Introduction to Stage 5
Crypto Business. Rapid project analysis, protocol revenue, product, growth, BD, and entrepreneurship.
The questions this stage addresses
The first four stages develop understanding. This one develops the ability to work in the industry.
It introduces a unified business model—the thirteen-cell Project Canvas—then uses it across product, growth, BD, and entrepreneurship. The purpose is to let people in different roles discuss the same thing in the same language.
A product manager who understands liquidation, a BD professional who knows who supplies liquidity, and a growth professional who knows what happens when subsidies stop are rare in this industry.
Six chapters
When facing an unfamiliar project, what should you check first?
TVL is high, but is the protocol making money?
Why can't crypto products simply copy Web2 workflows?
Do users remain after the airdrop ends?
Is BD's output a contact list or a resource network?
When do you not need a token at all?
After this stage
You can form an evidence-based judgment about an unfamiliar project in 30 minutes, explaining how it makes money and who bears the risk.
Stage artifact: A 30-minute project analysis with all thirteen Project Canvas cells filled and a judgment.
Study suggestions
- Practice chapter 25's Canvas until it becomes second nature: choose a new project each week for four weeks.
- Chapter 27 introduces AI-assisted product workflows. Remember the boundary: AI-generated PRDs omit failure paths; you must add those yourself.
- Chapter 30 asks when a token is entirely unnecessary. Everyone considering a startup should answer this carefully.