A review of the podcast hosted by Alevtina Labyuk, Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer at BeInCrypto, in collaboration with The Top Voices – a crowd-driven platform for startups and IT talent, supported by a global team of 3,000+ entrepreneurs – with Anthony Tsivarev, VP of the Ecosystem Development Foundation.
Building a startup within the larger ecosystem can look deceptively simple from the outside. The distribution is already there. The infrastructure is ready. Millions of users are just one click away.
But according to Anthony VP of Ecosystem Development at TON Foundation, this idea is one of the misconceptions that founders bring to platforms like Telegram and TON.
In the interview, he explained why building within an ecosystem is very different from starting a standalone product – and why many teams fail to realize the mindset shift needed to succeed.
Ecosystem Distribution Does Not Equal Demand
In the traditional go-to-market approach, startups often follow a straightforward process: build a solid product and then find users through marketing, partnerships, or distribution channels.
Platforms like Telegram change this completely. Distribution already exists. But most importantly, it is not a starting point.
“You still have to make something really good,” Anthony explained. “But on top of that, you have to combine it with what happens on the platform.”
This means that founders must think beyond work. A product built within Telegram needs to understand how people communicate there – through chats, channels, news, and networks of friends.
Natural products do well because they naturally fit into the way people already interact with the platform. For example, with TON, startups don’t have to design user and financial systems, incentives, and payment methods.
“Classic GTM is one piece,” Anthony said. “In ecosystems you also have social graphs, social interactions, and in blockchain you add a financial layer on top of that.”
Productivity is Based on Values
A common fear among the founders of environmental architecture is that nature inhibits technology. Besides, the architecture, the information layer, and the wallet have already been explained.
Anthony sees things differently. Platforms like Telegram’s micro-apps offer the same building blocks, but differences emerge in how startups use social media.
Successful brands often rethink how their app integrates with social media, communities, and sharing. They create loops that encourage users to bring their friends into the experience.
The most important design question is surprisingly simple: Why will users return?
Conservation loops, Anthony emphasized, are more important than just introducing them into the environment.
“You have to think about why people should use your product all the time,” he said. “Integration is just the beginning.”
Founders Who Win
Working within an open environment means that anyone can start a business. Today, developers can create a small app a day and distribute it immediately through community channels. That openness creates both opportunity and confusion.
When Anthony examines new builders entering the ecosystem, two things are particularly important:
- The first is the experience. Teams with a track record of building community products often understand platform experiences very quickly.
- The second is what he calls it Ecosystem product fit.
In other words, medicine should profit the environment (not just being in it).
Anthony often asks startups to explain how their business has grown using the platform. This description should include how the product will help grow social media, how users share with friends naturally, and what will encourage organic growth.
Without clear answers, many things remain technically viable but struggle to appeal to reality.
“You can have a nice little program,” Anthony said, “but without users and without distribution.”
The Most Common Founder Mistake
One misconception appears over and over again in new projects. Founders think that access to more users will create more demand.
Anthony calls this confusion between distribution and market adequacy.
Just because there are millions of users on a platform doesn’t mean they will automatically use a new one.
He compares the situation to a supermarket shelf. Although there are many types of chocolate on the side, consumers choose only a few.
Platforms bring visibility and activation, but they do not replace the need for a strong content system and the need for users.
For startups, this means focusing first on the basics: the core loop, user retention, and integration of behaviors and platforms.
Ecosystems Are the Engines of Fortune
Despite the challenges, Anthony believes that nature is still very powerful to begin with. Their work, however, is often misunderstood.
Rather than being designed to ensure the efficiency of the environment, ecosystems simply change the economy of the infrastructure. They usually reduce two basic costs:
- The first is the cost of development. Frameworks such as identities, wallets, payment systems, and mini-app frameworks significantly lower the technical barrier to entry.
- The second is to get customers. Platforms already have domains and graphs that they can start expanding.
Together, these features can speed up testing and iteration. But the responsibility of success still belongs to the founder.
“Nature breeds success,” Anthony said. “It doesn’t make you successful.”
AI Is Changing How Startups Are Built
Another topic that came up in the discussion was the growth of AI in startup development.
Anthony explained the changes that many developers are already facing, where things that used to require large teams and a lot of money are now prototyped in days.
He shared his experience in building an internal product called Identity Hubwhich he created in a few weekends – something that would have previously required thousands of dollars in development costs.
The AI-driven curve tools are greatly enhancing the development.
This change is a change in the role of the founders. Instead of spending years developing a single product, startups can now quickly test multiple ideas in search of the right business model.
The result is a starting point where the test is unstable.
AI Agents and Multi-Ecosystem Products
Looking ahead, Anthony believes that the future of Web3 development will have two main features.
The first is the rise of many natural resources. As integration becomes easier, applications will work across multiple blockchains and platforms instead of just one ecosystem.
The second is the growth of AI agents.
Blockchain architecture remains a challenge for day-to-day users, but AI systems can act as mediators that interact with the protocols deployed in their place.
In this scenario, agents (not people) can be some of the biggest users of blockchain networks.
“Agents can be the biggest buyers of blockchains,” Anthony suggested.
When this happens, the next generation of Web3 products can be designed not only for people but also for autonomous systems.
Check First, Expand Later
Anton returned to one eternal principle of business – focus.
Early stage startups often feel pressured to grow quickly in multiple ecosystems, markets, or formats. But spreading the word too early can prevent anything from doing well.
He encourages founders to build a good reputation within one environment before thinking about expansion. Until then, consideration It remains the most powerful opportunity a founder can have.
