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Cup of JOE / Ep. 40 ft. @TonyPham of @KAVA_CHAIN 🏆
Recorded: Feb. 25, 2026 Duration: 0:35:39Space Recording
Full Transcription
Music Bye. Thank you. I'm sorry. Oh Emotion, emotion
It's okay. So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, I'm sure I don't get to see.
I'm sorry, so I'm hustling for you.
I know you're like a man with a smile, with a smile, with a smile.
I know, so you know you're not me dead Woo!
No pain in the wind, in the sky The music can just be a little one
I like the fire, I like that, I like that line I like that people said I wanna be fine
I want you to know what's in the whole day
GMGM, love to see the room filling up.
Tony, do we have you on stage?
Testing, testing.
Having some brief technical difficulties. Love to see the room filling up.
As we wait for Tony to jump in here, we'll go ahead and open up the space.
So GM, G-A-G-E, this is Cup of Joe with Web3 Joe.
That's Web3 Job Ops and Events, your hub, headquarters, and home base for all things Web3 talent and recruitment.
They power these spaces every Wednesday, 9.30 a.m. Pacific, 12.30 p.m. Eastern.
Well, we do the best to fill this next 30, 40 minutes or so with as much value as possible.
We do so by bringing on dope people from the space who come on and tell us a little bit about how you can land your
dream job in web3 we're very honored to have mr tony fam the cmo of kava change yes right on time
you know i had faith i knew it'd come through and it did right on top tony how are you doing
happy wednesday thank you so much for joining us Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. I'm glad everything worked out.
Of course, it always does when you have faith and a positive attitude, or at least I'd like to think often.
Look at this room, man. Kava Chain has some community behind it. This is more listeners than we've had in a while.
Oh, yeah. I mean, we're very fortunate. I think that's one of the most important things in Web3, like making sure you take care of your community, building it up, staying engaged.
Well, clearly you guys are doing a great job. I love the fact that we have so many people in here because I know you have a ton of insights to share on today's topic, which is how to get hired, how to succeed professionally in
Web3. Of course, once again, you are the CMO for Kava chain. Shout out to Kava. Thank you for
sharing some of your time with us. And let's go ahead and jump in. I did my best to give an intro,
but Tony, for those who are a little bit less familiar, can you let the people know who you
are, what you do, and how you guys started doing it. Yeah, absolutely.
Great to be here with everyone today.
My name is Tony Pham.
I'm the CMO at Kava, which is a protocol that has been around since the early days.
And so I think that's partly why we've been able to build this strong protocol.
We're in the DeFi as well as the DAI space.
Perhaps one of the things we're most known for is that Tether uses Kava to bring USDT
into the Cosmos ecosystem.
And I myself, before becoming the Kava CMO, was at Superlayer, where I was the marketing partner at that
venture studio supporting early stage founders across a range of Web3 projects.
Before Superlayer, I was leading marketing as the VP at Kadena, which was a layer one
blockchain started by the creators of JP Morgan's first blockchain.
And then previously I was at Trust Token,
the now called Archblock,
the makers of the TUSD stable coin.
And that was back in 2018.
So I've been in the Web3 space for a minute now.
Wow, you've had the opportunity to work for some really cool teams. Looking back, what are some of your favorite milestones you think of during your time professionally in Web3?
see how our space has evolved. Even early days with Trust Token, Archblock, TUSD,
I remember back then there was a huge conversation around are stable coins going to be crypto backed,
algorithmic, US dollar backed. And now we know that the US dollar ones are the strongest ones
that have emerged the winners.
But back then, we didn't really know.
And it was a lot of work.
It was both a challenge and an opportunity to build out the case for that and tell that
story and why it's important to be using that collateral of the U.S. dollar so the value
stays constant and reliable.
And now it's something people kind of just assume or take for granted, but that wasn't
the case back in 2018.
And so it's been fun to see that journey and how the work of messaging, positioning,
education, community building all really pays off.
Absolutely. Well, shout out to you and everybody working hard over Kava for everything you've
been able to accomplish and contribute over the years. I'd love to jump into the meat of the
conversation, which is how to get hired in Web3. We got a lot of individuals listening here. Shout
out to Gunny. Shout out to Hera.
Shout out to Mink Condition, a buddy from the VFriends community.
Shout out to Julia.
Shout out Elozi.
We appreciate you stopping by.
Tony, I want to ask, what are some ways that folks can get the conversation started with
a potential employer here in Web3?
Tony Gawain- Absolutely.
Happy to discuss this. I mean, I think whether it's online, in real life, ideally both.
For me, it's always been about the networking, the relationship building.
That's how I made the transition from Web2 into Web3 is people had seen what I had already
accomplished, helping some consumer products grow.
And originally we're just like,
hey, I know a couple of guys working on this thing
called a stable coin.
Would you be open just to having a chat with them?
Maybe just giving some perspective, bouncing ideas.
And I was like, sure, absolutely happy to share learnings.
And over time we kept on meeting more and more
and it was like, oh, would you be open to joining the team? And so that was, that's just one example of how it
started. And I think that's part of it too, is like approaching things from a perspective of
how to help out, how to contribute versus right away going for just the transactional aspect of
it. Because sometimes like the timing isn't right in that moment,
but you never know a couple of weeks later,
a couple of months later,
because projects and the space are changing so rapidly.
Along those lines, I also want to add,
for whether I'm at Kava or Superlayer at Kadena,
something I look for is,
who is a really active community member that is really
showing up just because they're genuinely enthusiastic and demonstrating that they're
taking the time to learn about all the updates. They're paying attention to the space. They're
developing those relationships with other folks. And as there are openings or opportunities, or like maybe we have like events coming up around
the world and we need people to help out and collaborate with us. Those are some of the folks
that are the top of mind for me of like, oh yeah, let's, let's reach out to those people. And then,
you know, I'm looking for individuals who have demonstrated their own, I think in some ways it's easier when you've already,
like if you're an investor, but if you're somebody who's just like learning, I want to encourage
everyone to keep in mind, we're all learning. The space is still new. And it's, there's always so a fresh take, a smart take, posting content, showing that they're really thinking about
things in a sharp way. That's going to get my attention too. I don't think you have to have
like, you know, whatever people might think of as like, oh, you've worked at like X company,
whatever people might think of as like,
oh, you've worked at like X company,
because we all at one point or another
weren't working in Web3 yet.
And so there's a lot of different avenues and paths there.
Yeah, you touched on a lot of good points.
You said leverage your network, lead with value,
play the long game.
You might not always get the results
you're looking for right away,
but if you're genuine and consistent,
that can result
in an opportunity later down the line and then be genuinely interested right actually care to add
value and to improve whatever project or team you're looking to actually potentially join
um on that note actually of like always being a student and always learning what advice or what
words would you share with those listening right now who may feel a little bit overwhelmed with the amount of sectors and worlds and
niches in Web3?
What advice would you have for them in terms of maybe focusing in and focusing their efforts
on what they're passionate about?
Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, the reality is there's so many different facets
and aspects to Web3.
And so I do think that it makes sense to figure out
what are the areas that you're most interested in,
you're most drawn to,
where do you find yourself spending your free time just
wanting to learn because it's fun for you. And so, you know, not everybody maybe wants to know
about cryptography or zero-knowledge proofs, and that's okay. But maybe some people are really
interested in prediction markets. That's a huge space in and of itself. You can get really deep
in just that, right? And then figure out who are the thought leaders, the KOLs, what are the
bloggers, the YouTubers that are really talking about that. Pay attention to that specific
industry slice and see what's always happening and how the latest changes are coming
up, right? And, you know, another area I mentioned earlier, stablecoins, that in and of itself,
huge, right? So many people are doing things in that space and so much upside and we're only
starting to see the beginning of it. So like, even with that,
do you want to be on the like settlement processing side of things? Do you want to be
on the like enterprise ecosystem side of things? Do you want to be more on the consumer facing
end user side of things? And I think it's really smart and strategic to pick a lane.
things. And I think it's really smart and strategic to pick a lane.
Yeah, absolutely. Couldn't it be more? How about when it comes to you got the team's attention,
you even got a call booked. Now it's time to go into that call, whether it be a more formal
interview or maybe a more casual conversation. What are some tips to go into that chat, making
sure you're prepared to properly demonstrate the value that you bring to the team?
Yeah, I would say always be prepared.
And I can't say that enough. And it sounds so simple.
And it is it's one of the easiest and most successful things that anybody can do.
And you might be surprised how many people don't do it, right?
I think it's like people are really sleeping
on that aspect of things.
The readiness, and I also wanna say,
one of the great things about Web3
is that I appreciate that oftentimes it's not super,
at least early stages, it's not super formal and
rigid. Like, here's the checklist, here's the matrix we have to do. It's much more free flowing
like the conversation you and I are having, which I just think is a lot more interesting.
Because in addition to your knowledge, people want to see how do you think and how do you relate and
how do you adapt and respond and can you be flexible and not just stick to a certain script, right?
And so I think there's so many different ways to prepare.
Obviously, use AI.
It's an amazing tool out there, right?
So whether you want to use Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude Anthropic, Gemini, whatever, to do your research. But in addition to that,
dig into whether it's like the white paper, blog posts, presentations that different people on the
team have been giving, podcast interviews, YouTube videos, all of that is really good material.
And, you know, really think about a question
about something that somebody said
and they're going to be like,
wow, that person actually paid attention.
Like, you know, already you're standing out
by demonstrating that.
I also think paying attention
to what's happening in the cycle.
Because there's so many ups and downs.
There's so many ebbs and flows.
And so notice, like, maybe somebody didn't read something that just happened last night,
and you can bring it into the conversation and, like, help them to see something.
And, like, that's appreciated.
Everybody likes learning.
Everybody welcomes that, right?
And so I think those are a couple of things to do
that are beyond the obvious of just like,
you know, obviously you're gonna like Google them.
Obviously I would say like look people up
on like their backgrounds
of what other projects and teams have they been on.
But there's so many ways to really make sure that you're educated and so that you have like a foundation.
And then that gives you the space and the freedom to get more creative as well and get into show your problem-solving abilities.
Yeah, you touched on a lot of really good concrete tips that people can walk away with.
I just want to reshare a few of those.
Be prepared overall, right?
In some ways you can be prepared.
Leverage AI. There's no excuse in 2026.
There's so many tools that are mostly free or very available for
you to use to get prepared. Dive into the team's content, whether that be socials, whether that be
the actual executive profiles, whether that be IRL event content, whatever it is, dive in.
Have a question or maybe a couple informed questions you can ask during the interview
to highlight the fact that you actually are genuinely interested in what's going on, actually genuinely informed on what's going on, and actually genuinely curious on where things are going and how you can be a part of it.
And then I love this tip of paying attention to the context of the actual market and trends.
I mean, we say every day in this space, there's never a boring day in Web3.
Leverage that, right?
Be aware, be conscious of what's going on and how that impacts the team that you're going for and the value that you can bring to the table.
So great points, Tony.
Here's a topic that I'm always interested to hear folks' thoughts on.
Negotiation.
What are your thoughts on negotiation?
When is it appropriate?
When is it not, if ever? And what are some tips people can walk away with to make sure that they're successful in their next negotiation?
I think there's no harm in negotiating.
I think it shows that you're somebody
who's willing to advocate for yourself.
I think it demonstrates that you're paying attention
to the larger professional space.
And to me, I would take it as like,
here's somebody that knows their value
and knows their worth.
Like I see zero downside in negotiating.
And so, you know, let's say you're going to negotiate then.
And so from that point, I would say, again, do your research and talk to other people
who are already working in Web3 and see, like, you know, can they help you to start to establish
some benchmarks and gather that data around, like, you know, for a project of this size,
that's like, has this much in their treasury or their funding, um, that's reached certain
milestones. What do you see like the market responding to? Uh, recruiters like, uh, Min
and Web3, like, and places like that oftentimes people in the
communities are open to sharing and that's one of the ways like in addition
to talking about like here's a job opportunity people can say like you know
here are the different bands that are happening like you know right now we're
in a little bit more of a bear cycle so then you might see changes in the comp that people are willing to offer.
Maybe it's more about the tokens and less about the cash.
And so these are all things to be keeping in mind.
I've also seen some folks put out surveys and reports of just anonymously gathering.
What do you do in Web3?
What level of responsibility do you have?
How much are you making? And so I definitely think the data is out there so that people don't have to
go in blind and that they can feel more empowered going into these negotiations. And I think you
want to also show what is the value you're going to add depending on where the team, the project is and how they're looking to grow.
So if they've announced like, oh, we're going to, we're excited to put this on the roadmap
to debut at the end of the year, maybe you talk about like, how do you see what you're going to
do contributing to that, right? And make that really clear.
and make that really clear.
Great point, Sonny.
I definitely appreciate your perspective of like,
always negotiate, always have something
to advocate for yourself.
And many places will see that as a strength actually
and respect you for it.
You're not the first person to have that opinion on our stage.
And I definitely appreciate it.
So I think a lot of people out here
could gain value
from hearing that. I think many of us are a little bit more on the hesitant side when
it comes to negotiating, but I think it's about what you just said, coming prepared,
being educated, and making sure that you're doing your best that both sides walk away
with a win-win, right, which is really the goal. We are just about ready to start winding
down. We're going to ready to start winding down.
We're going to touch on our theme of the week, which we do every single week on this show where we dive into one specific focus of the getting hired, being successful process.
And then we're going to go over our brief closing questions. Our theme of the week is personal branding.
So, Tony, how do you define personal branding?
So, Tony, how do you define personal branding?
Thanks for asking.
You know, for me, I think for some people, maybe personal branding is about the Instagram
photo, the TikTok video.
That's not how I approach it.
It's just not like as for me, those things are personal.
They're more fun, right?
I know some people are able to have one foot in each world.
That doesn't seem like for me as like organic.
And so I lean more into like crypto, Twitter, X, and more into being in different community groups on Telegram and writing thought content
and being on podcasts, speaking at events, things like that, right? But I think there's many ways
to go about it. It's more about similar to picking your lane or your vertical in the industry.
What are the channels and the outlets and the
communities that are going to make the most sense for you when it comes to your branding?
And also what is going to be legit? Because people can tell right away, like, are you forcing it?
Are you trying too hard? Are you actually a D-gen or like not? And that's okay if you're not, right? Maybe you're
just like really geeky and technical. Great. Maybe you're just all about the hustle and the deal
making. Great. Right. For me, my background obviously is marketing and I'm really passionate about communities.
And so those are things that like are easy and exciting for me to share about.
And so that's kind of like how I go about it.
is that we are in a space where it's almost too simple and too lazy just to be controversial for
controversy's sake, right? I'm like, I'm not afraid to take a unpopular position,
but I'm also not going to just like, be like, oh, that's horrible or what a fail as a knee-jerk reaction because i know how
hard it can be to build things and i know that sometimes things don't go your way right so i
respect people for putting themselves out there um and at the same time i believe in transparency
and i think that uh we need good actors. And so if people
are saying things and they have no idea what they're talking about or they're making promises
and they're completely falling short of them, I think there's a responsibility to speak to that
as well. And so I think if you look at some of the content I've put out there, some of the things
I've like commented on or like co-authored or the perspectives that I share, for me, it's about
how to continue to up-level marketing in Web3. How do continue to um not just make it like you know great if
we're at an event at a conference and there's free drinks but what can you do there to really
make it a value to everybody who's attending so making it easier for people to have those conversations. You know, how do we bring together people
who are really building?
Like maybe there's like a small panel
at the start of an event
and it really allows everybody
to not just like talk about their own project
and what they're working on,
but really give each
other the flowers.
And I think people find those types of conversations more refreshing in many ways.
And there's a lot more that we can get out of it.
And also like beyond, you know, airdrops are great if it's like in your jurisdiction, but
like beyond that, what can you do to really engage community, show you value them, respect them? And so that's kind, who I've known for a while, and I respect
his work. And I, you know, I share what he does. And I comment on what he does. I don't make it
just about myself. Great insights there, Tony. I'm ready to go ahead and move into our closing
section. I know you're a very busy man. So just a few more questions. But our first of our closing questions is, what are your favorite and least favorite parts of working in crypto?
I mean, one thing that immediately comes to mind, and the answer is it's both my favorite and my least favorite in some ways, right?
So I really appreciate that our space is so global.
And so that means like there is,
you know, the leading industry events
are happening around the world.
And I like that we really get to connect
with each other in that way.
And there's such an amazing energy that comes together.
And the flip side of it,
the realities of jet lag and time zones
and potentially getting sick,
probably not as fun,
but I think over time I've developed
certain self-care routines, like drinking lots of emergency juices, getting on a plane.
If I'm jumping time zones, I'm going to sleep right away, even if it's like the afternoon in my departure time.
You know, lots of hand sanitizer if I'm going to be shaking hands.
sanitizer if I'm going to be shaking hands maybe I just don't shake hands and
Maybe I just don't shake hands and I do fist bumps instead.
I do fist bumps instead so these are all things to think about in terms of like
least and most favorite I mean I think for me for sure least favorite let's go
back to the piece around unfortunately like in some in any space there are some
like scammers out there certainly it's like a huge opportunity and some people
are gonna see it as a chance to just like try to take advantage but my some like scammers out there, certainly. It's like a huge opportunity and some people are going to
see it as a chance to just like try to take advantage. But my favorite part is like by and
large, the vast majority of people that I meet online, in person, both are really trying.
They're aligned with the values of Web3 when we're talking about decentralization and transparency and efficiency and community building.
And everyone is trying to move forward together.
And I've been through multiple barren bull cycles now.
And I do believe in Wagney.
We're all going to make it.
It's going to be okay.
And my favorite aspect is because we're doing it together, it's gonna be okay um and we're gonna and my favorite aspect is
because we're doing it together right and there's a larger community beyond your specific project
um it's the broader ecosystem yeah i couldn't agree more if you want to go fast go alone if
you want to go far go together that's clearly something that you guys are very good at over at Kava.
Just reflected by the immense participation in this space today.
Again, shout out to everybody in here.
Gabu, Alozi, Romero, Moses, Jerwin, Neal, Manny, Jack, Clintman, Weasley, Rudy.
We appreciate everybody in here.
Hopefully you're showing love to Tony as well,
even though you're probably already familiar with him.
Make sure you're giving him a follow.
And if you're looking to get involved in Web3 professionally,
follow Web3 Drop Ops as well.
Got just a couple more questions.
Tony, you've dropped so much game on us in these last 30 minutes.
What final advice would you like to leave listeners with in
regards to either getting hired in Web3 or advancing their careers in Web3? Thanks again
for all the great questions. So my hot sip tip for everyone here is going to be
educate yourself, be prepared, and have a perspective that is differentiated and show
that you have contributed that somehow, whether it's a post or sharing in community or
whether it's a post or sharing in community or co-organizing an event, right?
I want to see that follow through.
A lot of people can talk about how like, oh yeah, they've been really curious about crypto,
but who actually is already demonstrating and proving that they are showing up?
Because that's like so much of it, right?
Let me see your proof of contribution.
Absolutely.
The work starts generally way before you ever have that initial conversation.
So get started now.
And if you're in here, you're doing something right.
If you're following Tony, you're doing something right.
If you're following Web3 Dropbox, you're doing something right.
And we appreciate y'all.
Tony, I got one more question for you. All the value you've dropped,
I would love if you could share how we can better support you and all the awesome work that you got
going on over at Kava Chain. Thank you so much for asking. Yeah, so for sure, always welcome.
If people want to follow me on X, I'm just at Tony Pham. Please do follow Kava.
They're at Kava underscore chain.
In addition, please follow Kava on their various community channels, whether that is on Discord
or Reddit.
We're also super active on Telegram.
So engage with us. Talk with us, have that conversation.
There you go, ladies and gentlemen, that has been our chat with none other than Mr. Tony
Pham, CMO of KavaChain.
Tony, you are the man.
Thank you so much for the time.
Any final thoughts before we let you out of here?
I just also want to give a shout out to you and the Web3Joe community. I mean,
I honestly think that as I've been talking about, right, it's not always just about like,
what you're trying to sell or make or it's about like, connecting people to one another because we all have a lot to learn.
As much as I am happy I can share tips, I am a constant student as well.
So let's always keep in that mindset.
Always, always stronger together, Tony.
You got me smiling through my phone here.
Can't wait to have you back.
Until then, wishing you the best rest of
your day. And of course, shout out to you. Shout out to Kava Chain. Shout out to everybody in here
listening. We are here every Wednesday, 9.30 a.m. Pacific, 12.30 p.m. Eastern, powered by none other
than Web3 Job Ups and Events. If you're looking to get plugged in with a gig, the TG in that bio
is one of the best places to be. Tony, one more time, thank you again.
Wishing you the best rest of your day.
Thanks. Have a great day. Have a good weekend, everyone.
You as well. Bye-bye, everyone. Rooting for you, and we will see you soon.
Take care. Bye. I'm in the right direction, I'm in the right direction, I'm in the right direction,
traveling against commotion, I'm in the right direction, Thank you.
