Web3 Talks: Stories & Tips from the Builders

Blog post version: https://kanfa.macbudkowski.com/crypto-gtm *** If your crypto product is solid but growth feels slow, this episode gives you the clarity you need. It breaks down how teams like Aave, Uniswap, Polymarket and others actually unlocked their early traction and what you can learn from their playbooks. You will hear the patterns behind channels that work, how to pick a segment that giv...

Good to be back and happy to chat with you. Learn more and book a slot here: https://kanfa.macbudkowski.com/lets-chat

Henri is an ex-research scientist at Protocol Labs. He Co-Founded Privy, which provides web3 projects such as Friend.tech, t2 & Shibuya with seamless onboarding & embedded wallets. In this episode, we dive into the early MVPs of Privy, learn how it works under the hood, how they managed to design such as smooth UX & more. *** If you like high-quality crypto content, check out the proje...

Collab. Land is a tool for managing web3 communities and bridging them to Discord and Telegram. It has already been used by 50k+ communities and 8M+ wallets. Today we’re talking with Anjali Young, Co-Founder & CCO of Collab. Land, who shares their project’s story. *** Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter: https://twitter.com/web3talks/ Check kiwinews - a portal with news & content for web3 builder...

Mailchain is basically a web3 email. It provides a web app that lets you send your emails as if you used Gmail or Hotmail. But you send your emails via your wallet, ENS, Lens profile, and other identities you may use. Thanks to that and end-to-end encryption, your emails are 100% private. Today we’re talking with Tim Boeckmann, Co-Founder & CEO of Mailchain, who shares their project’s story. *...

Zora is one of the most popular web3 tools, used by the biggest creators in the NFT space. What were its early days? How they acquired their first users? How have they organized the Base campaign that generated 700,000+ mints? This and much more in our conversation with Dee Goens, Co-Founder & COO @ Zora. *** Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter: https://twitter.com/web3talks/ Get 15% off your EpicWeb...

XMTP is one of the leading web3 messaging protocols. What were the early days of this project? What web3 native features they developed How they built a developer community around their protocol? How did they start handling DMs on Lens? This and much more in our conversation with Matt Galligan, Co-Founder & President @ XMTP. *** Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter: https://twitter.com/web3talks/ Get...

Julien has been building tools for membership NFTs since 2018, long before the NFT boom. What were the early days of the NFT market? How dogfooding helped them to acquire their first users? How they organized ticketing with Unlock for EthCC? What they've learned from running a DAO program? This and more in our conversation with Julien Genestoux, Founder & CEO @ Unlock Protocol. *** Follow...

Stefan George is one of the most OG builders in the space. How was it building on Ethereum in 2014? Why they pivoted from their initial idea? How an ICO inspired them to build Safe? Why it later transformed into a DAO? How Gnosis Chain became the #2 most decentralized chain in the space? And why you used it without even knowing it? This and more in our conversation with Stefan George, Co-Founder &...

Alex has been building Rarible since 2019, when most people haven't even heard about NFTs. What were the industry's early days? Why slick design helped them to acquire the first users? How did issuing a token change how they operate (and why they weren't ready for that)? How do they plan to compete in a market dominated by OpenSea, Blur & LooksRare? Relax and listen to our in-depth conversatio...

Huddle01 quickly became the leading web3 audio/video communication toolkit. How it all started? What helped them acquire 16k+ users? Why they're so excited about Stage 3 of their development plans? Ayush Ranjan, Co-Founder & CEO of Huddle01, shares a deep backstage perspective of their company. *** If you want to buy tickets for the EpicWeb3 conference in Lisbon, check out: https://www.epicweb...

Colin Armstrong has been in crypto since 2011 and has spent years working at Coinbase and Google. He built Paragraph to create a more neutral and web3-friendly alternative to Substack. The project has already amassed 5k+ creators and 100k+ subscribers, and Colin shares how they made it happen. >>> Never miss an episode and check how Paragraph works in practice by subscribing to our newsle...

SimpleHash is one of the most powerful NFT APIs in the space. It's being used by wallets, portfolio trackers & web3 games. Olly Wilson came to the pod to share the backstage perspective of their ultra fast growth. Timestamps: 0:38 What is SimpleHash 1:39 How their Co-Founder got tired of building back-end infra for an NFT project and decided to start SimpleHash 2:47 Why is indexing NFTs across...

0xFrens is a matchmaking tool used by web3 communities such as: Developer DAO, Jericho & Skylab. Gilbert - Co-Founder of the project - spent almost a decade at Google, then started his social podcasting startup, and in 2022, he started working on 0xFrens with the rest of the AGMI team. 0:37 What’s 0xFrens, and how it helps communities to build relationships between members 1:40 How talking wit...

PWN is a decentralized pawnshop where you can use any tokens as collateral. But it’s just the beginning. Their ultimate goal is to provide crypto loans for decades so that you will never need to sell your crypto. I spoke with Josef, PWN’s Co-Founder, who shared their story, challenges & growth strategies. TIMESTAMPS: 0:38 PWN as a decentralized pawnshop 1:35 How not being able to get a mortgag...

Zerion is one of the OG crypto companies, operating since 2016. It started as a tool to do fundraising through token sales.  Then it transformed into a DeFi exploration tool where you could track & invest in different assets. Then it expanded into NFTs & other web3 assets. And a few months ago, they also joined the wallet space and already got 80k+ users. What inspired them to start?...

Moralis joined a pretty crowded web3 infra market in 2020, and it's already become an important player serving projects such as MetaMask and Polygon. How did they do it? I talk with Ivan, Moralis Co-Founder, who shares the backstage perspective of their last 2 years. If you don't want to miss our episodes, subscribe to our Substack and get an e-mail whenever the new episode comes out: https://web3...

Hey everyone, today I got the info about something I've been working on for a long time. Twitter link (all Likes & RTs much appreciated!): https://twitter.com/MacBudkowski/status/1587525519398129665?s=20&t=6erYSQKMxrLJMJGD6POfXg Website link: https://macbudkowski.com/how-to-explain-web3-products/ Web3 Talks Substack: https://web3talks.substack.com/

Dan Romero was employee #20 at Coinbase. After helping to build the company for 5 years, he left Coinbase in 2019 to build an alternative to Twitter with his Coinbase colleague, Varun Srinivasan. This idea transformed into Farcaster - a web3 social network that has become a go-to place for the crypto community in the last few months.  TIMESTAMPS: 00:38 What is Farcaster 1:20 How Dan Romero be...

ZenGo has been the pioneer in MPC research and the most popular consumer MPC wallet in the world. Ouriel shares the backstage perspective of their early days, acquiring the first users, their product strategy, ClearSign wallet firewall, and marketing activities that led to over 700k users (which is a lot for a wallet!). Follow the pod: https://twitter.com/web3talks Follow Ouriel & Mac: https://twi...

If you don't want to miss our episodes, subscribe to our Substack and get an e-mail whenever the new one comes out: https://web3talks.substack.com/ PoolTogether is known as the #1 DeFi protocol that encourages saving. Depositors participate in a lottery-like process where their deposited money can win prizes. But contrary to a lottery - even if they don't win, they keep their money. The luckiest w...

If you don't want to miss our episodes, subscribe to our Substack and get an e-mail whenever the new one comes out: https://web3talks.substack.com/ LearnWeb3 in 9 months became one of the most popular places to become a web3 developer for free. In this episode, Haardik tells me about its beginnings, crazy growth, building a 50k+ members community & more. Timestamps: 1:15 How Haardik feels runn...

If you don't want to miss our episodes, subscribe to our Substack and get an e-mail whenever the new one comes out: https://web3talks.substack.com/ WalletConnect is one of the most omnipresent protocols in the web3 space. It’s used by Uniswap, OpenSea, Instagram & 450+ other apps. Today we welcome Pedro Gomes, Co-Founder of WalletConnect, who tells us about the protocol’s history, presence, an...

Code4rena is a project that disrupts the way web3 companies do smart contract audits. Their community-driven approach made them so well-known in the space that OpenSea ran a $1,000,000 security audit contest on their platform. How does their project work? How it started? And how do they grow it? Two out of five Code4rena Co-Founders came to the pod to answer all these questions. Follow the pod: ht...

We welcome Twitter anon legend - Bored Elon Musk - who shares his blockchain/web3 gaming expertise and gives a backstage perspective on his new project - BoredBox. Follow the pod: https://twitter.com/web3talks Follow BORED & Mac: https://twitter.com/BoredElonMusk https://twitter.com/MacBudkowski TIMESTAMPS: 2:38 How Hyperloop inspired him to start a Bored Elon Musk account 4:41 How money trans...