Starting 2008, I spent the first 10 years of my career driving demand — executing 200+ marketing campaigns and generating 50K leads for American businesses at the digital marketing agency, shaping messaging across channels and adjusting to market feedback
In 2018, I moved away from a pure demand-side and eventually refocused on the growth side of the business, with the product as the main enabler of growth and marketing.
My career brought me into the same role many times: first marketing hire. Every time it starts exactly with the same intent to build a consistent system across all marketing motions: social media, events, ecosystem marketing, positioning, messaging, and brand identity. At some point, the brand identity comes to life (to notice you need internal, visible feedback loops), and the market itself starts to inform the growth function on where to go next.
Product-market fit is there — but how do you grow from here?
That’s what we’ll discuss in detail: how growth was achieved at Hashnote and bloXroute.
Web3 demand gen doesn’t really exist unless you are an exchange or operating at that level. Blockchain KOLs are not real, except for CPA traffic for exchangers (we are not going to entertain this type of paid-acquisition playbook here). Paid promos drive close to zero value. Vanity metrics are meaningless if vanity is fake. And sadly, most teams are still trying to do exactly the same thing as their neighbor — hire the same institutional people, repeat the same motions, and hope something sticks.
How is your company going to stand out while everyone is doing the same?
The core premise is simple: In Web3 growth becomes available only after — or while — you build brand identity.
The companies I worked with did exceptionally well in the last five years and had similar components:
- Burning desire for a great product
- Product-led growth ecosystem strategy
- Product-led growth marketing framework