Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Benedetto Biondi, CEO of Folks Finance: Unlocking Web3 success while building the future of DeFi
16 Plays1 month ago
In this episode, I sit down with Benedetto Biondi, the visionary CEO of Folks Finance, to uncover his transition from project manager to leading a cutting-edge Web3 company. Listeners will step into the fast-paced world of a CEO and discover what it’s like to run Folks Finance, an ambitious all-in-one DeFi protocol. Benedetto reveals the original goals that sparked this venture and tackles the biggest challenges of building in the decentralised finance space, including the surprising hurdles he faced as a first-time CEO.
Benedetto shares how he learned to become a CEO, common pitfalls startups should avoid, and the art of finding great mentors. He also dives into what first-time CEOs need to watch out for and breaks down the essentials of working and thriving in Web3. The episode wraps up with an exciting glimpse into the future of Folks Finance and timeless advice Benedetto would give his younger self.
Tune in for a masterclass in leadership, DeFi innovation, and carving your path in the Web3 revolution, perfect for anyone ready to take their career or startup to the next level!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Background
00:00:00
Speaker
Ben, welcome to the show. How are you? Thank you, Jack. Thanks for having me here. I'm very good. What about you? Yeah, great. Thank you. I'm great. Benedetto, for people who don't know who you are, could you introduce yourself, please?
00:00:14
Speaker
Sure, I am Italian. I am the CEO of Fox Finance. Fox Finance is a DeFi protocol ah born on Algorand and now we launched it on several chains, including Bitroom, Ethereum, BNB, Bayes.
00:00:27
Speaker
um I will tell you a bit more later about the protocol. About myself, I am um My passion is spearfishing. I grew up in the south of Italy on the sea.
00:00:39
Speaker
And then I went to Milan to study at Polytechnic University of Milan. And um later on, I went do a master also in Cardiff University. After that, um I had the chance to work for the largest Web3 software house of Italy.
00:00:55
Speaker
And that's where Foxfinals started.
Journey to CEO of Folks Finance
00:00:57
Speaker
So I guess that's a bit about me. Nice, nice. Well, could you take us back to the start of your career and talk us through the roles that you've held so far in your career journey?
00:01:11
Speaker
Yes. um So I was working as a project manager for the Software House and I was managing different projects that were on tokenization, sub supply chain with blockchain, ah blockchain in healthcare.
00:01:27
Speaker
And that was 2019 and then 2020 DeFi started to boom in Ethereum. So we had the DeFi summer. And at the same time, there were a different layer one that were trying to compete with Ethereum. They were newborn like Solana, Algorand, Anear, Avalanche.
00:01:50
Speaker
And um I remember there was like beginning of growth of DeFi in every chain, like Ethereum killer. Like in Ethereum was already big and on the new chain was just starting.
00:02:05
Speaker
So with the software house, we were partner of Algorand and we decided to build the strategically a DeFi protocol on Algorand. So the decision was just made thinking, okay, new layer one are uprisings.
00:02:20
Speaker
ah in every ecosystem there will be DeFi. So we're going to build an algorithm since we are already partnered there. um Obviously the tech is very good. um So building DeFi made a lot of sense.
00:02:32
Speaker
um We started as a lending protocol and um I remember at this time, you know, I switched from being a project manager into a full-time job as CEO of a racing startup.
Challenges and Achievements in DeFi
00:02:44
Speaker
And there was a lot of FOMO around defining those new layer ones.
00:02:50
Speaker
ah In fact, um under my leadership, we were able to raise $3 million in a very... um let's say um exclusive round, we were onboarding name like Coinbase, Parafy, Jump, OKX, Borderless was the the first round.
00:03:09
Speaker
And it was like, let's say the first round of such a successful name into an algorithm ecosystem. the algorithm ecosystem So after that, you know, like, you know, when you fundraise, you start to expand the team grow.
00:03:24
Speaker
So It was indeed a challenge for me. I switched from being project manager of teams of few people and having a company that was very fast growing.
00:03:35
Speaker
and There was the mainnet launch, which was another big milestone that was very hard to grow. ah We had um a competitor in the ecosystem that was way more advanced than us. But our strategy was keep building, keep being good, be reliable, keep listening to the community.
00:03:53
Speaker
And we achieved that later on, ah we became the largest on our ground. I say this was our first big target. And now the second target is happening, which is expand in other chains and became leader in DeFi.
00:04:07
Speaker
So this is a bit about, let's say, the journey. That sounds cool to go from project manager to then being ah CEO. That's quite the switch.
00:04:19
Speaker
um When you started your career, did you know always know that you wanted to be a CEO eventually? Was that the plan? So I'll tell you. I used to be a mechanical designer, so my bachelor is mechanical engineering.
00:04:34
Speaker
And I used it to work between doing my master as a mechanical designer. I hated it. It was for me always staying at the laptop, doing my tasks.
00:04:44
Speaker
ah Yes, I liked, but so it was I would feel I was limited when I would see my boss, like the manager, the and the like the boss of the company.
00:04:56
Speaker
going out to meet clients, and talk, selling, ah ah building the business. For me, it was very attracting. That's why I felt that I needed to do a switch and I did this master in management engineering.
A Day in the Life of a CEO
00:05:10
Speaker
So ah let's say I also come from um a background of um entrepreneurial family. So my father is an entrepreneur.
00:05:21
Speaker
um My brother's also. So I I kind of have these in in the family skills, in the blood skills. um And I just felt very good in doing it when the the situation arrived. I still love to be the leader.
00:05:38
Speaker
i do it with passion. It's a 24-7 job that never burned me out.
00:05:45
Speaker
That's nice. That's nice to hear. um So could you take us through, this might be quite a vague question, ah and I'm sure it varies, but could you talk us through ah day in the life of the CEO at Folks Finance?
00:05:59
Speaker
ah Okay, yes. um Most of my time it's between travels. um It's actually one of the very good, but at the same time ah pain point.
00:06:11
Speaker
Because ah when you travel so much and you switch between time zones, you just to really much miss the stability and being able to go to home and sleep in your bed, you know, meet your partner, your your family.
00:06:28
Speaker
Um, so it's, it's hard in that sense, but okay. Let's say I travel, I go to conferences, I meet, uh, um, existing connection. I make new, I think what is good for the team. I know what is our mission. So I strategically meet other partners and at the same time, mean, while traveling, I'm also always monitoring what happened in the, in the,
00:06:53
Speaker
the team chat so every day let's say i wake up check all emails all discord channels messages telegram and later i do my daily meetings um i can be pretty flexible with my timings so um um let's say i can um say next two hours i'm going to gym doesn't matter what time in the day it is uh because i I know what I have to do as soon as I manage to do this, um I can focus also on other things.
The Mission and Evolution of Folks Finance
00:07:24
Speaker
um It wasn't always like this. I had, let's say, then the first year that was very tough. I had to dedicate a lot of time to folks. But now that the team is larger and I have CMO, CTO, CO, everything, it's a bit more um let's say delegated and I no need to do everything. I can supervision.
00:07:46
Speaker
i attend ah each um each team. Let's say attend the meeting with the marketing. i attend the meeting with the economics, with the developers, just to make sure that I'm aligned.
00:07:58
Speaker
um But I don't follow into details each single thing that is happening. I do supervise everything though.
00:08:09
Speaker
And obviously I do many interviews. I can imagine. I can imagine. Well, you talked us through ah folks in a little bit of detail um before. Could you talk us through, um i guess, the problems that you guys are specifically solving within DeFi and like what your mission is?
00:08:28
Speaker
So um let's say our mission switched between ah the evolving of our journey and in general, the industry evolving is evolving as well.
00:08:40
Speaker
ah But we started wanting to build a new a very good lending protocol ah competing with the the others, because when we started, we saw that there was it was 2020. So you can imagine like just Aave and Compound was on the market and was in their first version.
00:09:01
Speaker
you could feel that there was a lot of room of improvements. Plus on Ethereum, gas fees was very expensive. It was very, very limiting to use products on Ethereum.
Strategic Cross-Chain Expansion
00:09:13
Speaker
So building a lending protocol better on Algorand was for us um the way to kind of put the industrial industry standard to another level because we have a chain that is much more ah performance and um ah more affordable to use. Transaction transaction fees are very cheap on Algorand.
00:09:34
Speaker
So the idea was like why people use Ethereum. They should do something ah ah faster, cheaper and with a better product. Right. um Later on, this kind of switched when we understood that um DeFi also ah is limiting itself because as builders, what we tend to do is always build vertical products that are usually, let's say, for swapping, you use Uniswap, for lending, you use Aave, for staking Lido.
00:10:08
Speaker
Then you go on centralized exchange and you have all of those plus more in one place. And then you see numbers you have like on Uniswap, 5 million users on a centralized exchange, you have 200 millions.
00:10:22
Speaker
So yeah you get to think like, why is that? Obviously there are different friction and parts that limits this, right? And one of these is the fact that in DeFi, in order to do To manage your assets, you need to use multiple tools.
00:10:39
Speaker
That's not nice. ah in In centralized and exchange, you do in one place everything. That's why I believe that also users like it more. So we decided to keep adding tools to the protocol.
00:10:51
Speaker
So to build this one-stop shop with DeFi tools. so we add that the So we had lending, we added the liquid staking, swaps. And then, thanks to the composability of the lending, which I said we made innovation around that, so we made a very good lending protocol, we were able to combine flash loans, loans, additional features that came later, like swaps or liquid staking, to build the leverage feature. So by doing that with the swap, we built leverage trading. By doing that with the liquid staking, we built leverage liquid staking. so
00:11:26
Speaker
um you understand that here then when you have a very powerful product as a very good learning protocol then by simply combining contracts you can build new tools at zero additional added risks and costs in a sense so this is amazing like compared to c5 that is totally different and the this was our mission for a while and i can say that it worked very well because ah On Algorand, we became the largest DeFi protocol by far.
00:12:00
Speaker
And um we thought at some point, okay, we have a very good product, um but we can't be limited to ah deliver it to a single chain.
00:12:14
Speaker
ah Then this mission switched again. ah The problem, though, in that was ah that Being on a non-EVM chain, we couldn't just fork our product and deploy it on another chain as everyone does if you are EVM.
00:12:31
Speaker
So for example, Aave that is on Ethereum was able to just fork the product into new chains and that's it. um For us, it would have meant rebuild everything from scratch, obtain an ugly copy of folks on algorithm because it would require a lot of effort and anyway, it's everything from scratch.
00:12:53
Speaker
and they're not even talking to each other. um We thought that this was not worth, but when we went aware of messaging layers and cross-chain technology, we decided that we could do this step with the right way.
00:13:09
Speaker
So the mission became, okay, every tool that we have, we are going to build it cross chain so that it can be in any chain we support seamlessly. So for us, it requires much less effort to integrate a new chain.
Managing Stress and Mentorship
00:13:23
Speaker
Plus, we have the advantage of being able to interpret chain, being able to um aggregate to liquidity between chains, because this is also a problem of DeFi because all the liquidity is fragmented on ah and single chains and it doesn't help each other.
00:13:41
Speaker
um By using cross-chain technology, you can do that. ah For example, on our X-Chain lending, we are able to aggregate liquidity from USDC from all the chain that we um support into one single pool so that the pool is larger and you can take bigger loan without impacting the utilization ratio. It's just an example. Same is for the swaps.
00:14:07
Speaker
You are able to swap between ah ah multiple DEXs or multiple ah ah network. So you are improving the swap efficiency. So the price impact is reduced simply because you are routing the swap into multiple network.
00:14:23
Speaker
So the mission now is this. We recently deployed our like few months ago, our cross chain lending. ah We integrated cross chain swaps from Li-Fi. Soon we are going to have cross chain liquid staking. So it's evolving.
00:14:38
Speaker
And just to conclude, the future mission is to bring this to the web to users. That's why we are building a mobile mobile app that will offer also custody. So we are removing again one more friction, which is the custody part from that for the user.
00:14:53
Speaker
Cool. Sounds like you guys are covering a lot of different areas now. Very different to when you initially started. Yes. um Was that always the plan to evolve the product into that?
00:15:06
Speaker
all-encompassing DeFi tool? Or did when you started, did you think, you know what, we're just going to be lending and it just naturally evolved? Or did you always think, you know what, we need to expand it, we want to expand it into other areas?
00:15:18
Speaker
Yeah, so at the beginning, was like ah honestly, was like, okay, we build a better lending. We are going to be the main lending product in the industry. um We understood that this was not enough. We saw DeFi was it's still now, for some extent, not competing much with exchange.
00:15:36
Speaker
um even though users are much more open to to trade on DeFi, but still it's much smaller. So I think that we need to learn what has been done good from centralized exchange, implement it in DeFi, and then make sure that we build the the best ah user experience for the retail users in order to onboard more and more people.
00:16:00
Speaker
Nice. And what's what's the biggest challenge building building something that you guys are doing now? I would say it's you know it's very often hard to choose what to do.
00:16:12
Speaker
Let's say simple decision making in a company, as in every company, let's say what future we build next, what we are going to focus on. Everything is about cost opportunity, right? What is going to bring us the quickest revenue, at the less effort.
00:16:28
Speaker
So it's more um in that sense. Then we have also, let's say, like the token in plan. So it's everything everything like a big soup with a lot of ingredients and you have to pick which one to add at the right time.
00:16:45
Speaker
ah But this is one of the hard thing. um Another thing is, ah you know, but Let's say till we were in a single chain, it was kind easier.
00:16:58
Speaker
You concentrate all your efforts there. ah You are able to engage very well also and easier with the community. But when you're trying to expand, you have to face different communities, different teams in different chains.
00:17:11
Speaker
the BD and the marketing became so much more hard, but also even the technical part, because you need to, let's say when you have two protocol like us, you have to monitor two different products, even let's say for the security part, you need to be very careful.
00:17:28
Speaker
So it's like, you know, you have one kid on, you have two. It's harder, obviously, from an age two. It's the same.
00:17:38
Speaker
And how do you choose what new chains to expand to? Do you just look at the user base or the community yeah people already building? We look at which chain is actually in IPE4B5, what people are looking for, where obviously technically feasible integration,
00:17:57
Speaker
um potential incentives from the chains to attract liquidity. So these are the parameters that we look at. Sounds cool.
00:18:08
Speaker
Sounds cool. Sounds ah sounds like a really interesting journey that you guys have been on over the last a few years. You probably, as a CEO for the first time, you've probably learned a lot in that time. and It's like, ah I don't know, sometimes I feel myself 50 years old and I'm 29, almost 13 year.
00:18:25
Speaker
twenty nine now almost starting next year Yeah, i can I can only imagine. but But what were some of the challenges that surprised you when you stepped into that CEO role?
00:18:37
Speaker
Were there any that you just really weren't expecting? um I think that so one of the challenges that you through time you overcome and you get used to is the kind of the the stress of having the responsibility.
00:18:53
Speaker
um Now I really... learn how to manage it i really know how to avoid to bring ah in ah my home the stress of work even though if i might be working from home let's say ah i know that when i'm closing my phone that's it i'm spending time with my if fiance and i'm relaxing 100 before was hard and the before was hard um I wouldn't turn off notification on my phone and I would wake up every time I hear it ringing and I'm like, maybe something for folks.
00:19:31
Speaker
And then you understand that life is not only work and you need to be able to to cope with that. so I think this was a ah big challenge, was stressful at the beginning in that sense. I wasn't doing much sports. I was only thinking about that.
00:19:47
Speaker
And later on, I became more um'm conscious about it and decided to start to take my spaces. Was that a conscious decision ah from you or did you just naturally start to relax in the role a little bit?
00:20:01
Speaker
No, I think it naturally arrived, you know, like I... just started to feel more relaxed in it and simply eat. Okay, fair enough.
00:20:15
Speaker
And and ah how did you learn to become CEO? And that's quite a vague question, but but as a CEO, it's like, who do you learn from, right, in that role?
00:20:27
Speaker
Let's say I'll tell you something. in Italy, I don't think we have a lot of... um knowledge compared to, for example, the US or UK, how to become an entrepreneur. When you go to university, you are mostly learning how to be a good employee. um It's not a skill that is often given.
00:20:49
Speaker
um Therefore, I think that the fact that I felt it a bit naturally without learning it, as I didn't do um an MBA or I didn't do like studying something that would push me to do startups.
00:21:05
Speaker
um So filling it naturally, it's kind of yeah like you're um um your call, you know, like you know that you can do it because you feel good in it as well.
00:21:17
Speaker
And um Learning while doing it's totally fine. ah Important is to to, the thing that tae I think I would have done more in the past, it's ah asking more to who is more experienced than you.
00:21:35
Speaker
um At the very beginning, I was maybe not even thinking about it. Even during the accelerator, we did an accelerator. I wasn't relying so much on mentors. I would wait for them to do the call. But now I'm a mentor in Techstar Accelerator, right? And it's one of the the best accelerator.
00:21:53
Speaker
um And the thing that I always say to, and I'm mentoring many programs, by the way. they all The thing that I always say to them startup per to the to the teams that are in the in the um the programs, I always say, ask anything.
00:22:12
Speaker
the people that are in front of you, they already did this. They had the same path as you. So there is no stupid question besides those that are not being asked.
Advice for Entrepreneurs
00:22:22
Speaker
So I put myself in their shoes of four years ago and I would just do things a little bit different, different, maybe ask two opinions rather than one. Like it's always good to do that.
00:22:37
Speaker
Are there any really common mistakes that you see young startups make from your mentoring and things is there quite a common theme across the board yes 100 but in general people tend to not ask ah but in general people tend to not ask When if they would ask in general in life, they would understand that people are willing to give.
00:23:03
Speaker
So if you don't ask, how can you get something? So always ask. That's the thing. Like people are really willing to give. If they are not, okay, fine. If you ask it in a kind way and not being ah annoying or rude in the way of asking you, that's fine.
00:23:21
Speaker
People still appreciate you even just because you asked. Yeah. Definitely. And do you have mentors now that you can turn to and ask questions of? Yes. I do have a one mentor in the company. Um, she's, uh, her name is Maya Vuzinovic and she's, um, uh, very OG in the industry.
00:23:41
Speaker
and she's very experienced. it So I learned it from her a lot and I ask her a lot of things, not just about work. like We are also kind of friends. So it's ah is not only about the work. like You need to ask things to people always to have an opinion and later on digest and make your own.
00:24:01
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. Where do you go to find a mentor like if you were say if i came to you and said look i really need to find myself a mentor where do i start it's i think it has to be kind of a mutual relationship um so in my experience with maya for example was um um we met in a side event of a conference and we just started to talk and I understood that she was very smart and ah um she understood our project and the potential.
00:24:41
Speaker
So she just said, maybe we can collaborate after this. So we went on a call and we decided that she was going to be good to be a mentor for us. And this now lasts, I think almost three years.
00:24:53
Speaker
um And, the The way I am ah being... I'm helping company as a mentor, ah sometimes they see useful ah me to be a mentor for them. So they just... We just have a call and we explore this. And I said, okay, I think I could help in this this this way.
00:25:11
Speaker
I like your company. I can be also mentor. But I don't think that you should... I don't know, at least for me, if I don't know someone, based on LinkedIn,
00:25:24
Speaker
i may feel ah weird to ask to be a mentor. I would start to know someone and later on I would feel if it can be a mentor.
00:25:36
Speaker
If a mentor is someone that is going to stay with you, it's like kind of part of the team, an advisor, right? so um So it's it's it's not something that you do based it on the paper, you should ah do it also based it on the human feelings.
00:25:56
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I suppose you really have to vibe with that person, right? um Because you need to trust each other and yeah you need to be able to talk to them about anything, I guess. So yeah, that relationship with them is yeah probably pretty key.
00:26:09
Speaker
Let's say if someone was becoming the CEO of a Web3 project for the first time, um What do you think they need to be aware of? ah Can you talk us through a few things that you think people should be aware of before?
00:26:25
Speaker
cool. um So the first thing I would say is trust your guts. Do double checking, but trust your guts.
00:26:37
Speaker
Let's say very often, especially when you fundraise and you have money, people that are usually bitter like they turn into honey so ah you you need to you you kind of get used to it through time so you have this guts feeling um But at the very beginning, this honey might look very shiny and tasty. Right. So you're willing to to to take a seat. Right. like
00:27:07
Speaker
it's um It's hard. But if you are the one who care about the company, you also have this feeling of like, okay, maybe this is something a bit weird. like Maybe I should do a little bit more due diligence. Okay.
00:27:24
Speaker
So I had this in the past. I sometimes listened more, let's say, investors rather than ah my guts feeling and I would have done mistakes.
00:27:37
Speaker
um So I think that definitely you need to learn from others and ask advice from others. But in the end, the one who really cares about the company, it's you as a founder.
00:27:51
Speaker
So it's very important that you you trust yourself. But ah again, ah take information from everyone because information is ah very valuable assets to to to make your own decision later on.
00:28:05
Speaker
um Another thing that we already mentioned is investors. like They are also one of the things that can be very honey until they get what they want, that is their ticket in your round, and maybe later on they disappear.
00:28:20
Speaker
So when choosing them, be very, very careful, especially if you have the opportunity to choose them.
Success in the Web3 Industry
00:28:28
Speaker
Let's say now around we were oversubscribed.
00:28:32
Speaker
So we will, in the end, choose which one to pick and which size. So we made sure that we would select um the best names that would be helpful for us.
00:28:43
Speaker
But in the end, even there, like I feel that we could have done better sometime. So so It's something that sometimes you see the big name, you imagine that it's going to be the best to have it and you they're going to help you a lot.
00:28:59
Speaker
ah but you need to understand that maybe the big name has 1,000 more portfolio companies and your ticket is much smaller compared to the one that they gave to another company so they don't have them the resources to actually support you. Not because they are bad, but maybe they just don't have.
00:29:17
Speaker
So I would say um just be very careful. ah Yeah, and i think those two, it's two very good advice. Yeah, really good advice, especially the investment side as well.
00:29:31
Speaker
Because I can imagine a lot of projects raising money get quite excited, right? You've got um these investors looking to to give you all this cash and you can finally grow the project how you want to grow it and build these amazing things and that kind of stuff. I can imagine ah sometimes that ah that investment can maybe cloud your judgment a little bit and maybe you have to look at things and like try and take that feeling out of it and really like to analyze what they're actually putting in front of you and the help they're actually going to give.
00:29:59
Speaker
um So now it's really good advice. And what if someone is stepping into the industry for the first time, like not necessarily as a CEO, but someone who just says, look, I really want to work in Web3.
00:30:11
Speaker
and any Anything you'd really like people to know about the industry before joining it? Yes. I think that the best thing to do is ah be in communities, be a DGN, be part of things that you like and believe.
00:30:29
Speaker
And if you do that, You can even work for them. I seen this a lot of time in Web3 and I guarantee that the best high are the ones who are passionate about what you do, because this is a world where um it's not enough to be skilled in your role.
00:30:47
Speaker
You need to be also passionate ah because it's a different philosophy, Web3. It's about you have to be Web3 person. Plus, if you really like the project where you work,
00:31:00
Speaker
I guarantee you that you're going to be a good employee and I guarantee you that you are going to be hired. So I think that this is the most important thing to do when approaching this. Try to learn, get into communities, get to to understand how things work, not only from a technical side, let's say if you're technical, but also how the communities goes around that. like It's a philosophy, Web3. It's not just about a simple job that you know you do your tasks and then you go home and that's it. No.
00:31:32
Speaker
Yeah, completely right. I think that's really useful for people to understand. I always say to people that, say, if you're looking to get into the industry for the first time, it can be quite difficult to break in without having the experience already.
00:31:45
Speaker
There's all sorts different ways you can do it. As you said there, like joining communities is is key, really, like finding the projects that you really ah you really want to work for, work on, like things you really find interesting and then joining those communities and and getting involved and really trying to add value to projects in the communities and things.
00:32:04
Speaker
um i say to people, you should try and just have a think about the types of problems that you want to solve in the industry. So let's say you want to work on uh defy i mean there's all sorts different areas in defy now but but let's say uh like d5 just as as ah a fairly broad example or it could be zero knowledge or it could be more on the infrastructure side like whatever it uh whatever it is i would say to people try and make a list of That's quite a lot of 200, 250 projects that you really want to work within, like the problem they that are solving the problems that you really want to solve.
00:32:36
Speaker
And then just start to reach out to the founders and and just say, look, like, how can I get involved? How can I help? I'm so passionate about solving this particular problem. I guarantee that this works. Like, it's really the best way. Like, again, our our best hire were from people that were already in our community, passionate, that they really wanted to work with us.
00:32:57
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. So what advice say if someone is looking to build a career for themselves ah in the industry? So let's say they found the area that they're super passionate about and they want to focus on that.
00:33:10
Speaker
Once they get a role within the industry, how do you make sure that you can build a real successful career while you're here? I think it's as many things in life, it's ah very valuable when you are when you have a vertical expertise.
00:33:26
Speaker
So let's say you mentioned various topics, right? So if you want to work in zero knowledge, definitely build a vertical expertise that it makes you own unique unique and ah people are going to pay you for this uniqueness.
00:33:43
Speaker
um in um It's one important thing. So have something where you exceed. um And the other is ah to be broadly knowledge ball, let's say like, um,
00:34:02
Speaker
I may need to hire someone, like a developer, but I need this developer also to be understanding how the community works. Because, ah for example, we always do things based on community feedback. We try to never disappoint them.
00:34:18
Speaker
So again, the philosophy of Web3 is important. So once you get that, I think that you should the vertically improve your expertise over one topic so that um you can be easily scaling in the career in that sense.
00:34:40
Speaker
um I also think that it's not mandatory for all the role probably, but I think nowadays ah People invest in um more than ah invest and use products, they invest also and use ideas, ah vision.
00:35:02
Speaker
So being a vocal ah a member of the community is always very good. So it it's it's important to to have ah also social appearance, ah be able to interact with the others.
00:35:20
Speaker
ah This is important for career, I would say, mostly like you you rarely see like, don't know, the ah an executive of a big blockchain for example that has a few followers on on twitter on x um the two things are are related like you need to be also part of that if you want to be um doing career and be successful yeah you're right i think that again that's something that people need to be aware of before joining the industry as well right is the fact that it really does pay to put your thoughts out there and start to try and build a bit of a following on X so or LinkedIn, like wherever you want to build your following, really.
Future Plans and Reflections
00:35:59
Speaker
Crypto Twitter is probably the um one of the main places. But um yeah, just sharing your thoughts and and ah becoming that thought leader, I think, can pay dividends, really. like If you're joining businesses and you have that kind of following, a lot of companies really like it and they can see that
00:36:15
Speaker
see that you're a real person who's passionate about the industry you know what you're talking about it's obviously obvious that you really want to uh to stay here as well so i think yeah i think that's again something that people should definitely be aware of because that's very different to web 2. you don't have to do that in web 2 at all you don't to have any any presence anywhere uh yeah you don't have to get into twitter to find the news like that shows what your previous job where, career, and if you do some posting, it's valid, an added value, but it's not important as in Web3, I would say.
00:36:51
Speaker
Yeah. ah Yeah. You're completely right. So what does the future hold then for you and for Folks Finance? Yeah, so we are now ah working hard on the launch of the new liquid staking um on Algorand.
00:37:07
Speaker
Exalgo is being ah actually audited right now, so in the next few days we'll be ready and live. After that, we will be focusing on expanding in new chain, listing new assets, and at the same time towards launching the token.
00:37:23
Speaker
So this is upcoming. I already mentioned on the mobile app, there is a separate and dedicated team towards this, which in parallel is working on the launch of the mobile app, which will have also Debit card, the idea around the mobile app is to connect the DeFi tools in a very seamless and simple way so that even my father is going to be able to use it because you have the opportunity of custody. And by using ah um those technology, can also simplify a lot there the processes so you can build a much easier to use product.
00:37:57
Speaker
And um um for the long term, I would say that this is like the target, you know, like we want to be leader of DeFi with our cross chain expansion, decentralize and at the same time build a product that can be the revolution blockchain, I will say. as a big That's a big mission.
00:38:19
Speaker
Yes. Sounds exciting. Yes. And Benedetto, to finish up, there's there's one question that I like to ask everyone. and Knowing what you know now about technology, leadership, entrepreneurship, Web3, if you could go back to the start of your career and give yourself a piece of advice.
00:38:40
Speaker
Is there anything that comes to mind? Yes. ah I think that I would, what I mentioned before, I would be just a more wise, trusting my guts feeling, ah being able to ask more to others when was needed, um not rely too much on some investors maybe.
00:39:05
Speaker
And the everything else, I mean, if FOLKS is where it is today, survived the bear market now, doing good numbers, it's because we did a good job. so um I always say like, look, if the company goes bad, it's going to be my fault.
00:39:22
Speaker
If the company is good, it's going to be the team success. But ah I very well know that the every company reflects its leadership.
Conclusion and Contact Information
00:39:33
Speaker
So i I feel blessed that we did into big mistakes, that we were able to to pass the bear market strategically and that we are here.
00:39:46
Speaker
Sounds great. But let's say thank you very much for taking the time to have a chat today. um You shared some great advice. Great to understand your journey and learn more about folks. If anyone listening or watching um wants to find out more information about you guys, I'm guessing you have community on like Telegram, you're on Discord as well? or oh If you go on our website, folks.finance, you are going to be able to see all of our social pages. We have obviously ah Twitter is very important. We have communities on Telegram, Discord, which are very fun also to be part of it.
00:40:22
Speaker
um But as well, we have also newsletter, other pages if you want to stay updated. But um I strongly suggest also to start to join if you ah want to learn ah our um ah folks academy, where you can start to learn from zero to being an expert.
00:40:40
Speaker
And at the same time, we do a lot of on-chain tasks. For example, we do on Zilli, Galgse, and soon we are going to launch a new one. So. There's many ways that you can interact with folks. Just go on our website and make sure you start to follow.
00:40:54
Speaker
And if you want to follow me, I would suggest to follow me professionally. You can have a look on LinkedIn BenedettoBiondi and on um X, my handle is BenedettoBio.
00:41:09
Speaker
So feel free to follow me as well if you want have some insight. Great stuff. Well, Benedetto, thank you very much again. And um and I'll catch up with you soon.
00:41:20
Speaker
Thank you. A pleasure. Thanks. Bye-bye. Bye.