A friend of mine who is a seasoned Web2 tech executive joined a Web3 company in June. A switched-on operator, he asked to speak with all 16 staff before deciding to join the firm.<\/strong><\/p>\n This shows that Web3 joiners need to really hone in on the mission when jumping ship from the old tech world.<\/p>\n Is the blockchain tech business model really plausible? You almost need to be a seasoned venture capitalist or world-class engineer when considering a new project\u2019s potential to build a new L1 blockchain as promised \u2014 and, thus, deliver your token rewards.<\/p>\n The risk-reward metrics mean there are opportunities for great success. But with great success come great tax problems\u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing I see is that everyone in the space has an innovative mindset \u2014 early adopters, the change-makers and people not allergic to change. People love telling you how early they adopted,\u201d explains Lucy Lin, founder of <\/span>Forestlyn<\/span>, a Web3 marketing agency. She spent \u200b\u200b\u201c15 years in various corporate roles\u201d before discovering crypto and blockchain in 2017. She says 2022 feels different \u2014 it\u2019s more welcoming, for one.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFive years ago, it was infested with \u2018crypto bro\u2019 mentality and behavior,\u201d she says. \u201cAt the time, it was the Wild West: anything goes, a lack of process, young and inexperienced. I don\u2019t want to discount that, but in those days, that was rampant. There was a severe lack of female representation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad to see an increasing amount of diversity and inclusion \u2014 more women, ages, sexual orientations, races, etc. \u2014 in the space these days.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cScams are still as pervasive as ever, but the space is maturing, and many more diverse people with a variety of skill sets are entering,\u201d Lin tells Magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n As the industry grows up, it\u2019s becoming a great career move for many. But it\u2019s a whole new world than the one they\u2019re used to. So, here are some reflections from the leap-takers, investors and founders who\u2019ve jumped from Web2.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n pic.twitter.com\/gdgSxDzhkR<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Crypto Bros Taking Ls (@CoinersTakingLs) May 19, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The jump from Web2 to Web3 is<\/span> most apparent<\/span> at the executive level: Google\u2019s former vice president Surojit Chatterjee now serves as Coinbase\u2019s chief product officer. Amazon\u2019s Pravjit Tiwana left his position as general manager of Amazon Web Services\u2019 Edge Services to become the chief technology officer of Gemini. Lyft\u2019s former chief financial officer Brian Roberts joined NFT marketplace OpenSea. The former head of gaming at YouTube now leads Polygon Studios as its CEO, and AirBnB\u2019s former human resources director<\/span> also joined Polygon in June<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n To compete, Google is building its own Web3 division<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>most demanded job titles<\/span><\/a> in the metaverse and Web3 space include NFT social media and community managers, content writers and editors, blockchain developers, front-end and back-end engineers, media reporters, growth marketing managers, project managers and gamification strategists.<\/span><\/p>\n Angie Malltezi used to be a tech management consultant at a top global management firm, working with C-suites at Fortune 500s.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2021, <\/span>she jumped ship to a Web3 exchange group, and now she\u2019s the chief of staff at Shipyard Software.<\/span><\/p>\n Like many others who\u2019ve made the leap, particularly those coming from the Web2 world, she\u2019s found it something of a culture shock.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn Web3, traditional business etiquette often isn\u2019t followed. People will ghost you last minute or drop deals without any notice,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople won\u2019t sign NDAs. There\u2019s a lack of long-term thinking and planning and, perhaps, simple immaturity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She says that on the surface, \u201cWeb3 is informal, remote-first and collaborative, and the competition is yourself \u2014 and business is done via text messages on Telegram. But the business operator mindset isn\u2019t as strong, and projects err on the side of \u2018spend to please\u2019 as a principle of managing finances.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s an experimental mindset of \u2018Let\u2019s go innovate and throw whatever money we can at this\u2019 rather than conservative, strategic investments tied to business cases with a clear ROI.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n But Malltezi says there are many more similarities than differences between Web2 and Web3. \u201cBoth have the desire to innovate, try new things and establish a collaborative culture. And both face similar challenges managing tokenholders or stockholders.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But Web3 projects sometimes try to go around problems rather than deal with them.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Web2, there is the acceptance and understanding of how regulatory and government bodies impact the business\u2019s bottom line; and as such, these institutions factor in business strategy decisions and partnerships.\u201d<\/p>\n Web3 recruiter Kate Osumi tells Magazine she\u2019s noted a few trends among those who want to make the leap:<\/span><\/p>\n But isn\u2019t that just every stereotypical lazy career-jumping millennial, I ask?<\/span><\/p>\n No, she argues. The work ethic can be even stronger in Web3 because they have skin in the game. The incentives are aligned differently in token economies.<\/span><\/p>\n The teams are generally distributed and remote-first, and everyone is responsible for their own tasks.<\/span><\/p>\n Osumi\u2019s own journey was from human resources at Facebook from 2018 to December 2021, to experimenting with working with a variety of DAOs in 2021, to finally joining Serotonin \u2014 a Web3 marketing firm and product studio with a client recruitment services arm \u2014 in January 2022.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n During her DAO days, Osumi quickly became a core member of Digitalax, a Web3 fashion DAO. This swift trajectory was \u201cjust a matter of showing up every day and engaging with the community.\u201d <\/span> \u201cThe DAOs were fun at first. But the more DAOs I joined, the more founders I spoke to \u2014 they hadn\u2019t even worked out tax considerations. The money was flowing, but they are still a<\/span> dreamland<\/span> for now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Along those lines,<\/span> Karl Jacob,<\/span> co-founder and CEO of Bacon Protocol, suggests that \u201cCategorizations of Web3 are pretty false.\u201d <\/span>He\u2019s been around since before the dot-com boom and even built Springfield.com for the creators of The Simpsons <\/em>in the mid-1990s.<\/span><\/p>\n His company Dimension X was acquired by Microsoft in the late 90s, and he was even an adviser at Facebook \u2014 though he admits he \u201cdidn\u2019t know what social networking was\u201d when he first met Mark Zuckerberg.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCulturally, this period feels more like Web1,\u201d he says. \u201cThe Web1 motto was \u2018Those who ship code win.\u2019 In Web3, again, it is whoever ships code wins.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe ethos \u2014 building for others to build on top of \u2014 reminds me of the Web1 playbook. The ecosystem pays you back for participating.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He noted that in Web1, proposals to change the internet effectively were voted on by the community. But today, DAOs could end up being a better structure for incentivized outputs. On the other hand, we \u201ccould remake mistakes, regarding voting structures.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Jacob founded LoanSnap in 2017, which started as a Web2 fintech company. However, the firm realized it could underwrite mortgages faster and more efficiently with blockchain technology and became <\/span>Bacon Protocol<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n According to Jacob, blockchain is a honeypot for attracting talent.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWeb3 is a shiny new thing \u2014 everyone wants to work on it. Real engineering is happening. Crypto security is hard, and people are attracted to working on hard problems.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Web3 product development relies less on analytics than Web2.<\/span> It\u2019s messier and less scientific. In Web3, product development feedback happens during a product build<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This sort of feedback is both good and bad, <\/span>Hedge<\/span> founde<\/span>r Sebastian Grubb<\/span> tells Magazine. Grubb spent five years at Google as a product manager, up until October 2021, building products with large teams and was looking to try something new. Playing around with different DeFi protocols, he became really interested in building one himself.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAn advantage of Web3 is that you usually get a direct line of contact with users, via social media, that would usually not happen in old tech companies. Some teams do see this as a disadvantage since customers usually only reach out when they have complaints.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Though, \u201cOverall, the space is very welcoming, with everyone trying to help each other out and help solve similar roadblocks,\u201d notes Grubb.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the reasons Web2 analytics and product metrics are less used in Web3 is that they are less useful, says <\/span>Malltezi:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWeb2 has spent the last 15 years finely defining how to calculate CAC [cost for customer acquisition] and how to measure LTV [customer lifetime value], yet Web3 has misaligned incentives that make inferring user behavior with data unreliable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So, Web2 folks need to ask questions and look at the business model and ecosystem first before jumping.<\/span><\/p>\n Yash Patel\u200b, general partner at Telstra Ventures, suggests the tech is key. And as a later-stage startup investor, Patel expects traction. \u201cDue diligence on tokenomics is my North Star. I focus on user acquisition plus tokenomics, yet the data analytics of where the last three clicks came from is much harder in Web3.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo an extent, airdrops are \u2018customer acquisition costs\u2019 renamed,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Do your homework before jumping to Web3, and consider the advantages and disadvantages of getting paid in tokens. <\/span>Ex-Googler-turned-DeFi-man Grubb suggests that \u201cIt\u2019s still a bit hard to pay people in crypto in the U.S., though quite a few companies are popping up trying to solve this problem. Also, we\u2019ve still seen people wanting fiat for regular employment, so it\u2019s a mix of more infrastructure needed as well as demand.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThough this hasn\u2019t stopped some companies from famously paying their staff in crypto.\u201d<\/span> \u201cHowever, I think this is a good thing, as equity\/options in previous companies asked employees to take huge risks with little horizon for liquidity unless the company got acquired or went public.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Web3 salaries being paid in tokens also mean they can be volatile. Given that <\/span>all startups are risky, cashing out a percentage of tokens as soon as possible is always smart.<\/span><\/p>\n It may be a good idea to ask to see a capitalization table and consider who invested and when those tokens are unlocked and can be dumped.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWeb3 operates within a still-questionable regulatory environment with perverse incentives. Founders and employees should want control and to make sure their team doesn\u2019t get dumped on,\u201d cautions Bernstein. <\/span>Then there are tax issues.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Been transferring your crypto between different wallets, and wondering what the potential tax implications of doing so are? 🤔<\/p>\n Wonder no more! We break it down for you in our latest blog: https:\/\/t.co\/NnbyOsLpT8<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/58meiRhiHi<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Web2](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/magazine-web2-web3-1024x576.jpg\")
![\"Lucy](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Lucy-Lin-1_Smaller-1-1024x548.jpg\")
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The game is played on different fields<\/h4>\n
![\"Angie](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Angie-Malltezi-or-Shipyard-Software.jpg\")
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<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-18-at-16.17.17-300x262.png\")
The recruiter\u2019s pulse<\/h4>\n
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![\"DAOs\"](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/daos.jpg\")
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<\/span>DAOs might be the future of business<\/a>, but right now, they don\u2019t seem very focused on business. <\/span>
<\/span>She wasn\u2019t impressed with how they handled the practicalities of paying the bills and rent and didn\u2019t think they operated professionally enough.<\/span><\/p>\nWeb3 is more like Web1: Code fast<\/h4>\n
![\"Web](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-15-at-9.44.02.png\")
Product management happens differently in Web3<\/h4>\n
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![\"Telstra](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Telstra-Ventures.jpg\")
So, understand the roadmap and tokenomics when you jump<\/h4>\n
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<\/span>Getting paid in tokens is not the same as getting equity in a business. \u201cThe faster access to liquidity with tokens is both a blessing and a curse since employees are more likely to join but may leave as soon as they get liquidity,\u201d Grubb tells Magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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