The Story of Pons and How Success Rarely Happens Overnight
Ozzy is the founder of Pons, the Robinhood Chain launchpad that hit $1.75 billion in trading volume and 250,000 token launches within weeks of going live. He's joined by Carl, an early Pons supporter and contributor. Subscribe to DefiLlama Pro today for full access to LlamaAI, LlamaFeed, CSV downloads, custom dashboard creation, and more: https://defillama.com/subscription?ref=defi On this episode of Fully Vested, they join hosts Patrick Scott and DeFi Dave to talk through what happens when a project goes from zero to a top fee-generating protocol, and why Ozzy chose to pull Pons' V2 offline just days after launch. The conversation also covers RootsFi, the payments and neobank project Ozzy and Carl cofounded together, and why they think reputation is the real moat in a space where anyone can fork a product overnight. 0:00 Intro 5:26 Introducing Pons 10:36 The V2 shutdown: what went wrong and why they paused it 14:13 Lessons on patience and moving slower after going viral 17:46 What moats look like when anyone can fork your product 22:54 Why builders like Robinhood Chain's hands-off approach 30:34 Taking the neobank route with RootsFi 35:36 Who will win the neobank wars? 40:01 Advice for crypto founders in the spotlight #crypto #robinhood #neobank
