Garlam

Been seeing a wave of many projects quietly laying off their team across crypto lately Quite a few are friends and wanted to offer some thoughts for anyone affected or trying to break in the space 1. Important things to recognise • Crypto today is very different compared to 2-4 years ago. Gone are the days when you can try to larp as a APAC lead without institutional connections or a DeFi lead raking in $200k a year doing (basically) nothing • AI + mature tooling = a team of 10 now can do what 30 did in 2021. Most jobs that are cut are mostly being automated or absorbed and are not coming back. Keep that in mind when planning for future careers • The north star for every company is revenue. Most crypto companies are vapourware (dead L1/L2, another prediction market/perp dex wrapper or some larp AI project) and are unable to fundraise from VCs these days and without cashflow your days are numbered • You are now competing with TradFi talent, not crypto anons anymore. With banks, asset managers, and payments companies entering and using crypto, the "institutional BD" and partnerships seats are being filled by ex-Goldman/ex-Stripe people. On-chain finance will only survive through integrations with institutions and traditional finance 2. Scenario 1: if you are breaking into the space as a fresh grad or coming from another industry • Start writing. Structuring your thoughts and putting them into long form writing shows initiative and thought leadership + clear thinking. Have had tons of friends (and also me personally) hired off Twitter (X) just by providing value in public. While it may not directly get you a job, it could open other doors for you to ultimately land a role. That's the reason why I started this account + @mementoresearch with @bobthedegen_ which has been one of the best decisions in our life • Do targetted work. Pick 3-5 protocols you genuinely understand (perps/ prediction markets/ AI) and write a memo - growth plan, APAC expansion breakdown, a competitive comparison (specific to their situation), and send it to the founder directly. Even rejections can turn into warm network that could be useful! • Send proof of work. Instead of “Hi, are you hiring?”, send: “I spent some time looking at your APAC growth. Here are 12 potential partners, the 4 I would prioritise, who the decision makers are and how I would approach them" • Offer a paid trial if you cannot get the full-time role. A 4 week sprint for example for both parties to evaluate team/culture fit • Train your professionalism. Crypto has a bad rep for the lack of professionalism or unqualified “anons” who may not have worked in a “proper” company. Simple stuff like making a professional CV, understanding how interviews are conducted and preparing well for them and even learning workplace etiquette is essential for landing a role in this time and age • Learn to sell. Even going for interviews is selling yourself to potential companies. Being able to bring customers, capital, and users is an extremely defensible moat • The best crypto entry job might be at a bank. The highest-leverage entry point could be the digital-assets desk at a bank, asset manager, or payments company. You get structured training, a reputable and lindy brand name for your CV which will be helpful if you exit into crypto-native roles later. Other than banks or trad companies, another path could be to find early stage AI/robotics companies • Learn the institutional language. Stablecoin payments, tokenised funds, custody - all boring subjects but in the way crypto is heading towards, you need to brush up your knowledge on these sectors • Refine your edge. Perhaps you have unique insights in Asia/ able to bring LPs and TVL from HNWIs from this region that will be helpful for a DeFi project. Or you relocated to an untapped region (LATAM, Africa) and are able to offer projects a way to expand into these markets (case in point: how @0xbenito_ is doing work for @BNBCHAIN in the LATAM region - his initiative to learn Spanish + network in LATAM is helpful for a more “Asian” based ecosystem; or @0xCheeezzyyyy with his easy to digest infographics make him a very sought-after content creator) • Agency. If you are not born into a rich family, there is basically no safety net unless you take steps to save yourself. Are you willing to go on the ground to conferences/local events and network to find a job? Are you willing to put in the 10,000 hours to learn all you can about crypto/AI? Is there a gap in the market that you identify and can exploit? • Endure the suck. Its a bear market now and companies are saving costs to extend their runway. An alternative is to take whatever job that lands at your desk first (to extend your own runway), but continue to search for better opportunities while working • Learn AI. Funny to type this, but have seen so many friends not integrating AI into their workflows (heck some of them don’t even pay for AI, it’s a flex these days to have an AI subscription I realise). You gain so much knowledge by vibe coding/ building dashboards -> I even have a friend that monetises this skill by vibe coding for mom and pop companies, just depends on how badly you want it • Be the XXX guy. Who's known for Dune dashboards - @Adam_Tehc or AI analysis - @0xSammy. Pick a niche and make sure you are good covering it as it makes you legible as a hire (even smaller content creators like @matrixthesun got traction for covering DeFi protocols that eventually got him a job at a perp dex) 3. Scenario 2: if you were recently laid off / fired • Preserve your career evidence. Write the numbers behind projects you worked on while they're fresh: “generated XXX qualified leads,” “closed xxx TVL,” “grew X from A to B by xxx strategies,” etc • Negotiate a good comp package first before signing anything. Unvested tokens, cliff acceleration, severance payment for your runway, NDA/non-compete scope. Also make sure to get a good reference letter from your previous boss • Audit your runway. Count your months/ emergency savings, cut burn immediately, and plan out your job search strategy. Knowing your number is what buys you the ability to be selective of the next role you take and not to panic • Create a personal CRM excel sheet. Previous bosses, colleagues, investors, portfolio founders, clients. Categorise these people into order of priority to reach out to • Lean into your network. If you were at a fund, ask some of your portfolio companies if they have available roles. Or if you were at a project, reconnect with companies you partnered with for roles. Network outside the crypto bubble too (fintech, payments, AI) • Announce to your friends about your layoff. Ask them to be on the lookout or send your CV to companies that are hiring. Don’t worry about the shame, retrenchment is common in any industry! • Post on Social media (X or LinkedIn). “My role was affected by the restructuring at X. Worked on A/B/C and achieved the following results. I'm now looking for X roles and particularly interested in Y" • Contractual work. Any odd jobs/ side hustle that you can do to earn some extra bucks while searching for your next role? 4. Misc • The games in crypto are solved and token market cap ceilings are getting lower and lower. The chances of making it from memes/on-chain altcoins is rarer as these days p much only bundles/insiders benefit and relying on this alone may not cut it anymore (this is peak bear market talk from me, wen bottom) • Controversial (and only if you have buffer savings) but is it time to start your own company? Being on the operator side provides unique insights as to how businesses are run. Did you perhaps learn something that you can build yourself together with your ex colleagues or identified a gap while you were at your role? Truly trying times with this bear market + AI accelerating the number of layoffs. Most people quit here because they are unable to make it through the first hard moment that comes up. This discomfort that you are in won’t last forever, I promise you that. P.S. I am hiring a full stack and mobile dev for a gamified commerce platform that I am building, if you are interested please send your CV and profile to my DMs (please no PDFs for opsec reasons)