The pilot has been going on for a month now and here's my take 👇 While running our first institutional pilot for Pax @paxcred , a few things hit different. On the product side, i learnt how real institutions actually operate, what friction looks like up close, and what "instant verification" really means to someone who's been waiting weeks for a reply from a registrar office. You think you know the problem until you're inside it. But honestly the bigger lessons were personal. I learned how to speak like a founder / CEO, not just explain a product, but tell a story that makes someone lean in. I got better at understanding what a customer actually needs versus what they say they need. I learned how to express ideas clearly, keep conversations focused, and respect people's time. You can read about building a startup. But you don't actually become a founder until you're in the room, on the call, navigating the real thing. This pilot didn't just test our product. It tested me. And we're just getting started !