Web3 CMO Stories

Building a Global Network for Quality Internet Access – with Claudia Olah, CMO at Uplink | S4 E26

• Joeri Billast & Claudia Olah • Season 4

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Curious about the future of decentralized internet and community-driven tech innovation?

Join us as we sit down with Claudia Olah, the dynamic CMO of Uplink, to uncover her fascinating journey through the tech world. From her impactful work on Bitcoin infrastructure in El Salvador to her leadership role at Together Labs in Silicon Valley, Claudia brings a wealth of experience and insights. She shares Uplink's mission to revolutionize internet access and the powerful lessons she's learned from her mentors about turning weaknesses into strengths. Discover how Claudia's background in tech startups fuels her passion for community-focused marketing and the groundbreaking work Uplink is doing in the Web3 space.

In this episode, we navigate the unique approach Uplink takes compared to traditional tokens, emphasizing their focus on tangible, real-world applications and community impact. Claudia sheds light on the importance of B2B solutions, robust investor support, and the challenges of keeping pace with the rapidly evolving Web3 marketing landscape. We discuss Uplink's exciting roadmap, including the launch of their Discord and point system, and the critical role of community feedback in shaping their product development and marketing strategies. Don't miss this inspiring conversation about building a global network for quality internet access and balancing professional engagement with personal well-being in the Web3 era.

This episode was recorded through a Podcastle call on June 13, 2024. Read the blog article and show notes here: https://webdrie.net/building-a-global-network-for-quality-internet-access-with-claudia-olah-cmo-at-uplink/

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Claudia:

We're able to make real impact and connect with humans in a real way, like fixing real issues for businesses.

Joeri:

Hello everyone and welcome to the Web3 CMO Stories podcast. My name is Joeri Billast and I'm your podcast host, and today I'm so excited to be joined by Claudia.

Claudia:

Hi. So nice to see you and meet you on today's podcast.

Joeri:

Yeah, happy to have you, Claudia. Or maybe I will mix up your name, because you know it's Claudia and Claudia. It's the same, but it's my name. People pronounce it in different ways. Yeah, Claudia, maybe people don't know now who am I talking to guys if you don't know Claudia? She was leading the world's largest 3D social metaverse company in Silicon Valley, together labs, directing the marketing team for vcore and their blockchain subsidiary, metajus. Now she's the CMO at Uplink, the deep in platform that aims to unite existing and emerging internet companies and infrastructure. Founded in 2016, uplink operates remotely from New York and Porto, Portugal, which is lovely, because I will be moving to Portugal in the summer too, so you will be. I know you are in the US. Right, I would say you're almost neighbors, but you are in the US. Welcome Claudia. Yeah, to start with, can you share a bit about Uplink and then your role as a CMO? And, yeah, what drew you to this?

Claudia:

Yeah, I think you did a great job already. But basically our mission vision is we're this decentralized ecosystem connecting everyone to internet access. So we do that by connecting everyone to develop the tools and the solutions that provide internet access and fix the problems that are out there today. I was actually I've always worked in startups tech startups, so usually like product focused startups and then they call me and they're like this is what we need. We need to build awareness, get our community going, and then I come in and that's where I thrive. So right now, I'm very much doing what I've always done, which is develop the ecosystem, build the community, raise brand awareness and do all of these things. Initially, actually, I was sold on the partnerships that we have. So you can see the public partnerships that we have, like Framework Ventures, outlier Ventures, etc. But I was more intrigued by the ones that aren't public yet and we will be sharing soon.

Claudia:

Actually, giving everyone everywhere internet access is an incredible value add to society and I actually like a long time ago as an intro interim cmo for a bitcoin atm company, so when bukali made bitcoin a legal tender to the country, we moved to el salvador and we were like helping build the infrastructure there so that they could put Bitcoin in their balance sheet. But it was the most bizarre experience because you had this initiative called Bitcoin Beach and they would use Web3 and all the funding that came from Web3 and give back to the community. But it was this one house that was connected to Google Fiber in the middle of all these slums, so nowhere else had connectivity except for this one house and you'd go to a bitcoin atm. It would take five minutes to process a transaction and it was just really hard to grasp the concept of a country actually converting into a digital currency that they didn't have connectivity, because it's a digital asset and a transaction that needs to happen. The only way to do that is to be connected. So it's a deep issue.

Claudia:

But this entire space. So I was initially pulled in because I get it right. But then I met the team. I had the founders and they just have this deep understanding of telecommunication and passion for what we're doing and building connectivity more than anything I've ever heard of. Like the El Salvador story is like deeply happened to each person in our company, so it's just made me love it even more.

Joeri:

I want to say yeah, you have a really interesting background. That's what I was really excited to have you on the show so what are the lessons that you bring from those experiences and challenges?

Claudia:

Yeah, I've had a wild career going from Silicon Valley to China, left in pandemic, went to Silicon Valley again, and now I'm in Portugal and I found this amazing company. I think with Together Labs, I had this really unique experience. I got pulled into the company because, first of all, it's a million daily active user metaverse that started in 2004, which is very unique. Most of these metaverses are coming out of thin air right now and trying to build a community, and they've had it since Messenger was a thing. They were also a top eight places to work in Silicon Valley when I first joined, which I loved that. We had a really good connection in caring about people and having people first, so I really aligned with that.

Claudia:

And ultimately, though, I joined because of Bcoin and any lawyer will know what Bcoin is. They're an SEC stable like token with a no action letter, sec, no action letter stable token, and it's just a rare, unique experience to join a company that's been able to accomplish that, and there's really not that many tokens that have. I don't even think there is any that have, but I wouldn't say that for complete certainty. So that's why I joined and I learned a lot from the experience of working with them on a compliance perspective, management perspective I had really great boss Nancy Beaton.

Claudia:

Management perspective I had really great boss Nancy Beaton. I think she's like the SVP of Uphold now but she really taught me like how to take my strengths and make them even stronger and my weaknesses and turning them into a strength as well. So I've really taken a lot of that to my next role. And, above everything, I think, the community-focused marketing, because the community-built metaverse, community-built platform, everything we did was centered around the community. So we do the same thing at Uplink right now. We're a very community-focused product.

Joeri:

Of everything that you say about these weaknesses and strengths, I always try to focus on my strengths. Actually, when I launched my podcast because I am from Belgium, I speak Dutch, French, which is my third language, and then German I thought like, why should I start in English? Because I have my accent, of course, my Belgian accent. I don't have the accent in Dutch or in French. And then I thought would this stop me? Because people around me they would say, oh, you speak english with the flamish belgian accent. But then I go to the us and they tell me you speak four languages. That's amazing. So I was just like okay, let's just do this, because now people recognize me. I was on Consensus in Austin and they recognize oh, you're the guy from the podcast, because with the accent I, I also stand out a bit. So I made a it from a weakness a strength.

Claudia:

It's really fine. I feel like when you get older, you learn that standing out and what you consider a weakness can actually be converted into a strength, or you can always grow. I feel like that's part of it too.

Joeri:

Absolutely. Yeah, I grew the podcast. I also started from zero the podcast. I also started from zero. And then now it's if I see that I have guests like you and others that just want to be on the podcast and that they that my coin desk is now sponsoring my podcast because they love to create awareness for consensus. But yeah, let's talk now a bit again about you and Uplink, because you mentioned community. Of course it's a crucial aspect, and so I'm curious to know a bit more how Uplink is approaching community building.

Claudia:

Community is the core of our product offering. We are this ecosystem, essentially building tools and solutions. So for us, we've started fostering engagement and growth by starting with a point system. So we've starting with a point system, so we've already launched a point system where people can engage with our content, create content, actually register the router things that are coming and will be coming soon, according to the products that we're offering and the launches that are coming very soon. So we've aligned them a lot with our point system, which will turn into something or won't at some point in time.

Claudia:

And we also will have an ambassador program. I've always launched ambassador programs, ever since my first job. I just think it's a great way to get the community involved in what you're building and to become advocates, and that's essentially what we want as marketers is to create advocacy. So when people are advocating already for your platform and they're in your discord server and they're excited about what you're doing and they're trying to engage with the audience, you should reward them accordingly and they should become part of this ambassador program. So we will be launching one soon, as we grow the team as well. And then we have this.

Claudia:

We have a lot of community programs, so we're also doing a developer program, because even in our mission statement, it's all about building this ecosystem that's going to help us provide the tools and solutions, because each device, each router, each, everything, each part that connects, the problem in the system right now is they have their own protocols, they have their own solutions for connectivity that they need created.

Claudia:

So we're creating the essential tools and solutions, but to develop every single tool and solution and get every part into the ecosystem, it's going to take an ecosystem, it's going to take an entire community to help us develop the tools and products and to have the type of standards that we need in order to make a secure and stable internet connection. So we'll create like the essential things that are needed to be built and then have the community help build the solutions and the tools and make it part of the network and be rewarded accordingly. That's very much in the pipeline. The options that we have right now are really endless because we have this multilateral contracts and then we also have the web 3 capabilities and automation. So as we grow, as we develop, it's just going to become greater and more engagement and growth for our community.

Joeri:

Wow, yeah, I see that that you are really passionate about what you're doing, and so the big vision of Uplink is to provide quality internet access globally.

Claudia:

so I guess, before we get into the how we're achieving it, let's start with the problem. So, like the problems that we have today are and a lot of people don't know this I didn't even know this. I'm pretty new to telecommunication and connectivity as well, but I also know that when you're struggling to have internet connection it's really sucks. But from a provider perspective, a telecommunication perspective, there's a lot of high costs actually that are associated there's labor costs, there's maintenance costs, there's infrastructure costs, there's real estate costs, like where those items are going to be deployed, et cetera. There's also, because of this, a monopoly of players.

Claudia:

Because of this high cost, there's no competition and, because of this monopoly of players, there's expensive rates and there's fixed coverage and this allows this limited flexibility model for users who are using data and providing data and they're very limited on what they can actually do within the existing ecosystem data and they're very limited on what they can actually do within the existing ecosystem.

Claudia:

What we do is we fix these real-life problems by being the glue, the marketplace, the platform for connectivity and for the providers, and we do this through and send them do this through resource sharing, web3, automations, global network, reach. Because of this essential technology. Right, we can all access everyone all over the world all the time through billing and settlements, where they can actually have all that data on the blockchain and be able to share accordingly through crowdsourcing resources, or hey, this is the surge area. This is where we should focus and the community actually drives everything that's being built in the ecosystem, where we should prioritize everything, so it just all goes together.

Joeri:

I mentioned it already, the word DePIN it seems hot, like right now. Different companies are contacting me to talk about that. But what are some of the yeah, maybe challenges that you meet in DePIN? Yeah?

Claudia:

what about that? Deepin is definitely the word decentralized physical infrastructure. It's an important use case for blockchain technologies absolutely, I think for us and how we're trying to create sustainable, valued, long-term community and growth is not really focusing or centered around building hype. Hype is not what we're trying to do or accomplish. Of course, we want to get people excited and aware of what we're doing, what we're building, but we're really focused on the entire valuation of the company and the value that we're delivering to customers, providers and, essentially, the world.

Claudia:

These extra steps that we're taking to make sure that we're doing that is, we're being very careful in building out the white paper. We're being very on top of what we're building as far as tokenomics and making sure that when we're building these things, that they're ensuring long-term success, not only for Uplink but for what we're building, because our mission is actually super important. And a lot of problem in this industry right now is people are trying to do things super, super fast and I feel like even for us, it's like we wish we could move faster than what's possible. But we also want to make sure that we're doing it right the first time, especially because a lot of people have tried to do things, and they do things a lot faster, and then they fail where others need to succeed, like we need to succeed, like we need to succeed by doing it right the first time you mentioned that tokenization can you talk a bit about?

Joeri:

You mentioned that tokenization can you talk a bit about that, I think you marketed both marketing metaverse tokens and this and DePIN or decentralized infrastructure tokens. Can you talk a bit about the differences?

Claudia:

I mean they have some similarities, so they both have this skeptical, non-web3 audience right. One is like gamers and they're like crypto, nfts we don't like that and then the other side is like enterprise and telecommunication big players in the industry and most enterprises don't want to touch crypto either. So it's a skeptical audience on both sides and they both have a real use case and utility in the world and what they're actually able to do. The main difference, I think, with Uplink and what we're building is this real world and humanizing token right, because essentially, b Corp was a token that was built for a metaverse, which is a virtual reality experience in a metaverse, so it's not exactly like a real-world use case, in my opinion. And and like we're actually able to make real impact and connect with humans in a real way, like fixing real issues for businesses, like our B2B focus, too, is a little bit of a difference as well, just because anything that we're building we're fixing in the real world. This real and humanizing element is very important in what we're building and centering on marketing around use cases and real impact and in all of this it's just, it's really important and we're also really fortunate to have these strong investors and partners on our side because we're a small team, we're in the middle of a growth phase and our investors and partners have been so helpful in building out our marketing strategy, especially like more than any other team I've ever been a part of.

Claudia:

It's crazy and I'm able because, like it's difficult to stay on top of everything that's going on as far as marketing strategies and web theory. It's constantly evolving. There's constantly new things that are going on in different corners of the world where things are happening. I remember we launched a pull-up campaign in Paris and my last company and people had no idea what it was in the? U, but it was all over the US. So there's so many different types of campaigns that we can be doing and learning from each other. So I'm able to do that through our advisors and partners and other companies that are launching tokens. So we have this small little ecosystem that's making everything we want to accomplish even better, because we're able to make, like a real impact, new, exciting strategies and campaigns.

Joeri:

I love that and I'm also curious because you're a fresh company and you are building. You're growing, yeah, what is? Can you share a bit about the roadmap highlights or plans for your token? Yeah, what should the community be excited about? There's a lot to be excited about.

Claudia:

Firstly, we've already launched our Discord and our point system, which is live and running and up there and everyone.

Claudia:

If you want to go check it out and see you can see how you can get involved in our ecosystem right now out and see you can see how you can get involved in our ecosystem right now.

Claudia:

We also are very centered around what products we're building and how to align our point system and our every opportunity that we're giving to our community with the products that are going to be launching and how to get them more involved in our ecosystem early, so that we have these providers and key players part of the ecosystem before we launch a token event or before we do any of these things Like right, when we have utility.

Claudia:

They're going to be the essential part of building our ecosystem and making sure that we can deliver, like quality internet access all over the world. That's the goal. And then, at the end of the day, building the network, not building our own network and our own it's not about us, it's about the community, it's about the impact. So we're making sure to incorporate everything that we're building and doing into the community that we're participating in the token, that are participating in the roadmap and products that we have that are coming, but we're still really early, so it's a nice time to come in, but also we won't be that early for much longer. So it's a nice time to come in, but also we won't be that early for much longer, so it's an exciting time.

Joeri:

Yeah, I imagine you mentioned the community is a really important part. So they come with feedback to you. You get feedback from the community. How do you handle the feedback? Do you use the feedback for all the developments of product?

Claudia:

absolutely on a product level they've been taking out. We've been taking a lot of feedback from people within the industry. We have a lot of you know advisors and partners that are able to help us with that as well. But from the community aspect, like I come from a place especially my previous role where we use surveys for everything. We had got that customer feedback. We use it to make implementations. Any of our marketing campaigns were done by doing several campaigns with our community. First, because we had such a community centered platform and metaverse that was run by the community and built by the community. So it was so important and I take a lot of that into this next role. Like we're going to be doing surveys and polls, gathering customers' feedback, and we're also going to have governance on platform.

Claudia:

Our aim in building Uplink is to have a product that's completely in the hands of the community. We want it to be decentralized, we want it to be community driven and run completely decentralized, completely democratized in every way possible. But of course, when we're building this out essentially we might need a few extra steps to get there before it's the ultimate goal. But it is the ultimate goal this decentralized, democratized, fully in the hands of community platform. But if you look at most dows and communities out there today, it's just, they're not really fully decentralized at all. They have to start from somewhere, and we're going to be doing the same thing. We're going to be very transparent about it as we go. It's not like we're going to say, hey, we're a fully decentralized platform, but we're not. That's the goal, this is how we're going to get there, and it's all going to be more apparent in our white paper once it's released.

Joeri:

You mentioned that Web3 marketing. It's evolving so quickly, new strategies, new possibilities. You mentioned already you talked to investors, but what else do you do to keep up to date about everything that's happened in Web3 or in Web3 marketing? Maybe that's interesting for people now listening there

Claudia:

The Web 3 marketing space in particular, because I feel like we're all just trying to help each other out and be successful and that's like a huge appeal of what they're in general is we all want each other to be successful unless you're like some maxist, you know but still, at the end of the day, we want each other to be successful, and the key point that I do to make sure that I'm successful in my job and I'm up to date on everything that's going on is I'm always learning. I listen to a lot of podcasts like yours. I'm following a lot of marketers and entrepreneurs on LinkedIn and on Twitter mostly LinkedIn, actually. I get a lot of really good marketing strategies, marketing advice, insights. I get a lot of really good marketing strategies, marketing advice insights. I get a lot myself on LinkedIn. So I feel like by giving insights on LinkedIn, I've built up a marketing community as well and we give each other feedback, so that's been really helpful, like making sure that you're making your personal brand and everything that you do and gathering feedback from other people that are also building and marketing strategies and thinking of outside the box. So it's really important to be building your own brand, to be online, to be learning everything that you possibly can, and for people that are just getting in the space.

Claudia:

I say this often because I never used to have to say this back in 2018, when I joined crypto and it was also new, like everyone was learning.

Claudia:

They're like I need to learn everything about Web3. I feel like now we're in a space where most people that work in Web3 don't actually have a wallet or own NFT or purchase any crypto. So I tell everyone, especially on any team that I join, I'm like let's go to an event, let's go open a wallet, let's get you to buy your first NFT. I don't force them to do any of this, but it's pick the ones that make you feel passionate and join it and just get involved with community and see how the space is, because it's really like a genuine experience and it's so different from anything that you've ever done. Like I, I didn't like the first nft I bought, I'll be honest, but I did like the second one and I still have it as my twitter, like my twitter handle image and everything, so I love it so much. Yeah, so that's pretty much all the advice I have, rather than balance.

Joeri:

Yeah, of course, balance and indeed also choose. For me, my main network, that's LinkedIn. Linkedin is, of course, rented land, my podcast and my blog, which I really own but LinkedIn is a really good place to learn. Of course there is also Twitter X, but go where you love to be and I use. Actually, I'm learning because I have my podcast, I have guests on my podcast, I get to ask questions and that's also a good way to learn.

Claudia:

I feel like recently in Web3 marketing, especially with the last year, a lot of people were unemployed, so we've just been online giving each other feedback and advice and sharing our insights, because I feel like previously we had no time to do any of that, and it's something that I want to keep up with. After doing consulting for so long, I want to keep up with staying involved and sharing my insights. It's all about balance, too being involved and sharing my insights. It's all about balance, too, like I worked so hard, but I also need to take time for myself and be able to recharge and be the best version of myself. So if I can find time to do LinkedIn insights and time for myself and excel in my career, then that's the secret sauce.

Joeri:

You mentioned balance and actually there was a podcast episode around mindfulness in the metaverse which I released on Christmas last year. Check it out. It's a lady with experience in metaverse but also everything about mindfulness. So we had a great conversation actually, which stands a bit out in the podcast. But if you look at the podcast, it's really diverse. I get people to talk about from exchanges, but also from the metaverse. But now, Claudia, you mentioned LinkedIn or maybe, if people are not listening and they want to learn more about UpLink or everything that you are doing, where would you like to?

Claudia:

go. Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn at Claudia Olah, but you can also find our company on our Twitter, so it's Uplink_xyz. And also our website is Uplink. xyz, so you can go find us and join our Discord if you have any questions, because I'm actively on our Discord and checking everything.

Joeri:

So I'm on there If you want to reach out to me. It's crypto claudia. Always great, be sure to find you. And, by the way, as my listeners know, there are show notes linked to this podcast episode. There is a blog article. All the links that claudia mentioned will be found in there. It was really a pleasure to have you as my guest today.

Claudia:

Thank you for letting me be part of your CMO stories.

Joeri:

Guys, again a really interesting episode. So if you think that Claudia's story is interesting for people around you other people in the Web3 space, or maybe marketers that have an interest in Web3, or maybe other people maybe your neighbor who knows be sure to share this podcast episode with them. If you're not yet following the show, this is a really good moment to do this. If you haven't given me a review yet on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, I would love for you to do that, because that's really helping me to reach even more people and, of course, I would like to see you back next time. Take care.

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