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My goal is to bring diverse minds together to accelerate our web3 education to build a better future. My hope is that these newsletters will be in service of that objective.
Hey frens,
It’s been a little more than a month since I started web3 friends. Since then, I have had the privilege of connecting with web3 builders, investors, and web2 execs exploring this space. I’ve been writing this newsletter and helping to build a ~30 person Discord community. I’ve continued to play around with NFTs, DAOs, and investing in tokens.
These moments have already made 2022 one of the most dynamic and interesting times of my career. Today I wanted to share a few lessons which should be helpful for the following people:
Creators, artists, and students looking to learn more about how web3 can apply to their lives
Early career professionals working in tech, finance, consulting, design, and more who want to make a transition into web3
Senior executives, founders, and entrepreneurs who want to educate themselves on web3 to see how its ideas can be embedded into their existing projects
Let’s begin.
Wisdom + Enthusiasm = Opportunity
Web2 builders have wisdom on how to build scaled platforms and businesses. Many of them may also be skeptical of new technologies. They have seen the hype around new tech before, and most have lived through the dot com bubble and financial crisis. Web3 builders are energetic and do not believe in the status quo. Although many of them are young and have never built projects or businesses before. Matching the wisdom from web2 with the enthusiasm with web3 will lead you to a good place. You can get excited, be open-minded, but also be rigorous in your thinking.
Web3 Paradoxes
One common piece of advice you hear is to try to hold two opposing thoughts at the same time. That makes sense intellectually. The inability to hold two opposing ideas at the same time leads to conflict in our world. In web3, it is easy to only see the good and it is easier to only see the bad. The recent “is web3 truly decentralized” debate is an example. When evaluating if this space will be impactful, people feel the need to pick a side. Like most areas of life, the reality is that web3 is somewhere in the middle - albeit trending positively. I have been encouraging folks to attempt to put down their biases, try products out, and then bring skepticism. Only going back and forth on intellectual debates on the pros or cons of these technologies will not help your understanding nor your ability to help shape the future of this space.
Knowledge Flywheels
I first noticed this concept while studying for my Econ 101 midterms in college. We had two midterms over the course of the semester. For the first midterm, I studied hard and scored slightly above average. Word got out that I scored well and suddenly everyone was asking for my time to study with them. I would take them up on the offer, they would ask me questions, which I typically didn't know, and I would then figure it out and then tell them. This created an interesting flywheel of knowledge. The same thing is happening to me in web3. I have put my hand up to say ‘I'm interested in this area’, which has led to interest from others, questions posed to me I did not know, which allowed me to learn more. Those learnings led to more interest, more questions, and eventually more learning. The takeaway is this: if you are interested in something, tell people about it. You will get better at that thing you are interested in over time.
Ease Of Information Gathering
Leaders put a premium on gathering insights that can help shape their comapany’s strategy. I’m on our Business Development team at LinkedIn. One of our main goals is to have an external perspective of the company. This external lens is meant to gather insights on the ecosystem we can provide to our product teams internally. Gathering information on relevant companies in your space makes you valuable as a BD professional. Your ability to gather that information is mainly done through relationship building; if you’re close with the CEO of X company then gathering information on their business and how they view their industry is easier. In the process of continuing my research in web3, I realized most of the data is open source. You can see the Daily Actives Users (DAUs) of new projects, how much revenue a private company is making, or learn about the roadmaps for interesting projects by hanging out in their Discords. This makes you a better investor of your time and money. If you are interested in investing in a project or token, you have a lot of information you can gather to make that investment. If you are interested in working at a web3 company, you can make a more data-driven decision on your career. I like this, but it is going to be interesting to see how much of this data remains public as this industry scales.
Writing Is Key
Writing is key for my sanity and ability to convey ideas. For me, our “web3 wednesdays” allow me to take a step back and digest what I have been learning over the past week. That allows me to construct my thinking and see if I understand what I am talking about. Writing also helps you with relationship building. It just takes a few influential people to check out writing to get noticed and invited into the room to share your perspective. It’s been an incredible (and already life-changing experience) to start writing this newsletter. For those curious about how to start, I’m always happy to jam on ideas.
Making The Leap
Regardless of your seniority level, it’s a good time to explore web3 companies. OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Alchemy, Braintrust, Dune Analytics, and Coinbase are all great companies that are hiring. These roles will continue to get more competitive over time. As my friend, who was the third hire at a fast-growing web3 start-up, said this week “if I was looking for a job now there would be no way I would get it”. I have many friends and colleagues that are leaving their web2 companies and creating web3 startups. The market is crazy right now. I know people that are raising hundreds of thousands or millions off of an idea, a pitch deck, and a few customer calls. This is not to say that these valuations make sense because in my mind they do not. What it tells me is that if you are hungry and curious about this space you will not have that hard of a time finding the resources to explore your vision.
I will pause there for now. It’s been a whirlwind, friends. Thank you to the people that read this, give me shout-outs, and inspire me to keep at this.
Bonus
Lastly, if you have any feedback for me on how to improve this newsletter please fill out this form.
Till next time,
Jay 💕