Thread by @thedefiedge

I grew my Twitter from 0 to 22k in a week.

I kinda came out of nowhere.

@danielesesta even asked who's alt I am.

Some ppl have asked if I'm secretly a Wonderland employee

Here's my story: 🧵

Disclaimer:

I don't like talking about myself.

I mean that was the point of me going anon.

But if some of you are starting to take advice from me, I do owe it to you to share a little bit about my background.

I’ve always wanted to be rich.

I’m sure it started before I was born. My parents came to Canada with $0.

My dad was a dishwasher with 3 jobs.

You have a burden when you’re the child of immigrants.

I NEEDED to be successful to show them “Your sacrifice was worth it.”

Being broke sucks.

• Some kids bullied me bc I wore no name clothing brands.

• I drove a beat-up Accord while my friends were all in new Benz’s.

I felt that if I could become rich, I would be happy.

So I've always had this chip on my shoulder.

I studied as hard as possible and went to a good university.

You know what that got me?

$30k in student loans, and no job offers.

Here's your diploma: Welcome to one of the worst job markets in history!

Imagine graduating and having to move back in with your parents.

This was NOT how I pictured things to go.

I felt like a failure.

Eventually, I found a job at a startup. It paid shit.

But that startup gave me one thing:

a decade's worth of experience in one year

I did EVERYTHING.

Marketing, managing employees, HR, reconciling the books, project management.

I made my boss millions while I was living paycheck to paycheck.

I had a reality check - I couldn’t get rich working for someone else.

I realized that I needed to bet on myself.

I found a blogger that talked about how awesome eCommerce is.

So I went all in.

But after buying inventory, I had no budget for marketing.

I become obsessed with growth hacking.

So this new twitter account?

It's not my 1st time growing a brand with $0 budget.

I'm going to skip over a decade of hustle.

eCom was getting tougher each year.

Amazon, Facebook, and my Chinese suppliers were chipping away at my profit margins over the years.

I had enough and sold the business.

I became financially independent in my early 30’s.

Happy ending right?

I was getting ready to travel the world.

I wanted to travel through Europe and S. America.

Then after that, I’d start ANOTHER eCommerce company in a different industry.

(only entrepreneurs get it. business is addicting)

and then COVID happened.

All my plans went to shit.

I don’t remember much of 2020 tbh.

I couldn’t travel.

I spent every day watching Anime, playing PS4, and smoking weed.

The supply chains were fucked so it was hard to start another eCom company.

I didn’t realize it at the time...I was depressed.

I couldn’t understand what was happening.

By all metrics, I should've been happy.

I had money.
Best shape of my life.
I had great friends.
My parents are proud of me.
My dating life 😈

But I just wasn’t excited about life anymore.

I couldn't motivate myself to do anything.

Crypto:

I’m a veteran of the 2017 bull cycle.

I did well (everyone did). Raiblocks, XRP, NEO, etc.

I turned 100k into 7 figures. And I saw it evaporate back to $100k with the crash.

I got greedy and didn't take profits.

It made me bitter, and I left Crypto after that.

In late 2020, my friend told me about DeFi.

I couldn't wrap my head around it.

• Liquidity pools?
• Yield farming?
• Liquidity mining?

None of it made sense.

I went down the DeFi rabbit hole. It took me a while before I finally "got it"

I was able to build a portfolio bigger than my ATH's.

The secret?

I stopped listening to all the BTC and ETH maxi’s.

I focused on identifying TRENDS and getting in on them early.

I was early to BNB, Pancakeswap, DFK, Luna, Spell, etc.

This time I took profits into stables.

DeFi's fun.

I spent all day on Twitter and Discords. It felt kinda like being a video gamer before social media took over.

But man, I missed “building” something.

One of my friends asked,

"Bro, I'm NOT full-time in Crypto. How can I keep up with everything?"

That's when I came up with the idea of starting a newsletter. It could help ppl keep up with DeFi.

That was my idea 6 months ago - but I never launched it.

Why? I kept procrastinating. I felt like I didn't know enough.

Plus who would want to read it? I'm a nobody.

Bankless and Dani got into some drama earlier this month.

Imagine calling yourself a DeFi brand and pretending not to know who Dani is.

Instead of complaining about the lack of Frog Nation coverage, maybe I should do something about it.

That was the kick in the ass I needed to start my brand.

https://twitter.com/TrustlessState/status/1478386009863774213

There are some issues with DeFi media

• Most places aren't covering the cutting edge projects, or they're not able to explain them simply

• I'd trust a politician before most Crypto Youtubers

I figured there's room for a brand that covers "degen" defi.

Going anon

I had a Twitter account that used my real name.

I criticized a project, and then anons harassed me.

One guy DM'ed my address that they found from Google.

I had to delete that account for safety reasons.

99% of you are cool, but you gotta watch out for the 1%

When you're anon, you can be the real you.

You don't have to worry about your boss getting pissed off over something you wrote.

You can go on vacation, and not worry about ppl breaking into your home.

I've been burglarized before. I never want to go through that again.

What are my goals now?

I don't know.

I didn’t expect my Twitter and newsletter to grow this fast.

I want to keep building my platform, and helping people.

I want to keep perfecting my craft, and the opportunities will come.

I have no funding.

No employees.

It’s just me and a cup of coffee each morning.

I’m not as smart as these other DeFi gigabrains out there.

But I'll compensate with

• a relentless work ethic
• being authentic

I'm going to do my best and see what happens

Why I love Wonderland

Last year, I saw a16z and Sequoia Capital investing more and more into Crypto.

I thought, “Oh shit, the suits are taking over. Why isn't there a VC fund for normal people?”

Wonderland is what I’ve always wanted to exist.

I trust Dani and Sifu's vision.

I have more $ in ETH, DFK, LUNA, and other projects.

But they don’t need me.

They already have C.M's and amazing content creators.

Wonderland is complex. Many investors are confused and scared.

I feel as if I can be pretty useful here.

I write for "John" - He's 33.

He's not looking for Lambo. He wants to pay off his debts and take care of his family.

It's impossible for him to keep up with 2 kids and a full-time job.

Plus he doesn't know who to trust.

I rather work at McDonald’s than fuck him over

My generation is fucked.

We’re saddled by student loans.
No one can afford houses.
Inflation’s destroying our paychecks.

DeFi is the greatest opportunity of our generation.

But people can't take advantage of it if they can't understand it.

I thought making a ton of money would make me happy.

It didn't.

Money alone won’t make you happy.

Money fixes the problems that lack of money gives you.

What I needed this whole time was Purpose.

The 2 most important days of your life.

• The day you were born
• The day you find out why

I've been lost the past several years.

Last week made me realize my purpose.

"Empower people to change their lives by making DeFi more accessible."

That's my story. I didn't intend it to be so long

I'm not involved with any projects.
No one's paying me.

I hope that this helps you understand more about me and what drives me.

or maybe I'm just a broke kid who went all in on Time and is trying to save his bags. :-)

Thanks for reading.

If you enjoyed this thread, then consider following me @thedefiedge.

Come join me on my journey at TheDeFiEdge.com, and let's see what happens.