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How I built $3B Next-Gen Identity Startup for AGI Era | World, Alex Blania

EO16:00Added Aug 31, 2026

Today's video features the story of Alex Blania, the CEO of Tools of Humanity, who is leading the Worldcoin project. Recently, the project underwent a rebran...

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Intro

  2. 00:00then I got admitted to the Celtic
  3. 00:02research program went there Sam and Max
  4. 00:05which were the two other founders of
  5. 00:06roine reached out to me like a true
  6. 00:08liner basically he was like hey here's
  7. 00:10this paper ro road coin do you want to
  8. 00:12meet is by far the craziest Story of My
  9. 00:14Life first of all I didn't sleep all
  10. 00:15night it I slept like an hour drank like
  11. 00:17six espressos or something on the way
  12. 00:19there 10:00 a.m. right when the sun was
  13. 00:20going up I get this email by Sam it's
  14. 00:23like hey you want to come by now we sat
  15. 00:24down then the first question was I am
  16. 00:27Alex B the CEO of K tools for Humanity
  17. 00:30is building critical infrastructure for
  18. 00:33AI driven Road the company got started
  19. 00:35together with Sam Alin around 4 and a
  20. 00:36half years ago the idea was what kinds
  21. 00:38of tools will we need on a global scale
  22. 00:40to react to the change that will come
  23. 00:42the major project is World coin which is
  24. 00:45one it is a way to verify humanness on
  25. 00:48truly International global scale on the
  26. 00:50internet because we think it will be
  27. 00:51really really hard to distinguish if
  28. 00:52you're interacting with humans or AIS
  29. 00:55that will turn out to be a very very
  30. 00:56critical problem second it is Broad coin
  31. 00:58which is a digital currency that
  32. 01:00launches we giving ownership to every
  33. 01:01human eventually we are now at I think
  34. 01:04over 12 million users 6 million or so
  35. 01:06that verified yeah we're scaling rapidly
  36. 01:08around the world so we roll out these
  37. 01:10physical devices around the

  38. Chapter 1. Sam Altman asked me to become the CEO

  39. 01:14world so when I was very young I was
  40. 01:18already a lot into technology so I read
  41. 01:21a lot of books about computer science
  42. 01:23but also the basics of mechanical
  43. 01:25engineering I think when I was around 12
  44. 01:27I was on the front page of their spedal
  45. 01:29which is one of the largest outlets in
  46. 01:31Germany there was an article about
  47. 01:32Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is this
  48. 01:34place where all these people go and
  49. 01:36build the future and build this new
  50. 01:37technology basically since then I was I
  51. 01:39was a very set that I will go to Silicon
  52. 01:41Valley and I will build companies and
  53. 01:43that's what I want to do with my life so
  54. 01:44when I started studying right next to my
  55. 01:47university was a new Max plunk Institute
  56. 01:49one of the professors and directors
  57. 01:51actually of that Institute was flen
  58. 01:53markart and he was a pretty well-known
  59. 01:55theoretical physicist that decided to go
  60. 01:57all in into AI back then it was actually
  61. 02:00a pretty small field because of that I
  62. 02:03studied kind of the beginnings of of
  63. 02:05deep learning and kind of what later led
  64. 02:07to Transformer and these things like
  65. 02:09very very deeply and then did a research
  66. 02:11stay at Caltech in Los Angeles and when
  67. 02:13I do my PhD there the actual story is
  68. 02:15actually I applied at a conference
  69. 02:18called YC 1220 which uh Sam hosted and
  70. 02:22so the idea of the conference was that
  71. 02:24it would be hundred of smartest students
  72. 02:26of the world together with like 20 of
  73. 02:28the industry leaders of the world and
  74. 02:29you would bring them together somewhere
  75. 02:31in the US and would be like it's amazing
  76. 02:33time and I got declined I was really
  77. 02:36angry so I just wanted to fly there
  78. 02:38there was no address there was no idea
  79. 02:40how to find it in that application
  80. 02:42period another venture capitalist from
  81. 02:44San Francisco lik a picture of the car I
  82. 02:47built when I was 16 and it was part of
  83. 02:48the application for Y2 so I thought that
  84. 02:51this VC is probably part of the
  85. 02:53application process of voice 120 and so
  86. 02:55I sent her my application video and was
  87. 02:57like Hey I'm going to meet you wherever
  88. 02:59you are as think I think you made a huge
  89. 03:00mistake of declining me to Y 1220 she
  90. 03:02was like I have no idea what you're
  91. 03:03talking about but the video is awesome I
  92. 03:05will just let you interview by all these
  93. 03:07associates that I have and then because
  94. 03:09of that I flew to San Francisco for the
  95. 03:11first time I met a lot of very
  96. 03:12influential people in basically a twoe
  97. 03:15period Then I got admitted to the
  98. 03:17celtech research program went there and
  99. 03:19then through a series of coincidences
  100. 03:22which was like partly driven by people I
  101. 03:24met before on that trip Sam and Max
  102. 03:26which were the two other founders of
  103. 03:28roine reached out to me like a TW liner
  104. 03:31basically he was like hey here's this
  105. 03:32paper ro ro coin we looking for selft
  106. 03:34engineers do you want to meet is is by
  107. 03:37far the craziest story of my life I
  108. 03:38think first of all I didn't sleep all
  109. 03:40night because Max let me sleep in in the
  110. 03:43office and there was no blankets and it
  111. 03:45was like freezing it SLE like an hour
  112. 03:4710:00 a.m. right when the sun was going
  113. 03:49up so it was a little warmer so I could
  114. 03:50like finally catch a little bit of sleep
  115. 03:52I get this email by Sam was like hey you
  116. 03:54want to come by now so I did sleep
  117. 03:56didn't even have clothes R me really I
  118. 03:58just s there Dr like six espressos or
  119. 04:01something out the way there so I come in
  120. 04:02and then we sit down my first question
  121. 04:04is explain me the standard model of
  122. 04:07theoretical physics in detail cend model
  123. 04:09of theoretical physics is like really
  124. 04:10it's quite a thing I also think it
  125. 04:12doesn't make much sense or like there's
  126. 04:13actually deep flaws in that in that
  127. 04:14model and so those when my first
  128. 04:16response and he just laughed that's how
  129. 04:18we we hit it off I was definitely a
  130. 04:19software engineer I was also not CTO I
  131. 04:21was like something in between I actually
  132. 04:23brought on the rest of the feline team
  133. 04:26uh which were kind of the most Talent
  134. 04:28people I met on my University Journey
  135. 04:29Journey most of them were physicists
  136. 04:31that was kind of a technical team then I
  137. 04:33became Co roughly one year in or 8
  138. 04:36months 9 months in I think like after 8
  139. 04:37months we started raising the series 8
  140. 04:39so it was the first fundraise and during
  141. 04:41that fundraise I became the

  142. Chapter 2. What I learned from the best CEO coaches

  143. 04:45CEO when I became CEO I got a lot of
  144. 04:49coaches there so like actually four of
  145. 04:51them and so every Thursday I had a
  146. 04:53couple hours with each of them basically
  147. 04:55in a row 70 80% of my Thursday was just
  148. 04:57being getting grilled and learning like
  149. 05:00what are all the things I did wrong this
  150. 05:01week and what should I improve next week
  151. 05:02and how should I run a meeting and so
  152. 05:04this was like a supercharg uh learning
  153. 05:06experience probably but then the second
  154. 05:08thing which I think is actually probably
  155. 05:10much more important is like I think
  156. 05:12being a CEO what that actually means I
  157. 05:14think is that you're problem solver in
  158. 05:16charge there's like always this like
  159. 05:18confusion about what it means to be a
  160. 05:19COO it's like okay now you can run
  161. 05:21Performance Cycles and you can do this
  162. 05:22and but all of that actually really
  163. 05:24doesn't matter most of the things you
  164. 05:25have to do is a complete distraction
  165. 05:27what you actually should be doing is you
  166. 05:29should understand Technical and product
  167. 05:31challenges you should understand the
  168. 05:32biggest problems the company's facing
  169. 05:35and so while running Performance Cycles
  170. 05:37and doing this and that like I hatte it
  171. 05:39with passion I do love solving problems
  172. 05:42and that's what I did my whole life and
  173. 05:43I was always pretty good at and so while
  174. 05:45there's a lot of new things the core of
  175. 05:47it is what I always did the most
  176. 05:49unexpected one which is actually
  177. 05:51something I took away from Ben hitz is
  178. 05:53this idea that and as a Founder you're
  179. 05:56successful mostly because of two things
  180. 05:58your competence and and your confidence
  181. 06:00this idea that you need to manage your
  182. 06:03confidence and see it as an actual kpi
  183. 06:06for yourself and if that falls below a
  184. 06:08critical threshold you will fail and
  185. 06:09everything will crash and burn almost
  186. 06:11certainly you need to be very conscious
  187. 06:13who you surround yourself with because
  188. 06:15what you certainly learned in your
  189. 06:16private life is there's always people
  190. 06:18that are pessimistic about everything
  191. 06:19all the time and they they drag me down
  192. 06:21in a company these kinds of people exist
  193. 06:24but completely to chart because it's so
  194. 06:26easy to be cynical about everything and
  195. 06:27be negative about everything and but the
  196. 06:29problem is what it does to you as a
  197. 06:31Founder it necks on you on a daily basis
  198. 06:33it takes away this one thing that keeps
  199. 06:35you going which is your own confidence
  200. 06:37and so your leadership team the people
  201. 06:39around you need to be people that
  202. 06:41increase don't decrease your confidence
  203. 06:43otherwise you will die by a Thousand
  204. 06:44Cuts essentially and because it's very
  205. 06:46in obvious somehow like no one thinks
  206. 06:48about these things but that was probably
  207. 06:49the biggest unexpected learning I think
  208. 06:52in terms of coaches every mentorship
  209. 06:54relationship that's actually not even
  210. 06:55specific to business because I had the
  211. 06:57same relationship with my professor in
  212. 06:58University is much more one of
  213. 07:01situational so it's like you're you're
  214. 07:03faced with a certain situation and as an
  215. 07:05unexperienced person you don't know what
  216. 07:07is right or what is wrong what you what
  217. 07:09you can be doing so a lot about growing
  218. 07:11up especially as a Founder is learning
  219. 07:14when to send your ground when to be
  220. 07:16direct when to be indirect and that you
  221. 07:18can really only learn by reference I
  222. 07:20think the biggest donate from Sam was
  223. 07:21just indirectly seeing how he deals with
  224. 07:23certain situations very early on these
  225. 07:25kinds of things I think are the biggest
  226. 07:27invaluable learning lessons that you
  227. 07:29cannot write down you could write a
  228. 07:30block post about these

  229. Chapter 3. Solving problems that have never existed

  230. 07:33things you really think about it many of
  231. 07:36the Great companies started with uh
  232. 07:37Keith for I think has the saying that
  233. 07:39the best companies are much more like a
  234. 07:42Hollywood script than a problem what do
  235. 07:43you want to see in the world and you for
  236. 07:45relate that you hire the best actors
  237. 07:47that you can find and then you go after
  238. 07:49it if you think about it open a was like
  239. 07:51that open like what's the problem we
  240. 07:53don't have artificial super intelligence
  241. 07:54Ro primy river right that's not a
  242. 07:56problem that's a positive thing that
  243. 07:59would exist the RO and Roa was pretty
  244. 08:00similar how would the road look like if
  245. 08:02you would have truly multi-billion
  246. 08:04people come to the own Financial Network
  247. 08:06that would be completely crazy and would
  248. 08:08certainly reshuffle a lot of things in
  249. 08:11majority a very positive way so how do
  250. 08:13we get there so it started very similar
  251. 08:15it was like okay how do we get to this
  252. 08:17crazy outcome then outlining basically
  253. 08:20step by step what would it take first
  254. 08:22one we will need to solve proof of
  255. 08:23person or proof of unique humanist
  256. 08:25second we launch a digital currency by
  257. 08:28giving ownership in EN every human and
  258. 08:29so self Pro a personal La currency scale
  259. 08:33and show initial utility which is what
  260. 08:34we currently do and then fourth
  261. 08:36decentralize the whole network to scale
  262. 08:38even way further one of the earliest
  263. 08:41debates that we had was around
  264. 08:44essentially having more like a developer
  265. 08:47focus and try to talk to companies
  266. 08:49explain them worldo ID all of those
  267. 08:50things versus what s coed as scale first
  268. 08:54which was like such a ridiculous
  269. 08:55statement at least it sounded like it
  270. 08:57usually the device would be you do a you
  271. 08:59talk to companies you explain them World
  272. 09:01ID and they will be so pleased that you
  273. 09:03have built World ID and they will
  274. 09:04integrated everything will be great Sam
  275. 09:05was like well what we got to do is we're
  276. 09:07going to completely ignore that and we
  277. 09:09say we just run towards a billion
  278. 09:12signups and we do everything we can to
  279. 09:15get to these bil setups and we're going
  280. 09:17to have a religious Obsession about that
  281. 09:18we're going to make it a company value
  282. 09:20because on the path to get there we'll
  283. 09:22resolve all of those questions but we
  284. 09:24will resolve them much much faster and
  285. 09:26his point was that he felt he learned in
  286. 09:29his and observing companies like Reddit
  287. 09:31that they have this like very strong
  288. 09:33emergent effects happening as a result
  289. 09:35of the user base things will start
  290. 09:37happening that you didn't even predict
  291. 09:38and I think that was probably the
  292. 09:40biggest bet we took as a project and
  293. 09:42still were taking and it feels like it
  294. 09:45was the right call and pretty early
  295. 09:48actually before we raised series a Sam's
  296. 09:51idea or question was essentially we
  297. 09:53realized we have to build H otherwise we
  298. 09:55thought we could solve the problem Sam's
  299. 09:58definition of when we already to
  300. 10:00actually raise money is you take such a
  301. 10:02hardware device you go out in the city
  302. 10:05on a street and you can sign up and
  303. 10:07verify people and they're actually
  304. 10:09interested or willing to do that for
  305. 10:11whatever reason and you can do that at a
  306. 10:14scale that would show you that with
  307. 10:17reasonable Capital you could scale it up
  308. 10:19to millions of people the simple math we
  309. 10:21did back then was well we would need
  310. 10:23somewhere between 70 to 100 signups a
  311. 10:25day with one of those devices and if we
  312. 10:27would achieve that we could scale it up
  313. 10:30drastically and we just built the first
  314. 10:32prototype so it had two eyes because it
  315. 10:35actually had two cameras it injected a
  316. 10:37physical coin in the middle of it so it
  317. 10:39looked like a very ugly face because
  318. 10:40like the coin injection was basically
  319. 10:42the nose and it had like these like two
  320. 10:43stupid eyes it looked like a very stupid
  321. 10:45face and it was blue because that was
  322. 10:48the 3D printer and it was polished so it
  323. 10:50basically looked like a a stupid Smiley
  324. 10:53boning ball and then it also talked you
  325. 10:55had like a a blue bowling ball with two
  326. 10:57eyes and a stupid nose that was telling
  327. 10:59you in a female robotic wise C closer
  328. 11:03and it was also actually blinking it's
  329. 11:05like red LEDs in there so I guess we
  330. 11:06could have had ideas why that maybe
  331. 11:08would not work but and so we went to
  332. 11:10this park we worked like for months on
  333. 11:11this device so like the whole team was
  334. 11:12like super excited and so we had the
  335. 11:14team behind me with cameras and like
  336. 11:16everyone's like taking pictures so I
  337. 11:18approached two girls in the park and was
  338. 11:21like hey do you want to verify with this
  339. 11:23device you get free Bitcoin and we just
  340. 11:25need this device to make sure that
  341. 11:26people don't fool the system essentially
  342. 11:28so first was like absolutely not and the
  343. 11:31second was well you're kind of cute so
  344. 11:33sure but I need you number then after
  345. 11:35that was basically it that was like the
  346. 11:36success for the day we couldn't verify
  347. 11:38anyone else that was basically it team
  348. 11:40was like super demotivated and kind of
  349. 11:43everything somehow failed but then what
  350. 11:44we did is so first of all we were
  351. 11:45working 7 days a week and we were
  352. 11:46basically living together in the office
  353. 11:48it was a pretty small team back then it
  354. 11:49was Co it was nothing better to do
  355. 11:50anyways and so I said there's shipping
  356. 11:52Saturday and so every Saturday we need
  357. 11:55to ship a completely new version and I
  358. 11:57will be out every Saturday with this new
  359. 11:59version version and we will test it so
  360. 12:00then we just iterated it through like
  361. 12:02okay maybe it kind of looked like a
  362. 12:03molding ball and maybe it needs to look
  363. 12:05a little bit sexy and then like the
  364. 12:06miror Optics came in and was like somewh
  365. 12:08interesting to people and then maybe it
  366. 12:10shouldn't say come closer then we at
  367. 12:12some point we went to burland and one of
  368. 12:14the fing team members Sandro did 70 SES
  369. 12:17a day and that was done the ser and we
  370. 12:19called Inon pits that was how we then
  371. 12:22initially raised the series a s had this
  372. 12:24mental model that okay 70 S A Day
  373. 12:26multiple with 50,000 devices that can
  374. 12:28you can get to a growth rid that can
  375. 12:30lead to billions of saps I think with
  376. 12:31any startup I think the the much bigger
  377. 12:33threat is that you always face an
  378. 12:35existential threat essentially like
  379. 12:37whatever it is but that's by you're a
  380. 12:39startup I think developing anything was
  381. 12:41generally not the hardest thing the
  382. 12:42company was probably about to die
  383. 12:45certainly more than two times probably
  384. 12:48four times theia CEO talks about that
  385. 12:50quite frequently is like all of those
  386. 12:52companies are even a thousand times
  387. 12:54harder than you imagine them going into
  388. 12:56them so it's like Essen you sign up for
  389. 12:58years of paying p and suffering and you
  390. 13:00saw need to push through and I think
  391. 13:02that's a really hard thing it's not one
  392. 13:04particular piece of technology there was
  393. 13:05like a lot of technical things we had to
  394. 13:07figure out along the way but keeping
  395. 13:09going was the much harder

  396. Chapter 4. Thoughts on Founder Mode

  397. 13:13one yeah I've read about Founders mod
  398. 13:15recently I uh spoke to my heart when you
  399. 13:19run a company and the company gets
  400. 13:21bigger and bigger there's like strong
  401. 13:22pull from people that are coming in that
  402. 13:25try to convince you that running a well
  403. 13:28oil machine is what you really really
  404. 13:30should care about we want to set the
  405. 13:31processes and you want to run like all
  406. 13:33these like great programs and then
  407. 13:36everything that happens is like you just
  408. 13:37sit down with the leadership team and
  409. 13:39everyone is happy that's like what
  410. 13:41people describe to you versus basically
  411. 13:43as far as it gets from how it actually
  412. 13:45should be in companies as well as in
  413. 13:47things like science almost everything
  414. 13:49comes down to one or two or three
  415. 13:52problems you can really only do that if
  416. 13:54you go really really deep and you really
  417. 13:55understand it because otherwise people
  418. 13:57will tell you all kinds of things why
  419. 13:59doesn't work or why it cannot work and
  420. 14:00it's really really hard as a Founder to
  421. 14:02have that fortitude of ignore all the
  422. 14:05people that try to tell you that
  423. 14:06shouldn't you should not be involved
  424. 14:08everything is great keep yourself out of
  425. 14:09it ignore all of that chatter and just
  426. 14:11keep going deeper and deeper and deeper
  427. 14:13until you really understand the problem
  428. 14:14well I think there's actually one more
  429. 14:15comment that is maybe important to make
  430. 14:17you could also use that as an excuse to
  431. 14:21be a horrible manager there's like a a
  432. 14:23big difference of you are a very capable
  433. 14:25Problem Solver and you should nail down
  434. 14:28problems and that's your job as a CEO
  435. 14:30and no matter what people tell you
  436. 14:31that's that's it and you should
  437. 14:33understand them you should get them and
  438. 14:34you should not let them lose and they
  439. 14:36are solved versus you're just an
  440. 14:38that runs through the office and keeps
  441. 14:40annoying everyone and just like wants to
  442. 14:42be involved doesn't add any value then
  443. 14:44leaves the room again and which is
  444. 14:45another thing that happens right so like
  445. 14:47yeah I think found remote is Problem
  446. 14:49Solver in charge figuring things out not
  447. 14:52being an the world is a really
  448. 14:53large place and there is great
  449. 14:56governments and there is places where
  450. 14:58just nothing is working in there's even
  451. 15:00places where the government works
  452. 15:01against their citizens actively and I
  453. 15:03think there is some kind of
  454. 15:05infrastructure the what the kind of
  455. 15:07infrastructure that makes you truly a
  456. 15:09human no matter who you are or where you
  457. 15:12should come from you should have a right
  458. 15:14for and how do we build systems that can
  459. 15:17do that independent of where you come
  460. 15:19from or what you struggle with and I
  461. 15:21think that is why rcoin and that is why
  462. 15:24if such a change would happen if we have
  463. 15:26strong AGI systems we need to rethink
  464. 15:29how we handle our economy how we handle
  465. 15:31handle our social systems it should not
  466. 15:33be just for the 50% in the world that
  467. 15:36are living in great government it should
  468. 15:37be for everyone because getting it to
  469. 15:39scale is actually the thing that truly
  470. 15:40matters you know people in Germany
  471. 15:42having better lives and the margin like
  472. 15:45that that will not change the world
  473. 15:46empowering those the people will change
  474. 15:48the world
  475. 15:52[Music]
How I built $3B Next-Gen Identity Startup for AGI Era | World, Alex Blania — Transcriptly