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The economy has been volatile lately, but crypto has continued to surge forward. Whether itâs on the funding front, crypto marketing dominating our everyday lives, or smart people leaving their jobs to jump into the space, itâs hard to ignore.
Having recently left my full-time job to dive in myself, itâs been interesting to observe talent movement and whatâs happening on the recruiting front.
Some companies are getting serious
And when I say âcompaniesâ, Iâm not saying multi $B companies like Dapper Labs, Opensea, or Polygon. Of course theyâd need recruiting teams and built out processes for recruiting.
Iâm talking about projects like Cool Cats, the creators of this newsletterâs mascot!
Cool Cats is a collection of 9,999 randomly generated and stylistically curated NFTs that exist on the Ethereum Blockchain. Cool Cat holders can participate in exclusive events such as NFT claims, raâŠ
Created by CoolCatsContractView on OpenSea
(BTW, you can embed Opensea NFT links, wild!)
Last Friday, the following announcement was made:
For a TLDR on Chris Hassett: He seems like an accomplished entrepreneur and businessman. However, he was hired several months ago and has doneâŠnothing. Quite literally. He spoke on one Twitter Spaces months ago and that was it.
What does this tell me about successfully running a company or brand in Web3?
Operating experience is important, but understanding Web3 and its culture is just as important.
I can speak to this from first-hand experience as well. This theme was clear from conversations with various recruiters and companies in the space looking for skilled marketers and growth operators for Web3 companies.
There is plenty of talent out there (many more qualified than myself), but few are qualified for the role and understand the Web3 culture deeply. It doesnât mean that you canât learn on the job and succeed. However, this isnât as simple of employing the same marketing strategies and tactics when you jump from one industry to another in Web2. You can preach about âcommunity firstâ or all the buzzwords you want, but a few questions can weed out most of the BS.
If I were a recruiter for a company in the NFT space, I would ask a few simple questions that would snuff out 80% of candidates:
âDo you have any NFTs?â (do you practice what you preach?)
âCan you share with me your wallet address?â (this is the Web3 âresumeâ. Do you have the NFTs you say you have?)
âWhatâs your favorite project and why?â (how do you think about projects and what are your mental models?)
TPan WTF does this have to do with âsome companies are going the traditional routeâ?
Oh ya, my bad :)
So along with that announcement the Cool Cats team casually mentioned that they have retained Heidrick & Struggles to lead their new CEO search. Havenât heard of Heidrick & Struggles? Me neither, until now.
So what do they do?
AhâŠthatâs why I havenât heard of them. They are executive recruiters, aka they help big (like Fortune 500 big) companies find their next C-Suite. They donât care about TPanâs of the world.
What does this tell me? Cool Cats are serious about finding the right person to take the company and brand to the global level and theyâre willing to pay for it.
But sometimes, the right person might already be in the communityâŠ
On top of the business and leadership experience, Sighduck has been with the Cool Cats since the very early days and holds many of them, including the legendary Devil Cat which is his PFP. I hope the Cool Cats team at least gives Sighduck an interview. He might not be a Fortune 500 CEO, but he actually understands the space, product, and culture.
Either way I hope Cool Cats finds the right CEO. My cat is relying on it! đ
Oh boy, what now? This morning Elon tweeted this:
I dunno ⊠seems kinda fungible
Is he referring toâŠNFTs? And whatâs this new PFP?
Oh boyâŠ
This is a picture of the Sothebyâs 101 BAYC lot which was sold for $24.4 million in September 2021. So these arenât his and heâs poking fun at how anyone can âright-click-saveâ NFTs.
But why did he change his Twitter PFP for his 90.8 million followers to see?
No one knowsâŠyet. But a lot of theories are popping up.
CapÎtainTrippy.ETH đđŻđ„ @CapetainTrippy
Can anyone confirm that @guyoseary and @elonmusk were together at the Hollywood Bowl last night?
This tweet is in reference to an article on Dave Chappelle being attacked while performing yesterday night.
So what? What does Guy Oseary have to do with anything?
A lot more than you think.
Coincidence? MaybeâŠ
from @ap3father
from @digitaldamaged
In the meantime, everyone in Bored Ape community will be hanging onto their seats. Never a dull day in this space đ
TPan
