Building in an Ecosystem: What Founders Often Get Wrong

A recap of a podcast hosted by Alevtina Labyuk, Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer at BeInCrypto, in partnership with The Top Voices — a community-led media platform for early-stage startups and IT talent, backed by a global network of 3,000+ entrepreneurs — featuring Anthony Tsivarev, VP of Ecosystem Development at the TON Foundation.

Building a startup inside a large ecosystem can look deceptively simple from the outside. The distribution is already there. The infrastructure is ready. Millions of users are just one click away.

But according to Anthony VP of Ecosystem Development at the TON Foundation, this perception is one of the biggest misconceptions founders bring into platforms like Telegram and TON.

During the conversation, he explained why building inside an ecosystem is fundamentally different from launching an independent product – and why many teams fail to recognize the shift in mindset required to succeed.

Ecosystem Distribution Is Not the Same as Demand

In a traditional go-to-market strategy, startups usually follow a straightforward sequence: build a strong product and then acquire users through marketing, partnerships, or distribution channels. 

Platforms such as Telegram change this dynamic completely. The distribution already exists. But crucially, it does not belong to the startup.

“You still need to build a great product,” Anthony explained. “But on top of that, you need to integrate it into the native behavior of the platform.”

That means founders must think beyond functionality. A product launched inside Telegram needs to understand how people communicate there – through chats, channels, stories, and friend networks.

Ecosystem products succeed because they naturally fit into how people already behave on the platform. For example, with TON, founders must design not only for user behavior but also for token economics, incentives, and payment mechanics.

“Classic GTM is one layer,” Anthony said. “In ecosystems you also have social graphs, social interaction, and in blockchain you add an economic layer on top of that.”

Creativity Comes From Behavior

A common fear among founders building in ecosystems is that the environment limits creativity. After all, the infrastructure, identity layer, and wallet systems are already defined.

Anthony sees the opposite. Platforms like Telegram mini-apps provide standardized building blocks, but differentiation emerges from how founders use social behavior.

Successful products often rethink how their app interacts with chats, communities, and sharing patterns. They create loops that encourage users to bring their friends into the experience.

The most important design question becomes surprisingly simple: Why would users come back?

Retention loops, Anthony emphasized, matter far more than simply launching inside the ecosystem.

“You need to think about why people should use your product consistently,” he said. “Integration is only the beginning.”

The Founders Who Actually Succeed

Working inside an open ecosystem means anyone can launch a product. Today, developers can build a mini-app in a day and distribute it instantly through social channels. That openness creates both opportunity and clutter.

When Anthony evaluates new builders entering the ecosystem, two things matter most:

• The first is experience. Teams with a track record of building social products often understand platform dynamics much faster.
• The second is what he calls ecosystem product fit.

In other words, the product should leverage the ecosystem (not just sit inside it).

Anthony often asks founders to clearly explain how their product will amplify itself using the platform. That explanation should include how the product will leverage the social graph, how users will naturally share it with friends, and what incentives will drive organic growth.

Without clear answers, many products remain technically functional but struggle to gain real traction.

“You can end up with a good mini-app,” Anthony said, “but without users and without distribution.”

The Most Common Founder Mistake

One misconception appears again and again in new projects. Founders assume that access to a massive user base automatically generates demand.

Anthony calls this confusion between distribution and product-market fit.

Just because millions of users exist on a platform does not mean they will automatically use a new product.

He compares the situation to a supermarket shelf. Even when dozens of chocolate brands sit side by side, shoppers still choose only a few.

Platforms create opportunities for visibility and activation, but they do not replace the need for strong product mechanics and clear user value.

For founders, that means focusing first on the fundamentals: the core loop, user retention, and behavioral integration with the platform.

Ecosystems Are Opportunity Engines

Despite the challenges, Anthony believes ecosystems remain one of the most powerful environments for startups. Their role, however, is often misunderstood.

Rather than being designed to guarantee success, ecosystems simply change the economics of building. They typically reduce two critical startup costs:

• The first is development cost. Infrastructure such as identity layers, wallets, payment systems, and mini-app frameworks dramatically lowers the technical barrier to entry.
• The second is customer acquisition. Platforms already contain communities and social graphs that startups can leverage for growth.

Together, these factors can accelerate experimentation and iteration. But the responsibility for success still belongs to the founder.

“Ecosystems amplify success,” Anthony said. “They don’t generate success for you.”

AI Is Changing How Startups Are Built

Another theme that emerged during the conversation was the growing impact of AI on startup development.

Anthony described a change that many developers are already experiencing, where products that once required large teams and significant funding can now be prototyped in days.

He shared his own experience building an internal product called Identity Hub, which he developed over a few weekends – something that would previously have required hundreds of thousands of dollars in development resources.

AI-driven coding tools are drastically increasing development velocity.

This change is transforming the role of founders. Instead of spending years building a single product, startups can now test multiple ideas rapidly in search of the right business model.

The result is a startup environment where experimentation becomes the default.

AI Agents and Multi-Ecosystem Products

Looking further ahead, Anthony believes the future of Web3 development will likely revolve around two major things.

The first is the rise of multi-ecosystem products. As integration becomes easier, applications will increasingly operate across multiple blockchains and platforms rather than staying confined to a single ecosystem.

The second is the growing role of AI agents.

Blockchain infrastructure remains complex for everyday users, but AI systems may act as intermediaries that interact with decentralized protocols on their behalf.

In that scenario, agents (not humans) could become some of the largest users of blockchain networks.

“Agents could become the main consumers of blockchains,” Anthony suggested.

If that happens, the next generation of Web3 products may be designed not only for people but also for autonomous systems.

Focus First, Expand Later

Anton returned to one timeless principle of entrepreneurship – focus.

Early-stage founders often feel pressure to expand quickly into multiple ecosystems, markets, or features. But spreading attention too early can prevent a product from succeeding anywhere.

He encourages startups to build a strong success story inside one ecosystem before thinking about expansion.Once a product proves itself, it becomes far easier to replicate that success elsewhere. Until then, focus remains the most powerful advantage a startup can have.