Matt Kim

What is your background?

I grew up in Toronto and with a product marketing background. In 2018, I bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco without a plan. I was living in hostels and Airbnbs trying to find a job in tech. I ended up working at a mobile app analytics startup called Sensor Tower and then worked at Facebook (now Meta). 

In 2021, I quit my job to pursue startups. Since then, I built and sold a virtual event marketplace startup. I’m now working on my 2nd venture - Smoothie.

How did you become interested in Web3?

I put some money into Ethereum in 2018 based on my friend’s recommendation. That turned out to be one of the best investments I made.

I got curious and started learning more about web3. I was surprised by how incredible the underlying tech was. Immediately, I knew that this was what I wanted to spend my evenings and weekends on.

How did you get started?

I started with an “audience-first approach” by writing a weekly newsletter that deconstructed crypto trends with visual storytelling. 

It was challenging at first because I didn’t know much about crypto. But it was a great opportunity to force me to learn. When you publish something to the world, you make sure that what you’re saying is correct. Writing this weekly newsletter helped me grasp the fundamentals of crypto. 

We also launched on Product Hunt and got #3 product of the day! This validated what we were building and helped us get our first 1000+ subscribers.

What is your role and what do you do?

I’m currently the Co-Founder & CEO of Smoothie. It’s a newsletter where we deconstruct the best crypto trends and share our insights with visual storytelling.

I’m responsible for the overall strategy and growth of the business. This includes revenue, subscribers, partnerships, content, hiring, and fundraising. In the beginning, I was the person that was writing all the articles. 

We believe that content and community enable web3. So that’s what we’re focusing on.

We’re also expanding Smoothie now to build a new crypto platform. But more to come on this later 👍

What do you look for in new hires?

“Can this person help bring us to the next level?”

That’s a question I always ask myself. It’s one thing to find someone that can do exactly what you tell them to do. But who’s the person that’s going to go beyond what you imagined?

If I ask them to help with A, can they accomplish A+B? When I didn’t even think about B?

As Steve Jobs said “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

And if they’re familiar with crypto, that’s a plus.

Any tips for aspiring Web3 founders?

1. Participate: Most people are just observers. Join communities, invest in a project, make an NFT. Be a part of what’s happening. You’ll find problems that need solutions.
2. Do things before you’re 100% ready: Crypto moves fast. You’ll likely never be 100% ready. Stop waiting for that day and just start. You’ll learn much more than waiting.

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