[size=14pt]The Counterparty Team is looking to pay someone to do marketing[/size][size=1.35em] The Counterparty Team has chosen Matt Young (user “Matt Y”) to join and help with marketing. He has voluntarily forfeited any pay; the funds allocated for his position will go towards Counterparty’s development.[/size]
We have been contacted by several members of the community who are interested in helping out with Counterparty’s marketing. It seems to us incongruous with Counterparty’s ‘project principles’ to choose somebody without first telling the entire community that we are looking to pay someone to do PR for Counterparty Matt has voluntarily forfeited any pay; the funds allocated for his position will go towards Counterparty’s development… For now, we will be paying our marketer month-to-month (in XCP and BTC). We will start considering people now, and will stop considering them within three days (i.e. by to February 9); we will make our decision within seven days (i.e. by February 13), but reserve the right to decide
any time before then.
Here is a summary of what you should provide:
[list]
[li]Your CV: What is your experience in marketing (especially in finance), both in- and outside of the crypto community? Have you done marketing work for any other cryptocurrencies? If so, describe in detail what you helped them achieve, and provide a reference who can confirm your
listed contributions.[/li]
[li]Your connections: Whom do you know in- and outside of the crypto community who would be valuable in Counterparty’s marketing efforts? Please provide enough evidence of your relationship with him or her, so that we can determine whether this relationship may be profitable.[/li]
[li]Your angle: If you had the position of marketing lead for Counterparty, what aspect(s) of Counterparty would you emphasize?[/li]
[li]Your plan: Please provide a very thorough marketing plan for the 30 days after you are hired, including a list of ‘milestones’ and a ‘timeline’. Your timeline should split up the 30 day period into four or five pieces, so that your timeline will essentially consist of an approximately week-by-week plans. We of course understand that there are things which are out of your control, and that consequently your cannot guarantee the precision of your marketing plan up to one week; nevertheless, we would like plans to err on the side of being overly-rigorous.[/li]
[/list]Applicants are expected to have a strong grasp of Counterparty’s functionality, and will be asked to demonstrate it, as we believe marketing a protocol you are not familiar with is untenable.
Please PM me, cityglut, if you are interested in applying for the position, and I will provide you with an email address to which you may send your application.
Marketing donation address: [tt]1CWq53K95AZVkCPGGW7eEwivBvNzGVGH94[/tt] All funds at the marketing address (a total of .02 BTC and 0 XCP as of 2/11 0:00:00 UTC) will be moved to the centralized exchange bounty donation address: [size=1.35em][tt]1HSuVrARi1JvnRVjFJHuNMjcspByw3494H[/tt][/size]
Great News.
Matt Y - can you please post here your 30 days plan?
Cheers
Glad you hired someone for marketing. We really need to get the word out.
Hi peled,
I’m will be spending the next coming days developing a deeper familiarity with the technical aspects of Counterparty. Additionally, it’s important that I fully comprehend what the founders and Counterparty community both want and need from me. I am fairly new to the community, and I guess we all are in a way. It would be a disservice to Counterparty if I tried to slap a standard marketing and public relations plan onto the project when i don’t have a very solid understanding of what the first most popular use cases will be.
Counterparty is an open source, unfunded, grassroots movement. We are lucky enough to have three very technically capable founders who have accomplished much in a more ethical way, than similar projects which have received outside funding and a lot of press, however, Counterparty is ultimately run by the community. It’s important that I am aligned with the community as well as the founders of this project. The founders have made that very clear to me every step of the way.
Counterparty has a more informed and technically oriented community than almost any other alt coin, first or second generation. The core user base is a huge asset to this project and I’d like to get as much input as possible from you or anyone else who cares to share their thoughts. We’re in the process of setting up official counterparty.co email addresses. Currently the best way to reach me is via private message here or on Bitcointalk
I’d like you to know that I realize we are working with a sensitive timeline. I am task oriented want to assure you that many things will be done over the coming weeks and that the community will be kept abreast of my progress.
Some low-hanging fruit includes:
Managing the redesign counterparty.co
Updating the copy on counterparty.co
Filling in the wiki on counterparty.co
Creating a media package for news outlets
A couple other things I’d like to touch on:
In addition to being an investor in Counterparty, I donated time and web design work to Counterparty before the “marketing” position was advertised (I think it’s much more public relations rather than marketing). I am being paid a minimal salary and a portion of that salary is coming to me in the form of XCP. While I did invest during the burn, and I have no plans on selling, the founders and I felt it was important to ensure my interests continue to stay aligned with the community.
I am here because I believe in the project. I invested quite a bit in Mastercoin and have been largely disappointed by the progress that was made from a technical perspective. Counterparty has the opposite issue. No marketing and no funding coupled very quick technical development. That’s what drew me to Counterparty. Counterparty has issues that I can help with and the things I can’t help with are already in good hands.
Here is a link to my LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/mattlyoung/
And screenshots in case anyone is not able to view my profile for whatever reason:
Top: https://www.dropbox.com/s/w37z0txw4a5j5cu/Screenshot%202014-02-12%2002.27.07.png
Bottom: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9seedmf90mq1zp7/Screenshot%202014-02-12%2002.27.37.png
I’m happy to answer any questions about myself, if required, although I’d rather keep the focus on what the community wants to happen at Counterparty from a marketing and public relations perspective.
Thanks,
Matt
Hi Matt,
It’s great to hear from you.
What do you think is the greatest priority for Counterparty at the moment?
[quote author=TV link=topic=60.msg459#msg459 date=1392242729]
This smells of cheesy Silicon Valley startup culture. XCP team, you have a solid platform, embrace it!
[/quote]
The developers hired Matt Y through their own decision. They have down an outstanding job so far and I’d give the benefit of the doubt if there was any for now.
It is clear that they have conveyed to Matt Y the tone and direction of the Counterparty project. I don’t think we will see any cheesy media blitzes.
A ‘grassroots’ campaign doesn’t need to be anything like other competing platforms and definitely nothing like Zygna. Raising awareness to the wider community about Counterparty will bring adoption and utility which in turn will bring liquidity to the platform.
I don’t think a comparison to Bitcoin’s early days is an apples to apples comparison as the market is considerably different now.
Perhaps if Matt Y were to elaborate more about how the team plans to market XCP, it could allay your fears.
NXT is sponsoring the Let’s Talk Bitcoin show for the next few months and they opted (at my suggestion) to use the time (60 seconds) per episode as a twice weekly update about whats happening in NXT development.
I think that’s the way to “advertise” these projects, you don’t just want to tell anybody you want to get the right kind of early adopters to learn about your project, join your community and start contributing value to the ecosystem for the betterment of everyone. LTB does have sponsorships available on our new network shows, although LTB proper is sold out for the next three months 
Hi guys,
I waited to respond for a bit so that others could give input if they desired. It seems everyone has weighed in.
TV, thank you for the concern you have over my well being. Fortunately, and perhaps naively, I do not think there will be a porch full of government agents at my door in the morning. If there were, I would certainly have to reconsider my position with Counterparty. Quite honestly, I am not ready for that and I am not willing to take on the entire US government for this project.
As of now, and for the foreseeable future, I will be paid fairly nominally and have no access to anything. I do not know who the founders are, I do not have any administrative access to counterparty.co, I do not have access to any code that is being developed. I am simply doing what many others are doing, spreading the good word (although I think my methods will be slightly different). I am prepared to spend a greater percentage of my time dedicated to those efforts, and for that, I require slight compensation.
You will be happy to know that I do not plan on doing any marketing. I don’t think the founders would allow me to even if that was my desire, which it is not. The title of the advertised position was a bit misleading and that’s unfortunate, but it cannot be retracted. My main objectives are cleaning up the site a bit, both graphically and textually, so that it’s able to resonate with a broader audience.
I will not be selling anyone anything. Not only is selling of any kind unneeded with an incredible innovation like Counterparty, it would go against what the Counterparty community, founders included, stand for.
I’m not managing anything directly related to Counterparty either. I do not have any more or any less power than you or any other member of the Counterparty community. This is an open source project with no funding. Everyone is simply doing what they are able to. I have a skill set and personal network that will allow Counterparty to get a new site that looks nicer and is still true to the project, so I’m going to use it.
Adam makes a good point, that reaching out to early adopters and community influencers is key. My thought process is a better website, that more closely matches the technical skills which are being brought to bear on the project, will go a long way to providing the level of comfort required for more influential and less technical users to enter the Counterparty ecosystem.
Hope this helps clear things up and ease some concerns.
[quote author=Matt Y link=topic=60.msg467#msg467 date=1392266620]
Hi guys,
I waited to respond for a bit so that others could give input if they desired. It seems everyone has weighed in.
TV, thank you for the concern you have over my well being. Fortunately, and perhaps naively, I do not think there will be a porch full of government agents at my door in the morning. If there were, I would certainly have to reconsider my position with Counterparty. Quite honestly, I am not ready for that and I am not willing to take on the entire US government for this project.
As of now, and for the foreseeable future, I will be paid fairly nominally and have no access to anything. I do not know who the founders are, I do not have any administrative access to counterparty.co, I do not have access to any code that is being developed. I am simply doing what many others are doing, spreading the good word (although I think my methods will be slightly different). I am prepared to spend a greater percentage of my time dedicated to those efforts, and for that, I require slight compensation.
You will be happy to know that I do not plan on doing any marketing. I don’t think the founders would allow me to even if that was my desire, which it is not. The title of the advertised position was a bit misleading and that’s unfortunate, but it cannot be retracted. My main objectives are cleaning up the site a bit, both graphically and textually, so that it’s able to resonate with a broader audience.
I will not be selling anyone anything. Not only is selling of any kind unneeded with an incredible innovation like Counterparty, it would go against what the Counterparty community, founders included, stand for.
I’m not managing anything directly related to Counterparty either. I do not have any more or any less power than you or any other member of the Counterparty community. This is an open source project with no funding. Everyone is simply doing what they are able to. I have a skill set and personal network that will allow Counterparty to get a new site that looks nicer and is still true to the project, so I’m going to use it.
Adam makes a good point, that reaching out to early adopters and community influencers is key. My thought process is a better website, that more closely matches the technical skills which are being brought to bear on the project, will go a long way to providing the level of comfort required for more influential and less technical users to enter the Counterparty ecosystem.
Hope this helps clear things up and ease some concerns.
[/quote]
Support you.Matt Y. Just go forward. Donn’t pay attention to the noise. Just see the amazing successful marketing of DogeCoin as a sample.
[quote author=TV link=topic=60.msg468#msg468 date=1392269012]
Thanks MattY. That’s fantastic what you and your friend are doing for the Website but there are very real risks here for all involved. I can understand the compensation for your work, that’s cool. But I’ll still remain skeptical of this strategy of naming Marketing directors and so forth as there’s no way it will stand the test of time.
Look at Mastercoin for instance. They’re doing everything by the book, with Delaware C-Corp, non-profits, and fantastic public speakers. And they’re going to be fucked in the ass for it. No way in hell is anyone going to be allowed to run an unregulated securities exchange without the SEC, DHS, FinCEN, Secret Service, and lord knows who else knocking. That’s why this thing absolutely must be run by Anon. GJ XCP on this. Solid platform and the devs know how the system works. This alone will carry the project a long way.
I must say though, I’m still rather confused here. I thought this was a marketing or PR position?
[quote]
In addition to being an investor in Counterparty, I donated time and web design work to Counterparty before the “marketing” position was advertised (I think it’s much more public relations rather than marketing).
[/quote]
Is this a Web design position?
For the record I dislike the notion of having “positions”. There should be no hierarchy here. If you want hierarchy, form the Counterparty Non-Profit Foundation and get fucked like everyone else operating on clearnet. All operants should assume open hostility from authorities from day 1.
[/quote]
Hi,
I’m not a marketing director, or a director of anything really. I have “Public Relations” listed as my position on LinkedIn so that I can more easily identify myself to folks outside of the Counterparty community if/when that’s required.
The position was listed as “marketing” but as I said in my previous post, this was not really an adequate description of what was required, or wanted. Right now, if I had to put a title on what I’m doing, it would probably be something like “assistant manager of front-end web design, copy creator, and non technical documentation creator”.
The founders of Counterparty have no intention of outing their identities as far as I know. I would not let it trouble you too much.
I do have a different view of the government and authorities than you, however. In my past experience I found that they are generally much easier to work with that is presumed in the bitcoin community at large. Not all government is evil or out to get you and assuming an open hostility exists would be a mistake in my opinion. My very limited experience points towards creating an open dialogue which will help prevent either group from being caught off guard. Regulators hate to be surprised more than anything else in the world. The natural reaction to a surprise from a regulator is to swiftly eliminate whatever the perceived risk may be.
Please do not read into this that I have or will reach out to people in government positions (or anyone else for that matter). That is not my place. All I can do is offer my view on the matter, just like you. However, if someone were to reach out to regulators, it does make sense given the founders are all anonymous, and that appears to be an asset at this time, that someone like me may be of some value if that need ever arises. If I were removed from the project, Counterparty will be largely unaffected.
Regarding my position of “Plublic Relations”. I had to have a few discussions with the founders as they share a similar belief with you. They preferred that I would be called “Staff Member” or have no title at all as they are also against titles and take no titles for themselves. And I agree with their beliefs. The issue comes into play when I contact someone outside of the Counterparty community trying to get something accomplished for the good of the project. I feel, and I think my thought is justified, that I cannot be effective if I am asked to email influential members of the bitcoin community from a personal email address stating that I am Matt Young and I hold no official position in Counterparty as we do not believe in titles, but I am in fact the guy you want to speak with regarding this matter.
As I stated in an earlier post, I have no authority and I am equal to you or anyone else within the Counterparty community. In fact, the Founders feel the same way, that they are equal to everyone else. They thoroughly believe that and have acted accordingly in my communications with them. Elevating myself above you, the rest of the community, and the founders, is not something I’m looking to do. You will not see me tell anyone to do anything or presume that I have final say on anything. I’m just trying to help and in order to do that effectively I need a few things. Namely, some limited title and a company email address that will help establish my credibility to people I may need to contact.
It’s really fascinating watching all the different approaches to this “How do we build an insanely disruptive thing that will almost certainly get us dragged in front of regulatory bodies if our real identities are ever attached” problem
I think I’m in the XCP camp though when it comes to most-efficient approaches - By not giving anyone special rules, special privileges or really any identity other than their submitted work you create a bitcoin-alike that cant’ be caused to plummet just because someone “official” had something happen to them or is thought to maybe do something in the future.
Honestly it might be better to have the devs sink back into the community ASAP and make it a currency meme to “I am Sparticus” the hell out of the question.
Very interesting days.
Things to emphasize:
[list]
[li]no premine like the others[/li]
[li]built on Bitcoin[/li]
[li]trustless escrow, stock market, DEX, etc.[/li]
[li]ALREADY WORKING[/li]
[/list]
Images:
[list]
[li]Counterparty as a bridge, undergirded by Bitcoin, opening the floodgates of commerce across the chasm[/li]
[li]Alternatively, Counterparty + reputation systems/oracles form that bridge[/li]
[/list]
Need a seminal video. I know a guy who may be able to do the narration.
Misc:
[list]
[li]Get Cryptsy/Bter/BTC-e to launch stock on Counterparty (I believe Cryptsy is already on Havelock). Then they’ll have plenty of incentive to include XCP on their exchange, leading to listing on coinmarketcap.com, and subsequent big boost[/li]
[li]Get BitSimple (DeathandTaxes’s company) to list shares[/li]
[li]If regulatory matters are a concern, consider companies incorporated in Panama/Estonia (SatoshiDice? Risto Pietila?)[/li]
[li]Get Andreas Antonopoulos to look into it. If he supports it, you have the reddit crowd and then some. Check out his talk at the Milwaukee meetup this week. The soundclip of him mentioning all the Bitcoin 2.0 stuff, a lot of which Counterparty can do, is downright mesmerizing every time I listen to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b8RDFuLuRc&t=1h12m55s [/li]
[li]Do go on Let’s Talk Bitcoin, there are tons of listeners, and next to NXT’s ads here’s something that actually is already up and running. That’s hard to beat and will attract attention. Time to market/implementation means a lot in this lightning speed industry.[/li]
[/list]
Excellent points, thank you for posting.
afaik matt is working now fulltime for the project without taking money, but he understands his job more like a public relations than marketing?
do you plan to hire a second person for marketing?