Jul 6, 2026 · 1 hr 8 min · 11 segments
co-founder of neynar now running farcaster, clanker, and neynar previously at coinbase, facebook and microsoft does not need caffeine https://x.com/rish\_neynar
Rish MukherjiGuestJakeHostCan I pause you there for a second? I'm interested in this confidence point that you make.
Do you think that you have built an ability to sort of summon confidence at your leisure, so to speak? Or do you think that you've actually...
developed in areas where it's easier to have confidence in something like being a crypto entrepreneur because of what you've done over the last several years?
I think user is maybe not the term I would use, but definitely more on the former, which is like, yes, I have built the confidence to be in crypto, obviously.
But I think if I wanted to, let's say, I don't know, I can't think of it in my head, but assume I wanted to start a hardware company of some kind.
I've never done anything with hardware, like school projects and college projects, but outside of that, never anything seriously.
But if I wanted to start a hardware company and it fascinated me enough, especially in this age of AI where learning is much easier and expertise is available on demand, I think I would just start that hardware company.
But I wouldn't really think about like, oh, I should go work at a hardware company first.
Back in 2016 or 2018, that's how I was approaching the problem that, oh, I don't understand this enough.
But yeah, kind of a side note about if I want to do that today, I probably wouldn't go work at a hardware company first.
Yeah, I think it's really common for people to like sort of have something that they want to do and then they insert things that they think that they need to do before that thing when like oftentimes, maybe not every time, but like oftentimes you can just skip to the thing.
And like the in-between things, I think like the underrated part is that the in-between things can be really, really hard, like not much less hard than the ultimate thing.
Like breaking into crypto and getting a job at Coinbase, you know, it may not have been super difficult in your situation obviously it depends but like for some people in some circumstances like that might actually be I don't know it's really hard to start a successful startup so I don't want to say it's like as hard but it's a it's a hard task in and of itself and so people introduce like all of these hard prerequisites to get to try the ultimate thing where you might not have any better odds at the ultimate thing for having all those prerequisites than had you just gone for it in the first place.
Can I pause you there for a second? I'm interested in this confidence point that you make.
Do you think that you have built an ability to sort of summon confidence at your leisure, so to speak? Or do you think that you've actually...
developed in areas where it's easier to have confidence in something like being a crypto entrepreneur because of what you've done over the last several years?
I think user is maybe not the term I would use, but definitely more on the former, which is like, yes, I have built the confidence to be in crypto, obviously.
But I think if I wanted to, let's say, I don't know, I can't think of it in my head, but assume I wanted to start a hardware company of some kind.
I've never done anything with hardware, like school projects and college projects, but outside of that, never anything seriously.
But if I wanted to start a hardware company and it fascinated me enough, especially in this age of AI where learning is much easier and expertise is available on demand, I think I would just start that hardware company.
But I wouldn't really think about like, oh, I should go work at a hardware company first.
Back in 2016 or 2018, that's how I was approaching the problem that, oh, I don't understand this enough.
But yeah, kind of a side note about if I want to do that today, I probably wouldn't go work at a hardware company first.
Yeah, I think it's really common for people to like sort of have something that they want to do and then they insert things that they think that they need to do before that thing when like oftentimes, maybe not every time, but like oftentimes you can just skip to the thing.
And like the in-between things, I think like the underrated part is that the in-between things can be really, really hard, like not much less hard than the ultimate thing.
Like breaking into crypto and getting a job at Coinbase, you know, it may not have been super difficult in your situation obviously it depends but like for some people in some circumstances like that might actually be I don't know it's really hard to start a successful startup so I don't want to say it's like as hard but it's a it's a hard task in and of itself and so people introduce like all of these hard prerequisites to get to try the ultimate thing where you might not have any better odds at the ultimate thing for having all those prerequisites than had you just gone for it in the first place.
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