@itsbasil

presales need to be completely reimagined if we actually want to set founders up for success. the current model is broken. 30k presales don’t move the needle for any real team. even 25e is insufficient. we should be looking at minimum 100e (~250k) to provide meaningful runway. but raising decent size alone isn’t enough—presales need to become rare, defining moments. maybe one per month. not just another spotlight in an endless feed. what we need is a roadshow. three to four weeks of coordinated campaigns building toward a single presale. founder spotlights, one-on-ones, podcasts, deep dives into who this person is & what they’re building. at this early stage, you’re investing in the founder, not the product. nine out of ten times there will be pivots. the product will change. the founder is what matters. why are we not talking about them? beyond that, this lead-in period should include coordinated campaigns across twitter & farcaster with meaningful incentives for conversion. merkle could allocate 25-100k for mechanics like “come to farcaster, use this app, receive $15.” we create genuine momentum. we build followings for the founder’s profile, the miniapp, the ecosystem. we sit users in their laps, not just pump their tokens for two days into churn. the presale itself must be exclusive. forget trying to make it “fair” or democratic—that’s inauthentic to what a presale fundamentally is. we need the top 50-100 token stewards contributing maximum 1-2e each. participants should be vetted through quotient scores or equivalent metrics demonstrating they’re here for the right reasons. proven holders, not flippers. people who understand token dynamics, contribute positively to the ecosystem & actually use products. the game of fc should be how do i get on THIS list, not the top traders list. moreover, vesting is critical. minimum three months locked, then gradual distribution over 6-18 months. this prevents catastrophic supply dumps & gives founders breathing room. we’re not creating a 16e supply overhang that craters the chart on unlock day. we’re aligning long-term incentives. the current approach—multiple spotlights (i know we’re pulling back), minimal restrictions, no communication, iterative philosophies despite immutable deployments, volumes over intent—is setting everyone up to fail via churn. we will never be pump nor should we want to be. we have real builders. when attention is constrained, we need more discipline, not less. we need to demonstrate we care about these builders & their success, not just throughput.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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