Natalia Dzhioeva

founding designer & trying to build a few things

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

it’s honestly impressive that i managed to discover someone had launched the exact product i’ve been procrastinating on building for years in couple of hours after making a post about procrastination

okay, universe, i got the message 😅

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

Today a friend sent me a TikTok about an app that was almost exactly the idea I’ve been carrying around in my head for couple of years.

This is actually the second time this has happened to me.

The first time was when I was in university. We had already built an MVP for online therapy when the first big service launched. We stopped. But the market has been growing for a long period.

Hopefully, I’ve learned this lesson by now and this situation will push me to finally launch it 😭

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

people building their own projects: how do you deal with boring operational work? 🫠

i’ve realized that repetitive, operational, low-dopamine tasks create an absurd amount of resistance for me

what has actually worked for you?

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

But the more I think about it, the more I realize that design isn’t the goal either.

Design is just another material too.

Code, interfaces, typography, motion, AI — these are all just tools for exploring ideas and building products that eventually affect how people live their lives.

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

One phrase from Config 2026 really stuck with me:

“Code is just another material.”

And honestly, this is exactly how I’ve always felt.

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

I’ve never wanted to write code for the sake of writing code.

I’ve wanted to be able to shape ideas directly, without losing them somewhere between design, development, and implementation.

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

i just wanted to write things and now i have my own coin 🫠 okkkkkkk

https://t.co/2meBwWPB4n

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

https://t.co/k2DjHnIKO8

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

labelled 554 web3 AI projects by narrative type

75% say "decentralized X"

median cap: $560K

the 10% who say "truth machine" or "Google for blockchain"

median cap: $14.5M

26× difference. from one sentence.

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

@rendernetwork @graphprotocol @chainlink @Theta_Network @Livepeer @golemproject 7/7
this is part 2 of my research on branding and longevity in Web3 AI

building Xraylo to make these signals visible before launch, not after failure

full data → https://t.co/pCAEVl8Is8

if you're building in web3 — what's your narrative? reply 👇

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

1/7
809 active Web3 AI projects.
232 listed before 2023.
Only 17 reached $100M+.

that's 2.1%

I looked at all 17. thread 🧵

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

6/7
the survivors didn't describe AI

they described a specific resource being decentralized
and waited for the world to need it

most projects launching in 2024–2025 do the opposite:
apps not infra, generic AI narrative, expecting immediate traction

history says that's the wrong playbook

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

8/
this is the foundation of a project I'm building called Xraylo

the idea: make brand structure visible before launch, not after failure

full data + charts → https://t.co/0YlxRgsViX

if you're building in web3 and want to stress-test your positioning — reply or DM

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

1/8
I looked at 1,397 web3 AI projects

median market cap: $309K
top project: $9.8B

that's a 30,000× gap

the difference isn't tech. it's narrative.

thread 🧵

[Natalia Dzhioeva @imsotata]

@bittensor__ @rendernetwork @graphprotocol @virtuals_io @celestia @coingecko 7/
the early signals are visible before launch

the name, the whitepaper, the first tweets, day-one community size

branding in web3 isn't decoration
it's a survival condition