Nikil Viswanathan, Co-Founder And CEO Of Alchemy, On Reaching A 1/2 Billion Dollar Valuation In Eight Months (#24)

Alchemy went from public launch to a half-billion-dollar valuation in eight months. 

The company is the world’s leading blockchain developer platform powering $30+ billion in transactions with 10+ million users in 197+ countries worldwide.

Founded by Nikil Viswanathan (@Nikilster) and Joe Lau (@thejoelau), Alchemy has been likened to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) of the blockchain industry. They provide the best tools and products for developers to use in building NFTs, marketplaces, protocols, and more.

Investors include Stanford University, Coinbase, Pantera Capital, founders and executives of Charles Schwab, Linkedin, PayPal, Yahoo!, Dropbox, NYSE, as well as John Hennessy, Jay-Z, Reid Hoffman, Will Smith, Balaji Srinivasan, the owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Manchester United, and more.

They recently raised their Series B funding round of $80 million led by Coatue and Addition (started by Lee Fixel in 2020).

Previously, Nikil and Joe co-founded Down to Lunch, a social app that rose to #1 in the App Store and was featured in The New York Times and other international media publications. The two met at Stanford, where they studied computer science and were co-TAs for an online class on databases, a precursor to Coursera.

In this episode, Nikil and I discuss:

Growing up in a small town in Texas (Lubbock)Building apps like Down to Lunch and Check In To My FlightLearning from mentors including John Hennessy and Charles SchwabThe importance of optimism, persistence, and confidence

Nikil's entrepreneurial lessons include:

Make sure it’s the right fit with your co-founder.Finding product-market fit is the most important thing early on. If you’re not sure if you have product-market fit, you don’t have it.Optimize for now. Don’t worry about what will happen in a month or a year. Do whatever you need to do today to be successful.Have an obsessive customer focus.Surround yourself with great people and have a lot of fun!