By Jack Kubinec
Compiled by: Vernacular Blockchain
Lightspeed launched an anonymous survey and distributed it to Solana founders, heavy users, etc. to truly understand their views on other ecosystems, venture capital firms, startups, etc.
Survey questions covered a variety of options and provided space for writing, edited for grammar and clarity.
Here are the results of our survey of 42 founders:
1. Besides Solana, which blockchain would you choose?
Some founders also said: If it weren’t for Solana, I wouldn’t be involved in cryptocurrency.”
2. What is your favorite American political party?
3. Which crypto VC do you rate the highest?
The founders also said: “It’s not fair to choose one.”
4. Which crypto VC do you think is the least promising?
The founders also said: “It is not OK for Asian VCs to blindly follow the lead investor.”
5. I heard that the circle within Solana is very complicated. In order to promote the development of projects within the circle, projects outside the circle are often sacrificed?
The founders also stated:
"I don't know. It's all the same. There's not much difference."
"I don't like this question, it feels like it's meant to be controversial rather than informative."
"It does exist, and I'm a part of it, but it's not 'at the expense of non-industry projects' because I invest a lot of time and money in 'non-industry projects' as well. It goes both ways - you give, and you get back."
“It doesn’t exist, and yet I’m a part of it.”
“In the early days and during the bear market, some personal networks were formed. People who valued collaborating and helping Solana naturally formed closer relationships over the years. Some (including those from the OG Solana Labs team) later became influential figures with large followings. This is natural. Almost all surviving teams were also funded by venture capital and Solana Ventures. These are all facts, but there is no malice in my opinion. The Solana Foundation has done a great job of actively diversifying this influence and supporting people in the ecosystem (such as Superteam, etc.). Toly has been particularly good at supporting builders without favoritism, not based on personal preferences, but based on 1) the coolness of the project they are building, and 2) their sincerity.”
6. What is Solana’s biggest problem right now?
The founders also stated: “More block space is desperately needed. 5x increase in demand + 2x increase in price = 10x increase in block size is needed to keep costs constant for app developers!”
7. What do you think about the significance of Memecoins to Solana?
8. There are many startups in Solana that are not founded by you. Which one do you most want to join?
9. Which company do you least want to join?
The founders also said: “We don’t want to join companies that haven’t taken off yet.”
10. What is the most overvalued Solana sector?
The founders also said: "SocialFi, DeSci and games all have great potential."
11. The most underrated Solana sector?
12. Which of the following would be most damaging to Solana’s reputation?
The founders also said: "FTX was both the best and the worst in the early days, haha."
There’s a lot to dig into here, but I found a few points to be particularly interesting: The other founders didn’t think highly of pump.fun, but they generally believed that memecoin was good for the ecosystem, and Base and Sui seemed to be the most attractive Solana competitors at the moment.
As a journalist, it’s not easy to get founders to speak candidly in public. This investigation helped me better understand what Solana’s founders really think — at least in general.
