Inflection Points Episode 2: Avalanche, Incentives, and the Art of Sustainable Growth (with Ava Labs)

In the early days of Avalanche, growth came fast.

DeFi protocols bootstrapped liquidity. Subnets (now Avalanche L1s) unlocked new verticals like gaming. Billions in capital arrived through incentive programs like Avalanche Rush. On paper, it looked like textbook success.

But beneath the surface, Avalanche faced the same hard question every ecosystem operator eventually encounters:

How do you turn early growth into durable, sustainable value?

In this episode of Inflection Points, we sit down with John Nahas , Chief Business Officer at Ava Labs , to unpack how Avalanche has evolved its growth strategy as the market has matured. From incentive design to sector-specific playbooks, John offers an inside look at the realities of scaling an L1 in today’s hyper-competitive landscape.

Lessons From Avalanche Rush

When Avalanche launched its Avalanche Rush program in 2021, billions in TVL flowed into the ecosystem. But like many incentive programs in Web3, much of that growth came from mercenary capital—opportunistic capital seeking short-term rewards, not long-term participation.

John reflects on what worked—and what didn’t—as Ava Labs iterated on its incentive structures, adapted to Sybil behaviors, and sought better ways to reward real ecosystem participants.

Sector-Specific Growth Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All

Unlike many L1s, Avalanche now operates across a highly diversified set of growth verticals: DeFi, gaming, institutional, enterprise, consumer, NFTs, and real-world assets. Each sector demands a different approach to growth, partnerships, and incentive calibration.

“You can't run the same growth playbook for DeFi that you do for AAA gaming studios,” John explains.

Building Avalanche L1s (formerly known as subnets), refining partner evaluation, and aligning technical infrastructure with sector needs have become central to Avalanche’s growth thesis.

The Rise of Onchain Intelligence

As the growth landscape evolves, so does the importance of intelligence—leveraging increasingly sophisticated onchain and offchain data to guide incentive allocation, partner selection, and growth targeting.

John discusses how Ava Labs increasingly leans on data-driven insights to separate signal from noise—ensuring capital is deployed toward builders and users who contribute long-term value.

Avoiding Ecosystem Growth Traps

Finally, John shares candid thoughts on the traps many ecosystems fall into—whether that’s an overreliance on surface metrics, attracting short-term participants who never convert into real users, or building growth structures that are nearly impossible to unwind once they take root.

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Inflection Points with John Nahas:

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Inflection Points explores how protocols grow—and how Web3 ecosystems build systems that last. Subscribe for more conversations with growth leaders across the space.