How to Effectively Collaborate with Crypto Protocol Foundations
A few observations of those who do it best
Hey Friends,
As a business development manager and later chief of staff of Bison Trails/Coinbase Cloud, I've had the unique opportunity to work with various protocol foundations in the ever-evolving world of crypto.
Initially, this was very foreign.
I had to adapt to this dynamic, open-source ecosystem. I did so largely thanks to the guidance of veterans like Viktor Bunin (Protocol Specialist - Coinbase) and Evan Weiss (Business Development - Coinbase).
I learned a ton from observing Viktor, Evan and many others over the years. I’ve distilled some highlights below that I’ve continually referred back to over the years.
I hope you enjoy :)
TLDR
Protocol foundations are made up of individuals that serve as lynchpins for the smooth operation of networks. To work effectively with protocol foundations, I’ve learned these best practices:
Invest in relationships: Learn about the project, join the community, engage on social media, and establish your brand. Develop an operating cadence with the team to share progress and to better understand when to partner.
Contribute to development: Submit bug reports, create documentation, or participate in non-technical tasks like (Quests, content creation, etc.)
Ask questions: Don't be afraid to ask questions within the community but do your research beforehand to avoid redundancy.
Know your leverage: Understand your position in a commercial relationship, consider token price, and negotiate for fair terms.
Play an infinite game: Offer feedback and suggestions to the team, and collaborate for long-term success.
Overview of a protocol foundation
Why do protocol foundations matter?
A protocol foundation promotes a network's adoption and smooth operations. Foundations achieve this through various activities, including support (technical or otherwise), governance, education / general resources, infrastructure, securing the protocol, and more. In the context of a nascent industry like crypto, foundations are critical.
Takeaway: if you can add value along any of those activities that foundations engage in (e.g., support, governance...), I expect that you'll find great success and develop a strong relationship with that team.What do they look like?
Foundations, from my experience, differ significantly in terms of the mission, vision articulation, team structure, team compensation, and their “go-to-market” approach. Like any organization, however, a foundation is comprised of individuals.
Some foundations have clear leadership and decision-making structure, whereas others are more informal or consensus-driven. Moreover, there are some DAOs that I have worked with that are founder-led, but the founder has mostly checked out. These foundations are likely lost and wandering in a dark, dark forest.
How to effectively collaborate with protocol foundations
As an operator of a leading infrastructure-as-a-service provider, I've learned that engaging with protocols can be challenging if you don't know the right approach. Drawing from the experiences of industry leaders, here are 5 strategies for fostering successful partnerships with protocol foundations:
1/ Invest early and often in a relationship
Take the initiative to learn about the project by reading white papers, understanding the vision/mission, and joining the community to interact with developers and other participants. Actively participate in Discord, follow leaders on Twitter, subscribe to newsletters, and attend community calls with thoughtful questions. Establish your brand and reputation within the community.
Another way to win the hearts and minds of a protocol team — retweet / engage with their content!
Here are a few recent examples:
Shapella Upgrade on Ethereum — by Liquid Collective
A New Value Accrual Model for Ethereum — by Finality Capital
Rated Network Explorer Update — by Elais Simos at Rated Network
For B2B Startups: If you're selling into a protocol and need to partner with them, make sure that you develop an operating cadence with a partnerships lead/product manager or someone on the team that can funnel your updates to the right team.
Develop a cadence (at least monthly) where you share updates on your progress and get a download of theirs. This is essential stakeholder management and the BEST way to ensure that you're top of mind. 2/ Contribute to the protocol's development
If you possess developer skills or technical expertise, submit bug reports, create documentation, build dashboards on Dune or Flipside, and test or white-hack the product. Open-source protocols offer a unique symbiotic relationship, enabling developers to build exceptional reputations while pushing projects forward. If you’re not technical, you can always find a way to participate; just look at Lido’s LEGO program — several requests are non-technical.
Similar to Web2, there are several projects (like Layer3) that help folks participate and otherwise get up-to-speed on many projects. These resources are excellent starting points.
3/ Collect dots
As previously mentioned, asking questions within the community is vital. It also allows you to learn and eventually contribute.
Avoiding basic questions due to fear or nervousness can hinder your progress. Whether you have questions about node infra setup, staking economics, or best practices for proposing a grant, remember that foundations exist to support the community.
However, do your research before asking questions to ensure you don't inquire about something already addressed or documented. Foundations have limited resources, so prioritize your requests based on urgency. Typically, I start by posting in FAQ or Random channels on Discord, contacting the moderator, and then reaching out to the leader, which has proven effective.
There’s, however, a subtle art here. You can quickly become pedantic if you ask too many questions…
On the other hand, having information about a project and the people working on it can pay dividends down the line.
I look to a mantra from the founder of Shake Shack, Danny Meyer’s:
So I learned early on something that I teach our teams, even in the restaurant business, we call it ABCD so you can ABCD. Always be collecting dots so you can always be connecting dots. I learned early on that people will take exactly as much interest in you as they believe you’re taking in them, no more and no less.
I love this, “ABCD so you can ABCD.”
It is a wonderful way to engage with people in a collaborative, mutually beneficial capacity.
4/ Know your leverage
If engaging in a commercial relationship with a protocol, understand your position relative to others and approach the partnership like any other B2B relationship. Evaluate various factors to determine your leverage. One example token price.
As we’ve seen with FTX, Luna, Voyager, and many others, operators are not immune to the exuberance experienced during bull markets. If you’re in a more frothy period where things are up and to the right — especially token prices — you’ll likely have less trouble negotiating compensation in fiat currency OR have a way to mitigate your exposure to any more volatile token.
Be aware of your leverage as a supplier. When working with more emerging networks, especially if your company / personal brand is more established, consider your power in the relationship and be sure to push for what you think your team deserves. It’s possible to be a win-win still and for you to feel like you’ve come out on top of a negotiation.
5/ Play an infinite game.
The foundation teams value feedback and suggestions from their community. Contact the team with your thoughts and ideas on improving the protocol. In the context of infrastructure, we’ve worked with several foundations early on to explain the pitfalls of their approach to decentralization, go-to-market, token economics, or even how they manage developer relations.
Be candid but sincere, and most teams (at least the ones you’ll want to partner with long-term) will be receptive.
Conclusion
With the right mindset and approach, creating lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with protocol foundations is possible. Investing in relationships, asking questions, and offering valuable feedback can reap significant rewards for your project, dApp, or company.
I hope that some of these insights are valuable to teams that are just beginning their relationship with protocol foundations, or offer a fresh take on how to engage.
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