Community meet & greet with our new CMO

Recorded: Jan. 24, 2023 Duration: 0:32:38

Player

Snippets

Hey, all go fam! GMG, AGE, super excited about what's going on today. Let's just give it a minute for Stacy, Jazz and John to join the speaker board.
Hey, y'all.
This is Jess.
Hello, Jess. Hey, hey.
So excited to be here, guys. Me too. Yeah. Hey, me too. Me three. As you know, this is the happiest day of my life. John, I hate to tell you this, but this particular Twitter space is not about you.
I know. You're our Twitter space king, but this one is not about you. Okay, fine. We'll let you listen. We'll let you listen. Okay, okay. I love John. Oh, everybody loves John.
Everybody loves it. Okay, so I have to, I think wait until Fred tells me I'm allowed to start. Do we have a count though so far? How do I tell? Let's see how many people are on this thing. Let's see. Around 100 people now. Okay, fantastic.
But hey, Stacy, we got a 100 people you're ready to rock. Okay, well, I have been waiting for this day since I joined the Alchorand Foundation as CEO. I do want
to give a shout out to the marketing team at the foundation. And I said this on our assembly before, but let me just say it again. When I started, we did not have a particularly good marketing. And a lot of that came from the fact that we didn't put any resources behind it and really any attention to it.
And I think, and I've said this a number of times, I think the biggest mistake that we made was to say we have the best hack in crypto. Surely everybody will recognize this. I mean, the quality of this protocol speaks for itself. The quality of this community speaks for itself. So we just have to be there, build it, and they will come, right?
We then lost our head of marketing in June. I was interviewing and interviewing and I kissed a lot of frogs for this role and a lot of very good frogs actually as well. Our marketing team has held it together over the summer and really
We operated without direction. I was kind of quasi running the marketing department, which note was not good for anybody, and particularly our marketing efforts. And finally, though, and not to put sort of any undue pressure on you, Jess, because like the world is not going to change in a day. We're not going to spend on a dime.
She's got a lot of work to do. This is the beginning of the process of understanding what this community needs, how we're going to position this protocol, what we're going to do. But I am beyond thrilled to announce the onboarding of our Chief Marketing Officer, Jess Chisholm.
So I want to just start by saying that you worked at Nike first and then we did have an announcement strategy which was that I was going to say Nike on one day and then I was going to say Apple and
And then I was going to say what's happened. It was going to be like a three-part thing. But the Nike thing, and if I thought about it for five seconds, of course, I should have realized everybody started thinking we had this Nike partnership. So that was not a very good move. But this is why we have a marketing ahead of marketing now. I'm sure that I don't do these knucklehead things going forward. But you come from#
and also some very hardcore brands, right? Like three of the best known brands in this country are Nike, Apple, and Meta Facebook, right? I mean, you just couldn't come with any better credentials and your credentials and you are worthy of the quality of this community and the quality of this protocol.
And so can everybody do a little like clap thing to welcome you first on this Twitter space a little everybody with the with the clap emojis please on this space. Thank you. And Jess why don't I just turn it over to you and tell us a little bit about yourself without talking about algorithm just give us give us a little bit
the background on you so that we can know you a little bit more as a person. Yeah, no, so so glad. Thank you guys so much for this warm welcome. I am so excited to be part of this community. I'm so excited for the amazing, amazing impact that we're going to have. We already have, but also the amazing adventure we're going to be on.
Yeah, I can speak a little bit about myself and I'm really looking forward to getting to know folks here as well. My background, I started out, I did start out in Silicon Valley, I was at Apple. Actually, right after the iPhone launched, actually, I have some fun, amazing stories of Steve Jobs and some interactions that
But I won't divulge for now. But really my beginnings really was starting out really thinking about the consumer experience and especially in the retail space. So I actually helped launch a lot of their retail expansion as well as online efforts in Asia. So I was actually in Shanghai.
for a few years really leading some strategic initiatives on behalf of the company and had just an amazing time. I also worked really thoughtfully in headquarters also thinking about internal enterprise level strategic projects and it was it was an amazing
I think for myself though I really wanted to pick it heavy into brand marketing because I felt like I really wanted to be closer to the consumer and really thinking about yeah, how do we how do you tap into actually like on the ground communities and also personally as an athlete I play basketball and also very into running and
to a lot of running communities. My dream brand, I'll be honest, has always been Nike and being able to work there was honestly an amazing experience. So my focus there really was on building these digital communities across starting
football. So I actually started out in leading the World Cup campaign in 2018, partnered with a lot of athletes and influencers, Neymar Ronaldo, as well as really thinking about like these on the ground communities, these, they, we call them fixer communities of football athletes, football obsessed teens as well
those who are really just like absolute fandoms of Nike are products. And so from there really built out a full global ecosystem of runners, of athletes, of, you can call them retail users as well of our products.
really developed a really powerful actually it's a revenue sharing model around our jerseys and tied to the World Cup campaign. So it was fabulous experience moved then into really more of a strategy role thinking about how do we change our campaign model which was very heavy campaign into more digital marketing. And so we built a
200 person team across the world really thinking about how to decentralize our content efforts. And then from there, I did a bit more fun work around culture and sneaker and sneaker drops. And I can speak more on that in the future. And then I really ended up pivoting, moving to back to the bay back into tech.
where I joined WhatsApp at the time, as an entire company was called Facebook, which is now meta, and I was leading privacy and brand marketing efforts at WhatsApp. So we were building a brand. So prior to that, it was a product that was loved and used by over 2.5 billion users, but there was a huge opportunity to actually
to find what Whatsapp stood for and also really establish a clear differentiated brand. And so from there, build that strategy, rolled it out. Also had a team that really rolled up some amazing global campaigns around the world as well as across social. And yeah, that's kind of, I have a lot more stories, but I'll just leave it at that for now.
Okay, but do you started at Apple though? So maybe talk a little bit about that and then you ran in your first encounter with Steve Jobs I think is maybe worth telling We can go into that I mean my my role at Apple I think really was at the time creating
demand in developing markets. So when you think about, especially specifically in Asia, and so thinking a lot about the consumer journey. So what are the main touch points that our consumer touches and really what are the main messages and also experiences that would really create
So, I worked on a lot of enterprise level solutions back in the home base. And basically we had come up with this amazing strategy and built out a UX called the iBuy. I'm not going to go into detail what it was. But basically I was presenting to our CFO Peter Oppenheimer at the time and Steve Jobs walks in.
I think he was running walking over some other, he was not coming in for the meeting, he walks in and he just starts asking a bajillion questions. What does I buy? Tell me about this, tell me about that. It was terrifying, but also an amazing opportunity, I guess, to sell him, and not sell him, but basically share with him.
a really powerful concept of how we can enable procurement and different things across the organization and beyond. So it was a good time. It was a while ago. So I won't go on to do that. Yeah, trial by fire, though, for sure. And so I think you were not looking for a job. I think it's fair
to say. You had a very good, you know, you're at a top company and you had a very wide remit and we thanks to Grayson Lee who you knew socially and professionally. You kind of came to us and I of course was so
excited when I met you. What attracted you to Algarine? What extent were you even thinking about Web 3? What about Layer 1s and what about Algarine in particular? You were happy.
I will say I was not looking. This definitely came to me. I will say I've been following Algrin for some time though, so just to be clear, Jason and I have been friends for years and very, very good friends. And so just learning and hearing about his own journey and also the journey that Algrin's been on has just
definitely been something I've been following closely. Now Web 3 in general, I think Mehta had also done his own exploration in that space and I've always been passionate and very thoughtful about just digital ownership, how it applies to privacy that is part of that was part of my role at Mehta also thinking about digital identity,
disability, which is also a big part of my role and also thinking about the metaverse. And so that drew me to the sector as a whole. So I was, I've definitely been, been kind of following and having a lot of thinking around the meta. What felt like an inevitable growth of the tech side of Web 3. And I've also had a lot of Web 3 friends.
So people who are in it. And so I kind of just I was just kind of following on both as a consumer as a buyer and then also just as a as a friend. And so I will say yes, I was not thinking of diving in at that exact time. I think when you and I chatted and I was thinking of referring a good few like some of my really amazing network over to
for this role. But I will say after meeting some more folks, I ended up meeting a lot of the team at some folks just in the Agra and Equal System. I really felt like, it felt like in some ways what's happened the early days where there was this amazing product and also huge impact. And personally, I'm such a passion.
so passionate about equity and inclusion when it comes to a financial access perspective and just the stories that were being told disaster relief you name it. I think it drew me and also the tech drew me. I've worked again like Apple like best in class what's up meta but best in class tech just not enough
storytelling and human centered differentiation as a brand. I was like it just felt like a lot of upside an opportunity. And so took me a long time. I will say Stacy, I don't know, I don't know if you've recorded me for about like two, three, four months. I've just been thinking and reflecting a lot about what I wanted to do in this next chapter. And it felt meaningful enough to take a leap.
Yeah, I mean, I'm very proud of myself for doing this. I must say. And can you can I maybe and we have a bunch of community questions that were given us. So I want to make sure that we give you know some some time to that. But maybe if I can kind of marry the two the two questions
together. What, and you know, you've just arrived, so I want to be, you know, I want to, I'm not expecting anything, you know, fully, fully fleshed out, right? But you're, you know, your experience at these huge companies that everybody knows the name. So these companies, everybody understands those brands. What are, what, what
What can you say maybe that you take from those experiences that you couldn't apply to our agreement, into our situation, and even in just kind of broad strokes, how do you think about kind of applying that skill set and those learnings to what the situation that we face right now as a protocol?
Yeah, I definitely think this is like there's so much and I know that with remarking fundamentally there's so many differences and I know that that was one of the community questions that were asked and I'm really happy to dive into that as well. But I will say that there are just the practice of marketing there are some truths that I think can
be very much applied. So things like the fact that I think when I first joined I got a lot of questions around like why Algorand and also like what's the difference of like Algorand versus all the other layer ones aren't they all like fast green etc. and the fact that they're
There hasn't been a really strong narrative in story of Algrin superiority, as well as a clear differentiated and inspiring grant. I just don't feel like there's been any real Web 3 brands that have emerged in a way that's extraordinarily meaningful to the community, but also to draw in mass audiences.
I think that is something that I have done in terms of really building out what are the true tenons as well as what is how does the brand come to life across all channels across all touch points in a way that that really starts sticking sticking to people's brains and really driving that like
number one, mind share and attribution. And so that that's one thing I feel like there's a huge opportunity for. I would say my experience in with Nike and really driving like culture conversation, like making sure we're part of that zeitgeist and and adding a bit of a cool, I don't know if it's a cool factor.
But but kind of bringing us to be much more relevant to the younger generation, which I think is really important in this space and so much of what's built by Gen Z and beyond. And so I think there's a lot of opportunity to be part of the culture, part of the conversation, both from a social perspective, but also having a point of view of what does Algorithm have to say around
around topics that matter, whether that be, whether that could be around equity and finance, whether it be around AI, whether it be around refugees. I mean, you name it. Like, there's so much conversation that is being had without algorithm being tapped. And so I feel like there's a lot of culture work that I could bring
And then finally, just like strategic audience building. I've done my last role at meta was also really thinking about what are the key audiences, what narratives are we going to drive, and then also really driving adoption acquisition across those audiences. So you can think devs, retail users, et cetera, how we really
Yeah, really bring them into the ecosystem. And then let me ask you one more before we, we, I'll give it to Fred to to tee up some of the community questions, but you taught me a word called performance marketing and a lot of what you've talked about so far is kind of
I guess the question is, you know, how do you think you're very analytical as well? And you like to, we've had a lot of community feedback about both the fact that we're not doing enough marketing and also that we're wasting money during marketing that doesn't have any impact, right? And you come from a very hardcore Silicon Valley
approach to getting the ROI on marketing. Do you want to just tell us a little bit about your view of the world there and how you're going to whip us into shape and make sure we're doing this properly? Yeah, I will say that analytics return on investment being able to ruthlessly prioritize is extraordinarily important to me, especially in
the current environment that we're in, I think every dollar needs to work a lot harder. I'm not docking any of the past work at all, but I just think there is a reality where there is some pivots to be made around prior spend and really how we are so much more intentional, thoughtful, and making sure I don't
goes a lot farther for us. And so when I think about what is that goal that I'm looking to drive, I think driving double digit growth of users, of active users, especially on like existing dApps and projects, transactions on chain through really effective audience-centric marketing, shifting perception,
and really being able to track and actually see movement and also of course doing that in conjunction with the community is something I am very, very excited about. And so I think that's something around SEO, targeted paydads, really being able to measure our investment and seeing short-term and long-term impact is something I'm really excited about.
Okay, so the amazing Fred Astante who is everywhere at all times in all instances in a way that only he can do you have been collecting some community questions and so why don't you
Start asking them. Absolutely. Thanks, Facey. I'm going to ask a few questions and I'm going to send Jess right back to you. Hi, Jess. Our community is super excited to have you in the algorithm and they've already sent loads and loads of questions.
We have selected just a few for us to cover today. This is very first two spaces. So the very first question is what will be the key and most responsibilities is these about commercial partnerships or retail adoption. If either of those, what is then involved advertising?
Yeah, so I'm really, yeah, this is a fabulous question. I definitely will dig in. I definitely want to say also that this is a like evolving role, right? And so as we learn more about as I learn more and as I listen more to the community, right? I'm also just want to share that I'll be going on a listening tour. I'm really excited to learn and
also evolve as we see fit. So I'm going to share as of now what my top four priorities are and also my overarching kind of perspective on the responsibilities of the CMO role. So first, I think my fundamentally, the goal is to make algorithm famous
and ubiquitous. Right. So we'll be driving further distinct, distinction and differentiation, really positioning our ecosystem to target developers, retail institutional investors as the world's most secure and reliable, all one blockchain. And so my top four priorities and into achieve that, one will be really building a clear differentiated and inspiring brand.
Two will be driving global recognition of algorithms, superradi, so you can think PR comms really being moving up in terms of just rankings. The third is growing awareness of useful DAPs as well as projects. And then four is to really accelerate adoption of key audiences, which is what's the thing I was just chatting about.
That is fantastic. Thank you, J.S. All righty on to question two from user real value vision aka Mumbai. Which marketing strategies will get utilized and who is the target group? What will be the main focus of the new CMMobin regards to marketing and why did you choose to work with Algarite?
I got to say these questions are so spot on. I'm like this community clearly understands base level marketing in a way that is fantastic. So I'm really looking forward to listen and learn more. And kind of hear all say from you guys like what you've seen in terms of target groups and
And how you think about it, I'll share my perspective for now. And so I think when I think about target groups by priority, I think first, Debs with a focus on acquisition. And so for me, I think there's some key markets that we can think about there. A very light example would be like India, I think is something we've been doing some really amazing work in.
And then of course retail users right with the focus on acquisition or retention for existing DAPs and then and then thinking about how how we also partner with investors and traders and and I think the strategies to reach them. I think I think of again we've been largely
And I think when I think about how we can move more to just really a tighter growth, like really focused on growth and adding these marketing capabilities, I think about one is like going on the offense, right? So how can we really position ourselves?
So, I think that's what I think is really important.
It was called Telegram. It felt like at the time it was super small, not a big deal. But then it just kept growing. And at what's up, it started becoming a real real issue.
really trying to land this like really strong privacy story user-focused story but telegraphed. What they did was ultimately they always position themselves signal as well position themselves right at the standpoint right next to as the competitor next to what's up because what's up was a big play.
Telegram was constantly touching up and because of that people just immediately started equating Telegram with WhatsApp, you know, so top of mind. And so I don't think we'll do the exact same thing given Technologically again, Telegram's not as strong, but I think as an analogy that idea of like a on the ground gorilla campaign
I felt like they did some really amazing work there. So I just something to keep in mind as we think about how do we move algorithms to be truly top of mind. I think leading with innovation. So go on the offense lead with innovation. How do we communicate both our existing products and projects and also future offerings more clearly across the board and then of course find
to demonstrate our commitment to devs and founders, right? I know that devs hate being marketed too. And so how do we think about really showing our commitment through like dev tooling, education, support, and really thinking about all the touch points to really speak to them where they are and really provide actual utility and value. So those are some of the things I think about.
Thank you very much, Jess. Alright, the third question comes from Yodeling aka Mingo and he asks, "Why do you think Web 2 brands consistently get Web 3 campaigns wrong?"
Okay, I'm going to keep this one really simple. I think we do I think we get a lot of things strong, but I'm just going to list two for now. One day devs like I think devs hate marketing and so I think a lot of web 2 brands try to use conventional advertising in order to
to reach them. I don't think it's worked. Secondly, I noticed a lot of web2 brands do a lot of like one-way broadcast marketing. So it's just like shouting from the rooftops about the brand and then not tapping into actual community and culture and really giving your
toolkit, giving your hand in your brand over to the community, and it also establishes really meaningful relationships. I feel like in so many ways, relationship needs to be the root, and therefore global movement becomes the fruit. In so many ways, I think that's one thing that I think our WebTuberans are not doing right.
Thanks. The next question is, is very marketing strategy from another blockchain or foundation that you think has been successful? So I think we have to define what success means. I think if we define success as being able to be to kind of
show like top of mind, top of mind, being top of mind in a mainstream media perspective due to like big fancy partnerships. I do think that in terms of mainstream partnerships, Polygon has done a solid job in moving mainstream media to think of calling on through some of the partnerships obviously
Starbucks, Disney, etc. But in my opinion, I think there's a huge gap because I think a lot of the partnerships they've leveraged have not been truly need-based, real solution based on chain solutions where they're actually bringing their business on on chain in a really meaningful way that solves real problems at scale.
So it fits one bucket of success. And then another bucket of success is community development. Any algorithms on an amazing job, but I think Cardano has done a really solid job in terms of developing community and really building that out and building advocates like real big advocates for the ecosystem.
I think a lot of that, you know, Charles has done an amazing job. And I really respect that. But then how I think as we come to algorithm will have to think a lot more about, you know, how do we amplify John's, Dacey, Paul, etc. The amazing bench that we have to really, and also amplify the amazing community that is here.
give them the tools they need to do the job of really driving more advocacy for the ecosystem. This is Music Tour of yours. Yes, thank you. I had fifth question. With many fast green proof of stake blockchains available, how do you market ordering as different?
So again, new to the role. I want to hear and I just wanted I want people to know that this brand building exercise of really defining algorithm is going to be a community, a community exercise. And so definitely want to hear from from everyone here around like what actually makes us different. I will give my own
take for now from what I've observed. I think a lot of blockchains are doing a lot of smoke and mirrors. I think ultimately we do have superior tech. We have faster finality, we have true scalability and true carbon efficiency across the board. I think we need to play from a position of strength. We need to double down on areas that we are ahead. And so fun to
And we really do believe that we are driven by this mission to make financial realities accessible to everyone. We need to create deeper emotional connections to create loyalty beyond reason with our numerous audiences with our brand and then show them what we're doing.
that algorithm is really grown to be a technological force to be known and recognizing that it's going to take a lot of focus and investment as long as execution. So for me at least for now, when I think about like the four top proof points, one, security. So this idea
We have the most private and secure chain. We have things like quantum security and there's so much that only algorithm. We can actually say only algorithm has as a proof point. Reliability, no downtime ever. Service, which I know is something John has been talking about. This idea of like world class, concierge service and then finally scale.
ensuring access and equity at all. And so I think those are things that again, we'll have to continue to build out, but I think a lot of it I would love to hear more from the community of what really makes this different. Fantastic, thanks, Jess. All right, and onto the last question for today. Why did you decide to take the jump into Web 3?
So I think I spoke on this with with Stace, so I'll keep it short. Basically a lot of web three friends and and really really believing that from a privacy standpoint and also data a data standpoint, I just really think
that we need to move to a place where ownership is given to the hands of the people. And I believe that this sector is the one that's actually the one who's going to be on the leading edge of that change. So I'm really, really excited to be here.
So, thanks Fred, nice job and thanks community and there's a ton of more questions, but this is not going to be of course the last time that Jess engages with you in Fred'll setup maybe some Reddit Q&As as well and more Twitter space and we'll invite you to our next assembly and you know this is as you know why
of our resolutions this year, so we're just like out there engaged with you on all kinds of touch points all year long. But pretty exciting stuff, right? I mean, she knows she's talking about it, she knows what she's talking about. I want to end though, because this is a 30 minutes and I want to keep our promise there.
You know you may know that it consensus we kicked off our ping pong tournament championship and our head of India a Neil Cacani he is our reigning ping pong champion but my understanding is that you play a pretty mean game of ping pong yourself so do you do you think any
has anything to be worried about? Or are you going to bring it this year on the ping pong stage? I think we always come in and say that you're a little secret that people may not know. I was trained by a Olympic, Olympian ping pong coach when I was
I do believe I can give a little bit of run for its money. So I'm excited to play. She's going to give a Neal a run for her, his money in Pinghuang and she's going to give the other L ones a run for their money on all other points. So please, Jess, we're so glad to have you.
and thank you so much for doing this and total world domination in 2023. Thank you so much and thanks everybody for coming to this. We've got hundreds of listeners and we appreciate you guys very much and more to come. I'm so excited. Thanks so much for having me. Bye all.

FAQ on Community meet & greet with our new CMO | Twitter Space Recording

Who are the speakers in the podcast recording?
The speakers in the podcast recording are Jess Chisholm, Stacy, Jazz, and John.
Who is the CEO of Alchorand Foundation?
Stacy is the CEO of Alchorand Foundation.
Who is the newly onboarded Chief Marketing Officer of Alchorand Foundation?
Jess Chisholm is the newly onboarded Chief Marketing Officer of Alchorand Foundation.
Which company did Jess work for before joining Alchorand Foundation?
Jess worked for WhatsApp, which was a part of Facebook at the time.
What was Jess' role at Nike?
Jess' role at Nike was to build digital communities and develop brand marketing strategies.
What mistake did the marketing team at Alchorand Foundation make initially?
The marketing team at Alchorand Foundation did not put any resources or attention to marketing and believed that the quality of the protocol and community would speak for itself.
What did Stacy do before the announcement of the newly onboarded Chief Marketing Officer?
Stacy was quasi running the marketing department before the announcement of the newly onboarded Chief Marketing Officer.
How did Alchorand Foundation operate during the summer without a head of marketing?
Alchorand Foundation operated without direction during the summer without a head of marketing.
How many people were present in the Twitter space recording?
Around 100 people were present in the Twitter space recording.
What was the focus of Jess' work at WhatsApp?
Jess' focus at WhatsApp was on building and developing the brand of the product, especially in regards to privacy and differentiation.