Original title: What Investors Want Beyond an AI Agent

Original author: 0xJeff, Encrypted KOL

Compiled by: Felix, PANews

Driven by the global AI wave, cryptographic AI Agents have become a craze, and many AI Agent projects have sprung up like bamboo shoots after rain. How to successfully build an Agent project? What are the common misunderstandings? Encrypted KOL 0xJeff issued an article summarizing common pitfalls.

Over the past few months, I have talked to hundreds of AI agent teams. Many teams fall into the same common pitfalls. Here are the 7 top mistakes discovered during conversations and suggest ways to avoid them based on them.

1. Imitation of pioneers

Virtuals Protocol pioneered the AI agent tokenization narrative. Continue to build innovative agents by working with top teams. Virtuals Protocol accounts for more than 50% of the AI agent market share with superb storytelling and narrative construction.

Many teams believe they can replicate the success of Virtuals Protocol by tokenizing the agent, pairing it with their own tokens, and launching it on the new L1/L2 (expecting immediate PMF). (Note: PMF refers to the best fit between the product and the market)

In fact, this move will not work for two main reasons:

·There are already too many proxy tokens in the market, and just launching another proxy token is not enough.

· VIRTUAL/Agent LP is difficult to structure, especially for early projects with low liquidity. Altcoins: The LP pair of altcoins is inherently fragile and can lead to high volatility and unpredictable losses. Liquidity providers (LPs) avoid them, leading to lower liquidity and extreme slips.

What to do:

·Find a unique niche market to solve practical problems in a specific area.

·Choose altcoin: mainstream or altcoin: LP pair of stablecoins. They are structurally more robust, especially in volatile markets.

2. Founder/co-founder doesn’t know how to sell

Many teams are formed by developers who don’t understand sales. As the number one salesperson, if the founder is not interested in his own products, why should he expect others to be interested?

Carrying out one marketing effort after another that is led by the founder and driven by the team (when the team actively participates in CT and constantly talks about their products) is organic marketing. People will be curious after seeing it, try it, and then give feedback. There is no need to burn money or tokens to gain users.

3. Create products that match narrative

At the time, Compound, AAVE, OHM or Solidly were bifurcated-just because there was a lot of heat at the time.

Launch AI agents-just because of the popularity.

Building without knowing the problem you want to solve or what you want to serve is one of the fastest ways to fail.

Ask yourself before building:

·Who are the real customers?

·Is it built because of hype or because it solves actual needs?

·Are products being forcibly pushed to markets that do not exist?

·Are your own tokens an actual product?

4. Launch tokens before product launches

Launch tokens before the product goes online, and tokens will become the main focus. To make matters worse: The team started selling tokens, competing to list on exchanges, and ignoring product development.

This move will never have a good result, with no product, revenue, appeal, and no reason for people to hold tokens.

What should be done is:

·Find some form of PMF before launching tokens.

·Issue tokens only if there is significant network effects and actual value accumulation.

5. Skip the “V” in MVP

MVP = Minimum feasible product.But many teams skipped the “doable” part and launched a useless, smallest product that no one cared about.

MVP should be a basic but fully functional product that early users can try-so you can collect feedback and iterate on the product.

What should be done is:

·Have real communication with users.

·Understand their needs and create a product that users will actually use.

·Don’t stick to your assumptions before proving your true value.

6. No clear KPIs, Goals, or Vision

Some teams drift aimlessly: chasing trends, blaming the market, and responding passively rather than executing clear plans.

What should be done is:

·Set clear and measurable KPIs from day one.

·Define what success means-what problems you are solving and what are important milestones

·If something changes direction if something doesn’t work, no one can get it right once.

7. User vs Investor Expectations

The Web3 project has two products:

·Tokens

·Actual products

This means attracting two types of supporters:

·Speculators: Speculate on tokens

·Real users: People who care about products

Many projects fall into the KOL trap: paying unreliable KOL to promote their tokens. The result is to attract a large number of Degens who don’t care about the product. When prices fall or airdrops disappoint, they will blindly follow, sell, and call the project a scam.

What to do:

·Have strategies for marketing targets

·Don’t sell tokens. Instead, provide a clear overview of token economics and value accumulation-why tokens exist and how they benefit users.

·Instead of wasting stablecoins and tokens on KOL, let real partners become stakeholders.

Speculators and real users have different needs. One wants to use the product, the other wants to buy low and sell high. Supporters of both will show up, but make sure you attract and inspire the right people.

summary

Avoid these common mistakes, focus on the real user needs, and build what really matters. The market rewards those who create real value, not those who chase trends, hype or short-term speculation.

Good projects are not achieved overnight, nor are they built by imitating other people’s projects. Take the time to get to know your users, improve your products, and develop a sustainable strategy. The success of Web3 projects comes from innovation, execution and resilience, not just launching a token or following a narrative.

If you want to participate in it for the long term, you must work hard for long-term development.

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