Luiz Ramalho

@luiz

404 Following

1371 Followers

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Brazil is running already an upgraded financial system. “Open Finance”, Brazil’s take on open banking is even more mindboggling than pix. Think Plaid but open and public, because it was built by the Central Bank. All banks are connected in a single api for data and transactions. And you as a founder can access that system to build products for 200m people

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ARR became a meaningless concept during the AI hype cycle. I’m seeing a growing number of companies reporting “ARR” and have revenue that is not recurring at all. One example are the professional AI headshots. You pay now and probably won’t need to pay again in the next 5 yrs. But the companies report “ARR” as if the revenue they’re making is recurring annually. Not to mention all the other B2B AI with short term contracts or no contract at all. One competitor away from losing that recurrence — and it’s already happening. Run rate is the correct term for most.

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Little known fact about the director of “I’m Still Here”, Walter Salles: At $4.5b he’s the third richest director in the world. Only behind Spielberg and Lucas. He’s one of the heirs to Itau, the largest bank in Brazil. He also accounts for almost all of the Brazilian participation in the Oscars in the last 3 decades. It amuses me when someone who could do anything decides to dedicate life to art and does at such a high level.

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The SEC legalized memecoins and you’re still bearish https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/staff-statement-meme-coins

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How to get 100m users on chain? - do a fintech in a country where instant payments are already a reality (India, Brazil) — i.e. proven. To differentiate do something useful, but better. Can be a 2-3x improvement. - airdrop tokens to (1) grow user base and (2) get everyone a wallet but make it seamlessly integrated to the legacy instant payments system. This is the “new” part. - once you get critical mass, you can expand to other countries only with the crypto product as a lite version of your fintech. Alternatively, you can do a viral social network that has a wallet embedded into it like @dwr.eth Or you can use a huge user base like Coinbase’s and move a meaningful portion of it like @jessepollak is doing with Base

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Thinking about token incentives and retention. Token incentives for a product that enables an action that is perfectly fungible after the action is completed (trading, paying) makes sense. A token traded on Uni and Sushi is the same. An NFT traded on Blur and OS is the same. A payment made on Cash App, Venmo or /blackbird is the same. Not the same UX, but same end state of the action. To have long term stickiness ideally the product experience is also superior to the alternatives. But something like Farcaster and X don’t feel fungible. Posting on FC is materially different from X, Instagram, FB, etc. audience, format, algo, vibes, it’s all very unique. Native token incentives without fungibility do seem bad. That’s why I think @dwr.eth is right to not go down this path.

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Doesn’t happen with Bitcoin https://dailygalaxy.com/2025/02/geologists-uncover-one-of-the-largest-gold-reserve-ever-worth-78-billion-euros/

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Momentum is the single most important thing in startups. Do everything you need to keep it going. Your problems — bugs, cash, team — matter less if you’re moving forward. It’s like a long run: if you stop moving and let your body cool down, all the pain you’ve accumulated comes to bite you.

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Which companies or protocols have the best brands?

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It’s a privilege to be able to see the creation of new social network. @woj.eth + @dwr.eth with the goal of growing DAU being the latest chapter. If FC was up only we wouldn’t be able to savor and enjoy the struggle from the sidelines. Lots of lessons for the rest of us. 🚂 🚂

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My reaction to people saying that now that crypto is legal they can finally turn a fee switch

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Unpopular opinion but more founders following the token launch route instead of VCs will lower the bar of the average product. More extreme outliers like Hyperliquid, for sure. But a lower average.

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The “sell work not software” for AI B2B thesis is starting to lose some steam. I’m hearing some of the ARR of the early companies are proving not to be recurring as they lose business to new entrants. I remain focused on consumer as I think this is by far the greatest prize and where crypto + AI will blend

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Satoshi is probably very confused rn

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What is founder mode for protocol founders?

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I’ve been into crypto since ‘14. Full time since 17’ $trump was my first large mobile transaction. I feel a bit like a boomer using Moonshot and Phantom. Let me tell you — it’s much more addictive. And it’s just starting.

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I deleted X and only using FC now. Third time I’m doing this. 1st time when @dwr.eth onboarded me back in 22. Too early to stick. 2nd time roughly a year ago. Channels overwhelmed me a bit. Third time is the charm?

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Decided to run my first marathon April ‘25 (Paris Marathon). Going (almost) from couch to marathon in 8 months. Any tips?

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Finally sharing our $4m seed round led by Lux Capital their first investment in Brazil. This is just the beginning of our journey to build Magie as the trusted AI-agent for finance, starting with payments. Brazil has a set of unique conditions that make it the perfect place for us to start: a large profit pool in retail banking, a favorable regulatory environment and a way to distribute it to millions through Whatsapp https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/22/lux-capital-made-its-first-investment-in-brazil-a-4m-seed-for-ai-fintech-magie/

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I think there’s some good lessons for founders on the distribution mechanism and tipping for $DEGEN, as @coopahtroopa.eth mentioned before. I still think it misses a proper sink.

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