Hi HN--<p>TL;DR: I'm on a mission to power 2MM new entrepreneurs in 2022 and I'd appreciate if you checked out the linked video and shared it with anyone thinking of doing a startup.<p>I love startups, have built many (Uphold, Airtm, Cadoo, most recently), and along the way have marveled at how haters (scoffers, eye-rollers, nit-pickers) there are whenever an entrepreneur attempts to build something new.<p>I think it's because most people stifle their souls/true selves in order to conform to the status quo, and so entrepreneurs register as both a threat to stability (i.e. "disruptive") and a painful reminder that some people don't bury their hearts' desires in exchange for security. Successful entrepreneurs get the most hate as PG recently pointed out in a tweet, and I think it's because of the cognitive dissonance they cause in those who never dared.<p>Despite all the unicorns and famous founders, entrepreneurship is still considered by most to be irrational, weird, and threatening. It certainly is in my family and amongst the people I know. In this framing, some people (a small minority) are entrepreneurs, as some are left-handed or have perfect pitch. But most are not, and that's for the good.<p>Does this resonate with any of you? I'm curious to hear your thoughts.<p>I'm on a mission to change all that with Slyk (slyk.io) and Slykigai, a philosophy of external alignment with community and the market via entrepreneurship, inspired by the ancient Japanese concept of ikigai and the Venn Diagram of Purpose.<p>The product combines short video (for pitching/selling) with crypto/fiat rails for payment, and a private digital reward wallet network (each a sub-net of the SlykPay network).<p>You can sell anything, reward your networks for bringing you clients (social marketing rewards) and sales (referral rewards) and get paid/pay-out anyway you want (Venmo to BTC).<p>I agree with Naval Ravikant that the internet has vastly expanded the potential careers that are possible (and that not many have realized this yet).<p>With Slyk and Slykigai I want to make entrepreneurship at least as inspiring and accessible as yoga.<p>Part of it is making it really easy/low risk to launch an online business and reward people for bringing clients (every startup founder knows the importance of a tight referral program).<p>Building Airtm I saw how people jump at an opportunity to make money online and how crypto enables over-the-top money connected to every other money network.<p>But the better mousetrap also needs a better meme-trap (product + distribution), which is why we created Slykigai to transform how people think about wealth creation, their talent stack, and the community to which they want to contribute. We also created a free online program to discover, productize, and power your life's purpose via an online business.<p>We launched our private beta in Cuba (a place I know pretty well from non-fiction reporting/writing) because 1. Cubans are desperate for ways to monetize their talents and 2. Entrepreneurship is basically illegal in Cuba. So I knew they 1. would tolerate a buggy beta product and 2. would have even more internal friction against launching a startup than the average gringo, a good test of Slykigai's efficacy.<p>Over the past 6 months we've brought thousands through the Slykigai Program and powered hundreds of active Cuban Slyks. Not bad. Not Shopify, but a start.<p>A Slyk is an internet infomercial for whatever you are selling. Slykigai is a philosophy of soul/self commerce.<p>Maybe it sounds weird to think of a soul/self needing an internet infomercial, but I hope that
it will eventually be a path for millions to build sustainable fulfilling lives.<p>I think we can turn lots of haters into creators.