New technologies create new millionaires: Vadim Rebeza interview

Published: 2024-12-28

Author: Gerda Ponzel

Wouldn’t it be great if all great inventions reached people at the right time? Imagine Nikola Tesla watching in awe as his creation—a remote-controlled boat—glides across a lake, obediently following all his commands. Unfortunately, this technology never gained widespread recognition. Perhaps people of that era were too busy figuring out how to manage their own boats.

How can an inventor make themselves heard? How can they ensure that people perceive any technology as helpful? And does the inventor need to take action themselves to achieve this?

We asked these questions to Vadim Rebeza, Head of PR at DAO SoulMate Ecosystem and Crypto Academy SoulTeam.

— Vadim, thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. We’d like to discuss topics that are truly important to every inventor.

— Of course, Gerda. I’m listening carefully.

— Whether for better or worse, it has always been the case that, across the vast spectrum of human needs, it’s not the product or invention that wins, but the best marketing strategy. What kind of battle are marketers fighting, and what do they actually do?

— If we consider the marketer’s role in this context, they are tasked with decoding various concepts, ideas, plans, and evolutionary goals. To put it simply, a marketer doesn’t “prepare the dish” but decides when it should be served. And, of course, they handle communication. This involves nonstop gathering of feedback, nonstop analyses—from basic key performance indicators to face-to-face conversations where people express what they like or dislike.

— Vadim, thank you for clarifying that. But sometimes, marketers claim that everything depends on the product itself and not on them. If we focus on the product, is it possible to sell a “bad” product, so to speak?

— It’s important to clarify what is meant by “bad.” In my opinion, more often than not, the problem lies in the marketer’s lack of expertise. Communicating the value of any product is a fairly standard task.

Real numbers can always be referenced—analyzing related projects, or even several, taking comparable data, and identifying where to focus efforts. If such data is available, a marketer’s claim that the product is difficult to promote may have some validity. However, if no analysis has been conducted and there’s no data to back it up, it’s safe to say that the strategist lacks the necessary competencies.  

If your product is a one-off project for a marketer, it’s unlikely that the person working with you will truly invest their heart into it or continue developing it on a higher professional level. First, the marketer themselves needs to understand: do they like the project or not? Are they taking it on for the money, or because there’s something more meaningful in it?

— Alright. So, how can we ensure that good products always reach the market?

— There’s the classic marketing approach. The traditional promotion strategy where you can either turn to the internet or consult your colleagues, conduct a brainstorming session, identify the five most promising hypotheses, and start implementing them.

This approach fits perfectly into any classic business model. You take a hypothesis, apply it to your business, allocate a small budget, test it, identify what works, and scale it. 

But there’s also a completely different approach where promotion doesn’t follow the classic model.

For instance, in our DAO SoulMate, we also have an ambassador program. Here, we initially relied on word-of-mouth promotion, from one ambassador to another. New people came to us for various products through this network. We didn’t use traditional advertising models—no promotions, discounts, or gifts. That simply wasn’t part of our strategy. We focused exclusively on our ambassadors, tailoring everything for them.

This approach can also be effective because, on the one hand, it attracts people who are genuinely interested. It’s pleasant and productive to work with them, and any future launches are more likely to succeed.

However, to be honest, I personally prefer high speeds, large volumes, and stories about scaling. 

Naturally, marketers move at the same pace as the founders because every technology requires time. For example, a marketer could pour a ton of money into advertising, but the project itself might not be ready to handle the influx of users due to some technical shortcomings.

Now, let me tell you something marketers usually don’t say, because it’s not in their interest to say it.

— Interesting.

— Everything happens as it’s meant to. When it comes to selling t-shirts, it’s simple—stamp more, sell more. But when it comes to technology, many people don’t understand what’s happening behind the scenes.

They don’t know how many lines of code are being written, what plans are being outlined, or how massive mind maps and boards are created. They don’t understand how everything is supposed to work or why it needs to work that way.

A marketer must dive deeper—not just into marketing but into the technical details. They need to understand how a coder will develop a particular function, how it will operate, and how it will move along the chain, eventually leading to a post published on Telegram or elsewhere. To do this, a marketer needs not only information but also active involvement in all descriptions and processes.

So, there’s nothing wrong with being in a state of “healthy” waiting—ready to launch ads, attract partners, and implement marketing strategies—but also understanding that the project isn’t technically prepared yet. That’s why everything happens as it’s meant to.

— So, for a marketing strategy to work, multiple factors—personal, technical, and business-related—need to align at the right moment.

— Exactly.

— Then perhaps you could answer another question. There are two completely opposing views. Some founders believe that before launching a product, it’s essential to conduct extensive in-depth interviews, identify audience needs, survey everyone, and only then deliver something exceptional. Others argue that consumers don’t know what they want, so conducting such research is pointless. What’s the right approach?

— That’s an excellent question. Personally, I lean towards the second perspective. Of course, it’s important to know your target audience, conduct analyses, and create numerous spreadsheets summarizing data from 100 respondents on this issue, 100 on that, and hundreds of questionnaires. We collect all of this, then analyze the pain points, needs, satisfaction, and customer context. But this process significantly slows down the business.

When a project is just starting and preparing to enter the market, it’s great to begin with in-depth interviews and surveys. There are also more complex, long-term ways to gather this information, which is useful if you have no idea who your end customer is and haven’t had any sales yet.

But if you already have some experience with your product, you more or less understand your audience, have conducted surveys before, and have prior results, then I’d recommend quickly implementing and testing ideas. 

Even if it’s rough, imperfect, or not a polished masterpiece, it’s better to test it. For example, you come up with a hypothesis, design a product, create an MVP (minimum viable product), release it, and observe how it performs. Collect the feedback. That will be enough to determine whether the hypothesis worked. If it did, you’ll see which aspects need tweaking. After making improvements, you can move on to scaling.

I lean towards this approach rather than spending two or three months analyzing, which isn’t ideal.

— What if the project has been on the market for a while?

— If the project has been on the market for some time, ideally, you should conduct small surveys every six months among your existing customers. The goal is to ask the right questions and collect useful responses. A sample size of 10, 20, or 30 people will suffice. Then, if you need to launch something new in the future, you’ll already have a solid base of information and won’t need to start from scratch.

Moreover, with so many projects launching online nowadays, there’s plenty of relevant data from existing surveys. It’s quite possible that someone has already surveyed your target audience.

For instance, not long ago, we also used such information. We needed to redesign our website and required statistics about people interested in cryptocurrency. We found a dataset from three months ago that included participant responses and even more insights than we needed—an excellent resource. We immediately repurposed it for our needs, combined it with our data, and got to work. That’s it. This approach eliminated the need for a two-month analysis.

— Vadim, do you have any statistics or observations on how consumers have changed over the time you’ve been working in marketing? Have approaches to decoding messages and presenting information evolved? Has it become harder to impress people?

— Absolutely, everything has changed—completely turned upside down. Comparing the time when I first started in this field to now is like night and day.

Back then, as simple as it sounds, you could post something like, “Join this amazing course where you can earn a great income while on maternity leave.” You’d target moms with ads, and boom—200, 300, or 500 thousand views and conversions were guaranteed. It actually worked, and we did exactly that.

Nowadays, to create an effective advertisement, you need to analyze your entire market—what you can and cannot do in your niche. For example, in the cryptocurrency niche, there are countless nuances and restrictions, and they’re incredibly strict.

This forces you to get creative, come up with alternative approaches, and play around with wording. Naturally, when you’re playing with wording, it’s not a direct hit on the target—you’re shooting close to it because in this niche, there’s no other way.

If we take another niche, like clothing, the situation is different. The market is oversaturated with clothing and sellers, so if you’re planning to open a regular showroom, it’s going to be extremely tough. Giants like Ozon and Wildberries have taken over the market and aren’t slowing down.

Out of curiosity, I recently looked at their turnover statistics. They’re doing tens or even hundreds of millions on a single product. That’s a huge volume! They’re convenient, and people don’t need to spend an entire day driving around to different stores.

I feel like there are countless nuances in all niches now. You can’t just say, “Here’s my great product with proven results—go buy it.” It doesn’t work like that anymore.

The most important thing is that people have become more selective. It used to be easy to attract people to an online course or sell a product, but the market has burned itself out.

— How so?

— There are too many pseudo-experts, self-proclaimed billionaires, and other such examples. Initially, people trusted and bought into it all. But after facing disappointment, the market became flooded with negative reviews. When legitimate companies enter the market now, they have to deal with this distrust. Consumers, having been burned dozens of times, naturally require more effort to engage. Now, you have to build sales funnels that first capture attention, then reveal a need, then provide a solution, offer value, and only after that attempt to make a sale. And even then, there’s no guarantee the person will buy. 

The process from the first interaction to the sale has become much longer. It used to be: step one, step two, step three—done. Now it’s step one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine—and maybe a sale. The chain has grown longer, and the nuances have significantly increased.

— What’s the biggest challenge for you as a professional?

— Probably the need to always stay flexible. When you’re working, everything runs smoothly, and everything is set up like clockwork, then a global change happens overnight, and what worked before no longer works—and won’t work in the new reality. You need new knowledge, but no one has it yet.

You have to start learning from scratch, experimenting, accepting failures, risking your own money, time, and growth. At the moment, this is challenging but also an interesting experience.

— Vadim, thank you so much. While preparing for this interview, we came across an old question that HR professionals at major companies often ask candidates for marketing roles. It goes like this: “I’m in a sandbox with 10 people. If I’m accommodating, say the right things, and listen to the needs of potential partners, 8 people will agree to play with me. If I do what I think is right, only 2 will agree. How can I get 300 people to want to play with me?”

— That’s an interesting and, I’d say, philosophical question because there’s no right answer. The first part is about entering the market without a strategy. You’re just being flexible, trying to carve out your piece of the pie. The second part is about knowing your worth, the value of the product you’re creating, and trusting that it will eventually reach its consumer.

I’d solve this question by asking, “What do you want?” If we’re just talking about money, the 8 people who accept you might collectively have $100 million, while the other 2 might have $1 billion. Who would you rather work with? What kind of service do you want to provide?

Nowadays, there are a lot of similar products on the market. Many of them compete based on service. For example, there’s a restaurant where the average check is $200, but the management doesn’t care much about how the waitstaff performs—they just want them to work. Whether it’s busy or not, they simply count the numbers.

And then there’s another restaurant with a higher average check, but from the moment you step through the door, you feel like they’ve been waiting specifically for you. Each of these restaurants has its own audience and demand. Ultimately, it’s all about the service.

That’s why, to get 300 people to ‘play’ with you, you need to create a great product and focus on service. A satisfied customer brings in another satisfied customer, while one unhappy customer takes everyone with them. It’s simple math.

— That’s an interesting perspective. We can’t say for sure which solution HR professionals prefer based on this question, but one response stood out to us. Would you like to hear it?

— Of course.

— To get 300 people to play with you, you need to find a bigger sandbox.

— That’s valid, too. Why complicate things?

— Vadim, since we’ve smoothly transitioned to challenges, let’s talk about DAOs. At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be anything complicated about decentralized autonomous organizations, but people often struggle to understand how they work and how to fit themselves into these new forms of interaction.

— A DAO is, by definition, an organization, meaning it needs to have a community of people. Without people, there is no DAO.

The simplest analogy is a state. It has governing bodies, and within each division, there are managerial roles. Inside those divisions, there are sectors, each with its own leaders.

In a DAO, this hierarchy doesn’t exist. Ultimately, the people who participate in and develop the DAO are the ones in charge. That said, a DAO must still offer some kind of product. Without one, it’s just a community of shared interests.  

In our case, with DAO SoulMate, one of our primary products is a Crypto Academy focused on crypto education. We also have a second product—an international educational platform that will be ready to onboard five new experts in 2025. Our flagship product is the social network SoulMate Community.

But above all, it’s about the people.

A vivid example that comes to mind is Facebook. Several years ago, a regular guy came to their office to paint the walls. When he finished, they offered him a choice for payment: $2,000 in cash or the equivalent in company stock. He chose the stock. Today, he’s a millionaire because, over the next 15 years, Facebook’s stock value skyrocketed.  

Now, imagine an average person walking into any corporation and saying, “I’ll work for you as a marketer, but pay my salary in company stock.” Or imagine the best IT specialist proposing, “I’ll write code for you, but pay me in shares.” Corporations aren’t interested in that—it doesn’t work for them.  

In a DAO, however, that opportunity exists. People who join us, in my opinion, need to understand this. In our DAO SoulMate Ecosystem, you can take on various roles. This is a significant privilege because we are essentially creating a corporation of the future.

— Not everyone gets the chance to join a decentralized organization—or is it not about luck? How did a traditional marketer end up in a DAO?

— True, not everyone gets lucky. I didn’t fully understand my own luck at first. A DAO? Why? What do you even do there?

I started reading, researching, and exploring. I found it interesting and decided to give it a try. I began working and got to know the team. I realized that our ideologies, values, and goals aligned.

By the way, I already had knowledge about crypto. I’d spent thousands of dollars to understand the field, and I did. So my only challenge was understanding the DAO model.

Today, I’m the head of PR and community management for two organizations: SoulMate Ecosystem and the crypto academy SoulTeam. We’re creating a lot, building a lot, and I’m personally inspired by the direction we’re heading. 

A DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization where governance isn’t centralized but distributed among participants. In our case, decisions are made through a reputation system. Those with a higher reputation score make decisions, while those with a lower score direct their queries to higher-ranking participants for resolution.

Of course, there are many details and nuances, and I won’t attempt to explain the entire DAO mechanism here. But that’s the basic idea.

There are many closed communities that offer unique value to attract participants. We also have a closed community and our own unique value. What I’m about to say is probably the key to understanding DAOs. 

When the internet was emerging, everyone had the opportunity to dive in, develop, and claim their piece of the pie. That window was there for everyone, but only a few took advantage of it. Later, as digital payments, online banking, and various financial services appeared, the banks took over, but other service models could have existed alongside them. People just didn’t seize that chance.

When the first touchscreen phones came out, there was another window of opportunity to create apps or services. Again, only a handful of people capitalized on it.

The point is that every time there’s a major technological evolution—something that enters the mass market—it creates new millionaires, billionaires, and innovators who understood the shift, entered the new space, and grew with it. These people are now claiming their slice of the pie.

Personally, I see DAOs—decentralized autonomous organizations—as one of these emerging trends. The rise of cryptocurrencies, in their various forms, represents an entry point. You can choose to understand it, become a trader, and make a profit. That’s one path. But there’s also a bigger opportunity—to immerse yourself in this world and grow within it.

— What does DAO mean to you personally?

— Each of us is finite, and the question is: what will we leave behind? Imagine a family gathered around a large table with a portrait of their long-departed ancestor hanging above. Everyone knows his contributions to the family and the world. Even though he’s long gone, he continues to serve society in some way.

I believe that what we’re building now allows people to leave their digital legacy forever. And this raises a philosophical question: what kind of legacy do you want to leave?

New technologies create new millionaires. The question is, are you willing to take on the responsibility to become one of them—or not? There’s no goal to bring billions of people into DAOs. It’s up to each individual to decide whether to join or not. But we do aim to attract active professionals, experts, and passionate people who want to grow in this space and contribute. That goal is clear.

And marketing needs to convey this.

— Vadim, one last question. Has there ever been a moment in your life where you had no choice?

— Absolutely.

Two years ago, I experienced a moment in life when everything fell apart. Absolutely everything. Every single day felt like a heavy burden, and it got so bad that I lost most of the projects I was working on. I knew I had to somehow pull myself out of it, but the secret was that I had no way to do so—not even to take a break. I couldn’t see how to make it happen. I didn’t tell anyone; I went through it all alone.

I was doing my work, fulfilling my responsibilities—nothing more. And then I reached a breaking point, a moment where I had to make a decision: leave and face it all alone, or sink but stay together with others. I chose the latter.

To say it was hard to make that decision would be an understatement. But even so, I don’t regret it. Was it difficult for me to make that choice? Yes, incredibly difficult.

When we drag something out for too long, we convince ourselves that we have endless opportunities to choose from. But life eventually takes us by the hand and leads us to a crossroads where there really isn’t much of a choice—either move forward without looking back or fall backward into the abyss.

Over time, you’ll see that life pushes you toward the light. You just have to let it do so. Don’t stand in its way.