Hacking distribution for web3 startups - Olatinwo Barakat Anuoluwa

hello hi everybody um I'm actually very shy uh okay um so I prepared a talk on hacking distribution for web3 products um that's because if you look at um how like the web3 landscape is set up I feel like one of the things that web3 like companies Founders and startup struggle with the most is distribution that is how do I take these products that I've built how do I put it in the hands of the people that need them people I have built them for um so basically that's what we're going to be talking about um it's going to be very basic it's it's a primary sort of like an intro into web three um growth and marketing um okay so how do we build products that people want to use in web 3 and how should these products be distributed okay so I knew that people were going to be tired and I don't want to lose you guys so I prepared a short game I I hope you guys are paying attention I really hope I have your attention Okay okay so I want you guys to count the number of FS that you can see in the statements below um anybody okay I can hear three four five six how many people how many people um picked three why did you see seven okay okay so yeah the accurate number is actually six okay yes let's count together let's count together one two 3 four five six where did you see seven okay okay okay yeah now that I have your attention um yeah these are like the um basic stuff that we're going to be discussing web one web two and now web three what's the hype um so what exactly makes a product a web three product what are the things you should know before going to Market with your web three products um tactics strategies and opportunities in going to marketing web 3 and then hacking and scaling distribution in web 3 so um I'm guessing that the previous speakers I they've I think they've done like a good job of talking about how like web three came to be what the internet used to look like and what we have today um so yeah basically web one was when the internet started right um people could only go to like web pages and then read if you wanted to leave a comment say you've seen like a blog post if you wanted to leave a comment you could not you would have to like email the person like the owner of the blog because you could only read um and that was uh what web one was about and then there were like improvements made to the internet and people could Now read and comment and that's why you can easily use um social media apps like Facebook you can talk to your friends you can leave a comment ITC ITC but the problem with that was most of the power um the power basically lied with like the owners of this platforms uh today if elos doesn't like you he can kick you off Twitter right true or false yeah um and then web 3 came and said no this should not be you don't necessarily need to like your user um you don't need to like the things they are saying they they should still be able to use your products and that's like the disc of um web three that's decentralization everybody has a say everybody gets to have a say um and then another thing we workp to is the most of people that are making money are like the founders of these platforms and they are making money off of the data that you are putting on the platform so we three is saying H users should also be able to make some money from um the value that were being that were able to ur from these platforms um so we web three values usually shared um between the users the developers the early adopters itcc every everybody gets something at the end of the day so that's the hype with web three um so this is the if you look at this if I don't how many marketers are here okay so you you are familiar with this image you know like currently uh you start from awareness then you are able to Garner some interest in your product um and then you go on to convert before you now start thinking of retaining your users on your platform um yeah okay so how is web 3 difference what what's what's what makes a product a web3 product um basically one word tokens tokens um I'm sure this is not the first time we are hearing of the what tokens I I don't know if there's anybody who is just hearing of tokens in this room is there anybody okay you've all been listening um so there is something called Network effect right um Network effect is you can think of it as a sort of multiplier effect where um people get to like know about your product and then it just goes on and on and on and on and you keep getting like users and users and users um think of platforms like okay think of social media apps think of the current fintech apps that you use um so basically as a founder or as a builder right you're thinking of how to get enough people to use your product such that there is a network effect where like everyone tells the next person and they tell the next person and they tell the next thing to come and use your product um so in order to replicate that um um web 3 needed um something to sort of start that and that's where like tokens um tokens are useful right um so basically you hear of a project they have a token their Ico is coming up you you want to be a part of it because you know that you make some money right um so that's um that's like the importance of tokens um and that's like One Way web3 products are different um I there is currently I don't think there's any web two products that has a token I don't think so but with um web 3 you know that you can um for example think of binance has the I think b bs what's yeah yeah okay thank you um think of um makeer Dow with their D token um so think of like platforms like that optimis like you know that for every um web three product that has like gone mainstream they always want like their users to like be part of the owners true tokens um so yeah um basically some really what we're saying is for web two products um when they are trying to go to market they they basically start their teams like they tell their sales and marketing team to you know come up with marketing campaigns to attract users um but for web 3 they are the the the gist for web 3 is how do we get people to come on this platform and to also um get like some benefits of coming on this platform through tokens um okay so now um I'm a founder or I'm a marketing person in a web 3 company what's what should I know before I'm before even going to the market um so I think um one of the the first thing that you should think about is I feel like I'm aband I've abandoned the people on this side of the stage I'm so sorry um yeah so the first thing you should think about is what stage of development is my product um have I have I found a solution that actually works for the market I'm trying to build for um so these are like the major um stages of development so first is the product solution fit where there is a problem and you're trying to um you're trying to think of different solutions to that problem then you've you found a uh product you built your MVP then you go to product product Market fits so now you're trying to see if what you've built is actually what people need and if they going to use it so that's where you do things like beta testing etcc you get on customer Discovery calls um and then the next stage is Now growth so now I've seen that people like my products they want to use it so how then do I go from okay I have 10 users today how can we get to 50 users tomorrow and then 100 next tomorrow and then on and on and on like that um and then Market leadership okay so we we have um 10K users um based in Nigeria we should start thinking of exploring other markets um yeah um and then think of how to um retain those users that we currently have such that we dominating in the markets basically and then the last stage is now scale where you're trying to enter New Market you're trying to go from Africa to North America South America Etc uh okay so question two is um so um you've you've determined what stage you are at um depend um the product You're Building you've disim the stage of at um and then you're now trying to find out so what metrics matter most at this phase right um and then number three question is is how how are we planning to make money from this product or service or not if the a was not to make money in the first place um okay um and that's because depending on um when you answer these three questions you're going to be able to now determine how like you will even go to market different products have have um different go market strategies that would best work for them depending on what the product is supposed to do and how the product is supposed to make money so a good example is um think of marketplaces and exchanges like binance uh bondle uh which other ones do you know other exchanges do you know quidax coinbase Etc so a typical quidax or coinbase would not want to launch today and then the first thing they are doing is um uh they looking for gaming guilds right like there's a mismatch right um because the way like your product supposed to function um and the people who are supposed to use it is not matching your goto Market approach um so how so um in answering the three previous questions that we've listed before um is going to help you figure out how to go to market how to address your user as Etc um so for defi apps um a key metric for success for them is total value locked um right um so if they were to want to go to market they would think of how to get their token listed on exchanges how to get people to exchange that token so that it can increase the the value in the market can increase and the volume of their tokens being traded would also increase over time um for for Dows right Dows are like communities that come together for a purpose um so a DA would not want to launch and be thinking of listing a token on an exchange like it just doesn't make sense they are rather thinking of getting like other like-minded people like them who believe in their purpose and that's how they are thinking of going to the market um and then for layer one layer two blockchains and protocols they are you know thinking of getting like developers building their developer ecosystem getting more Forks etc etc um so yeah uh okay so basically strategies tactics for going to marketing web 3 um a very popular one that I'm sure everybody in this room knows is air drops right and that's when you're thinking of um organizing like a promotion to um get people to want to um to get on your platform early you know true like rewarding them with some tokens some rewards true air drops um for products that are Developer focused they are thinking of setting up developer communities giving them grants organizing hackaton so that um these developers that they've built for can easily and quickly get on the platform and start building products um with their platform um a very understated um go market and growth strategy in web 3 is also event um I'm very certain that there are um Brands here that would want to you know talk to people here about what they do how they do it and how their product can benefit you like events is is a very um big thing in web 3 like it's a big part of how web 3 products grow um meme competitions I feel like last year two years ago um when nfts were like really really trending you saw like a lot of this where um they they wanted they wanted to see like your creativity how you can you know rep their nft Etc sorry okay so hacking distribution in web 3 right this is like the main thing um number one is widespread education think of every web three products that you use today and think of how you got to know about the product enough to want to use it um there must have been intentional education where they are showing you how to use the product why to use the product um a brand that I think does this really well is binance like for I I think that in every like local community that you get to you discover that there are like local binance groups where like the major purpose of existence is just to like educate like new users potential users Etc um also communication there's a lot of technicality in web 3 there's a lot of jagon so if you're talking to your users and you're you're just talking like technicalities nobody understand you they are thinking okay we've heard you but what's like the value in it for us um so communication should should um it should SPO like action right they should be able to understand you and then they should be able to understand what it is you want them to do with the information you are passing um then next is is community-led marketing um Community I think so the the previous speaker spoke about Community right yeah okay um so Community is like really important is a really important way to scale distribution and growth in web 3 um next is um the user experience I I don't think we're talking enough about user experience in web 3 um a lot of like web3 products are complicated to get on like the initial H that you need to come on your platform and they don't even understand like okay what am I to do what button am might to press um I might to even press a button like once they come and they don't understand all those things they just drop it and that's that's it you've lost a user like that um so you should really think about user experience um and then I think um next is also on community right but as your product grows as you get more users you should um I okay so most web3 products when they launching they release like a um a what's it called like a list of the activities and how they are going to grow they will tell you oh between um January to March this what we're going to be doing um so you should constantly refine that right where you're constantly taking your users on a journey you're taking your community members on a journey they and you're um sort of helping them understand um what you're doing at every point in time um and last but not least is market conditions um web three products were built for people they are being built for people right they are not going to be used by robots um and these people they they also have like external factors that weigh in on them so for example um think of the Boo versus the bare Market where um in the bare markets people are just like nobody wants to really explore right um so you should also think of market conditions when you're like building um because it can it can just be like it could be that it's not like people don't want to use your product but current market conditions dictate otherwise so people like stay back from using your product um so you should greatly think of how um market conditions would affect your products when building in trying to build and scale in web 3 okay so I've come to the end of my talk I I I can see that people are tired and they asking for a break already so I don't want to bore you guys too much um but some really right um I think um as people are building in web 3 they should think of like the end users you're not building for robots you're building for people so you should always have a people first approach when building because that is going to have like a big impact on how how you're able to go to market and scale right um so distribution should be of core focus and when that's your core Focus you're thinking of the people that are going to use it you're thinking of the user experience you're thinking of the community you thinking of what people would gain from using your product um So currently a lot of work still needs to be done in making web three attractive to like Outsiders I think somebody was asking the other time how many people's moms and dads use like web three products and I'm guessing that a big um a big huddle in that is the current user experience the current technicalities um so yeah um web three founders and Builders like yourselves should continually think of how to solve these challenges in trying to um scale for web three products and in trying to expand the current um web3 user base um there's something web two companies use a lot they say you're buing for the next one billion users um so yeah I think in web three we should also start thinking of building for the next one billion users um so how how am I how am I um as a Founder you should start you should think of how am I um how am I thinking of building for the next 1 billion users in web 3 um and that's the end of my B