Recently, the market’s attention has been drawn to the U.S. stock market, Circle, and the siphoning of stablecoins, with fewer messages about projects focusing on ecological construction. As one of the most anticipated mainnet launches in the crypto industry in 2025, the Monad Foundation’s recently concluded Foundry “NYC 2.2” event in New York has sparked discussions among many entrepreneurs still committed to building on social media platforms. Many participants expressed:

Monad Foundry “NYC 2.2” is top-notch in providing feedback for early founders.

As a leading parallel EVM, Monad aims to improve and enhance the execution efficiency of EVM on Layer 1 networks through parallel processing, thereby unlocking the potential of the EVM ecosystem. The Foundry “NYC 2.2” is an annual ecological event that the Monad Foundation is dedicated to building in 2025, specifically designed for application products and developers, with the goal of attracting global developers to build innovative projects based on Monad.

The event is highly praised for its efficient organizational format, in-depth technical exchanges, and practical market guidance. Let us experience the strong support that the Monad Foundation continuously brings to its ecological project builders through the sharing of participants at this live event in New York.

Face to face with core members of the foundation, leading ecosystem projects, and well-known VCs.

From June 17 to 21, 2025, Foundry “NYC 2.2” will be held in New York, USA.

As an annual offline event meticulously organized by the Monad Foundation, Foundry “NYC 2.2” aims to provide a concentrated opportunity for Monad ecosystem builders to communicate and learn, attracting developers from different cities around the world to gather and explore new paradigms of innovation in the Monad ecosystem over the course of just one week. After the application and review process, a total of 44 projects and 79 builders from 30 cities worldwide participated in the event, with over 50 venture capitalists present to watch the presentations.

The multi-perspective thinking collision and resource sharing under the participation of multiple parties is a prominent highlight of Foundry “NYC 2.2”. The main participants of the event include:

• Core members of Monad: including Monad co-founders Keone Hon and Eunice Giarta, Monad Foundation Consumer Lead Shreyas Hariharan, Monad Foundation Director of BD Joey Anthony, Monad Foundation NFT Lead Karma Gora, and several other core members;
• Founder of Monad ecosystem’s leading projects: covering multiple popular projects in diverse sectors such as DeFi, Consumer, Gaming, AI, DePIN, and NFT.
• Notable VC representatives: Representatives from dozens of well-known industry VCs gathered together, including Paradigm, Electric Capital, Dragonfly, Pantera Capital, Figment Capital, Volt Capital, Ethereal Ventures, SevenX Ventures, Hack VC, and others.

With a luxurious lineup, participants unanimously expressed: during the event, you can easily feel the collision of ideas and comprehensive support, including:

• One-on-one communication with core members of the Monad Foundation: Obtain targeted guidance from core members of the foundation on technical issues, product design, and market strategies.
• Collaborate closely with outstanding project founders in the Monad ecosystem: engage in in-depth discussions on GTM growth strategies and explore potential future collaboration opportunities.
• Face the VC: Gain valuable advice from a first-level perspective and seize potential funding opportunities.
• Compete for roadshow slots and gain additional exposure: Through the roadshow, developers can showcase their projects to the foundation, investors, and other ecosystem members, gaining more attention and resource support.

Not innovating for the sake of innovation: Focus on practicality and find product-market fit.

Build products based on actual user needs and feedback, first validate a small and repeatable loop’s effectiveness, and then explore scalability.

This is one of the core ideas conveyed by the Foundry “NYC 2.2” event. In this regard, multiple participants have also shared their insights through social media.

Mu Digital co-founder and CEO Patrick Hizon (Twitter:@hizonpm) stated after the meeting:

User feedback is key. Don’t build what you think is right, but rather build based on measurable user feedback. If you’re not communicating with users, then what are you really doing?

As a highly favored Monad ecosystem project among users, RareBetSports (RBS) CEO J (Twitter:@RBS_Gyarados) also expressed similar views:

After spending a week with some top founders, I learned some key points on how to take RBS to the next level:

• Identify the key points for growth and double down on your efforts. Keep experimenting.
• Once the channels, information, or mechanisms that truly drive user growth are identified, invest decisively and expand actively.
• Built for users, then consider scaling.

Address the real problems of small groups today. The insights and loyalty you gain will lay a foundation of confidence for future scalable growth.

A consistent feedback loop combined with a clear GTM strategy leads to growth. When you continuously learn from users, each iteration creates a compounding effect. Growth becomes a rhythm rather than blind guessing.

The Monad team is working hard for long-term ecological development, not just building its own infrastructure, but building an ecosystem to assist founders.

LootGO is a highly popular treasure hunting game in the Monad ecosystem, co-founded by Yuki (Twitter: @yuki__app) also participated in this event and shared their insights on GTM:

Last Sunday, I met@PareenL(Founder Community Lead at Monad Foundation), he gave me some very candid but necessary feedback: a repeatable closed loop × a clear GTM leverage = scalability.

Whether it’s a repetitive activity or a self-contained game loop, prove it works before considering scaling.

We don’t need to do everything, just the one thing that can truly drive progress. (Thanks@keoneHD“Books recommended by the co-founder of Monad on how to solve constraints and GTM.”

Focusing on the main idea of “based on the real needs of users”, Monad Foundation NFT Lead Karma Gora (Twitter:@wagmigently) also shared on social media:

Founders lie to themselves, believing they have achieved product-market fit (PMF); users lie, saying they like the product (actually because of incentives); angel investors lie about why they don’t invest (because it’s easier than giving direct, sharp feedback); partners lie about the quality of your application (because the standards in the crypto industry are low).

The Monad Foundation has broken this cycle.

The days of securing funding just with Figma prototypes are over. Every team that gained VC interest this week has a usable application or demo, along with user-validated results. Build first, then fund.

The next wave of adoption in the crypto space will not be driven by teams chasing narratives, but by founders focused on solving real problems for real users.

This week has taught me a lot about how to identify and support these builders.

Delivery speed is greater than everything: start by building the MVP.

In the fast-paced industry of Crypto, speed is one of the key factors determining the success or failure of a project. Whether it is the development iteration of a product or the rapid response to the market, it is crucial for a project to seize the initiative in a constantly changing market. The participants at Foundry “NYC 2.2” also expressed deep agreement.

Monad Foundation NFT Lead Karma Gora (Twitter:@wagmigentlyA vivid metaphor illustrates the importance of rapid delivery and iteration:

Want to build a car? Start by building a skateboard.

Teams often spend weeks solving non-existent problems. Instead, it is better to build the simplest, roughest MVP (Minimum Viable Product) first, complete the core tasks, and then iterate based on real user feedback.

Pumpfun didn’t even have half of its features when it launched!

@keoneHD(Co-founder of Monad) Every Friday, the question isn’t “What is your six-month plan?” but rather “What did you accomplish this week?” We see many teams in the Monad ecosystem able to implement improvements within hours of receiving feedback. This is the mindset of a winner.

Regarding the importance of rapid delivery and flexible adjustments, LootGO co-founder Yuki also stated:

This week, I worked with other outstanding builders and the Monad Foundation team, learned a lot, delivered quickly, and even made slight adjustments to our direction in the middle of the week.

Amid the immense pressure to pursue delivery speed, Mu Digital co-founder and CEO Patrick Hizon has shown a more positive attitude:

Don’t avoid pressure, face challenges head-on.

Only brave people are willing to enter the arena. If you haven’t failed, it means you haven’t worked hard enough. We are here to create unicorns, so aim higher.

Breaking the Circle: Moving from the niche crypto community to a mainstream perspective

Mass adoption has always been a core issue in the Crypto industry that has been repeatedly mentioned but never fully resolved. During the Foundry “NYC 2.2” event, attendees captured many unique insights about breaking the barriers of crypto through communication and the collision of ideas.

Mu Digital co-founder and CEO Patrick Hizon shared his insights on cryptocurrency breaking into the mainstream on social media platforms:

Built for universal acceptance, not limited to the crypto circle.

Although Monad is our base, we are building for the entire Web3 and all users. Monad to Millions = Expand your orbit (thanks to @0x_eunice“Monad Co-founder” and @PareenLThe specific suggestions for “Founder Community Lead at Monad Foundation”.

LootGO co-founder Yuki shared his valuable insights gained from the event on breaking boundaries:

Several members of the Monad team pointed out that LootGO has real potential beyond Monad and the crypto-native circles. It is time to define our core advantages, clarify our users, optimize the user onboarding process, and find practical channels to reach them.

Continuously challenge oneself in equal and sincere communication.

A friendly and open atmosphere ran throughout the entire Foundry “NYC 2.2” event. Whether it was the core members of the Monad Foundation or the participating ecosystem builders, everyone offered suggestions with sincerity and shared experiences with each other.

As a participant in the Monad Madness New York event, TownSquare founder JC Zhang (Twitter:@realjcz):

It is strongly recommended that anyone participate in Monad’s future plans.

The Monad Foundation truly cares about you as a founder and the success of your project. You won’t feel the politicized atmosphere that exists in other ecosystems, which makes it difficult for you to focus on product growth.

But being friendly does not mean glossing over or avoiding issues; on the contrary, in a sincere atmosphere, more in-depth discussions about products and projects bring challenges.

Mu Digital co-founder and CEO Patrick Hizon shared his feelings about the atmosphere at the event:

At first, this might be regarded as a “harmonious meeting” of familiar faces and teams, but it quickly evolved into a “shockwave” that constantly challenged ourselves, taking us to another level.

This “shockwave” experience has also been recognized by other participants. As the winner of the evm/accathon hackathon, Gorillionaire founder Luduvigo (Twitter:@luduvigo) compared a series of suggestions he received at the event to ‘a slap in the face,’ but he admitted that such a slap is what he needed:

Get direct and candid advice from industry top experts, take on challenges, and be in the same room with the best companies of Monad.@MarcoRoccon and @imellepiCooperate and connect with our community through Discord to get product feedback.

This saved us 6 months.

@PareenL(Founder Community Lead at Monad Foundation) and @thetinaverseThe organization, recommendations, and reality testing provided by the (Monad ecosystem lead) are top-notch.

Thank you@keoneHD(Co-founder of Monad),@0x_eunice(Co-founder of Monad) and the Monad team have provided us with the opportunity to participate in this incredible project.

At the same time, Opinion Labs founder and CEO Forrest (Twitter:@ForrestOLAB) shared more detailed insights from the conference:

Spent a week at The Foundry, working with the Monad team and talented peers. This intense and in-depth collaboration made me feel the atmosphere of YC — that drive to constantly challenge assumptions and push boundaries.

This week we delved into:

• How to make trading any view and complex financial products as simple as tweeting (UI/UX, AI Oracle, liquidity);
• Build together with the community, allowing everyone to be part of this journey;
• Challenge our path, break through limits, and achieve our vision: to become the infrastructure for trading anything.

What sets Foundry apart is its mindset: starting from zero, never satisfied, constantly questioning, and maximizing possibilities. Keep building, keep delivering!

5 teams stand out: injecting new momentum for ecological prosperity

In the end, among the 44 participating teams, 5 teams stood out and qualified for the roadshow.

It is worth noting that on June 19, Monad announced that the second phase of the testnet validation nodes has been launched, including 161 validation nodes from 64 cities across 33 countries, reflecting Monad’s commitment to decentralization and pursuit of performance. The second phase of the Monad testnet (Testnet-2) is primarily aimed at validation node operators, in order to better prepare for the arrival of the mainnet, which also means that Monad is at a critical time point very close to the launch of the mainnet.

Foundry “NYC 2.2” demonstrated the unique value of the Monad Foundation in ecological development. Through a friendly atmosphere and sincere advice, the foundation provided participants with an open communication platform; and through candid feedback and profound challenges, the foundation helped teams quickly find breakthrough directions and achieve efficient growth.

In the steady and solid progress of ecological construction, the Monad mainnet is getting closer, let’s look forward to it together and build a positive and sustainable ecosystem.

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