how I accidentally built a viral product for the memecoin market early 2024
early 2024 I first saw pump fun and was shook by the volume (!) and the culture that was created around it
language, memes, real money, tools, attention
in the same period I read about meme coins as a GTM
i noticed that many coins wanted their own websites - but memes move FAST so you need to be able to get a site up quick
so I whipped up chatGPT, cursor and any other available tool to get it going with the idea of building a linktree for meme coins
toekn. com was born 48 hours later
I launched it with a token
the idea was this;
$TOEKN = an experiment in community built products
launching a project that natively integrates with a memecoin, the new app/infra can mobilize the memecoin’s holder base, who can experience more utility from their tokens
A few different insights inspired the project:
- Memecoins as the new GTM strategy by @li
- Farcaster’s rapid growth and the rise of $DEGEN
- Many talented and smart folks in the space, but no one *creating* anything of value
- Trends start in the fringes. In the pockets of internet you can find signs of what is to come - but boy did I underestimate it.
- “Memes (and their creators) have not been rewarded by capitalism.” @cpaik (not on FC)
- The Casino vs The Computer - @cdixon.eth - can they be combined? Two distinct cultures are interested in blockchains. Blockchains as a way to build new networks → The Computer. Blockchains for gambling, speculation and money-making = The Casino.
- Network Bonding Theory: Grow Your Startup By Making It A Network by NFX
the token dynamics were hard. It was intended as a side project and I learnt that u need to foster the community - and you need both the "interesting idea" people and the "we need to raid!!!!" people
I also learnt that *meme coins as a GTM works* to get over the attention deficit
I got hundreds of people to care about the product, acquire users, give feedback, do pull/push requests
but it is hard to run a community, and I was in the midst of discontinuing/selling my startup to Superfiliate, so I spent limited time on it, and as the token falls, so does the excitement around it
I had from the start decided not to sell any of my tokens, but rather focused on finding actual revenue streams (toekn premium) - this was before any “creator rev share”
I now spend no time on this, the token is fully dead, but I still get paying users
if someone wants to take it over I am all ears
