Author | a16z
Translation | lenaxin, ChainCatcher
Editor's note:
This article is translated from the a16z-produced (Web3 Frontier) program, focusing on the marketing differences between the crypto field and traditional tech industries. This article is for informational sharing only and does not constitute any investment advice; readers should strictly adhere to local laws and regulations.
The guests include: Amanda Tyler, Claire Kart, and Kim Milosevich. They will deeply discuss reputation building, developer community operations, talent recruitment, token issuance, and shaping the founder's image, sharing effective methods and common pitfalls.
TL&DR
· The biggest challenge in cryptocurrency marketing is the extremely small target audience.
· The uniqueness of the crypto circle lies in its small scale and low threshold.
· The essence of cryptocurrency marketing is ecological coordination.
· The core of cryptocurrency industry event strategies lies in precise positioning.
· Cryptocurrency marketing needs to redefine growth strategies; the core of the developer community is precise value resonance.
· To build an influential brand in the crypto field, a deep connection with the founder must be established.
· When assessing Layer 2 strategies, resource endowments determine differentiation.
· Developer relations (DevRel) should be deeply integrated into the marketing system.
· The success of the developer ecosystem depends on building a closed loop of 'Product-Economy-Community.'
· The core of token issuance lies in balancing its dual attributes, which are both marketing activities and financial products.
· The core of community operation strategy lies in clearly identifying the type of target audience for long-term resource investment.
· Advice for founders: Shape the image of domain experts rather than product salespeople.
· For projects requiring community co-construction, marketing intervention can occur earlier.
· Marketing team building should follow a dual standard of 'generalist foundation + vertical specialization.'
· High-quality content creation requires continuous content support and feedback from the founder or team.
1. Stepping into the spotlight: The brand leverage of crypto founders
Kim Milosevich: As the head of marketing and communication, what role should we play? Should we stand in the spotlight, or remain more behind the scenes?
Claire Kart: Tech marketers often work behind the scenes; while this is effective, in the crypto industry, technical founders are mostly silent, leading to missed exposure opportunities for the team. In this early industry, finding suitable talent is like finding a needle in a haystack. Therefore, I choose to step into the spotlight; the crypto field relies heavily on marketing and community, and users want to hear executives speak.
Recruitment is equally challenging. Although the situation has improved, excellent crypto marketing talent is still scarce. Building a personal IP can both bring talent recommendations and attract proactive job seekers, significantly enhancing recruitment efficiency.
Amanda Tyler: Building personal IP on Twitter has significantly improved my recruitment efficiency; this direct way of establishing trust is particularly suitable for early-stage startups. When candidates resonate with your values and experiences, a simple 'we can chat' becomes natural.
Claire Kart: People place more importance on whom they work with than the company itself when choosing jobs. Although company vision and job content are important, the final deciding factor is often the team. They may be indifferent to invitations from unfamiliar companies, but if a recommendation comes from an acquaintance, even a startup will be seriously considered.
2. The uniqueness and basic logic of crypto marketing
Kim Milosevich: Is this a unique phenomenon in the crypto industry, or a universal rule? What are the core differences between crypto marketing and traditional tech marketing?
Claire Kart: I believe cryptocurrency is more like a form of personal worship. For example, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg have indeed invested a lot of energy in building their personal IP, writing books, and promoting themselves, etc. However, personal worship in the cryptocurrency field seems to be even more pronounced, and I can't quite pin down the reason.
Amanda Tyler: The uniqueness of the crypto circle lies in its small scale and low threshold. For instance, in my twenties, I accumulated a large number of Instagram followers through a parenting blog, but when I transitioned to the crypto field, I immediately felt the effect of being a 'big fish in a small pond'; it's much easier to establish influence here.
This field consists of multiple distinct subcultures, allowing newcomers to quickly identify target communities and key figures. In contrast, traditional fields like the one Zuckerberg is in have higher barriers to entry, requiring more specialized endorsements. The crypto industry is still in its early stages, providing unique opportunities for content creators.
Kim Milosevich: As a project party, how should we create differentiation and precisely attract the target audience?
Amanda Tyler: The biggest challenge in cryptocurrency marketing is the extremely small target audience. In 2023, there are only 23,000 active crypto developers per month, expected to rise to 30,000 in 2024, while less than 0.1% of the 28 million developers worldwide are involved in crypto. In such a highly vertical market, marketing must focus on the three core needs of developers:
· Technology: Address practical issues such as composability within the Rollup ecosystem
· Economy: Explore sustainable revenue models for public product development
· Value: Create a unique value proposition that is attractive to developers
Claire Kart: Cryptocurrency marketing needs to redefine growth strategies; the core of the developer community is precise value resonance. Economic incentives are just the starting point; what truly drives growth is building a technical ideal country where developers can find career value and spiritual belonging. Once achieved, they will spontaneously promote ecological development.
We need to abandon the internet era's pursuit of scale and adhere to 'depth first': understand each core developer's technical preferences, even their pet names, and ensure the experience of the top 10 users is exceptional. Technical idealism itself is the best medium for communication. In this field, the power of 100 deeply engaged participants far outweighs that of 10,000 superficial users; genuine growth comes from these seemingly non-scaling deep connections.
3. Growing under the shadow of Ethereum: Positioning and strategic trade-offs for Layer 2
Kim Milosevich: Do Layer 2 projects need to deeply bind with Ethereum community culture to achieve effective marketing?
Claire Kart: In terms of Ethereum ecosystem operations, Amanda has more experience. Before joining Aztec, I worked on another Layer 1 project and have been thinking about this issue recently— the sentiment of the Ethereum community fluctuates like the tides, sometimes filled with the belief of changing the world, and sometimes mired in doubts due to foundation decisions. As a Layer 2 project, we are still exploring the best balance of leveraging Ethereum community momentum.
Amanda Tyler: The Rollup ecosystem is an extension of Ethereum culture, and its open nature has spawned a unique 'coopetition ecosystem'— all Layer 2s are growing the Ethereum network together. This requires marketing to balance dual positioning: highlighting commercial value while emphasizing the core mission of expanding Ethereum. The most effective proof is technical binding, such as defaulting to ETH for Gas fees, which better demonstrates the symbiotic relationship with Ethereum than any slogan.
Kim Milosevich: Is the rise of Layer 2 ecosystems reconstructing developers' value perception of Ethereum?
Claire Kart: When assessing Layer 2 strategies, resource endowments determine differentiation. Projects with substantial funds, like BASE under Coinbase, can independently build eco-brands using public company resources; whereas resource-limited Layer 2s must deeply bind with Ethereum, leveraging its industry credibility for a cold start. This resource-oriented marketing strategy choice fundamentally reflects the 'Matthew Effect' in the crypto ecosystem— the strong get stronger, while emerging projects must leverage wisely.
4. DevRel × Marketing: The collaborative engine driving ecological growth
Kim Milosevich: How should community operations and developer relations (DevRel) form strategic synergy with marketing?
Claire Kart: I have practiced two team models: under a full-funnel marketing model, DevRel focuses on mid-to-late stage conversions, serving developers who are already familiar with the project and ready to deploy; whereas at Aztec, due to high product complexity, DevRel is directly embedded within the product team. The latter allows for deep collaboration but must address two major pain points: ensuring user targeting consistency and avoiding disconnection between marketing acquisition and developer support.
Amanda Tyler: Developer relations (DevRel) should deeply integrate into the marketing system. Developer documentation serves as the primary touchpoint and needs to maintain a unified control over language style and conversion paths. Currently, DevRel is evolving into a content creator role, addressing tool usage pain points through programming tutorial videos and other formats. Our practice shows that such content can effectively enhance developer engagement, proving the industry's need for interactive methods that break down information barriers. This evolution requires DevRel to possess stronger marketing thinking and execution capabilities.
Kim Milosevich: How should blockchain projects formulate effective on-chain developer support strategies?
Claire Kart: The success of the developer ecosystem depends on building a closed loop of 'Product-Economy-Community.' Taking the privacy domain as an example, its professionalism naturally filters out target developers. During the cold start phase, a dual approach is needed: to both explore commercial potential and track early developer progress, providing high-value support such as media exposure and strategic consulting at critical moments. This depth of operation, while difficult to scale, is key to building project moats.
Amanda Tyler: The essence of cryptocurrency marketing is ecological coordination. It is necessary to discover developer stories while proactively identifying needs and driving product iteration. The core is to help developers succeed through deep support: actively engaging on platforms like GitHub and Twitter to first address real building challenges, and only conducting dissemination once the project matures. This 'empower first, speak later' closed-loop model is the truly effective path to ecological construction.
5. Coordinating the ecosystem and controlling noise: Systematic thinking from token issuance to brand synergy
Kim Milosevich: How to accurately identify effective feedback in the information overload of crypto communities?
Amanda Tyler: To track the early adoption of new token standards, I take the following steps:
· Analyze codebase clone records, discovering a significant number of newly created accounts;
· Filter out genuine developers and directly communicate usage needs via Twitter;
· Synchronize and validate technical documents, and direct user feedback straight to the product team;
The entire process reflects the work method of 'tracing developer needs back to the front line.'
Kim Milosevich: How to construct a complete full-cycle management system for token issuance?
Claire Kart: The core of token issuance lies in balancing its dual attributes. It is both a marketing activity and a financial product. The quality of the economic model design directly determines the fate of the project, requiring a choice between explosive or gradual paths depending on the project characteristics. On the implementation level, three key aspects must be grasped:
· Engage in deep discussions with economists about the value positioning of tokens, avoiding rigid applications;
· Conduct in-depth research on practical application scenarios and usage habits in different markets;
· Establish a comprehensive post-listing management mechanism, including community sentiment management, team incentive mechanisms, and information disclosure norms.
These challenges are essentially consistent with the governance requirements faced by publicly listed companies.
Kim Milosevich: How to build a full-cycle operational system for token issuance to ensure a complete loop from economic model design to community governance?
Claire Kart: The core of community operation strategy lies in clearly identifying the type of target audience for long-term resource investment. As you mentioned, the community is now flooded with bots and AI accounts, making it difficult to determine who the real users are that actively engage in discussions. Therefore, it is essential to accurately define the target audience:
· Early supporters who are highly aligned should be nurtured during the testnet phase;
· For PoS networks, node operators and validators (whether institutions or individual stakers) are key opinion leaders;
· Establish structured operational mechanisms, such as regular community calls.
The key is to collect broad market feedback while also learning to filter out noise. If you attempt to respond to all online voices, you will only sink into a swamp of ineffective information.
Kim Milosevich: What specific challenges does the separation of foundations and laboratories bring to market teams in the crypto industry? How to achieve brand synergy while maintaining organizational independence?
Amanda Tyler: In practical operations, I adopt a differentiated communication strategy to handle this dual structure:
On the lab side: cultivate technical leaders as channels for communication, such as creating certified accounts for product managers to release technical progress (like custom Gas token upgrades), and then re-communicate via official accounts.
· Foundation side: Focus on strategic communication at the brand level to shape industry perception.
· This approach maintains the narrative independence of both while creating a synergistic effect on the execution level.
Claire Kart: This dual team structure has mixed advantages and disadvantages in practice. The advantage lies in the ability to form strategic synergies with seasoned marketing professionals within the ecosystem, such as discussing development goals during the marketing summit at DevCon, maintaining ties with technical teams, while sharing management pressure. However, the core pain point is the duplication of resources; maintaining two sets of executive teams (GC/CFO/CMO) during market downturns will impose significant financial burdens.
6. Brand initiated by people: The dual layout of founders' influence and marketing resources
Kim Milosevich: How should founders professionally build their personal IP image?
Amanda Tyler: The core advice for founders is to shape their image as domain experts rather than product salespeople. Specific methods:
· Discuss industry pain points based on professional insights rather than directly selling products;
· Build influence through professional knowledge sharing;
· Make good use of personal channels to convey in-depth views.
Taking the founder of Optimism as an example, the attention his speeches receive is due to their rarity and professionalism— they seldom speak, but when they do, they provide profound insights from a professional perspective. This restrained yet professional way of speaking is worth emulating.
Claire Kart: I suggest founders choose the most natural way to express themselves: those good at dialogue should do podcasts, those proficient in writing should write long articles, and those comfortable on camera should make videos. There’s no need to force unfamiliar forms, for example, those who resist public speaking can avoid large venues. The key is to integrate personal style into professional content— adding humor for interest, or unique designs for creative expression. Finding a relaxed yet professional output method, combined with effective communication strategies, works best.
Kim Milosevich: How to help founders establish personal IP within their comfort zones while planning a gradual growth path?
Claire Kart: For founders just starting to build personal influence, I suggest starting from the easiest entry point: focus on doing one thing well, rally the entire company's resources to support it, and create a few landmark moments to accumulate momentum. This is far more effective than forcing founders to post 10 tweets a day. The key is to have something to say, say it well, and naturally open up opportunities.
Kim Milosevich: Should founders completely hand over the core content of their personal IP (mission/values/positioning) to the marketing team?
Claire Kart: My core positioning is to assist founders in conveying their core vision. Founders must lead the expression of the company's DNA and technical roadmap, which is key to securing investment. We provide professional support—from ghostwriting services to strategic discussions—but always insist that founders produce original content, while the team is responsible for optimizing the packaging. Because what truly impresses the market is the founder's genuine entrepreneurial intention, not overly packaged marketing rhetoric.
Amanda Tyler: To build an influential brand in the crypto field, a deep connection with the founder must be established. Only through one-on-one communication can the core vision and entrepreneurial intentions be truly understood, thus infusing the brand story with soul. This is the foundation of successful marketing; there is no shortcut.
Kim Milosevich: Key questions regarding marketing resource allocation: When should a full-time marketing head be recruited? When should consultants or agencies be brought in?
Amanda Tyler: The uniqueness of cryptocurrency marketing lies in that it often starts marketing concepts and visions before the product matures. This stage requires constant trial and error to find the most suitable communication methods.
Personal advice: The best timing to kick off marketing is six months before the product launch. Promoting a non-existent product too early can lead to market skepticism, while being too late means missing the opportunity. The key is to find the golden moment for storytellers and communicators, based on understanding the product delivery cycle.
Claire Kart: For projects needing community co-construction, marketing intervention can come earlier. For example, when running a decentralized testnet, even without a 'formal product' or mainnet, it is necessary to attract node operators' participation.
I usually help founders clarify core needs:
· If a project requires continuous community operation (such as weekly reviews and progress synchronization), dedicated personnel may be needed to drive it;
· If it's just a temporary need, consultants or agencies may be more appropriate.
The key is to distinguish between real needs and external pressures, as hiring out of anxiety often yields poor results.
Amanda Tyler: In the crypto industry, collaborating with marketing agencies presents unique challenges. Due to the highly specialized domain knowledge, a significant amount of time must be invested in training the other team's members to ensure they truly understand product features— otherwise, it is difficult to produce effective results.
Claire Kart: Marketing agencies in the crypto industry mainly fall into two categories: comprehensive large companies and boutique teams in vertical fields. Professional marketers are more suitable for collaborating with boutique teams, as they can produce high-quality results tailored to specific needs, especially when long-term collaboration with studios is more valuable. However, founders, lacking industry experience, face decision-making risks regardless of the type they choose.
7. Marketing startup methods: From agency collaboration to team building
Kim Milosevich: How can founders without marketing experience effectively select and manage professional marketing agencies?
Claire Kart: Many founders have a cognitive bias: they believe that as long as they sign a marketing agency contract, all market problems will be solved.
Amanda Tyler: When cooperating with small boutique agencies, I summarize an efficient working model: providing them with clearly defined boundaries and distinct narratives for small campaign briefs. This limited-scope commission method can avoid internal narrative confusion and ensure execution quality, becoming my most favored collaboration paradigm.
Kim Milosevich: As the first full-time marketing head of a startup, how should recruitment priorities be planned when building a team? What core competencies should startup marketing heads possess?
Claire Kart: When a startup team first recruits a marketing head, my core principle is to only choose versatile talents I have previously worked with. These candidates must meet three key conditions: deeply understand my working style, possess seamless collaboration abilities, and be willing to get hands-on (in the early stages, even the CMO needs to operate social media). Practice has shown that this familiarity can quickly open up opportunities— compared to the risk of using newcomers, the tacit cooperation with familiar comrades can better withstand the pressures of entrepreneurship, avoiding team rhythm disruptions caused by improper personnel choices.
Kim Milosevich: How to balance professional depth and functional flexibility in early recruitment for startup teams?
Amanda Tyler: Marketing team building should follow a dual standard of 'generalist foundation + vertical specialization': each member should be capable of performing basic tasks like tweet writing, email formatting, and voice broadcasting, while also possessing deep expertise in specific vertical fields. This team structure, divided by domain rather than function, has proven in our practice to maximize the efficiency of small teams. By removing traditional job boundaries, each member becomes both a generalist and a domain expert.
Kim Milosevich: When recruiting cryptocurrency talent, is it necessary to require an 'industry-native' background?
Amanda Tyler: It depends on the specific project needs. For communication roles (like writing or PR), industry knowledge can be fully grasped through learning. We all started from zero; no one is born understanding cryptocurrency. The key is to have a passion for continuous learning: I still maintain the habit of reading all industry updates daily. If I can do it, our communication managers can too.
Kim Milosevich: How to balance the professional background of technical talent with adaptability to the cryptocurrency industry? How should cryptocurrency projects plan the timing and functional positioning for bringing in editorial talent?
Claire Kart: Hiring in the crypto industry should return to the essence of the business. SaaS projects aimed at developers can entirely bring in mature marketing talent from traditional tech fields, such as experts skilled in developer community operations. Rather than sticking to hard indicators like 'must have a crypto background,' it is better to focus on assessing the transferability of candidates' professional abilities. The rich SaaS talent resources in tech hubs like San Francisco can quickly supply verified marketing talents for crypto projects.
Amanda Tyler: Content creators and technical document engineers must work based on a clear strategic roadmap to be effective. Many companies only hire technical document personnel to convert product roadmaps, but this type of talent often lacks the ability to integrate short-term goals into a six-month strategic vision.
Claire Kart: When considering hiring content creators, three levels must be deeply contemplated: first, clarify the specific pain points that need to be addressed through writing within the current business; second, define the job responsibilities clearly, avoiding vague descriptions like 'responsible for writing'; most importantly, establish supporting collaboration mechanisms, as high-quality content creation requires continuous content support and feedback from the founder or team, and cannot be resolved simply by hiring a writer.
Kim Milosevich: How to ensure that newly introduced content creators effectively play their roles in a decentralized team structure?
Claire Kart: When founders consider hiring dedicated content creators, they first need to clarify the specific requirements for the initial deliverables. In reality, many such needs do not require full-time positions. Founders often fall into two misconceptions: first, seeking agencies or full-time hires too early, and second, overlooking the potential of existing resource networks. A more pragmatic approach is to prioritize project-based collaborations or temporary support solutions, especially when the need only involves one-time content production; blindly hiring full-time staff often leads to resource misallocation.
8. Grounding and Resonance: From local operations to integrated community culture communication
Kim Milosevich: How can cryptocurrency projects efficiently build global operational capabilities?
Claire Kart: The core of global operations in cryptocurrency lies in building local trust networks. When entering new markets, reliable channels must be used to recommend local partners— the differences in business customs across countries are significant: some regions are more receptive to long-term partnerships based on trust rather than American standardized contracts. A lack of local relationships will lead to cultural misjudgments and communication failures. The optimal path is to leverage existing resource networks for endorsements rather than cold-start unfamiliar developers.
Amanda Tyler: By establishing localized Discord channels, we have effectively identified and cultivated a group of highly active community members. The specific operational model is to systematically train local members to master project documentation, gradually building a decentralized cultural communication network. This type of localized operation based on daily collaboration tools is essentially building a new type of online relationship network, naturally nurturing the community ecology through high-frequency interactions.
Claire Kart: Community operations need to discover and cultivate core supporters. When a project reaches an important development phase, those actively participating contributors can become effective talent sources. By incorporating mechanisms like technical ambassadors or local event organizers into formal systems, community engagement can be maintained while building initial market resources. When it is necessary to introduce professional service providers, these foundational relationship networks can provide reference suggestions, reducing the difficulties of starting from scratch. The value of the post-funding model lies in its pragmatic evaluation method.
Kim Milosevich: What are the strategic positioning and execution methodologies for events in the cryptocurrency industry?
Amanda Tyler: The core of event strategies in the cryptocurrency industry lies in precise positioning. While large events help with brand exposure, measuring ROI can be challenging; in contrast, small high-end events can achieve business collaboration and key networking at a lower cost. Mature projects should focus on high-value participants, while emerging projects must avoid blindly participating in exhibitions and instead create high-quality events in vertical fields. Essentially, the goal is quality over scale.
Claire Kart: Cryptocurrency event strategies should focus on three key points:
· Plan in sync with the product roadmap, ensuring significant releases align with important events;
· Standardize budget usage to avoid simple relationship maintenance with event funds; all sponsorships must align with a clear ecological strategic direction;
· Focus on efficient event formats, engaging core audiences through small closed-door meetings while also hosting professional events like developer conferences.
Offline events allow teams to directly observe developer feedback, identify potential users, and even discover regional communities, bringing opportunities for global expansion.
Kim Milosevich: How can cryptocurrency marketing balance technical professionalism with community entertainment expression?
Claire Kart: Cryptocurrency marketing needs to leverage meme culture as a unique narrative tool. Memes can cleverly transform complex concepts while strengthening community belonging. The key is to establish a balance mechanism: core accounts maintain a professional tone while giving operators reasonable creative space, which can enhance work enthusiasm and produce high-quality content. Memes should be seen as an organic part of the overall communication strategy, selecting expressions that resonate with the industry through testing rather than using them sporadically.
Amanda Tyler: Our meme strategy maintains moderate participation: mainly supporting content dissemination for ecological projects while relatively restraining our own creations. The execution follows three principles: maintain a positive and constructive communication tone, avoid any negative mockery; uphold brand tone within the industry's entertainment atmosphere; and share internal memes to track industry trends. This balanced approach allows us to integrate into community culture while effectively controlling communication risks.