Crypto Marketing and Token Launch 101 for Builders | Amos Zhang - MetaWeb.VC / Lit.Tech

hello everyone uh my name is Amos uh it's my pleasure today to do this workshop on crypto marketing and token launch uh 101 uh so just a quick background about myself uh So currently I'm the founder of met web VC uh which is a $30 million fund early stage crypto found back by sooya dragonfly and SZ of the world uh at the same time I'm also the partner at lch uh which is a crypto studio and an incubator uh in terms of my experience I have been Cal entrepreneur uh pretty much throughout my entire career uh rais quite a bit of EC money and wor multiple hats uh back then as a founder and part of the leadership team across product marketing and sales uh in terms some of my more Crypton native experience uh I let nearest marketing uh and expansion into Asia and on the more traditional set of things uh I work with you know companies like Alibaba Facebook YouTube back then uh so let's actually gu right into the the actual top topic today which is you know crypto marketing and token uh so let me start with a quote from Peter th which is you know a product never sales itself uh why which might be you know contradictory to a lot of folks here because uh sometimes you hear saying you know this product is so good that it actually just sells itself right uh but that's actually almost number two uh and in the context of crypto uh this principle holds true as well uh so token is your most powerful uh marketing Tool uh just a couple example uh like obviously ethereum back then and the 2017 Ico all started with you know bunch of speculation and then money flowing uh into buying all the tokens and qu many you know uh well story back then uh the same apply to you know def summer which was kind of like the start of the last B run and obviously immediately afterwards Sol all all the other you know ler ones uh and kind of in the current stage which is you know all the l2s and and the modularity blockchains uh and there are also some additional benefits of launching a token uh because once again like I'm doing this talk of all the Builders out here right uh so besides just you know the marketing benefits uh sometimes is actually essential for you to launch a token because uh you actually do want to decentralize the project uh at the same time it also provides you with you know funding opportunities uh both before you actually launch a token then also after you launch a token which I'm going to explain a little bit uh later on and at the same time uh by having like a successful token uh especially you know achieve like higher ranking on coin market cap and coin gecko uh you also help you with you know partnership and Business Development uh so here just a quick checklist uh for launching a token and uh I'm going to go through uh each one of them so first let's start with the legal setup uh for the context of the day I'm pretty much you know ignoring some like super dent and meme stuff is means that you probably don't need a legal setup but I would say for most other cases uh when you do plan to launch a token properly uh you do need like a proper legal setup uh it could cost anywhere between 20K to 200k uh depends like what you are trying to optimize for and your risk tolerance um uh you first need to consider jurisdiction and sometimes like once again depends like how secure and and uh how comprehensive your your setup want to be and obviously tailor to your specific like product offering uh you might also need to incorporate in multiple jurisdiction just to fulfill that need uh and in C jurisdiction such as Switzerland uh you actually need like a non-action letter uh in most cases uh which could actually take uh sometimes even more than six months uh to get one uh and at the same time uh you also uh most likely need legal opinions issue by uh somewh you know legit law firm uh you actually need it because you know that's one of the requirements of getting listed so we we doing the the research into the different you know legal setup uh and try to set it up the the all entities you know talking to lawyer uh which could actually take anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months right uh this is also the time for you to kind of start designing your tokenomics uh in my opinion this could be actually be one of the most important elements here uh because it will uh significantly affect both the the short-term trading Dynamics and the longer term performance uh of the token uh so first and foremost uh you actually do need to you know uh focus on the token utility and value capture uh I know you know especially like today you know Bitcoin went all the way up to 64k and then job and all the altcoins uh kind of you know uh follow in more much more you know similar pattern but but just you know in in a more volatile manner uh sometime people kind of ignore the token utility and value capture part of things right uh but at the end of the day you know in the longer term if you try to move through across different Cycles uh this is very important you do want to make sure your token can actually capture value uh from your what you're offering uh from your product uh the other very important element is the token distribution uh which means you know for example what's the percentage of the team what's the percentage of the trasy uh how much are you allocating for ecosystem incentive you know what's kind of like the marketing budget that you plan to do whether that's you know going to cont uh contribute to the air job or some other sort of like you know uh programs uh and a very related to topic about this is obviously the lock up schedule you know uh do you plan to do like immediate lock up uh for all like investors and team or you kind of want to wait a little bit like do you plan to do like investing how long is it going to be uh so all this will actually change the Dynamics uh of of your token uh in in the actual you know trading environment uh so once you have both of those Set uh you need to start consider listing uh and this might be like a very controversial topic uh because the cost could be range could ranging could be ranging from anywhere between you know uh zero uh to millions of dollar in terms of spending uh and you know in my experience especially with the project that we advise or I participate in the past uh we tend to be on the L lower end of the threshold uh but then again they are project uh they end up spending like quite a bit of money uh and currently actually performing really really well uh like top 30 top 50 in the coin market cap r uh so it really depends right uh but first and foremost you kind of need to consider what's your like listing strategy uh for example in the beginning do you want to prioritize more uh on Dex listing uh or or sex listing um and you know there there's no right answer here right uh really depends on like your product road map like what's your investor unlock uh and even in terms of dexs uh because they have been so much Innovation uh in defi these days uh it's not just amm right now right uh there are also V various you know other book Decks that you can you know consider get getting listed uh there are also a bunch of you know other you know creative mechanism uh such as you know B&B launch pool you know launch pack Etc uh so at the end of the day you know the way I look at you know listing uh is a way for you to distribute a bunch of tokens uh and then try to guide lots of users uh and it's always you know trading is always uh equation uh between you know supply and demand uh a very related topic uh immediately afterwards is Market making uh and treasury management uh because you know uh if you are are trying to get listed uh whether on on the central X you know exchange or like de Central X all Book Exchange uh you do need a market maker uh and this is one of the the area that the cost could actually uh have quite like you know a large range uh so uh and there are T typically two type of arrangement uh one is obviously just you know traditional Market making uh which tends to be more like data neutral uh which means that you actually care more about providing liquidity uh versus you know trying to sell high and buy low and in terms of the the the liity you provide it means that you know you want to have like really good spread uh depths size volatility and volume uh on other books and treasure management at the same time it also provides liquidity uh but in a slightly different fashion uh it's more about you know increasing the cash uh and asset balance uh of the treasury so so you do actually want to optimize uh you know uh in terms of profit but the profit could either be calculated in terms of the base token uh or the Fiat or or stable coins right uh and just looking back in terms of the cost uh one good news about the cost here is that uh the cost in most cases is not like a direct cost it's more like impli cost or opportunities uh opportunity cost cost uh that the that you you might have lost here uh through like a market making or treasury management Arrangement uh basically like say if you want to do uh uh a loan to a market maker by you know uh lending them some tokens and then provide like a call option for them to buy the token back uh let's say if your STK price is like $3 but the token actually ended up you know uh becoming like $6 $7 uh you lose some of the the potential profit right um but then again you know uh if you do like a traditional you know trailer management uh style or uh even in some case there there are some like you know Market making BS these days that even the project are run them uh you for you to complete uh for for you to you know provide like a good liquidity only exchange uh besides your own tokens you also need to have bunch of you know stable coins right uh which obviously you know means you actually need to have that much money uh to be able to provide liquidity uh so anyways uh there obviously pros and cons here uh this topic itself actually could go into like hours and hours uh so I'm going to just skip it uh for for now uh but if you're like really interested uh I actually have a panel with winterm and and coindex tomorrow to to to talk about more in depth about you know Market making and treas management uh so let's actually move on to the the most important part today which is you know uh the market uh the marketing and Community Building uh of a project uh so first let's kind of you know divide the marketing uh and Community Building efforts uh into different stages which is pretty much you know pre-listing once or first you got listed and then after you know uh you got listed uh I would say especially in the pre-listing stage uh you probably need to spend anywhere between 10K to 50K uh in terms of like your fixed you know cost meaning like salaries and the place like Twitter ads Etc uh using bunch of services um and you also need like a token budget uh and even before you know uh you have a token that's actually launched uh you can always build like different you know incentive program around it uh is actually you know Future air jobs uh to kind of like try to generate hype here right uh but the goal here like uh in the pre-listing stage is that you know uh you actually want to improve your metrix whether that metrix means you know if your product is live already meaning like number of user number transaction you know tvl if you like def5 project uh and at the same time like your your social metri you know like Twitter followers uh the size of your telegram Community your Discord Community uh and the reason why is the most exchanges uh we look at all of those uh to assess you know uh whether they will list your project and what will be the actual cost uh so that's why here uh is actually very important uh because once again like if you do like a proper marketing uh you could have saved you know millions dollar of you know listing fees or listing budget uh paid to The Exchange TR uh and you know after you finally got listed uh you actually need to spend more efforts uh and I would say uh within the first a couple days uh maybe even up to one to two weeks of you know the token getting let's say by a large Central exchanges uh or you know like Ido or some sort of like initial air job uh this tends to be the most important area uh for you to to build your project uh like successful execution here means that you can actually uh continue the type and build up you know uh the awareness getting like more user TR uh even that means that you know you're not getting any sleep uh during that period uh but the here the point here is that you actually do want to you know like I mentioned Supply demand you actually want to generate enough you know buying pressure uh to kind of counter the potential uh selling pressure uh out here and slightly you know uh move the price up uh because once again like I mentioned in the beginning price is your most you know the token is your most you know powerful marketing to right and even you know after the initial you know listing like after initial hype uh you still need to you know continue the marketing efforts uh focus on you know uh fostering your token growth uh I know you know a lot of to a a lot of the builders here you know D here might feel you know a bit you know obnoxious about this particular topic uh but if you really think about it there's actually nothing wrong with it because you know uh let's leave the the regulatory sell things uh aside for for a moment um making a token you know get getting a token listed and then trading it uh and building a project uh by launching a token uh are actually not that different you know in the traditional traditional sense of you know like a public company uh you know uh and doing an IPO right in the context of you know a public company uh the most important you know uh metric for the leadership team uh to assess uh to assess and strive for is obviously you know the return to the shareff holder which means the price uh so the same here uh applies to to token and crypto uh because at the end of the day this is a very you know uh speculative Market uh people are in here like a lot of the users you know trador here uh join crypto because you do want to make money right uh so that's why you know you do actually want to you know make sure uh you have enough you know marketing efforts to to you know promote your tokens uh but I'm also now talking about you know uh Market man potion here or you know pump and dump simply more about you know educating your user uh and make sure know they understand what what they're getting into uh and more specifically in terms of you know uh some of the the more like tactical sing you know the execution part of the the marketing strategy uh I kind of divide them into like four different buckets uh on one hand you know uh is the product marketing because once again everything start with with product right uh uh especially for project who have their to uh who have their product live first and then you know launch a token it is important for you to to do proper marketing to attract lots of users uh and maybe in some case you know developers here uh to kind of you know improve our metrics uh because it will help with you know the listing of it uh at the same time you know BDM partnership uh even though it's not directly fing under uh into you know marketing is also uh pretty important uh because you know in the context of crypto uh people saw all the you know the partnership announcement you know uh different Pro protocol using your your your uh your product or you guys you know uh co-market something together uh it is something that you know uh the token holders and and Trader care about uh and even from the fundamental set of things you know you actually do want like more partner to use your product right uh so BD and partnership here are also very important uh and then we move on to to content marketing uh which obviously goes beyond uh just uh you know writing a blog post uh is also about you know social media content you know it could be lots of like video content you know even just twists uh those also have to be done in a very strategic manner uh last but not least uh is about you know distribution and amplification right uh on a simple in a simple sense is about you know working with you know different distribut distribution platforms uh there are like many platforms out there like Galaxy Etc uh but at the same time it's also about you know working with uh KS with influencer and obviously you know once you get listed and have a token life uh that's actually the the most you know effective you know amplification and distrib uh distribution tool um since we still have a little bit of time uh I would like to go through just uh a particular case study uh that kind of you know um uh summarize a lot of the points that I talk about here so this is actually a pretty popular model uh especially popular in in this like current run uh and I can of personally call it the investor and team unlock after a year uh this uh is extremely uh especially you know uh applicable to like infra project especially those with stronger like investor lineup uh there lots of you know uh upside uh in terms of doing this because uh like I said in the beginning it's always about supply and demand right uh so if you actually limit initial liquidity uh for the first six months to a year uh because at the time there's no investor or team unlock uh there's actually relatively small liquidity um at a time and because uh it's about Supply demand and if you do like a proper good marketing if you have like strong Pro product uh that means that you know uh you probably will have like really strong price performance right uh and that also means that you will have like a really high market cap and fdw and because also the low liquidity and you know the really high uh you know prices uh it will also you know contribute to like very active markets for future uh which means like more volume more user and more attention awareness uh so this actually has really really good uh and strong marketing effect uh obviously there there a couple you know potential downside of doing this uh on one hand you know obviously it is uh somewhat challenging uh to counter the soling pressure uh after the unlocks um and if you're like still in the early stage of you know uh launching a project uh uh you might face some difficulty uh because some investor will prefer shorter lock up or or shorter you know uh vesting schedule right uh and last but not least uh Team can also not sell directly uh during this time and and sometimes it could obviously you know affect the morale of the team uh Etc uh but one of the reason that I canot recommend this model is that if you look at some like recent success like you know Celestial out layer Etc uh it also uh it all kind of fall into this model and if you even move into the last bow right you know Solana actually has this exact same model right and if especially if you plan to launch a token in the next couple of weeks to two months uh I believe we're still in the early stage of a b Market uh so it is actually uh possible and and perhap very doable to potentially counter a lot of the selling pressure and uh in your reality uh once your token gets unlocked uh you can also probably do like OTC and the same you know apply to the investor as well uh so in conclusion so if there's you know uh one takeaway uh from a workshop today is that you know token is uh your most important you know friend and marketing Tool uh in the context of crypto uh you definitely want to you know prepare in advance uh if you don't have someone on your team already with experiencing this uh you know you to find like advisor investor and team um and people who can help you with it and if you have have more question uh you know just feel free uh to reach out to me on Twitter uh and happy to you know take it from here uh since again for your [Applause] time