I was not swimming deep enough

I’ve been in Web3 for years, and honestly, I thought I could skip the technical part. I came in with a Web2 mindset, where most of the products I worked on were pretty easy to understand from a common-sense level, especially B2C. But in Web3, that doesn’t cut it. Maybe this sounds obvious, but it’s never been clearer to me that to market Web3 effectively, you need to understand the tech on a deeper level.

And I’m not talking about quick-buck tactics like airdrops—I mean real, sustainable marketing that drives long-term growth and moves the whole space forward.

I knew what Web3 and blockchain technology, Bitcoin, and Ethereum stood for and why they represented a better model, at least on a basic level. But I never went into the technicalities; I thought I could leave that to the Solidity and Rust engineers.

I assumed that knowing it from a user perspective was enough, which might be true eventually (I mean, not all of us know how a website or email software technically works). But right now, that’s not enough. Now is the time to build solid foundations, and after all the scams, crashes, and bear markets, we’ve all realized that the people we want to attract, work with, and work for are the real builders.

This realization also helped answer one of the never-ending questions for marketers and salespeople: do you need to love and understand the product to sell it, or can pure skill do the job?

My Web2 experience taught me that it’s a little of both. Having a solid skill set is crucial, but that only gets you so far. The Web2 projects I’ve had the most success with are the ones where I was actually part of the target audience, where I could speak the same language as the people I wanted to reach.

In Web3, though, the need for technical knowledge—and even more, for specialization—is so much stronger. When I see job posts that ask for “Web3 experience,” I sometimes smile. That’s like saying “Web2 experience”—it’s way too general.

For example, I’ve been in Web3 for years, but mostly with NFTs, token launches, and consumer-facing products. DeFi? That’s a whole different beast. It’s still Web3, and it’s what I’m really drawn to, but to feel confident about doing a good job as a marketer, I know I need to go much deeper and truly understand how it all works, even after years of swimming in the space and being part of the community.

So, I started this incredible course on DeFi Infrastructure with Coursera, and it’s been mind-blowing. I’m finally getting into the nitty-gritty of what makes DeFi tick (which, by the way, I highly recommend!).

All of this stream of consciousness (in full LinkedIn style—1,000 words to express one thought) is to say what?

Looking around, I see a real gap in resources for onboarding non-technical professionals into Web3, and that’s something I want to help solve.