Signal to entrepreneurs: In 2026, storytelling alone can no longer win VC favor

[{"type":"paragraph","children":[{"text":"For entrepreneurs, the financing environment in 2026 will be more stringent but also clearer. The investment logic of VC has undergone a fundamental transformation: "},{"text":"From paying for \"possibility\" and \"narrative\", to paying for \"proven product market fit\" and \"real income\".","bold":true}]},{"type":"paragraph","children":[{"bold":true,"text":"Successful templates under the new paradigm:"}]},{"type":"bulleted-list","children":[{"type":"list-item","children":[{"text":"Hyperliquid Path: ","bold":true},{"text":"Zero external VC financing, relying on excellent products (occupying 70% of on-chain perpetual contract trading volume) and community-driven, achieving annual revenue of over 650 million US dollars and then gaining market recognition."}]},{"type":"list-item","children":[{"text":"Polymarket path: ","bold":true},{"text":"years of polishing products, validating demand in real election cycles, obtaining mainstream institutions (such as ICE) 2 billion US dollar strategic investment, and then considering tokenization."}]}]},{"type":"paragraph","children":[{"text":"Core revelation: ","bold":true},{"text":"Capital is scrutinizing crypto projects with the discipline of traditional technology investment, "},{"text":"demanding to see protocol revenue, user retention, and competitive barriers ","bold":true},{"text":". Purely speculative projects will face financing exhaustion."}]},{"type":"paragraph","children":[{"text":"Detailed guidance for entrepreneurs: ","bold":true},{"type":"link","url":"https://blog.ju.com/crypto-vc-2026-outlook/?utm_source=blog","children":[{"text":"https://blog.ju.com/crypto-vc-2026-outlook/?utm_source=blog"}]},{"text":"\n"},{"type":"topic","character":"Entrepreneurship","children":[{"text":""}]},{"text":" "},{"type":"topic","character":"financing","children":[{"text":""}]},{"text":" "},{"type":"topic","character":"productmarketfit","children":[{"text":""}]},{"text":" "},{"type":"topic","character":"businessmodel","children":[{"text":""}]},{"text":" "}]}]