a16z Crypto Marketing Guide: From 0 to 100, what should founders do?

Source: Marketing 101 for Startups: Token Launches, Memes, Reaching Devs & More

Compiled by: lenaxin, ChainCatcher

Editor’s Note:

This article is translated from the "Web3 Frontier" program produced by a16z, focusing on the marketing differences between the encryption field and the traditional technology industry.

The show's guests include: Amanda Tyler, Claire Kart, Kim Milosevich. They will discuss in depth practical experience in reputation building, developer community operation, talent recruitment, token issuance, founder image building, etc., and share effective methods and common misunderstandings.

ChianCatcher compiled and edited the content.

TL&DR

• The biggest challenge with cryptocurrency marketing is that the target audience is extremely small.
• The uniqueness of the crypto community lies in its small scale and low barriers to entry.
• The essence of cryptocurrency marketing is ecological coordination.
• The core of the cryptocurrency industry activity strategy lies in precise positioning.
• Crypto marketing needs to redefine the way of growth, and the core of the developer community is precise value resonance.
• To build an influential brand in the crypto space, you must establish a deep connection with the founders.
• When evaluating 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 is both a marketing activity and a financial product.
• The core of community operation strategy is to identify the types of objects in which resources should be invested in the long term.
• Advice for founders: Create an image of a domain expert, not a product salesman.
• For projects that require community co-construction, marketing intervention can be earlier.
• Marketing team building should follow the dual standards of "all-round foundation + vertical specialization".
• High-quality content creation requires continuous content support and feedback from the founder or team.

1. Stepping into the spotlight: Brand leverage for crypto founders

Kim Milosevich: As marketing and communications leaders, what role should we play? Should we be in the foreground or more behind the scenes?

Claire Kart: Tech marketers often work behind the scenes, which is effective, but in the crypto industry, technical founders are often silent, causing the team to miss opportunities for exposure. In this early industry, finding the right talent is like finding a needle in a haystack. So I chose to step forward. The crypto field is particularly dependent on marketing and community, and users want to hear executives speak.

Recruiting is equally difficult. Although the situation has improved, excellent crypto marketing talent is still scarce. Building a personal IP can not only bring talent recommendations, but also attract active job seekers, significantly improving recruitment efficiency.

Amanda Tyler: Building a personal IP on Twitter has significantly improved my recruitment efficiency. This direct way of building trust is especially suitable for early-stage startups. When candidates identify with your values and experience, a simple "let's talk" will come naturally.

Claire Kart: When people choose a job, they pay more attention to the people they work with than the company itself. Although the company's vision and work content are important, the final deciding factor is often the team. When faced with an invitation from an unfamiliar company, you may be indifferent, but if it is recommended by an acquaintance, even a startup will be seriously considered.

2. The uniqueness and basic logic of crypto marketing

Kim Milosevich: Is this a crypto-specific phenomenon or a general rule? What is the core difference between crypto marketing and traditional tech marketing?

Claire Kart: I think cryptocurrency is more like a cult of personality. For example, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, they really put a lot of energy into building their personal IP, writing books, doing publicity, etc. But the cult of personality in the cryptocurrency field seems to be even greater, and I can't explain why.

Amanda Tyler: The special thing about the crypto world is that it is small and has a low barrier to entry. For example, I accumulated a large number of Instagram followers through maternity and baby blogs in my twenties, but after switching to the crypto field, I immediately felt the "big fish in a small pond" effect, and it was much easier to build influence here.

This field is composed of multiple clearly defined subcultures, and newcomers can quickly target communities and identify key figures. In contrast, traditional fields such as Zuckerberg's circle have higher barriers to entry and require more professional endorsements. The early stage of the crypto industry provides unique opportunities for content creators.

Kim Milosevich: As a project owner, how should we create differentiation and accurately attract the target audience?

Amanda Tyler: The biggest challenge of cryptocurrency marketing is that the target audience is extremely small. In 2023, there are only 23,000 active crypto developers per month, and it is expected to increase to 30,000 in 2024. Among the 28 million developers in the world, less than 0.1% are involved in crypto. In such a highly vertical market, marketing must focus on the three core needs of developers:

• Technology: Solving practical problems such as composability in the Rollup ecosystem
• Economy: Exploring sustainable revenue models for public product development
• Value: Create a unique value proposition that is attractive to developers

Claire Kart: Crypto marketing needs to redefine the way of growth. The core of the developer community is accurate value resonance. Economic incentives are just the starting point. What really drives growth is building a technological utopia where developers can find professional value and spiritual belonging. Once achieved, they will spontaneously promote the development of the ecosystem.

We need to abandon the pursuit of scale in the Internet era and instead adhere to "depth first": understand the technical preferences of each core developer, even the pet name, and maximize the experience of the first 10 users. Technological idealism itself is the best medium for communication. In this field, the power of 100 deep participants is far greater than that of 10,000 shallow users. The real growth comes from these seemingly unscaled deep connections.

3. Growing in the Shadow of Ethereum: Positioning and Strategic Tradeoffs of Layer 2

Kim Milosevich: Do Layer 2 projects need to be deeply integrated into the Ethereum community culture to achieve effective marketing?

Claire Kart: Amanda has more experience in Ethereum ecosystem operations. I worked on another Layer 1 project before joining Aztec, and I have been thinking about this issue recently - the mood of the Ethereum community fluctuates like the tide, sometimes full of belief in changing the world, and sometimes in doubt due to the decision of the foundation. As a Layer 2 project, we are still exploring the best balance point to borrow the potential of the Ethereum community.

Amanda Tyler: The Rollup ecosystem is an extension of Ethereum culture, and its open nature has spawned a unique "co-opetition ecosystem" - all Layer2s are working together to strengthen the Ethereum network. This requires marketing to balance dual positioning: highlighting both commercial value and the core mission of expanding Ethereum. The most effective way to prove this is technical binding, such as using ETH by default to pay for gas fees, which can better demonstrate the symbiotic relationship with Ethereum than any slogan.

Kim Milosevich: Is the rise of the Layer2 ecosystem reshaping developers’ perception of Ethereum’s value?

Claire Kart: When evaluating Layer2 strategies, resource endowments determine differentiation. Well-funded projects, such as BASE under Coinbase, can independently build ecological brands with the resources of listed companies; while Layer2 with limited resources needs to be deeply tied to Ethereum and leverage its industry credibility to achieve a cold start. This resource-oriented marketing strategy choice essentially reflects the "Matthew effect" of the crypto ecosystem - the strong will always be strong, and emerging projects must make good use of leverage.

4. DevRel × Marketing: A synergistic engine driving ecosystem growth

Kim Milosevich: How should community operations and developer relations (DevRel) form strategic synergy with marketing?

Claire Kart: I have practiced two team models: in the full-funnel marketing model, DevRel focuses on mid- and late-stage conversions, serving developers who have understood the project and are ready to deploy; and in Aztec, due to the high complexity of the product, DevRel is directly embedded in the product team. Although the latter can collaborate deeply, it needs to solve two major pain points: ensuring consistent user positioning and avoiding disconnection between marketing acquisition and developer support.

Amanda Tyler: Developer relations (DevRel) should be deeply integrated into the marketing system. As the primary contact point, developer documentation needs to uniformly control the language style and conversion path. Currently, DevRel is evolving into a content creator, solving tool usage pain points through programming teaching videos and other forms. We have found in practice that this type of content can effectively increase developer engagement, proving that the industry needs an interactive method that breaks down information barriers. This evolution requires DevRel to have 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 field as an example, its professionalism naturally screens out target developers. The cold start period requires a two-pronged approach: both exploring business potential and tracking the progress of early developers, and providing high-value support such as media exposure and strategic consulting at critical moments. Although this kind of in-depth operation is difficult to scale, it is the key to building a project moat.

Amanda Tyler: The essence of cryptocurrency marketing is ecological coordination. It is necessary to discover developer stories, and to proactively identify needs and promote product iteration. The core is to help developers succeed through in-depth support: proactively intervene on platforms such as GitHub and Twitter, first solve actual construction problems, and then spread the project after it matures. This closed-loop model of "empowerment first, then voice" is the truly effective path to ecological construction.

(V) Coordinating the ecosystem and controlling noise: systematic thinking from token issuance to brand collaboration

Kim Milosevich: How to accurately identify effective feedback in the information overloaded crypto community?

Amanda Tyler: To track early adoption of new token standards, I take the following steps:

• Analyzing the code base cloning records, a large number of newly created accounts were found
• Filter out real developers and communicate usage requirements directly through Twitter
• Verify technical documentation simultaneously and pass user feedback directly to the product team

The whole process embodies the working method of "tracing the source of developer needs at the front line".

Kim Milosevich: How to build a complete token issuance full-cycle management system?

Claire Kart: The core of token issuance is to balance its dual attributes. It is both a marketing activity and a financial product. The design quality of the economic model directly determines the fate of the project. It is necessary to choose an explosive or gradual path based on the characteristics of the project. There are three key points to grasp at the implementation level:

• Discuss the value proposition of tokens with economists to avoid mechanical application;
• In-depth research on actual application scenarios and usage habits in different markets;
• Establish a sound post-listing management mechanism, including community sentiment management, team incentive mechanism and information disclosure regulations.

These challenges are inherently consistent with the governance requirements faced by public companies.

Kim Milosevich: How to build a full-cycle operating system for token issuance to ensure a complete closed loop from economic model design to community governance?

Claire Kart: The core of community operation strategy is to identify the type of people to invest resources in for a long time. As you mentioned, it is now full of robots and AI accounts, and it is difficult to determine whether the people who actively speak in the community are real users. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately identify the target group:

• Cultivate highly compatible early supporters during the testnet phase
• For PoS networks, node operators and validators (whether institutional or individual stakers) are key opinion leaders.
• Establish structured operational mechanisms, such as regular community conference calls

The key is to collect market feedback extensively and learn to filter out noise. If you try to respond to all online voices, you will only fall into the quagmire of invalid information.

Kim Milosevich: What specific challenges does the separate structure of foundations and labs in the crypto industry bring to the marketing team? How to achieve brand synergy while maintaining organizational independence?

Amanda Tyler: In practice, I use a differentiated communication strategy to deal with this dual structure:

• Laboratory side: Cultivate technical leaders as voice channels, such as opening certified accounts for product managers, and have them publish technical progress (such as custom Gas token upgrades), and then disseminate it through official accounts.
• Foundation side: focus on strategic communication at the brand level and shape industry awareness.

This approach not only maintains the narrative independence of the two, but also creates a synergistic effect at the execution level.

Claire Kart: This dual-team structure has both advantages and disadvantages in practice. The advantage is that it can form strategic synergies with senior marketing talents in the ecosystem, such as discussing development goals through the marketing summit during DevCon, which not only maintains the bond between the technical team but also shares the management pressure. However, the core pain point is the duplication of resources. During the market downturn, maintaining two sets of executive teams (GC/CFO/CMO) at the same time will cause a significant financial burden.

(VI) Brands are built by people: the dual layout of founder influence and marketing resources

Kim Milosevich: How should founders professionally build their personal IP image?

Amanda Tyler: The key advice for founders is to create an image of a domain expert rather than a product salesperson. Specific methods:

• Discuss industry pain points based on professional insights rather than directly promoting products
• Building influence through public expertise
• Make good use of personal channels to convey in-depth views

Take the founder of Optimism as an example. The reason why his speech has attracted so much attention is precisely because of its scarcity and professionalism. They don’t speak out often, but every time they do, they can provide insightful opinions from a professional perspective. This restrained and professional way of speaking is worth learning from.

Claire Kart: I suggest that founders choose the most natural way of expression: those who are good at dialogue should do podcasts, those who are good at writing should write long articles, and those who are comfortable with the camera should shoot videos. There is no need to force yourself to do something you are not good at. For example, those who resist public speaking can avoid large-scale occasions. The key is to integrate personal style into professional content - humorous ones add some fun, creative ones design unique expressions. Find a relaxed and professional way of output, which will work best with the communication strategy.

Kim Milosevich: How to help founders build their personal IP within their comfort zone while planning a progressive growth path?

Claire Kart: For founders who are just starting to build personal influence, it is recommended to start from the easiest point of entry: focus on doing one thing well, mobilize the resources of the entire company to support, and create a few iconic moments to accumulate momentum. This is far more effective than forcing founders to send 10 tweets a day. The key is to have something to say, say it well and thoroughly, and you will naturally open up the situation.

Kim Milosevich: Should founders leave the core content of their personal IP and company narrative (mission/values/positioning) entirely to the marketing team?

Claire Kart: My core position is to help founders convey their core vision. Founders must lead the expression of corporate DNA and technical routes, which is the key to obtaining investment. We provide professional support - from ghostwriting services to strategy discussions, but we always insist that founders produce original content and the team is responsible for optimizing packaging. Because what really impresses the market is always the founder's true entrepreneurial intention, not over-packaged marketing rhetoric.

Amanda Tyler: To build an influential brand in the crypto space, you must establish a deep connection with the founder. Only through one-on-one communication can you truly understand their core vision and original intention of starting a business, thus injecting soul into the brand story. This is the foundation of successful marketing, and there is no shortcut.

Kim Milosevich: Key questions about marketing resource allocation: When should you hire a full-time marketing leader? When should you bring in a consultant or agency?

Amanda Tyler: The special feature of cryptocurrency marketing is that it often starts marketing concepts and visions before the product is mature. This stage requires continuous trial and error to find the most appropriate way of communication.

Personal advice: The best time to start marketing is 6 months before the product is launched. Promoting a non-existent product too early will lead to market doubts, while promoting it too late will miss the opportunity. The key is to find the golden time point for storytellers and communicators based on understanding the product delivery cycle.

Claire Kart: For projects that require community co-construction, marketing can be involved earlier. For example, when running a decentralized testnet, even if there is no "official product" or mainnet, it is necessary to attract node operators to participate.

I usually help founders clarify their core needs:

• If the project requires continuous community operation (such as weekly review and progress synchronization), it may require full-time staff to promote it.
• If it is just a temporary need, a consultant or agency may be more suitable

The key is to distinguish between real needs and external pressures. Hiring out of anxiety is often ineffective.

Amanda Tyler: In the crypto industry, working with marketing agencies presents unique challenges. Because the domain knowledge is too specialized, a lot of time must be invested in training the other team to ensure that they truly understand the product features - otherwise it is difficult to produce effective results.

Claire Kart: Crypto marketing agencies are mainly divided into two categories: large comprehensive companies and boutique teams in vertical fields. Professional marketers are more suitable to work with boutique teams, which can produce high-quality results for specific needs, especially long-term cooperation studios are more valuable. However, due to the lack of industry experience, the founders will face decision-making risks no matter which category they choose.

7. Marketing start-up methods for startup projects: from agency collaboration to team building

Kim Milosevich: How can founders who lack marketing experience effectively select and manage professional marketing agencies?

Claire Kart: Many founders have a cognitive misunderstanding: they think that all market problems can be solved by signing a marketing agency contract.

Amanda Tyler: When working with small boutique agencies, I have come up with an efficient working model: providing them with small campaign briefs with clear boundaries and narratives. This limited scope of entrustment can avoid internal narrative confusion while ensuring execution quality, and has become my most respected cooperation paradigm.

Kim Milosevich: As the first full-time head of marketing at a startup, how should you prioritize hiring when building a team? What core capabilities does a startup marketing head need?

Claire Kart: When a startup team first recruits a marketing leader, my core principle is to only choose versatile talents who I have worked with before. Such candidates must meet three key conditions: a deep understanding of my work style, the ability to collaborate seamlessly, and the willingness to do things themselves (even the CMO needs to operate social media in the early stages). Practice has proved that this kind of cooperation with people who know each other well can quickly open up the situation - compared to taking risks to use new people, the tacit cooperation with familiar comrades can better withstand the pressure of entrepreneurship and avoid the disruption of the team rhythm caused by improper use of people.

Kim Milosevich: How can startup teams balance professional depth and functional flexibility in early recruitment?

Amanda Tyler: Marketing team building should follow the dual standards of "all-round foundation + vertical specialization": each member must be competent for basic work such as tweet writing, email typesetting, and voice live broadcast, and must also have professional depth in a specific vertical field. This team structure divided by field rather than function has been proven in our actual combat to maximize the effectiveness of small teams. Without traditional job boundaries, each member can be both a generalist and a field expert.

Kim Milosevich: When hiring cryptocurrency talent, is it necessary to require an "industry native" background?

Amanda Tyler: It depends on the specific project needs. For communication positions (such as writing or public relations), it is entirely possible to master industry knowledge through learning. We all started from scratch, and no one is born to understand cryptocurrency. The key is to have a passion for continuous learning: like me, I still keep the habit of reading all industry dynamics every day. If I can do it, our communications manager can do it too.

Kim Milosevich: How to balance the professional background of technical talents and their suitability for the cryptocurrency industry? How should cryptocurrency projects plan the timing and functional positioning of the introduction of editorial talents?

Claire Kart: Crypto industry recruitment should return to the essence of the business. SaaS projects for developers can completely introduce mature marketing talents from traditional technology fields, such as experts who are good at developer community operations. Instead of sticking to the hard indicator of "must have a crypto background", it is better to focus on the transferability of candidates' professional capabilities. The rich SaaS talent resources in technology centers such as San Francisco can quickly deliver proven marketing talents to crypto projects.

Amanda Tyler: Content creators and technical writers must work effectively based on a clear strategic roadmap. Many companies hire technical writers solely to translate product roadmaps, but these people often lack the ability to integrate short-term goals into a six-month strategic horizon.

Claire Kart: When considering hiring content creators, you must think deeply about three aspects: first, you must identify the specific pain points in your current business that need to be solved through writing; second, you must define the scope of job responsibilities, and not just stay at vague statements like "responsible for writing"; the most important thing is to establish a supporting collaboration mechanism, because high-quality content creation requires the founder or team to provide continuous content support and feedback, which is by no means a problem that can be automatically solved by hiring a writer.

Kim Milosevich: How do you ensure that newly introduced content creators can play an effective role in a decentralized team structure?

Claire Kart: When founders consider hiring full-time content creators, they first need to clarify the specific requirements of the first deliverable. In reality, many of these requirements do not actually require full-time positions. Founders often fall into two misunderstandings: one is to seek agencies or full-time employment too early, and the other is to ignore the potential of existing resource networks. A more pragmatic approach is to prioritize project-based cooperation or temporary support solutions, especially when the demand only involves a single content output. Blindly hiring full-time staff often leads to resource mismatch.

8. Landing and resonance: integrated communication from local operations to community culture

Kim Milosevich: How can cryptocurrency projects efficiently build global operational capabilities?

Claire Kart: The core of global cryptocurrency operations lies in building local trust networks. When entering a new market, local partners must be introduced through reliable channels. Business practices vary significantly from country to country: some regions are more accepting of long-term cooperation based on trust rather than American standardized contracts. Lack of local relationships will lead to cultural misjudgment and communication failure. The best path is to rely on existing resource networks to obtain endorsements rather than cold-start unfamiliar development.

Amanda Tyler: We have effectively identified and cultivated a group of highly active community members by establishing localized Discord channels. The specific operation mode is: first systematically train local members to master project documents, and gradually build a decentralized cultural communication network. This localized operation based on daily collaboration tools is actually creating a new online relationship network, and naturally cultivating a community ecology through high-frequency interactions.

Claire Kart: Community operations require the discovery and cultivation of core supporters. When a project enters an important development stage, those actively participating contributors can become an effective source of talent. Incorporating them into a formal system through mechanisms such as technical ambassadors or local event organizations can not only maintain community participation but also establish initial market resources. When it is necessary to introduce professional service providers, these basic relationship networks can provide reference suggestions and reduce the difficulties of starting from scratch. The value of the post-funding model lies in its pragmatic evaluation method.

Kim Milosevich: What is the strategic positioning and execution methodology of activities in the cryptocurrency industry?

Amanda Tyler: The core of the cryptocurrency industry event strategy lies in precise positioning. Large-scale events can help brand exposure, but the return on investment is difficult to measure; in contrast, small-scale high-end events can achieve business cooperation and key connections at a lower cost. Mature projects should focus on high-value participants, while emerging projects should avoid blindly participating in exhibitions and instead create boutique events in vertical fields. In essence, it is about pursuing quality rather than scale.

Claire Kart: Cryptocurrency activity strategies should focus on three key points:

• Plan in sync with the product roadmap to align major releases with important events;
• Standardize the use of budgets to avoid simply using activity funds for relationship maintenance. All sponsorships must be in line with a clear ecological strategic direction;
• Focus on efficient event formats, reach core groups through small closed-door meetings, and hold professional events such as developer conferences.

Offline events allow the team to directly observe developer feedback, identify potential users, and even explore regional communities, creating opportunities for global expansion.

Kim Milosevich: How does cryptocurrency marketing balance technical expertise with community entertainment expression?

Claire Kart: Cryptocurrency marketing needs to make good use of meme culture as a special narrative tool. Memes can cleverly transform complex concepts while strengthening the sense of belonging to the community. The key is to establish a balance mechanism: the core account maintains a professional tone, but gives operators reasonable creative space, which can both improve work enthusiasm and produce high-quality content. Memes should be used as an organic part of the overall communication strategy, and those expressions that can resonate with the industry should be screened through testing, rather than being used sporadically.

Amanda Tyler: Our meme strategy maintains moderate participation: mainly supporting the dissemination of ecological project content, and being relatively restrained in our own creation. We follow three principles in implementation: maintaining a positive communication tone and avoiding any negative ridicule; adhering to the brand tone in the industry entertainment atmosphere; tracking industry trends through internal meme sharing. This balanced approach allows us to integrate into the community culture while effectively controlling the risk of dissemination.