Stani Kulechov | Aave Labs - Focus On Building
26 May 2026 · 4:45
Aave Labs founder Stani Kulechov says in an interview that founders should keep building viable products and not get caught up in social media noise or chasing narratives. He argues that compromises meant to satisfy every stakeholder risk satisfying no one, so a team should choose a direction, build, and rebuild what fails. Asked about lessons learned, he calls copying whatever project just gained traction, such as perpetual exchanges or yield-bearing stablecoins, a dangerous path, and recommends talking directly to the people who use the product rather than crypto Twitter, investors or friends.
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You're definitely still inspired and excited to build. Was there ever a time where you thought about quitting? >> I mean, um, it gets really hard, um, quite often to be honest. Too often, um, and you know, at that point, you sort of like, uh, uh, you get frustrated. Um, not necessarily like quitting itself, but >> you kind of, you know, wish that things are like, uh, easier. >> Yeah. Um but it comes from the fact that this is a very like a spe specialized space. There's a lot of things happening. Um I think there's a lot of noise as well especially like on social media. I think maybe like 95% or more
even is noise. Uh so it's sometimes kind of like a distracting even though there's some uh good takes but a lot of bad takes but a lot of relevant discussions I think as well. It's it's it's sort of important for every founder and and team not to get caught up into any any of the noise and and trying to understand what's important to build and not chasing narratives or >> uh the meta and and just like building viable products is something where uh the focus should be always. >> Um and it's not always easy because you know there's communities, there's investors, there might be like uh token holders and everyone has an idea. um you know so yeah the focus is is really
important to always have >> how do you achieve that because you mentioned the noise and you mentioned the dramas and you mentioned the distractions how do you deal with that how do you keep focus and also in general how have you learned to deal with conflict >> I mean it's um you know conflicts are also you know depending what they are but um you know sometimes there are opinion ions um you know and and then you just have to like figure out what's the best opinions and you don't want to end up with compromises because most likely compromises are you know something that satisfies everyone might satisfy no one. Uh and that's something to it like I I think there's more value
in being opinionated and having a direction and going to that direction versus um building something that is middle ground right >> for everyone. um and that doesn't lead to anywhere. Um so it's I think it's important to to lead uh and and showing the way and the way we do that is by building uh and and building and you know if something doesn't work we rebuild things and um recreate and and it's a constant evolution, right? So what worked for in 2017 doesn't work in 2020 or 2025 and you have to constantly uh keep innovating. Were you as good at doing that in the beginning? Like I want to hear some lessons that you've learned
in these past 10 years, right? What is Stani from the beginning and Stani now? What are some lessons that you've learned? Yeah, I think that's something that's probably the hardest thing ever and and and maybe to most people even like it's really hard to be good at focusing on things because um again there's just like so so many stakeholders and so much discussion and and things moving and and and and typically if you're building a product um you know you don't might have any users in the beginning and you might wonder why right and you know and then you read that some another project got you know some sort of like uh traction like a new per exchange right and
everyone is building per >> then there's new interesting yield bearing stable coin everyone's building yield bearing stable coins so uh this is a really like a dangerous path right um because I think in most cases like it it just takes time to iterate uh to get a good product and and and uh grow that product and and also like have a really good way of of uh flywheels and and whatnot. And >> um and even like experienced founders might make that same mistake again uh by not focusing. Um but also you need to understand when you know you kind of need to kill something and uh move on and and rebuild.
>> Um and I think the best the the best thing to do is to talk to users directly. Um, not asking like what people think in in in in the crypto Twitter or >> yes >> uh or investors or >> even your friends, but going like to the people that actually are using the stuff you built. Um and that gives actually way better uh signal than anything