Florian Ehrbar, founder of OnchainLabs, went from calling time on a failing consulting gig… to convincing the investor to back a new team and a new idea: connecting real-world assets (skis, classic cars, gold - even trees) to the blockchain with actual utility.
We get into radical candour, building “Wallet 2” that feels like email (not MetaMask), no-code tokenization, raising private capital, and leading a half-inherited team while staying focused when you could do everything.
In this episode you’ll learn:
- Why telling the hard truth can start your next company
- Funded-from-day-one: hidden pressures and how to navigate them
- Real user value in tokenization (CRM, warranties/insurance, provenance)
- UX trade-offs: self-custody vs ease, and designing guardrails
- The vision: a white-label, no-code RWA platform you can drag-and-drop deploy
Chapters
00:00 Intro — honesty when everything’s on fire
01:10 The investor asks “what now?” → forming the new team
02:36 Florian’s path: consulting → dating app → investments → founder
05:10 Quitting a safe career with a young family
06:19 Side-hustle vs jump: why he didn’t moonlight (and regrets it)
07:45 Funded from day one: blessings and pressure
09:06 The moment of candour that killed a project and birthed Onchain Labs
11:05 What Onchain Labs does (physical → digital, real utility)
12:54 Tokenizing luxury skis: CRM, insurance, activation incentives
15:04 Blockchain basics (wallets, ownership, self-custody)
17:22 UX reality: too easy vs too risky — finding the line
19:35 Classic cars & provenance: why digitised records matter
21:30 Leading a “half-inherited” team: empower vs decide
23:40 Focus when you can do everything: pick the beachhead
25:05 Building “Wallet 2” — make blockchain feel like email
27:10 Towards a no-code, white-label RWA platform
29:00 Commercial model: SaaS + transactions + implementation
31:05 Who it’s for: gold tokenization, consumer apps, and beyond
33:12 Ambition: the AWS/Shopify of tokenization (for non-financial assets)
35:00 Fundraising, unusual backers & validation moments
37:05 Founder life: work ethic, optimism, taking bigger risks sooner
39:00 Skill vs luck — and where to follow Florian
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#Startups #Web3 #Tokenization #RWA #FounderJourney #Leadership #EverydayFounderPodcast
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