a16z Encryption Marketing Guide: From Developer Ecosystem to Token Issuance, How Founders Can Avoid Pitfalls?

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

Compiled & Edited by: lenaxin, ChainCatcher

Editor’s note:

This article is translated from the a16z-produced program “Web3 Frontier,” focusing on the marketing differences between the crypto field and traditional technology industry.

The program guests include: Amanda Tyler, Claire Kart, and Kim Milosevich. They will deeply explore practical experiences in reputation building, developer community operations, talent recruitment, token issuance, and founder image shaping, and share effective methods and common pitfalls.

ChianCatcher has organized and compiled the content.

TL&DR

The biggest challenge of cryptocurrency marketing is the extremely small target audience.

The uniqueness of the crypto space lies in its small scale and low barriers to entry.

The essence of cryptocurrency marketing is ecological coordination.

The core of the activity strategy in the cryptocurrency industry lies in precise positioning.

Cryptocurrency 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, it is essential to establish a deep connection with the founders.

When evaluating Layer 2 strategies, resource endowment determines 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, being both a marketing activity and a financial product.

The core of community operation strategy lies in clearly identifying the types of targets for long-term resource investment.

Advice for founders: shape the image of a domain expert, rather than that of a product salesperson.

For projects that require community co-construction, marketing intervention can occur earlier.

The construction of a marketing team should follow the dual standard of “versatile foundation + vertical specialization.”

High-quality content creation requires founders or teams to provide ongoing content support and feedback.

(1) Step to the Forefront: The Brand Leverage of Crypto Founders

Kim Milosevich: What role should we play as heads of marketing and communications? Should we be in the spotlight, or should we stay more behind the scenes?

Claire Kart: Technology marketers often work behind the scenes. While this approach can be effective, in the cryptocurrency industry, technical founders are mostly silent, leading to missed exposure opportunities for the team. In this early-stage industry, finding the right talent is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Therefore, I choose to step into the spotlight; the crypto field especially relies on marketing and community, and users want to hear from executives.

Recruitment is equally challenging. Although the situation has improved, outstanding crypto marketing talent is still scarce. Building a personal brand can lead to talent referrals and attract proactive job seekers, significantly enhancing recruitment efficiency.

Amanda Tyler: Building a personal IP on Twitter has significantly improved my recruitment efficiency. This direct way of establishing trust is especially suitable for early-stage startups. When candidates resonate with your values and experiences, a simple “Let’s chat” comes naturally.

Claire Kart: When people choose a job, they value the colleagues they will work with more than the company itself. Although the company’s vision and job content are important, the deciding factor is often the team. They may feel indifferent to invitations from unfamiliar companies, but if it’s a recommendation from an acquaintance, they will seriously consider even a startup.

(2) The Uniqueness and Basic Logic of Cryptocurrency Marketing

Kim Milosevich: Is this a phenomenon unique to the cryptocurrency industry or a general rule? What is the core difference between cryptocurrency marketing and traditional technology marketing?

Claire Kart: I think cryptocurrency is more like a personal cult. For example, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg have indeed invested a lot of effort in building their personal brands, writing books, promoting themselves, and so on. But the personal cult in the cryptocurrency space seems to be even stronger, and as for the reasons, I can’t quite explain.

Amanda Tyler: The peculiarity of the crypto sphere lies in its small size and low barrier to entry. In my case, when I was in my twenties, I amassed a large number of Instagram followers through mom and baby blogs, but when I moved into crypto, I immediately felt the “big fish in a small pond” effect, and it was much easier to build a presence here.

This field consists of multiple well-defined subcultures, allowing newcomers to quickly identify target communities and key figures. In contrast, traditional fields, such as the one Zuckerberg is in, have a higher barrier to entry and require more professional endorsements. The crypto industry, still in its early stages, offers unique opportunities for content creators.

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

Amanda Tyler: The biggest challenge in cryptocurrency marketing is the extremely small target audience. In 2023, there are only 23,000 monthly active crypto developers, 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: 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: Cryptocurrency marketing needs to redefine growth strategies, with the core of the developer community being precise value resonance. Economic incentives are just the starting point; what truly drives growth is the construction of a technological ideal society where developers can find career value and spiritual belonging. Once achieved, they will spontaneously promote ecological development.

We need to abandon the mindset of pursuing scale in the internet era and instead adhere to “depth first”: understanding the technical preferences of every core developer, even their pet names, and perfecting the experience of the top 10 users. Technological idealism itself is the best medium for dissemination. In this field, the power of 100 deeply engaged participants far outweighs that of 10,000 shallow users; real growth comes from these seemingly non-scalable deep connections.

(3) Growing Under the Shadow of Ethereum: Positioning and Strategic Trade-offs of Layer 2

Kim Milosevich: Do Layer 2 projects need to deeply integrate with the Ethereum community culture to achieve effective marketing?

Claire Kart: Amanda has more experience in operating the Ethereum ecosystem. I worked on another Layer 1 project before joining Aztec, and I’ve been thinking about it lately — the mood of the Ethereum community fluctuates like a tidal wave, sometimes filled with belief in changing the world, and sometimes skeptical of the Foundation’s decisions. As a Layer 2 project, we are still exploring the best balance point to borrow the potential energy of the Ethereum community.

Amanda Tyler: The Rollup ecosystem is an extension of Ethereum culture, and its open characteristics have given rise to a unique “competitive cooperation ecosystem”—all Layer 2s are working together to strengthen the Ethereum network. This requires marketing to balance dual positioning: highlighting commercial value while also emphasizing the core mission of expanding Ethereum. The most effective proof is through technical binding, such as defaulting to use ETH for Gas fees, which demonstrates the symbiotic relationship with Ethereum more than any slogan.

Kim Milosevich: Is the rise of Layer 2 ecosystems reshaping developers’ perception of the value of Ethereum?

Claire Kart: When evaluating Layer2 strategies, resource endowment determines differentiation. Well-funded projects like BASE under Coinbase can leverage the resources of a publicly listed company to independently create an ecological brand; whereas resource-limited Layer2s need to deeply bind with Ethereum, utilizing its industry credibility for a cold start. This resource-oriented marketing strategy choice essentially reflects the “Matthew Effect” in the crypto ecosystem—where the strong get stronger, and emerging projects must make good use of leverage.

(4) DevRel × Marketing: The Collaborative Engine Driving Ecosystem Growth

Kim Milosevich: How should community operations and developer relations (DevRel) strategically align with marketing?

Claire Kart: I have practiced two team models: in the full-funnel marketing model, DevRel focuses on mid-to-late stage conversion, serving developers who are already familiar with the project and ready to deploy; while at Aztec, due to the high complexity of the product, DevRel is directly embedded within the product team. The latter allows for deep collaboration, but two major pain points need to be addressed: ensuring consistent user targeting and avoiding disconnection between marketing acquisition and developer support.

Amanda Tyler: Developer Relations (DevRel) should be deeply integrated into the marketing system. Developer documentation, as the primary touchpoint, needs to have 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 has shown that this type of content can effectively enhance developer engagement, proving that the industry needs to break down information barriers through interactive methods. 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 field as an example, its professionalism naturally filters out target developers. During the cold start period, a dual approach is required: exploring commercial potential while 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 deep operation is difficult to scale, it is key to creating a project’s moat.

Amanda Tyler: The essence of cryptocurrency marketing is ecological coordination. It is necessary to explore developer stories while proactively identifying needs and driving product iteration. The core is to help developers succeed through deep support: actively intervening on platforms like GitHub and Twitter, first solving practical building challenges, and then promoting the project once it matures. This “empower first, then voice” closed-loop model is the truly effective path for ecological construction.

(5) Coordinating Ecology and Controlling Noise: Systematic Thinking from Token Issuance to Brand Synergy

Kim Milosevich: How to Accurately Identify Effective Feedback in an Overloaded Information Crypto Community?

Amanda Tyler: To track the early adoption of the new token standard, I took the following steps:

Analyze the repository clone records and find a large number of newly created accounts.

Filter out real developers and communicate directly on Twitter about usage requirements.

Synchronize the verification technical documentation and direct user feedback to the product team.

The entire process reflects the working method of “developer demand first-line traceability.”

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

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, and the explosive or gradual path should be chosen based on the characteristics of the project. At the implementation level, three key points must be grasped:

Engage in in-depth discussions with economists about the value positioning of tokens, avoiding rigid applications.

In-depth study of practical application scenarios and usage habits in different markets;

Establish a sound post-listing management mechanism, including community sentiment management, team incentive mechanisms, and information disclosure standards.

These challenges are essentially consistent with the governance requirements faced by listed companies.

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

Claire Kart: The core of community operation strategy lies in clearly identifying the types of entities to which long-term resources are allocated. As you mentioned, the community is currently flooded with bots and AI accounts, making it difficult to determine who the real users are that are actively engaging in the community. Therefore, it is essential to accurately target the audience.

During the testnet phase, it is important to cultivate highly aligned early supporters.

For PoS networks, node operators and validators (whether institutional or individual stakers) are key opinion leaders.

Establish a structured operational mechanism, such as regular community conference calls.

The key is to not only collect market feedback widely but also to learn to filter out the noise. If you try to respond to every online voice, you will only fall into the quagmire of ineffective information.

Kim Milosevich: What specific challenges does the separation of foundations and laboratories in the crypto industry bring to market teams? How to achieve brand synergy while maintaining organizational independence?

Amanda Tyler: In practice, I adopt a differentiated communication strategy to address this dual architecture:

Lab side: Cultivate technical leaders as communication channels, such as setting up certified accounts for product managers to publish technical progress (e.g., custom Gas token upgrades), and then re-disseminate through 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 at the execution level.

Claire Kart: This two-team structure has mixed pros and cons in practice. The advantage lies in the ability to 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 resource allocation, the market downturn, and the maintenance of two sets of senior management teams (GC/CFO/CMO) at the same time will cause significant financial burden.

(6) The brand is initiated by people: the dual layout of the founder’s 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 an image of a domain expert rather than a product salesperson. Specific methods:

Discuss industry pain points based on professional insights, rather than directly selling products.

Build influence through expertise

Make good use of personal channels to convey in-depth viewpoints

Taking the founder of Optimism as an example, their statements attract attention precisely because of their scarcity and professionalism—they do not speak often, but each time they provide insightful perspectives from a professional standpoint. This restrained yet professional manner of speaking is worth emulating.

Claire Kart: It is recommended that founders choose the most natural way to express themselves: those good at conversation can do podcasts, those skilled in writing can write long articles, and those comfortable in front of the camera can make videos. There’s no need to force oneself into formats they are not good at, for example, those who resist public speaking can avoid large events. The key is to integrate personal style into professional content—adding humor for a touch of fun, and unique expressions for creative designs. Finding a relaxed yet professional way to output, combined with a communication strategy, yields the best results.

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

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

Kim Milosevich: Should founders completely entrust the market team to create the core content of the company narrative (mission/values/positioning) with their personal IP?

Claire Kart: My core positioning is to assist founders in conveying their core vision. Founders must dominate the expression of the company’s DNA and technological roadmap, which is key to securing investment. We provide professional support—from ghostwriting services to strategic workshops—but always insist that founders produce original content, while the team is responsible for optimizing the packaging. Because what truly resonates with the market is the genuine entrepreneurial intention of the founders, rather than overly packaged marketing rhetoric.

Amanda Tyler: Building an influential brand in the crypto space requires establishing a deep connection with the founders. Only through one-on-one communication can one truly understand their core vision and entrepreneurial intentions, thus infusing the brand story with soul. This is the foundation of successful marketing, and there are no shortcuts.

Kim Milosevich: Key questions about 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 the fact that marketing concepts and visions are often initiated before the product has matured. This stage requires constant trial and error to find the most suitable communication methods.

Personal suggestion: The best timing for marketing to launch is 6 months before the product goes live. Promoting a non-existent product too early can lead to market skepticism, while doing it too late may result in missed opportunities. The key is to find the golden moment for storytellers and promoters based on an understanding of the product delivery cycle.

Claire Kart: For projects that require community co-construction, marketing can get involved earlier. For example, when running a decentralized testnet, even without a “formal 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 reviews and progress synchronization), dedicated personnel may be needed to drive it forward.

If it is only a temporary demand, consultants or agencies may be more appropriate.

The key is to distinguish between genuine 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 knowledge required, a significant amount of time must be invested in training the other team to ensure they truly understand the product features—otherwise, it is difficult to achieve effective results.

Claire Kart: Marketing agencies in the crypto industry are mainly divided into two categories: comprehensive large companies and boutique teams in vertical fields. Professional marketers are more suitable for collaboration with boutique teams, as they can produce high-quality results tailored to specific needs, especially when long-term cooperation with studios is involved. However, founders face decision-making risks regardless of which type they choose due to a lack of industry experience.

(7) Marketing Startup Methods for Early-stage Projects: 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 misconception: they believe that as long as they sign a marketing agency contract, all market problems will be easily resolved.

Amanda Tyler: When I work with small boutique agencies, I come up with a high-performance model: providing them with small campaign briefs with clear boundaries and a clear narrative. This limited approach to commissioning, which avoids internal narrative confusion and ensures the quality of execution, has become the collaboration paradigm I most admire.

Kim Milosevich: As the first full-time marketing head of a startup, how should one plan recruitment priorities when building a team? What core capabilities should the marketing head of a startup possess?

Claire Kart: When the startup team first recruits a marketing leader, my core principle is to only choose versatile talents that I have previously worked with. These candidates must meet three key conditions: a deep understanding of my work style, seamless collaboration ability, and a willingness to take a hands-on approach (even in the early stages, the CMO needs to operate social media). Practice has proven that this kind of familiar collaboration can quickly open up the situation - compared to the risks of hiring newcomers, the tacit cooperation with familiar comrades can better withstand the pressures of entrepreneurship and avoid team rhythm disruption caused by improper hiring.

Kim Milosevich: How to Balance Professional Depth and Functional Flexibility in Early Hiring of Startups?

Amanda Tyler: The marketing team building should follow the dual standard of “comprehensive foundation + vertical specialization”: each member should be capable of basic tasks such as tweet writing, email formatting, and voice broadcasting, while also having deep expertise in specific vertical fields. This team structure, which is divided by field rather than function, has been validated in our practical experience to maximize the effectiveness of small teams. By not setting traditional job boundaries, each member can be 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 requirements. For roles in communication (such as writing or public relations), you can completely master industry knowledge through learning. We all start from scratch; no one is born with an understanding of cryptocurrency. The key is to have a passion for continuous learning: just like I still maintain the habit of reading all industry news every day. If I can do it, our communication manager can do the same.

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

Claire Kart: Recruitment in the cryptocurrency industry should return to the essence of the business. SaaS projects aimed at developers can fully bring in seasoned marketing talent from traditional technology sectors, such as experts skilled in developer community operations. Instead of sticking to the hard metric of “must have a cryptocurrency background,” it’s better to focus on the transferability of the candidate’s professional skills. The abundant SaaS talent resources in tech hubs like San Francisco can quickly supply verified marketing talent for cryptocurrency projects.

Amanda Tyler: Content creators and technical documentation engineers must work based on a clear strategic roadmap to be effective. Many companies only hire technical documentation personnel to translate product roadmaps, but these talents often lack the ability to integrate short-term goals into a six-month strategic vision.

Claire Kart: When considering hiring content creators, it is essential to think deeply about three levels: First, clarify the specific pain points in the current business that need to be addressed through writing; second, define the scope of job responsibilities, avoiding vague statements like “responsible for writing”; most importantly, establish a supporting collaboration mechanism, as high-quality content creation requires ongoing 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 can effectively operate within a decentralized team structure?

Claire Kart: When founders consider hiring dedicated content creators, it is essential to clarify the specific requirements for the initial deliverables. In reality, many of these needs do not actually require the establishment of full-time positions. Founders often fall into two misconceptions: one is seeking agencies or full-time hires too early, and the other is 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 a one-time content output; blindly hiring full-time staff often leads to resource misallocation.

(8) Landing and Resonance: From Local Operations to Integrated Communication of 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 new markets, it is essential to introduce local partners through reliable channels—there are significant differences in business customs across countries: some regions are more accepting of long-term collaborations 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 endorsement, rather than cold-starting unfamiliar development.

Amanda Tyler: We have effectively identified and cultivated a group of highly active community members by establishing localized Discord channels. The specific operational model is: first, systematically train local members to master the project documentation, gradually building a decentralized cultural dissemination network. This localized operation based on daily collaboration tools is essentially creating a new type of online relational network, naturally nurturing the community ecosystem through frequent interactions.

Claire Kart: Community operation needs to discover and cultivate core supporters. When a project reaches an important development stage, those actively participating contributors can become an effective source of talent. By incorporating them into a formal system through mechanisms such as technical ambassadors or local event organizers, community engagement can be maintained while establishing initial market resources. When there is a need 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 assessment approach.

Kim Milosevich: What are the strategic positioning and execution methodologies in the cryptocurrency industry?

Amanda Tyler: At the heart of the crypto industry event strategy is precise positioning. Large-scale events can help with brand exposure, but ROI is difficult to measure; In contrast, smaller, high-end events can achieve business cooperation and key networking at a lower cost. Mature projects should focus on high-value players, while emerging projects should avoid blind exhibitors and instead create high-quality events in vertical fields. It’s essentially about 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 activities.

Standardize budget usage to avoid simply using activity funds for relationship maintenance; all sponsorships must align with a clear ecological strategic direction.

Focus on efficient forms of activities, engage with core groups through small closed-door meetings, while also holding professional events such as developer conferences.

Offline events allow teams to directly observe developer feedback, identify potential users, and even discover 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 reinforcing a sense of community belonging. The key lies in establishing a balanced mechanism: core accounts maintain a professional tone but allow operators reasonable creative space, which can enhance work motivation and produce high-quality content. Memes should be an organic part of the overall communication strategy, testing and filtering expressions that can resonate with the industry, rather than using them sporadically.

Amanda Tyler: Our meme strategy maintains moderate engagement: primarily supporting the dissemination of content related to ecological projects, with our own creations being relatively restrained. We adhere to three principles in execution: maintaining a positive and constructive communication tone, avoiding any negative jabs; upholding brand tone in the industry entertainment atmosphere; and tracking industry trends through internal meme sharing. This balanced approach allows us to integrate into the community culture while effectively controlling communication risks.