, it may be a completely new way of communication. While this idea is strange, it is actually happening.

Creators can interact with their audience through tokens and 100% of their revenue is directly distributed to creators. You can invest and support each other with your audience, and this design space is almost limitless.

Compared with centralized platforms such as Instagram, creators are no longer motivated by advertising support, and do not have to produce content that caters to the algorithm, avoiding the platform's revenue commission. Based on the direct relationship of encryption, there is only one contract between the creator and the audience, no intermediaries, no ads. While this is still in a very early stage, it doesn't seem possible to disappear.

Two years later, five years later, with the continuous breakthroughs in the crypto industry, the relationship between creators and audiences will become increasingly difficult to identify. Interacting through NFT and tokens to create new value exchanges is an important innovation in the field of crypto.

DPIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) is a new application case that increases the value of the network through distributed activation of hardware. Traditional wireless networks require a lot of capital investment, and through DPIN networks like Helium, anyone can participate in the construction of 5G networks by connecting hot spots at home to the network.

Hive Mapper is a similar example. It incentivizes users to install on-board cameras and record 4K videos by paying tokens to create a decentralized street view map. This approach is more cost-effective and flexible than the traditional Google Street View shooting method.

Another example is Teleport, a decentralized Uber platform created by a former Dropbox engineer. Unlike traditional Uber, drivers can earn 100% of their income without a platform commission.

Host: You have tried so many companies. Is this a project you will stick to for a long time?

Raj Gokal: I hope the healthcare industry can be rebuilt. I am focusing on this field, and there are also practitioners in the crypto field who have returned to the medical industry to innovate, but I am not ready to do so at the moment.

I think Solana still has 99.9% potential to be developed, it is moving steadily towards that goal, and there is nothing to stop it by solving this problem. Many people have said that Solana will die, but in fact that is just the source of our motivation. This negative feedback is a value signal for entrepreneurs, which can make us stronger.

Host: Have you ever thought about giving up?

Raj Gokal: Yes, but I never had the determination to give up. As long as you persevere, you can get through the difficulties every time. My DNA is an entrepreneur, and the Solana ecosystem also attracts these tough and persevering entrepreneurs. Each of us is motivating each other.

Host: You have experienced many difficult moments. Can you tell us what the most difficult moments you have in the process of establishing Solana?

Raj Gokal: I don't know how to choose which one is the hardest. If you want to choose one, it may be the moment when many people think Solana should die. Many times, the entire crypto industry does not believe in the existence of Solana, thinking it should die. One thing Anatoli taught me is that when people have such a strong opinion of you, it is actually a very valuable signal. This can become a motivation, and although it is negative, it is an energy that you can feel it.

However, I don't think these negative voices are meaningless. I believe most people are out of good intentions, if they make negative opinions, there must be something real in them, which is the opinion you should listen to. For any entrepreneur, the worst thing is not being criticized, but being left alone and having no signal. If you posted a YouTube video without any viewing, likes or steps, you learned nothing and had no feedback at all. Getting negative feedback at least allows you to know what is wrong, at least you know what people think of you. So for any entrepreneur, whether it is positive or negative feedback, it is a valuable signal.

Host: Have you ever thought about giving up?

Raj Gokal: Many times. To be honest, I'm not the kind of person with strong willpower, Anatoli is the real Ironman Challenger. He is an endurance athlete and I haven't done that before. All my endurance training is honed when building something valuable. But as I mentioned before, all the work you do is to do with the people you can work with. If you can tell yourself that even if the whole world collapses and everything goes to zero and the work you do is no longer of value, but you are still willing to work with your team members, then you can at least survive and get through the difficulties. Moreover, time always changes everything, and the worst time is temporary after all. You just have to stick to it day after day and things will change.

Host: Have you ever had a similar mentality in the early stages of your business?

Raj Gokal: Yes, exactly the same. Starting a business is about constantly experiencing failures and not knowing what difficulties you will encounter next. If you fail to do all three companies, you will think that maybe it’s time to leave Silicon Valley and go somewhere else. I set the most basic requirement for myself at that time, that is, as long as I don’t succeed, I will continue to start a business until I find a path to success. Actually, I told myself that if I run 100 companies, I will continue to start a business when I am 90 years old. I have this belief until these things work.

Host: Is your current mentality different from before?

Raj Gokal: Yes, now I think the DNA of the Solana ecosystem is this spirit of perseverance. Every entrepreneur comes to join Solana with that perseverance and determination, and they want to work with like-minded people. In fact, now I feel like I’m probably the least persevering person on the entire network, and the ones who really have perseverance are the founders who built and contributed to Solana. Looking at their perseverance has inspired me to be more tenacious.

Host: Will you focus on these entrepreneurs instead of comments on social media?

Raj Gokal: Yes, external noise will always exist, the key is to stick to your goals. No matter what the outside world is, you must focus on yourself and those like-minded people. You can always find infinite motivation in it.