presido lawn

May 10, 2025


a few questions i prepared for inklink ceo:

founding story

  • how did this idea come about? how did you convince jung about it?
  • any particular moment that convinced you to build inklink? possibly for the next decade of your life?
  • what company culture from money lion do you want to bring into inklink?
  • what mistakes did you make in the early days from moneylion that made you want to approach things differently with inklink

market

  • what's the most common misconception do inestors have that you find yourself correcting
  • what feedback do they have?
  • you mentioned being contrarian and being right, what is your contrarian belief about inklink?

product

  • how do you envision proof standards evolving?
  • how do we balance the security rigor of the verification system against friction in user experience (MCPs with browser use)
  • what metrics beyond growth numbers do you watch to know you’re successfully building digital trust?
  • what do you think abou the idea of an inklink app?
    • device biometrics
    • GPS for location based proof (attending an event or visiting a location)

vision

  • inklink 5 years from now, what would make you most proud beyond business success metrics
  • consumer facing brand? (given the badge systems) or invisible infrastructure layer (agent2agent)

hiring

  • as a second engineer, what specific gaps are you hoping i can fill to strengthen the team?
  • what qualities do you look for beyond technical skills?
  • what are some important lessons you’ve learned about structuring roles and responsibilities for an early team?

ideas

  • international opportunities where credential systems are less developed

a few more that came up

  • what is plan for exit
  • monetization strategy

takeaways

  • biggest mistake was not focusing on the brand
  • first few hires are important to build culture
  • building a trust infrastructure, contrarian view is it's a infrastructure that requires a brand and building horizontal instead of vertical
  • time to create proof as golden metric

the rest of the day was on the shorthand prediction assignment at Cavalli Cafe with A. i did not act well here. i kept napping on the table, and i was angsty and mean. i should not interact with people when i'm tired.