Here are my notes from Week 6 of a16z Crypto's CSX. This week focused on marketing, brand, and fundraising and included talks from Steven Ebert and Arianna Simpson.

Talk: Positioning & Branding with Steven Ebert

• What is a brand?

  • Something you affiliate with

  • A collection of beliefs people have about your company.

  • People = customers, partners, team
    

    

• A brand is not something you set and forget

  • The reality is that a brand is like a living org that evolves

    • product evolves

    • bring in new users

    • grow to more employees

• What is brand building?

  • The practice of shaping a brand

  • Tools for shaping a brand ...

    

• Minimum Viable brand

  • Why you exist

  • Tell your story in a compelling way

    • Not just about marketing

    • Hiring is difficult when you do not have an interesting and compelling story

    • A big part of fundraising

  • Differentiate you from competitors

    • Classic example is AMM

    • The way you tell your story is what sets you apart

    

• Two areas are useful

  • Brand story

    • The language you represent

  • Visual identity

    • What do you look like

    • It builds goodwill with the public

• Zora does a good job at brand

  • Define the problem

    • Did a good job of defining the problem

    • Established a meme of what the new future looks like

    • Creating language became super useful

      • we see this problem

      • we see new things because nfts

      • we are going to be part of that movement

  • Explain how you solve it

    • Creating free and valuable

  • Prove in the product

    • Simple 3-step product

    

• Elements of brand story to consider

  • Why

    • problem

    • how we solve

  • Key benefit

    • what are the reasons someone would want ot use it

  • Tone of voice

    • thoughtful around how you’re communicating

• On creating your visual identity

  • Think about your audience

    • If shitcoins identity you will have will be very different than institutional investors

  • Look at what competitors are doing

  • Define the vibe you're going for

• A good visual identity

  • Connected to the brand story

  • Designed for flexibility

  • Opinionated and differentiated

  • Party does a good job ...

    

• Additional thoughts on brand to consider

  • Be careful of brand stories already taken

  • Watch out for confusing nomenclature

    • Aave = could be talking about 1-7 different things

    • Good = Opensea vs. Seaport

  • Dont handcuff yourself to the current meta

    • bad: gm

    • don't handcuff to current vibes

  • Refine brand story as the product evolves

  • Visual identity is extra important for B2C

  • The more saturated, the more differentiated you need to be

• On why, how, what

  • If early, focus on why

  • If competitive, focus on how

  • Very few examples where "what" is the most important thing

Lunch: Tacos

Thank you, a16z Crypto, for making me feel a little less homesick 🌮

Talk: Talking to Investors with Arianna Simpson

• Arianna intro

  • Many VCs are afraid to tell you what they think, not Arianna.

• Fundraising is answering questions about a business

  • Two important questions to answer before deck

    • Why is this a big market?

    • Why is your team best positioned to win?

      • Why are you best positioned to tackle that problem?

      • How deeply have the founders explored the idea maze?

      • How good is the founder market fit

      

  • Question Arianna asks every founder:

    • Assuming everything goes well, what will you be doing in 5 years?

• How to get ready to pitch?

  • Understand market

  • Practice with angels and friends beforehand

  • Tailor the deck

    • have teaser deck

    • the goal is to get a meeting

    • hold a little info back and then reveal all

• Core tenants of the pitch

  • Tell a story

  • Have a team slide

    • a lot of it is do we think this is the right team to build this thing

  • Never lie

  • DYR

    

• On negotiations

  • The best investors will not play games

  • The best strategy is to be authentic

  • Trying to eliminate the reasons why people would say no

  • The name of the game is momentum: You will be better off if you get more term sheets

• Post-raise relationship

  • From pitching to portfolio

    

  • Never surprise your investors

  • Engage early and often

  • Use their network for

  • It's a marathon

    

• Other helpful fundraising tips

  • Generate momentum by time boxing conversations

  • On team slide: logos > 10 years of experience

  • Party round = nobody has (real) skin in the game

• Memorable fundraise: Anton at Talos

  • FMF was perfect

  • Charismatic

  • MIT smart

  • Technical but can sell

  • Plow through any wall to make it happen

Links that came up

Here are some links that came up this week.

• From a16z Crypto Marketing & Comms

  • On communicating in crypto, and beyond with Matt Abrahams & Sonal Chokshi

  • On marketing web3 with Amanda Cassatt, Kim Milosevich, and Sonal Chokshi + deep dive on launching & marketing your project with Amanda Cassatt

  • On strategy & tactics for social with Ish & editorial with Sonal

• What’s Open Layer?

  • OpenLayer is the first trustworthy data layer empowered by users.

  • Last week, Kevin, Charlie, and the OL team launched the OpenLayer AVS on Eigen Layer.

• More 🐐 Shoes of CSX

  • Tata Flats @aleksijavujicic

  • Air Reads @ishverduzco

Launcher Labs Progress

• New Frameboard homepage with discovery ✨