Improved sales process and preparing for events in Europe
April Summary and May Strategy
Hey everyone,
April went by fast! I made some progress on the sales process (see below) and will now focus on finding more interesting projects for the design studio, along with improving this newsletter. I’m also coming to Europe in early June and planning a one-week residency in August (TBA).
Best wishes from Phuket, I hope you’re all doing well. You can watch the full recording of our last meeting here:
Total Treasury Balance: $5,460.00 (0.057 BTC)
External Observations
Reputation management
Deep Work is seen as generous with our free time, which may affect the perceived value of our work. “Free work” gave us insight into organizations to understand the problem space more deeply, but now this reputation might be working against us.
Mentorship and workshop opportunity at EthTokyo
If you are interested in mentoring or facilitating a workshop at EthTokyo (Sept 13–15), please fill out this form. I will curate a group of mentors to connect with participants and projects that care about privacy, inclusive finance, and design for real-world outcomes.
Recession
Perhaps not surprisingly, but based on a few conversations with prospects, a friend looking for €40/hour design execution, and a development studio charging single-freelancer rates, much work is being devalued. I still expect social, creative, and strategic work to maintain or increase in value.
Inaction in the market
Many people I spoke to in the web3 space feel that while there’s a lot of talk, little action is happening.
Ethereum sentiment
Based on a few conversations with people in EF and in the community, there doesn’t seem to be a clear path to supporting projects with real-world use cases yet, and incubation is not part of their strategy. However, the broader community sees the need and still consists of strong talent.
The questions regarding Ethereum’s PMF are getting more specific. Next step to find PMF would be conducting interviews to research their needs. (tweet)
Internal Updates
Content Strategy
Case studies on Twitter gained a lot of impressions even without paid promotion. Thanks to Mitul and Lucia for putting this together! This month, I’ll write weekly newsletter issues and repurpose them.
Event Strategy
I have a ProtocolBerg workshop and Deep Experiences planned for Berlin in June.
I will also have a talk at EthCC in Cannes, with a workshop and Deep Experiences, at the end of June/early July.
Hazem gave a presentation at EthDubai, sharing his story of starting YouthDAO and his experience finding user testers to validate a product.
My Berlin apartment is available for short-term stays or as an office!
DM me if you need a place to crash for a few days, a place at a park to work from, or to host a dinner with friends. I would love to make the space useful to you when I’m not there. Ping me with ideas for what you’d like to do, I’ll share more details with you, and we’ll come up with a value exchange.
Skill mapping exercise and note-taking app
Several people have been completing the reflective skill-mapping exercise. Leave a comment below if you are interested, and I’ll share it with you.
I designed a note-taking app prototype based on several workshops from last month, but haven’t user-tested it yet. Further development will most likely depend on more feedback from the skill mapping exercise.
IRL Residency in August
I’m considering a one-week residency in August with a small group — potential locations: Portugal, Turkey, north of Spain, Italy. Most likely, it will center around working on what you are interested in and connecting with others. More details soon.
What the team is working on
Andrej
Building a repeatable sales funnel, organising ProtocolBerg workshop & Berlin “Deep Experiences”, refining newsletter, scoping a week-long residency in early August.
Mitul
Publishing case-study threads (next one drops tomorrow); experimenting with AI-assisted prototype posts.
Anya
Designing two books (AI & capital-allocation; on-chain history); product-strategy work for German vet-tech startup; open to helping shape the residency.
Could use peer review on research insights on her meditation app.
Sarah
Exploring opportunities to apply her background in educational psychology by contributing to projects focused on gamified learning, particularly within communities already running or open to educational initiatives.
Looking for access to relevant communities and early-stage projects where her expertise could be useful.
Send me a message here or leave a comment below if you’d like to help out!
Insights from the sales process I described last month
The biggest shift came from working on my ability to find comfort in conversations about value exchange (what am I comfortable providing and what do I find fair in exchange), especially for work that progresses me towards my vision of the future. Reflecting on past occasions of value creation for others also helped me build an emotional connection to value-based pricing.
Sales Funnel and Outreach
My sales goal for April was 3 collaboration conversations per week, which I successfully met through outreach and referrals.
One client paid, but the project is still ongoing, and I’m waiting for feedback.
Effective Communication Practices
The main changes in my approach relate to listening deeply to client needs, considering whether I have experience solving a similar problem, describing it, asking how that experience can be helpful, and mentioning the cost/value of similar work as a ballpark. If it sounds reasonable, send back a bespoke proposal.
Lead Channels
The strongest conversions came from community referrals, newsletters, and IRL conferences.
Case studies help maintain brand visibility and awareness, but haven’t led directly to client conversions yet.
Strategy for May
I’m creating a list of projects that seem to be interesting and in alignment with the types of projects I’d like to see in the future, and contact them directly with a short Loom review of their project. This has worked for me several times in the past and is generally enjoyable.
I’m going to put work into preparing for the conferences and IRL events to deliver high-quality experiences.
We have a global talent network with varying rates. I’ll consider this flexibility with the next proposals.
If I have enough capacity, I will share more structured social media posts from the newsletter.
Have a nice start to May and see you next time!