Moderator: Imran Khan, Co-founder of Alliance
Guest: Mike Solana, Chief Marketing Officer of Founders Fund
In the world of venture capital, Founders Fund is an absolute legend.
In 2002, Peter Thiel, known as the "Godfather of Silicon Valley", sold PayPal, which he co-founded, to eBay for $1.5 billion. In 2005, he founded Founders Fund, which mainly invests in consumer Internet companies, including Facebook, Space X, Palantir, LinkedIn, Spotify and other Silicon Valley star companies. Currently, Founders Fund has more than $12 billion in assets under management.
In April 2024, Alliance, the largest accelerator in the crypto world, announced that it had received a strategic long-term investment from Founders Fund. The size of the investment was not disclosed. As part of the investment, Founders Fund will provide support to Alliance's portfolio companies.
As a "bonus" for this investment, Alliance co-founder Imran Khan spoke with several partners and marketing directors of Founders Fund, most of whom have direct entrepreneurial experience. They discussed together how founders can drive sales and growth of startups, how to build cryptocurrency brands, how to find suitable partners... and condensed various entrepreneurial dry goods.
TechFlow compiled this collection of conversations into Chinese to share with everyone.
Introduction
In this interview, Mike Solana, CMO of Founders Fund, and Imran Khan, Co-founder of Alliance, had an in-depth conversation about Web3 and the cryptocurrency industry, covering how to build and grow a brand in the current market. During the conversation, Mike discussed the importance of innovative thinking, brand building, and how to effectively use existing communication channels in a restrictive environment. Mike provided practical advice on how to build a strong network and personal brand through Twitter, podcasts, press releases, etc.
Mike's background: Mike Solana is the Chief Marketing Officer of Founders Fund, responsible for brand operations and creative marketing, with more than 10 years of experience. Before joining Founders Fund, Mike worked in the publishing industry, and currently he also runs a media company called Pirate Wires, involving various forms such as writing, social media and podcasts.
Brand building: In brand building, Mike emphasized the fear inherent in new things, which is part of the brand. Founders need to face this fear and boldly express their unique insights and unconventional thinking. He mentioned that in the technology industry, there is a need for a way of dialogue that has not yet appeared, which is also the original intention of their launch of the hereticon event.
Importance of writing: Mike mentioned that not everyone is a natural writer, but everyone should find a way of expression that works for them. For those who are not good at writing, he suggested using their other strengths, such as video production or podcasting. In addition, he emphasized the importance of writing skills, especially for professionals in the fields of creative marketing and content creation.
Marketing on different platforms: Mike discussed the limitations of marketing on Facebook and Instagram for the crypto space, and recommended alternative platforms such as Twitter and YouTube. He also mentioned that e-newsletters are a powerful tool to expand influence through video or audio interviews.
Find your network: When building your personal or company brand, it’s important to build relationships with people who share your values. Mike advises that by connecting with these people, your social media presence and overall marketing strategy will be more effective.
When to post: For founders who are posting and expressing concerns publicly, Mike recommends posting content only when you are fully ready and willing to face the consequences. He emphasizes the risks of posting content and recommends thinking carefully before posting.
The silver lining of low-noise moments: “Low-noise moments” on social media or public forums, or periods of low attention, can be seen as opportunities to build deep connections with like-minded people. Mike believes that these are the best times to understand and be understood, and such moments should be cherished.
Mike's interview strategy: During the recruitment process, Mike pays more attention to the candidates' actual experience and abilities rather than their academic background. He focuses on the candidates' project experience and personal achievements, and whether they can complete tasks independently.
Write for your voice: Writing should reflect the author's personality and style. Mike advocates for personalization when writing so that readers can feel the author's unique voice from the text. He encourages writers to be authentic and express their own opinions and emotions.
Surround yourself with great people: Mike emphasizes the importance of the people you surround yourself with in both your professional and personal life. He believes that by surrounding yourself with great people who share similar values, you can not only improve yourself, but also promote each other's growth together.
The following are the main contents of this conversation:
Mike's Background
Imran: Mike, could you give our audience a brief background?
Mike：
I'm the CMO at Founders Fund, I run creative marketing, and I've been doing it for over 10 years. I used to work in publishing, but I've been working for Peter for most of my adult career. I also run a media company called Pirate Wires. So my job involves writing, tweeting, podcasting.
Brand Building
Imran: One concept that really appealed to me in your article was the concept of heterodox thinking, thinking outside the box and in opposition to the way the mainstream audience thinks. I feel like that's overlooked in a lot of places. What appealed to me about crypto is that it's an industry that no one really wants to build in. A lot of our founders are building a space and they're a little bit nervous about having an opinion and talking about it publicly. So what are some of the important factors that you need to consider when building a brand?
Mike：
We might see the heresy part first, and people might be nervous about having to speak their mind. It's a brand-building question. If we're just talking about creative marketing, and you're trying to get people to see what you're doing, and you think it's important, then why do you think this thing is important? Probably because it doesn't exist yet, just like with Pirate Wires, I feel like what we're doing there doesn't exist yet. That's why I care about it.
I find at Founders Fund that a lot of our ideas are heretical, and I feel like that's a way to debate, especially in certain tech industries that don't exist yet. So that's the scary thing, and new things are scary in general. If you're building one of those, then that's your brand. The thing you're building is your brand. So you might be afraid to speak up, but the only way to own it is to move in that direction. A lot of heretical things you don't have to say out loud. I think in general, as a founder, I have these opinions that I want to share online, but I'm nervous. In general, I advise against it. Just like there's no reason for a crypto founder to talk about abortion or anything else. But if there's a publicly controversial belief in economics or crypto, if you believe in it and you're building it, you should absolutely dive in.
The Importance of Writing
Imran: When it comes to writing and building a brand on Twitter, how did you get started? How do you think about writing?
Mike：
I've always been writing, I've been writing since I was a kid. Twitter is a bit like a stand-up comedian sometimes going to a club where they're not being filmed and just putting down a little tape recorder and kind of taping into his creative material. I think of something and I throw it out there and see what I can do, how I play with my ideas. But writing longer pieces is probably something I'll have to build up to. I think keeping a journal has really helped. In 2020, I started a newsletter called Pirate Wires, and now all of a sudden I have an audience and people are looking forward to something every week. So you just, it spreads out, and the more you write, the easier it becomes.
Imran: So do you have a general guideline that you give to founders who want to start writing to market?
Mike：
Not everyone is a good writer. When I first started working at Founders Fund a few years ago, I was a writer and an editor, and I knew how to write. But I was surrounded by people who were totally good at other things, whether it was business or engineering, inventors that I had a lot of respect for, and I loved the work that they were doing. Everybody that I met in San Francisco, everybody that I met who I thought was awesome was doing something that I couldn’t do. And I was insecure about that. My first free summer after I moved to San Francisco in 2011 or 2012, I tried to teach myself to code because I had this insecurity. I thought I could do it, like I played around with Javascript, I think Ruby on Rails and Python. And after about a month or two, I realized that I could work really hard at this for a long time. But I was already writing, I already had an edge in writing. When people said, oh, you’re a good writer or something in tech, they weren’t complimenting me. I realized that I already had a little edge in the things that I should focus on, I was already doing it better than everybody else, and that’s where I should focus my energy.
When you're branding yourself, you need to learn to use media. Some people are good at Instagram, some people are good at short videos, some people are good at podcasts, but not everyone is going to be a long-form writer, even on Twitter, for example, I really like short-form writing. There are a lot of Twitter users that I like, but not all of them can write a long article, not all of them can turn a tweet into a complete article. So I guess my first advice is that if you have a talent for writing, you don't have to write. You should first look at each of your communication skills and find the one that you are best at and love the most. It could be a podcast, it could be YouTube, there are countless different ways. As technology develops, there will be some new mediums, and it could be anything.
Marketing for different platforms
Imran: In crypto, you know, there are a lot of channels that are off limits for us, you know, being able to market on Facebook or Instagram is off limits. The only way we communicate is Twitter, and a little bit on YouTube. So for crypto founders, you're limited to two channels for branding, podcasting and writing. If a founder is not good at writing or tweeting. Should they get into podcasting? Like, what creative elements should they do that aren't being done today, or what would you recommend?
Mike：
Maybe the assumption here is that Twitter is always the place you can go, but I don't know that's true. So if you think, this is the only place we have to be creative, that's already a problem, you shouldn't put all your eggs in that basket, because if you build everything there and tomorrow Elon decides we can't do crypto here anymore, then you're done. So you have to be very flexible, and you even need to be a writer to use writing for marketing.
For example, we have e-newsletters now, and e-newsletters are very powerful. There's nothing stopping e-newsletters writers from doing an interview with you, whether it's video or audio, and then sending it to all their subscribers, just like you can go to other people, and I think there are a lot of opportunities for people in the cryptocurrency space, Facebook, substack, e-newsletters, video, audio, long articles, short articles. I think you can choose one that you are good at and focus on it and do it frequently, or find someone who is good at doing it, you don't necessarily have to be that person. Maybe you don't want to communicate at all, but your colleagues or co-founders are good at it, then I will give them the resources to let them do it.
Find your network:
Imran: So, the consensus in crypto is to use Twitter as a launch pad. Another way is to think outside the box and use e-newsletters, podcasts, and other methods to your advantage. What tools do founders have in terms of distribution channels and how should they use it? Or should they use one or the other? Your answer earlier was that maybe Twitter or writing is not the best way for founders, it just depends on their natural communication ability, so it can be podcasts, it can be any other marketing channel. So how should founders use these mediums? You mentioned an e-newsletter, so should they consider launching their own e-newsletter?
Mike：
You can be friends with people who have e-newsletters, that's how Twitter works, you're amplified by your friends on Twitter, that's how everything works, it's like you're more powerful in a scene than just you alone. So I think in terms of branding and marketing, before you talk about how to build a personal presence online or anything like that, you need to work in that space and have friends in that space, like there's a networking part that comes first.
Like who are you friends with, on Twitter you just talk to those people and when you're in everyone's early days individually, you you're in your early days on Twitter, the way to grow is almost always talking to your friends, just like a network, you amplify each other and then it grows from there. I think a lot of media works like that. So I think like you want to focus on what you're doing and the people who are doing things that you like, and then you just go and talk to them.
Imran: So, the idea here is for founders to build their own network with your friends who are hopefully your friends.
Mike：
I think yeah, especially in the crypto space, there's a lot of people, I think it's probably better to do it in crypto now than it was a few years ago at the height of the bull run because the people who are left in crypto really care about it, they're like true enthusiasts. So I think it's a good time to make friends in this space, who are interacting with each other online, and you just participate in the conversation, contribute, provide information, and I only tolerate it when I mention something smart or interesting. If they're funny, I'll take it, if they taught me something, I'll take it. I think those two things in general are like, having fun online and sharing real information that's valuable to people and that you're also interested in, that's the way to success.
When to publish the article
Imran: Alliance runs an accelerator program and one of the things we tell them is, talk to the public about what you’re building. To some extent. A lot of founders are actually afraid to just post their first tweet. They’re just worried about how people will perceive it, and like you mentioned before, they’re worried about being attacked. What would you tell founders who are worried about that?
Mike：
If you don't like it, don't do it. I think you have the right to say whatever you want, but you are responsible for what you say. I'm a guy who runs a media company and works for Peter, and I'm not too worried about the consequences of speaking my mind. In fact, it's my job. It's easy for me to encourage people to speak up about everything. I think you should be more thoughtful and strategic about the conversations you want to have. If you really believe something is important and you're actually the person to talk about it, then be brave and speak up. But if you're the founder of a crypto company, do you really need to talk about the war in Israel right now? Personally, if you're already a little worried about what's going on online, I'd probably stay away from the topic.
A silver lining in low-noise moments
Imran: You mentioned a very important point, cryptocurrencies run in bull and bear cycles, and the bull market brings a lot of people who are only looking for profit. Whereas in the bear market, there are only people who love the space. Many of the friendships I have built over the years have been mainly in the bear market, and we usually care about each other. What I want to ask is, how do you maximize these relationships?
Mike：
Something similar happened to me when I became a writer, mostly on Twitter and later through my own company, but that was when I had a lot less attention and a lot less noise around me. Now if I tweet, I can't really pay attention to all the comments and things. People sometimes ask, how do you deal with all the hate, and I don't think it's all noise to me. But in the early days, I wouldn't get any likes or comments, so you would get one or two people who would really understand what you were saying, and you would really understand what they were saying.
I think in these moments of low noise, it can feel like a failure sometimes, but it's a huge gift because when there's less noise, it's easier to catch a signal, which could be a person worth connecting with or it could be a concept or an idea, which I think is easier to share in these moments. So I would say if you can change your mind, it's a gift and you should take full advantage of it and make as many friends as you can because once the noise starts to come back, it's going to be much harder and you're not going to make friends.
But I think anytime you're in a bull market, you're like that. It's like a whole bunch of narcissistic sociopaths who are only concerned with getting benefits. So that in itself might be interesting, and crazy things might happen, but you're not going to make friends. Now maybe just focus on that, and then in terms of maximizing, I don't really think of it that way. I think it's like you just follow your interests and people who care about the same things that you do, and then all the benefits just flow from there. It just happens. I don't think of it as a math type of thing, I think if you're just watering the garden, beautiful things will grow from there.
Mike's Interview Strategy
Imran: I think this is really important for hiring founders in the crypto space, especially, you don’t actually care about their background, you care about their writing. When you read someone’s writing, what are you evaluating? What are you evaluating?
Mike：
I care about their personal background, like their experience, where they spend their time, things like that, but I don't care where they went to school. But when it comes to Founders Fund, it depends on what their job is, if they're looking for video work or designer work or something like that, I don't care how good a writer they are. But at Pirate Wires, they're often looking for writing work, and they have to be a good writer. What matters is what projects people are involved in, what they're excited about, what they've achieved, and whether they can accomplish things that a lot of people can't accomplish. But I think there's a hidden truth that the average person can't do anything, they're just waiting to be told what to do. You should identify what you need to do without someone telling you, and that's all important to me.
Write for your ideas
Mike：
In terms of writing, when I read the work of a creator, I want to know who this person is. You can feel that they might be writing about an empty bag of Doritos in Subaway. I get a sense of their personality from it. This is a very niche field. For crypto founders who want to be good writers, good writing is to give people the feeling that only this person can write such content. Famous people in the technology field think that good writing is stripping away the information and the important parts, and the most famous advocate of this style of writing was Hemingway who did it first, and it's a style. Just like when you read this person's work, you can tell his style, I am a person who only writes important content, and other people can write like this, but it doesn't read like him, he just has his own style.
Good writing has style. Not only do you have to clearly say something valuable, if it's a persuasive argument, you have to make that argument in an engaging way. But at the same time, I also think that a piece of writing that people remember, that they want to go back to, that they want to share with their friends, must have a life. My writing improves when I stop. We may all have natural impulses in communication, and we will think, I shouldn't do this. I think this is the path to finding your own personal style, and it's also the starting point. For me writing is like music, there is a rhythm and a rhythm. I don't just want to say something, I want to take you on my journey, and I look for this feeling in other writers.
Surround yourself with outstanding people
Imran: You mentioned the intuition part, which I think is really important because sometimes I think about what I wrote and then delete it. Let's say you write a report on Twitter to describe what you're working on or something, it's okay to follow your intuition to create the feedback you might want because you just talked about following this process.
Mike：
Some writers want to know what people think about certain events. They're not just delivering facts, I'm interested in their personal opinions as well. It's not entirely because of their opinions, it's more about their framing, the way they say things, you care more about the person than what they say. Writers write great stuff and then readers connect with it, and I think that two people connecting with each other is like a writer and a reader connecting with each other, it's a human experience, it's not just an information gathering thing, we want to know what our friends have to say about things, so in writing, your job is to be that friend.
Imran: So the point is just to be yourself, right?
Mike：
You want to be yourself, but you want to be a drag version of yourself. I think that's another part of it, you have to really loudly amplify the parts that feel like you in some way. You guys are doing something that no one else is doing, and that's what's special about you.
Imran: One of the things I've gotten from you in our conversations is that founders who are looking to build a brand on the internet, they can write, they can be on a podcast, but one thing that's not so common in our network is the ability to like befriend people who have really strong networks, what was you trying to get at? I think an example you used was being friends with people who run e-newsletters, which I don't think is a common practice. So can you talk a little bit more about using that as a go-to-market or growth strategy?
Mike：
Yeah, again, I can't talk about it strategically, it's just my assumption of how the world works, I want to be around people who are doing things that I think are cool. They share the same values and the same people that I like, it's fun to hang out with them, and it works really well for me. It's a network, if you want to do math, if you want to be like an engineer, that's your network, that's your distribution channel, these are the people you're going to work with, these are the people who are going to sell your products, but they're also like friends. Be friends with people who are doing things that you think are important, people that you admire, and be around these people, they're going to push you to grow, they're going to help you, and you're going to help them, and you want your friends to be better versions of themselves, just like you want the best people in the world to be around you, because you're stronger together, and that's how the human network works.
