One year ago today it was a very difficult Thanksgiving. After the acquisition of Stars Arena on November 4th, I barely slept for the next 3 weeks.
Our backs were against the wall with continued exploits, a website that was down, an ongoing wallet migration, and a nervous userbase that lost everything and put all their hope in me for a recovery. I had to finish a contentious acquisition, build a team in real time, secure the platform, secure capital, rebrand the app, and convince people to give me a chance to right the ship and still trust the platform when everyone else had left. The transition process was one of the most difficult periods Iβve ever experienced in my life.
I took my first night off for Thanksgiving but it was difficult to enjoy the time with everything lingering on my mind. The rebuild seemed impossible back then. It was such a steep mountain to climb to get people to trust using this app again. The SocialFi euphoria had come and went. That night was the first and only time I questioned the decision to take over the platform.
Fast forward one year to this Thanksgiving. Entire app secured and rebuilt with a V2 overhaul. Top web3 partnerships from all chains. Memecoin tipping. Badges. Solana integration. The social exchange. Dozens of viral campaigns. Countless bug fixes and optimizations. One of the best airdrops of 2024.
$ARENA staking. Governance votes. A native Arena App Store. Arena Stages outcompeting X spaces. Amazing investors backing us. One of the best teams in the space. A community that most platforms can only dream of. $100M in total volume. User metrics at all time highs and on the verge of breaking out.
A year ago it was unlikely that weβd survive. Now, itβs hard to see us not being the #1 social crypto app around. Most of the apps we were competing with back then are no longer around. But The Arena is only just getting started now.
All I can feel now is deep gratitude. Iβm thankful for the community who believed this was possible when no one else did. Iβm thankful for my team who grinds to make this vision a reality. Iβm thankful for those who backed us and supported us. Iβm thankful that I get to wake up everyday and build the future with all of you.
Iβm thankful for the community builders who will make this platform bigger than we ever can. Iβm thankful for
@avax and
@AvalancheFDN and the support they always give because without them this would not be possible. Im thankful for everyoneβs patience in letting us build out the vision in a space where metaβs change every few hours. Iβm thankful for all the lessons this space has taught me over the years. Iβm thankful for the dark times where we grew stronger and were able to build the proper foundation.
I hope to continue to grow as a leader. I hope that we never forget why we started this journey in the first place. Early Arena users will earn a lot of money on this app, but we have the opportunity to do something much bigger. To build something truly special. Letβs not take this for granted.
In The Arena we trust βοΈ
