Vibrant cryptocurrency communities can help your project attract investors. Building a cryptocurrency community that supports your idea has thus become a critical step in the development of a crypto project. In this episode of Diving into Crypto, Nadja Bester, co-founder of AdLunam IDO launchpad, discusses the importance of global communities in the crypto world and their capability to assist in the marketing of a crypto project.
Join us on our AdLunam socials
Visit our website at Website .
Follow AdLunam on Twitter and LinkedIn to stay updated, as you engage with us on a daily basis.
Transcript
COMMUNITIES ACROSS BORDERS-Nadja Bester
Participants:
JP (CMO of AdLunam)
Nadja Bester (CEO & Co-founder of AdLunam)
Jason Fernandes(Co-founder of AdLunam)
JP
All right, ladies and gentlemen, Nadja, our speaker’s in the house. Nadja, would you like to say hello just so that we can do a quick ponder?
Nadja
Hey, JP. Hey everybody. Very happy to be here once again.
JP
Excellent. Great. I can hear you, Nadja. I can hear you loud and clear. It looks like the hole is filling up. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, welcome. Welcome to our next episode of Diving into Crypto. Today we'll be speaking about communities across borders. And I know that title is as exciting as you are thinking that it will be on the show. Today we have Nadja Bester, who is the co founder of the Launchpad, AdLunam. Please remember, ladies and gentlemen, that any views expressed in this program belong to that of the speaker and information that is shared is for education purposes only. That being said, this is JP from AdLunam, Inc. Speaking to you about web3. Let's get started. Nadja, once again, welcome and good evening. How are you doing?
Nadja
Afternoon here. So please don't let the hours run away with me before they need to. But, yeah, very happy to be here. Lovely to connect with you as always. And always an absolute pleasure to speak to the AdLunam community.
JP
That's awesome. Nadja, it's always a pleasure to have you remember you were guests on this show. I think when we first began, You were one of our first guests to help us kick that off. So that's absolutely fantastic. So, Nadja, for the audience, I know that you are somebody that has widely traveled, has seen a lot of spaces. Where are you currently?
Nadja
So I am, at the moment in Istanbul. In Turkey. AdLunam sponsored an event here last week along with Algorand. And so I've been here meeting with our community members, meeting with investors, just really getting plugged into the crypto infrastructure in Turkey. And I'm absolutely amazed. The community here is amazing and there's a lot of stuff happening on the ground. So I think it's a very relevant topic to be talking about community across borders today.
JP
That's so true because everybody in this room, I can see that there's people from not only different geographies, but also different interests, right? What do you think is one of the primary ingredients when it comes to identifying a community? A lot of projects want to have that question answered. You've been a CMO before as well, right? What is it from your perspective that makes that unique?
Nadja
So I think in order to answer the question, what makes a community, we have to look at what is the end result of a community. So I feel like community is quite a buzzword, especially in Web3. Community building is the new growth hacking. Everyone wants to build communities, but what is the actual purpose of building a community? So then to answer this question, we have to go to the traditional world. If you look at brands that have sustained over time, and I mean, I can think of a brand like Disney, for example. Walt Disney started Disney years ago, and still today, 100 years later, we still have customers who are not just customers, they're a community. So they are tied together by so in Disney's case, for example, they have these lasting emotional relationships that evolve over time as well. So there are certain characters that you grow up with as a child, and when you become a parent, your children watch sort of the new version.
Nadja
And so Disney is a good example of a community that has an emotional sort of tie to what the brand does. Let's look at something more modern like Apple. Apple is again a prime example of a community that is unified around concepts, so brand loyalty being one. But why is there brand loyalty? Because Apple offers identity, it offers reputation. So I think the question really is what is the purpose of a community? And this is something that needs to be dived into a little bit deeper because I think what a lot of projects, especially in Web3 do is they use the word community to mean numbers. So, okay, we have 100,000 followers on Twitter, we have a great community. However, that's not the purpose of a community. It's not vanity numbers. It's a mutual cooperation, a mutual give and take between the brand, between the project and the community members.
JP
Fair enough. And I think, yes, that sense of common identity with either a brand, a project, a product helps one identify. And I think you also scratch the surface in terms of an ideology because I love my Mickey Mouse shoes and I still have a Mickey Mouse hat that I wear every now with the crazy years. Can't get enough of it, right? But in coming to the Web3 world, when we're talking about projects in crypto, do you see communities behaving differently if it is? And let's split this up for a second, right? Let's say that you have a community that's built around maybe DeFi and then NFTs and then GameFi, of course, this being the more popular ones, do you see that there is more distinction between these groups or is there just a general overall? Do I like it broadly? What do you think?
Nadja
So I think first, looking at the common denominator between all of the Web3 communities, we are the underdogs. So we are that small, select group of people who decided that what isn't working for us and instead what we want to be using our time and our energy and our attention on is to build something that isn't yet. So I think that is the main denominator between all of these different Web3 communities. However, of course, how it plays out in different niches is a little bit different. DeFi is of course a different bird of a horse, of a different color than a GameFi community. So the finest sort of nuances, I mean, if you look at NFTs, that's very art focused at the moment. So that of course is onboarding a lot of people from the art world. That doesn't necessarily have the background in crypto that someone who is in DeFi has.
Nadja
But I would say across the board, the one thing that unites everyone in web3 is we are the underdogs. And yeah, an underdog mentality is for sure different than being in that traditional space where you already know how things work because it's being told to you. We've had rules and regulations passed down to us, ideas passed down to us throughout the ages from one generation to the next. But what is happening in web3 is people are saying, wait, is this how it has to be or is there a different way? And if there's a different way, well, I can build it. And so it's this empowering mentality that is in web3 and not really elsewhere, if that makes sense.
JP
Well, it does and I think that there is something to explore here because curiously, you've aroused my curiosity. Journey is where we pick up our fellow travelers, right, all trying to find answers in the same place. Do you think, Nadja, in some way that builds deeper bonds, something more that does that?
Nadja
So I think it's very interesting to see how things play out in this space. I'll single out the NFT community as a good example, but before I get there, if you think about the concept of what brings people together, we can think of the concept of unity. So there isn't always a lot of unity in the world in general. However, this is typically something we find in community. So whereas society as a whole is not the poster child of unity. In fact, I mean, if you look at world events throughout the ages, we are typically the opposite of unity. However, communities themselves, they band together around a certain vision, a certain goal, and therefore there's unity. But the question then is what causes unity? Because unity is not an action, it's not something you do, it's a result. So what underlies that unity? So there are things like empathy and understanding or like I said, shared vision or shared goals or some form of cooperation.
Nadja
So this is something that is always seen in a community, if it's a well-functioning, healthy community. So coming back to the NFT community that I wanted to single out, you can see many of these different aspects there. So as the sort of manifestation of NFTs at the moment are mostly linked to art. There is this banding together of artists who, as we know, since time immemorial, artists have always suffered for their art. That's why we have all of these clichés of the suffering artists. You have to choose between money and success or showing, putting your work out there in the world. And so what NFTs and the NFT community is doing is they are really supporting one another. It's a cooperation that is just beautiful to see unfold. I'll give you an example. As I mentioned, I'm in Istanbul and we sponsored an event here last week.
Nadja
So what I saw at this event just absolutely blew me away. So there was a lot of focus on NFTs, and I spent, I would say, most of my evening talking to different NFT artists, not about their own work. They were championing each other's work. So I would meet one person and someone else would come over and say, hey, I just want to tell you, this woman, this guy, their work is just mind blowing. And then they'd open their phone and they'd go on Instagram and show me this person's work not their own. So this kind of banding together, I think, is just beautiful to see unfold. And there's a lot of that in web3 in general. Again, coming back to the point of the underdog, if you're fighting sort of the big guy on the other side of the wall, if you're a small group of people, like if you've seen the movie 300, I mean, that's a good example.
Nadja
You need to stand together. So for sure, I think that's one of the differentiating factors of web3 is that the community is a lot more cooperative than you see in other industries.
JP
Fantastic. I think that is extremely insightful because you seem to be peeling the layers of not just the human element, but also how the stakeholders, you know, begin to create bonds within that certainly goes into forming, you know, a stronger community, which is very well bonded. And it's a clear distinction from just having those vanity numbers, as you said before, certainly something, Nadja, I want us to pick your brain again for another example that shows us what a strong community should look like and for the benefit of the projects out there, the people who want to develop communities at some point. What are your maybe top three characteristics of a strong community?
Nadja
So I think the first thing, again, that we have to really just pin down is what is the definition of community? So is it vanity numbers? Because a lot of people do define a community as the amount of members they have. Now, this is a quick fix and this is, I think, one of the biggest problems that community builders have, especially in web3, is they do see it as a quick fix. So as we all are very well aware there are a lot of different strategies in web3 that people use in order to onboard new members into the community. But the question is, what is the value add that the project is giving to those community members, and what value add are those community members giving to the project? So defining community then should mean that it's something where there's mutual benefit that is sustainable and long lasting.
Nadja
Otherwise, it's really, I mean, here today, gone tomorrow. Which is a very big and problematic trend in web3. Because as a project, what you are trying to build is you are trying to build ambassadors, you are trying to build brand advocates, you are trying to build a loyal base of supporters that will go with you through all the growth stages and the growing pains and the highs and lows that you go through as a project. So for sure, the first thing is it's not a quick fix. And I think a lot of projects that do approach it that way crash and burn, and their token reflects it at the same time. Another thing I think that is that I've seen as an underrated success strategy in community building is the concept of, let's say an MVC, like a minimum viable community. It's very easy to fall prey to the kind of thinking that, okay, if I don't have a community that's x amount of numbers strong, that means that my project isn't worthy or I'm simply not getting what I want.
Nadja
Now, again, the question coming back to what it is that you want. Of course, a lot of projects are chasing vanity numbers because that's what the industry champions. However, coming back to what makes a strong community, I think a strong community is a community that focuses on building a loyal base of supporters. And that doesn't happen only when you have tens of thousands of members. So if you have a community of ten people, then that's your MVC, and if it grows to 100, then that's your MVC. So I think the key thing is again to manage your own expectations. And then the third thing really is what kind of engagement are you seeing? There's engagement where similar to vanity numbers in followers, there's vanity numbers in engagement. So you get a like or you get a reply, but does it really mean anything? So I think engagement needs to be value driven.
Nadja
So what unites the community and the project together? If there is something that is a common, as I said earlier, a common goal, a common vision, then that makes for a strong community. Because these are all building blocks, right? A community is a huge building block in the roadmap for a project to go from idea to being on the market successfully. But it's not a quick fix and it's not something where you can say, okay, checkmark, I've got the community that's done. It really is a living, evolving, growing relationship between this project that has this idea that they want to get out into the world and people who really understand what this vision is about and align themselves with it. So there are a lot of projects who focus only on getting as many people on board as possible. But I bet if you really were to ask a lot of the community members what this project is trying to do, what they're all about, there would be a skew definition of what that truly is.
Jason
So I'll jump in. Nadja, what do you think a good size of a community is for a company about to do their ideal?
Nadja
So I think this is a very subjective question. Of course we can look at what projects typically have, and I mean, this typically ranges from, let's say 20,000 to 60,000. I mean, I really just pulled this number out of my hat because it is such an arbitrary and very subjective answer. I think the more important thing is what actions those community members are going to take. So you can have 100,000 followers on Twitter and 100,000 members on your Telegram group, but when it comes to IDO, how many of those members are actually going to translate into Whitelisting for the IDO or are going to participate in the sale. So less again about the vanity aspect, but more about are people genuinely supporting the project in the way that the project needs. Not to say that every community member has to translate into the dollar value in the sense they have to participate in the IDO.
Nadja
There are different ways of engaging with a project, different ways of supporting a project. But again, it really comes down to how many community members are actively engaged and involved, because you can have said 100,000 followers, but really, if you look at it, you might have a very small group of people who are following your project on a day to day basis. So, quality over quantity. Although this is not really something that people in crypto like to hear or like to talk about, because we like those vanity numbers it releases dopamine. It makes us all feel good. But yeah, for sure, quality over quantity.
JP
Thank you for that, Nadia. I caught the last part and I think that's quite interesting to the point to which we also have to understand that the last part of it is so important because the half of community is actually unity, right? So it's that aspect of bonding and joining together to find that strength. Certainly quality community members do a lot more for you as a project, a product, or even as a group in terms of support. You're absolutely spot on with that's concerned. That being said, Nadja, what would you say would be a quick way, if you were a new project, your quick way to build a community around you? What would your first steps be and then lead it to that sort of momentum escalation?
Nadja
If you've seen the movie, what is it called? Field of Dreams, I think from Kevin Costner and that famous line build it and they will come. This I think in crypto we have misinterpreted what is going to make a community come. So a lot of projects build because there's hype and they build a copy, paste carbon copy of all the other projects out there. And okay, if the community are all getting into GameFi and play to earn games, then I'm going to build another play to earn game. But this is not the recipe for a sustainable community. And once again there needs to be a differentiation between what the end goal is. Are you building a community because you want to build a sustainable project? You want to build out a strong token or are you building a community like a hit and run? It's almost like a flash mob and really this is how some projects treat community, is it is in the flash mob style.
Nadja
So everyone comes together on Wednesday because there's a lot of hype, but by Friday we've all moved on to something else. So in terms of the quickest way to build a community, I'm going to give an unpopular answer and say I don't think it's that quick. I think instead the wrong question is being asked. The question is not to ask how to get community members. The question is are we giving people what they need? So why should someone join my community? Why should they become a loyal supporter of what it is I'm trying to do? So you need to meet people where they are. I mean, this is as true in any relationship, whether it's in business or in your personal life. It's not a question of asking the community to give to you, but it has to be mutual cooperation. So if those questions are being asked and you are offering community members what they need and so I think here really want to emphasize how important it is to meet community where they are, not where you want them to be.
Nadja
So if people right now are struggling because of the market, I mean, we are all kind of wrapping our heads around how long this bear market is continuing. What do community members need right now? Not the fact that we want community members, but asking, flipping the question on its side and asking what can we offer? Because I think that differentiation makes all of the difference. If you imagine in any relationship, the more mutual corporation there is, the stronger the relationship. It's no different in community building and it's certainly no different in Crypto.
JP
Right, so we're looking at more of a relationship building aspect when it comes to developing communities and it's about finding out what the community wants more than it is about just looking at those vanity numbers. I think that's fantastic from your perspective, Nadja. And you don't have to give us a complete name, but is there a case study you'd like to share with us, one that you've seen, that is a prime example of how the interaction between a community and maybe a project has worked?
Nadja
into Crypto in, I don't know,:Nadja
So things have shifted. But I think the thing that I notice and have been noticing over the last few years is we are moving further away from that principle of unity. So successful projects are still those and this I don't think will change. Successful projects are still those who focus on empathy, on understanding, on cooperation, on shared vision, on shared goals. Whereas a lot of new projects coming into the space jumping on the bandwagon of well, those guys over there made a few million dollars, so I can do the same. So it really is in the intention, I think, of the project building a community. Like what are you trying to achieve when doing it? Not to say that a community should always be around this larger than live vision. There are projects and tokens who absolutely are built for Hype, but then that is the cycle that project follows.
Nadja
So the differentiation between a Hyped project that's in it for the short term versus a more sustainable project that is in it for the long haul, community building will look different and very different for those two kind of projects.
JP
Totally understood. Yeah. Nadja then in that sense, do you see the cycle of Hype being complete and us going to more of the brass tax of building brand loyalty, building project loyalty because more projects are going to have a longer term vision? Is that something that you see? And your thoughts on that, please?
Nadja
I mean, if we can liken it to a relationship, there are lots of people that come and go in our lives and people are in your life for a reason or a season and then off they go again. But then there are certain individuals in every person's life who are memorable and either they stay in your life or even if they've left your life, you think about them and they've made an impact on you. So I don't think that there's space only for one or the other. For sure. Hype is part of the experience of Web3. It's one of the exciting things that people love, make a lot of gains in a short term. It's an exciting space to be in. It gives us that sense of adrenaline and dopamine and all those serotonin feel good chemicals in our brains. But that is not what makes the foundation of this industry.
Nadja
So the foundation of the industry is built out by sustainable projects and that group needs to get bigger and bigger. For sure it is. And I think markets like the one we are having at the moment again is an opportunity to really, that test of willpower and strength. But willpower and strength in the sense that do I have what it takes to build a project during a market where no one is interested in what I'm selling? And to say yes to this, you have to be committed to something more than just making a quick buck. And this goes both for projects as well as investors. If you think about the so called diamond hands, what differentiates an investor who holds on to certain tokens? Because they believe that over the long term what they put in is going to give back to them not only in the price of the token, but because this company is going to grow, this company is going to become more valuable.
Nadja
And so you really need to buy into the idea of something before you're able to make a long term commitment to it. And this goes both for projects as well as investors. So yeah, Hype in short is, I think, important, but it's not the foundation. It's a fun sort of hat or t shirt that you put on, but it's not like the outfit that you wear every day.
JP
Fair enough, fair enough. Speaking of outfits that you wear every day in terms, when it comes to project, right? I'm not going to shift focus to something where passion is concerned. However, I do want to know, Nadja, from what you've just told me, if you think talking about a long term perspective, what is the time frame that you would set or what are some of the key markers you would set across that time frame? Where it comes to this aspect of community and a project should focus on?
Nadja
So I think this will be different for different types of projects. You get certain projects that are really sexy. Everyone wants to get on board, they're out there. It's almost like when you walk past a shop and the window display is kind of what lures you into the shop. So if you're out on a shopping trip. Speaking of fashion, so if you're on a shopping expedition and you're hunting for something, where are you going to look? You're going to look in the window, what's on display? Because that's kind of what the best foot forward, right? The best of what the store has to offer, they'll put in the window. It doesn't mean however, that in terms of projects, that only the Hype top projects are the one that offers an ads value. Especially in this market. We've seen the importance of DeFi projects. DeFi is not sexy, it's not exciting, it's not the latest greatest thing.
Nadja
There's no cool NFTs, although of course there's a lot of projects now that merge the two. But the concept of DeFi is rather boring, rather bland and so we like jumping on the latest trends like NFTs and Metaverse and GameFi and those things are very important because they contribute a lot of different aspects to the industry. However, getting back to basics, we have to also ask ourselves what is building out the industry in the long run? And so really I would say that depending on the project that you are building, your game can be short or your game is going to be long term. And the key is if you are working on a project where it's not as easy to onboard the whole world. Facebook is a good example. When Facebook first started, how many people in the world was on there? First it was just at one university and then it spread to other universities but no one else really had any interest or any understanding of how any of this worked today.
Nadja
I mean people's 90 year old grandmothers are on there but it took time to get there and in crypto it's the same thing both in terms of the wider mass adoption. But even within the industry, people have the shiny sort of glittery object syndrome so everyone chases after what's new, what's exciting. But that is not the only thing that builds out the industry. That is the veneer on top, the shiny sort of glass, but what is holding up this object, like what is the foundation underneath it. And yeah, if you are building a project that is not as sexy on the surface, community building is difficult at first because you need to attract more brand loyal community members. But for sure again, it's a long term game and so just keep at it. We've seen with so many projects over the years, projects who struggled in the beginning to get those community numbers today are some of the biggest names.
JP
Fair enough, fair enough. So we have to industry as a whole, as community as a whole, as those of us in the web3 verse right, have to move out of this Mayfly syndrome and think more long term, think more in the manner in which you really stick with a project. And likewise I believe. That that will, in effect, become an expectation of projects to have more than just a short term vision for the life of what they you know, the project that they envision. Right. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last segment of our program, but thank you so much for tuning in. I know that you have learned a lot, as have I, from Nadja Bester, the co-founder of AdLunam. It's been insightful getting an idea into what really builds a community. So Nadja, once again, thank you so much for being on the show.
JP
It was a pleasure hosting you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much. Remember to tune in next week at the same time and the same Twitter space. This is JP from AdLunam Inc. Speaking to you about web3. Have a good day. Cheers.
Nadja
Thank you so much, guys. Lovely to be here. Have a great week.
Jason
Thank you everybody for joining.
