_Super early release of Early Days for the ~builders territory (drops worldwide at noon tomorrow) had very interesting conversation around sustainable building in the bitcoin ecosystem with Joe of Unchained.
Most of our interactions have always been around these type of conversations. We discussed founder strategy, bitcoin revenue and considering when/what/how to chase when operating, basically all the stuff we love talking about inside of pleblab, recorded this last week. Dropped the YouTube link as well in case you see this tomorrow and want to watch it there, otherwise enjoy it on SN first._
Summary
In this episode of Early Days, Car sits down with Joe from Unchained to explore what building early in Bitcoin really teaches you; ship fast, listen closely, iterate constantly and survive the hard parts.
Joe shares lessons from selling his first startup before entering Bitcoin, learning to find real customer pull, make revenue make sense, and improve security without sacrificing speed.
We Explore
- Early mistakes that harden into operating principles that eventually stick.
- Education as culture building, not just content consumption.
- Brand as trust and consistency over slogans.
- Resilience and adaptability when markets swing the opposite way.
Chapters
- 00:58 First Startup exit, early mistakes, operating principles
- 02:56 Why Bitcoin? reading the market and timing the jump
- 04:22 Business model fit, revenue that actually makes sense
- 06:40 Unchained Day 1–500
- 09:16 Handling criticism: investor pressure (show, don’t slogan)
- 11:04 Notes to early builders: ship fast, listen harder
- 12:21 Survival mode: runway, focus, resilience
- 14:38 Hold tight vs. let go: when to persist or pivot
- 16:35 Indirect plays that compound: education, tooling, partnerships
- 18:32 Culture as product: education as culture-building; brand trust
- 22:56 Revenue in Bitcoin: services → product, infra → ?
- 29:32 Secure without slowing down: custody trade-offs
- 31:14 Custody then & now: workflows for teams and enterprises
- 34:09 Wallet UX + security: what’s actually new
- 36:59 Custody biz models
- 42:34 Treasury companies & stable coins
- 47:17 The digital playground and Bitcoins next wave
- 50:48 Education that scales community