AMA: I’m Gavin, founder @ Thirdwork. I’ve worked at the White House and startups, ask me anything 🚀

@giulia_camargo By far the biggest demand we’ve seen is for marketers, product and brand designers, and writers. That might seem weird. What about devs? And while you often read about how there’s a shortage of blockchain developers, one thing I've observed is that a lot of startups in web3 are founding by highly technical teams. They often have their own 'roster' of technical talent. But when it comes to all the other non-technical roles, they're looking for support. They want good people who can help with design, brand, content, SEO, and all the other stuff that you need to grow. There's another macro reason: you can only build so much infrastructure. At some point, you need to build apps on top of that infrastructure. You need to build something people want to use! And to onboard consumers, you need designers to make it appealing and intuitive, writers to communicate the value, marketers to get the word out, etc.. For anyone interested, Union Square Ventures did a really good writeup of the app-infrastructure cycle that has shaped a lot of my thinking around building in web3 (https://www.usv.com/writing/2018...)

@denislav_jeliazkov Hey Denislav - I really like this question, because it’s something we think about a lot! In web3, community often means a 10k person Discord or some in-person happy hours. To me, it’s much deeper than that. A true community is a small group of people that supports each other in realizing their goals. Being a freelancer isn’t easy. You’re effectively running your own business. You're doing sales, marketing, bookkeeping...plus you're doing the actually freelance work! For Thirdwork, we want to create avenues that allow freelancers to do their best work. That can mean everything from finding good jobs to sharing resources and playbooks to tapping into mentorship opportunities to just connecting with another freelancer facing similar challenges. When I worked at Knoetic, we built a community of Chief People Officers. Although it’s now a community of thousands of executives, it started off with like 25 people! Everything was very manual and personalized at the beginning. So to me, the core values when building community are really to start small, to invest in the human side of things, and to build real relationships. If you’re lucky enough to build meaningful connections and offer something of value to people, then you can think about growing and scaling.

@malcolm_castaneda We see a mix of both. Today, it's probably easiest to pay freelancers compliantly with fiat (at least in the US). There are a range of payroll, tax, and reporting requirements that companies and freelancers need to take into account. There's been a huge boom in the number of companies that are facilitating crypto payments, which is exciting. I'm optimistic about the potential for payments on crypto rails: zero-fee, instantaneous payments across borders. There are also a few startups like Utopia (https://www.utopialabs.com/) that are tackling payroll and payments for DAOs, and they're working on all the compliance issues as well. It's still a complex landscape. There are a bunch of other considerations for freelancers: is your rate locked into a stable currency like USD? Are you getting paid in a more liquid token (like ETH), or are you getting paid in a native token (which is probably more akin to equity compensation)? This is something we often talk through with freelancers who have questions. We actually put together an article on questions freelancers should make sure to ask before they get paid in crypto: https://www.thirdwork.xyz/blog/s...

@lucca0camargo I would definitely expect there to be increased regulatory scrutiny over the coming months. The combination of a new Congress in January, plus the fact that FTX blew up so spectacularly and many people lost money, means that there are lots of people clamoring for more regulation. But I also don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, or something to be worried about. Regulation is what happens to a maturing industry. The challenge will be to rein in bad actors while supporting innovation and experimentation in an evolving space. In some ways, greater regulatory clarity and certainty could be helpful for startups launching tokens and building decentralized finance tools. As with most things, the devil will be in the details.

@jonathan_nass I'll try to avoid giving you a generic one like working really hard :) One unexpected similarity was the importance of being a good writer. In government, I spent time as a speechwriter (admittedly a mediocre one). Major decisions were often communicated through 'decision memos' that laid out the various arguments and made recommendations. Every press release was scrutinized. Being a good writer was sort of a non-negotiable. When I first joined a startup, I found myself constantly leaning on those skills. A well-written cold email can mean the difference between closing a deal or missing out. Crisp website copy is how you communicate your value prop and tell your story to the world. Writing a product requirements document forces clarity of thought and helps align your team. A second similarity was the 'drinking from the firehose' nature of the work. During my time in DC, there were never enough hours in the day. Your to-do list was always getting longer. That feeling can be overwhelming, but it also forces you to make tradeoffs and prioritize your time ruthlessly. Startups are similar. You can't do everything, and you shouldn't try. (Although you should try to do a lot, and probably more than you think you can!) In startup world, I find myself leaning on some of the same heuristics for decision-making and prioritization that I did in government.

@gavin_yerxa Thanks for the great response. That's all really cool to hear. I've always felt that writing skills are too often undervalued and overlooked when it comes to vetting new hires. Strong writing often goes unacknowledged within an organization, but bad writing sticks out like a sore thumb. You have to be able to communicate effectively. And I've never heard that firehouse analogy, but I'm definitely going to start using it. Launching a startup is for sure a crash course in decision-making and prioritization. That's an area we've had to focus on a lot with our new build. Thanks for sharing!

@jacopo_lai There are a few areas where I’m excited about the intersection of web3 and online learning. Part of the promise/potential of web3 is the ability to leverage token incentives to bootstrap a marketplace and network effects. Building a marketplace (for example, an online learning marketplace) is hard. What web3 enables is the ability for early adopters to be meaningfully rewarded for kickstarting supply/demand. There are some interesting early applications of this already. 101 (https://101.xyz/) is building a protocol that allows anyone to build courses (and enable their users to earn wallet-based rewards). There have been a few systems to put university diplomas on the blockchain, so that any diploma-holder can easily prove their degree (anyone who has ever requested a transcript from their university knows how fun that experience is!) I think we’ll continue to see interesting protocols and applications around online learning and education. At minimum, I think that could drive more rewards accruing to creators and lower platform fees (that's one of the benefits of a system built on open protocols rather than closed networks). I’m also interested in things like verifiable credentials and proof-of-learning. We see this in the recruiting space, where embellishment and exaggeration on resumes is a systemic problem. There may be some similarly interesting applications in the online learning space.

@gavin_yerxa Agreed! I see the use of blockchain and crypto coins in web 3 online learning. An ecosystem might emerge only for experts and learners.

@minimalistphone It's always a struggle, and I'm not sure I have the right answer. I try to be intentional about how I'm spending my time. I set goals for what I want to accomplish each day, and try to make those goals ambitious but achievable. One of the things I've learned is that the work is always going to be there, and that helps me unplug and spend time with family and friends without feeling guilty about not working.

@aaronoleary This is a good counter to the question @jonathan_nass asked above! On an individual level, there’s a difference in how autonomous you need to be. At an early-stage startup, you have no backstop. If you encounter a tough problem, it’s pretty likely that you're going to be the one who needs to solve it. There’s an extreme bias for action. It’s an empowering feeling, but one that takes some getting used to. In government, it’s difficult to make consequential decisions without a lot of eyes on the problem. You’re surrounded by people who have spent their lives thinking about that particular issue, so you need to be more focused on sourcing the right information and expertise, being deliberative, building consensus, and making the right decision. On a macro level (but related to that first point) you’re really making decisions in an entirely different context. In government, every decision you make is an enormously consequential one. Your default state is risk aversion. It’s kind of like being at a really big company. If you’re Google and you make one tiny change, it impacts a billion people. In really early stage startups, you’re operating in a totally different context. Your default state is one of tolerating, and even embracing, risk. As a founder or early employee, YOU probably believe your startup is the most important thing in the world, but very few other people do! You can make ambitious bets, try new things, fail. It’s definitely a mindset shift when working in startups vs government. Moving from a model of “we need to think through everything really carefully because if we’re even slightly wrong it’s very very bad” to “let’s be thoughtful but not too thoughtful because if we screw up nobody will care and we don't have the luxury of spending a week deliberating on this”!

@elena_alehno Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it! With the caveat that I'm certainly not an expert: I think with CBDC’s (Central Bank Digital Currencies) it’s less a question of whether it will happen, and more a question of where, when and how. Virtually all the major central banks, including the Federal Reserve, are exploring a CBDC. Nigeria has already launched one. So in my mind, the major question is whether the U.S. will launch one. The fact that there are real conversations happening at the Fed about a CBDC is remarkable in its own right. If adopted, it presents a pretty fundamental change to the structure of the financial system. The Federal Reserve doesn’t let individuals open accounts. I can’t just walk into the Fed and say “I want a checking account”! They provide accounts to commercial banks, who serve as intermediaries for the public. A CBDC would effectively cut out that intermediary, and the CBDC would be a liability of the Federal Reserve that would be available to the general public. That’s a fairly foundational change. As a result, it would be a huge undertaking. It would certainly require Congressional authorization, and would be hugely contentious. And while there are conversations about the benefits: faster and cheaper payments, financial inclusion, etc…it’s also unclear that you need a CBDC to do that. For example, India has created payments infra that banked a huge number of unbanked people, and it isn’t based on a digital currency. The dollar is still the world's reserve currency. Getting transformational legislation passed in the U.S. is always difficult. That’s why I’m skeptical it emerges in any major form over the next ~5 years, but who knows?!

@xinzhu_chen Hi Carly - I think broadly speaking when in a downturn, the startups that run lean and focus maniacally on finding product market fit are the ones with the highest chances of winning. For one thing, investors are being more cautious about deploying, and are looking for more capital-efficient companies. That has a trickle-down effect on the whole startup ecosystem; most startups are selling to other startups, so when the belt-tightening starts it can really cascade. I guess that's my second point; you need to be selling something people really want or need. If you're a B2B product and you're not an essential tool to someone at the company, you're at risk of getting cut from the budget. It's also important to keep in mind that plenty of incredible companies have been built during downturns (Uber, Square, Airbnb). But you need to prove real value (and do it efficiently) if you're going to convince customers to buy your product and investors to give you money!

@reshma_james1 I'd say part of it was borne out of personal experience, which helps. I've hired many freelancers across engineering, design, marketing, and content/writing, and I’ve even spent time working as a freelancer writer. So I understood the pain points on both sides of the freelancer / client relationship. With Thirdwork, we were seeing that there was this huge boom in demand for freelance hiring in web3 startups. It was the fastest-growing job category on LinkedIn, and web3-related posts were growing at triple-digit rates monthly on Upwork. Nearly every job posting said somethign like "web3 experience preferred" or "defi native" or "has worked in crypto before". But there were also real trust and discovery problems. It’s a new and rapidly evolving ecosystem. There are bad actors on both the freelancer and the client side. (Everybody has a hiring horror story in web3). For the speed at which the space is moving, there was a matching problem, which we felt was a problem a marketplace was uniquely suited to solve. But that was just a hypothesis, so we went out and talked to people! We did a whole listening and learning tour before writing a line of code. I’ve talked to hundreds of founders building in web3 over the past few months, and it helped us better understand the problem space. And that led us to what we’re focused on today, which is helping match crypto startups with product, design and marketing talent. We’ve created a community of several hundred freelance builders, and we’ve been able to work with some incredible startups in the space like Rabbithole, Afterparty, Lighthouse to help them achieve their hiring and growth goals. We’re always listening, learning, and iterating. But broadly speaking, I’m excited to sit at the intersection of what I believe are two inevitable trends: fractional/freelance work and web3!

@vishal_godhwani Hey Vishal, congrats on the beta and your upcoming launch. This is a question we hear about a lot; how do I break through the noise and find effective ways to attract users in web3? One of the things I’ve learned is that the principles that apply to marketing and growth in any industry apply to web3, although the tactics can be very different. I think that’s why one of the main roles we help startups hire for are growth and community-focused marketers. For example, paid marketing rarely moves the needle for early web3 startups, and some of the levers traditional fintechs could pull also don’t apply in this space. A couple thoughts (and you may be already doing some or all of these): 1.) Partnerships Partnerships are one of the leading growth levers in web3, more so than we ever saw in web2. “Who are my natural partners, and how can we help each other?” These are questions you see even the earliest stage startups asking. 2.) Tokens User-ownership and tokens are the key differentiator in this space, and token incentives and wallets mean totally different go-to-market strategies. We’ve seen marketers who are really thoughtful about this: everything from creating novel and engaging airdrop strategies (that don’t feel scammy) to using tokens to incentivize early users (ie bootstrapping network effects or liquidity). 3.) A focus on education. You think about the customer journey; and for a lot of people the learning curve in web3 is a huge barrier. “I need to figure out what Discord is. I need to create a wallet.” It can be confusing. One way of targeting the crypto-curious is an emphasis on education. If you’re talking about getting your first 500 customers…I encourage people to do it manually! Reach out to people directly. Walk them through the product. Build real connections. You’ll learn a to about what messaging works too. (This applies more to early/pre-PMF startups). 4.) Be active in Discords. I know this is generic advice, but it feels like table stakes at this point, and it’s why so many marketers in this space do double-duty as ‘community managers’. I think the reason for this is that people are tired of faceless brands, and so marketers are forced to be ever-more creative in how they generate authentic connection with users. Smart marketers with experience in this space can leverage creative strategies to build relationships via Discord and scalably get a message out there. 5.) Longform content. More than in any other space, people in crypto value written content. To break through the noise and attract early adopters you need to really focus on creating value for people. I’m sure there are things you and the rest of the founding team can teach people about your product and why it matters. Putting out thoughtful long-form pieces can be a good way of refining your own message while conveying credibility. You can even share drafts with others and ask for feedback; it's a great way to get early users. Hope this helps!

@gavin_yerxa Hey Gavin, thank you for taking out time and responding back to me :) This discussion has a lot of actionable points. I will be sharing this with the internal team. @_abhitweets @shradha_mehta1

@vishal_godhwani @gavin_yerxa Wonderful insights, a lot of learnings right here. We are currently building a DeFi learning community to make DeFi more accessible to people through education & thereby know about our Product. I had a specific question on Community Building via NFT community partnerships. Could you list out a few specific experiments that worked & didn't work out for you in terms of building a community around your brand. Also, will connect with you. :)

@vishal_godhwani @_abhitweets Hi Abhilash - glad it was helpful. Happy to share some thoughts on those; will connect with you on Linkedin. Also make sure to check out thirdwork (https://www.thirdwork.xyz/) and follow us on twitter (https://twitter.com/thirdwork), we share helpful content around these areas and provide insights from other builders who have done it as well!