Startup Lesson: Aim For Exponential Growth

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Mert Mumtaz, Co-Founder and CEO of Helius. He shares his take on Solana evolving from earlier years with its NFT boom to the memecoin era and where it’s heading, as well as why better infrastructure, indexing and data readability were essential for scaling the network. Mert breaks down how Helius built the tools that make Solana legible, why transparency actually reinforces the need for privacy, and how its new Orb aims to become a first-principles block explorer designed for internet capital markets.

They discuss Solana’s performance culture, the challenges of indexing petabytes of historical data, and how developers and traders rely on Helius for both high-frequency data streams and consumer-grade UX. Mert also shares his views on meme coins, Solana Foundation, internet culture, Crypto Twitter authenticity, and why teams must aim for exponential growth rather than incremental success.

Timestamps(00:00) – Intro

(01:01) – Breakpoint setup and intro to Mert and his Crypto Twitter identity

(01:59) – The end game of crypto as global permissionless markets accessible from anywhere

(02:33) – Solana as a sci-fi computer and the need for encrypted money alongside open markets

(03:28) – What Helius actually is and why making the chain legible was the first step

(04:23) – Building VPCs, indexing, data retrieval and the bottom up infra Solana needed

(05:11) – The Helius barbell: low latency data for HFT firms and consumer facing block explorers

(06:08) – Orb as a first principles block explorer for internet capital markets

(06:34) – How transparency tools ironically highlight the need for user level privacy

(07:56) – Democratizing chain analysis and revealing what governments and analytics firms already know

(08:52) – Historical data breakthrough enabling second level search for all user activity

(11:45) – Biggest lessons from building Helius and why startups must aim for exponential growth

(15:05) – The Trump meme coin moment and realizing Helius needed to think bigger

(16:33) – Bringing market makers onto Solana and building new categories beyond existing apps

(17:33) – Shaking off the meme coin chain narrative as stocks, commodities and L1s list on Solana

(18:27) – Tokenized stocks, commodities, and why Solana hosts every major asset class

(20:36) – His relationship with Solana Foundation and how Solana matured culturally and organizationally

(23:04) – Becoming a cultural face of Solana and how authenticity built his X following

(27:50) – How he filters tweets post growth and when he chooses not to punch down

(30:45) – Rapid fire questions on trends, narratives and what he thinks should be banned

(36:26) – Final advice: learn to read, write and think independently without analogies

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