You raised $12 million. You built hype. Discord pumped to 15k, KOLs posting, and Whitelist closed in 4 minutes. Everyone said you crushed it, but that’s the beginning of the end for your project. Because after launch, then comes total silence. You open your dashboard, 15,000 in the community. 200,000 views, but only 87 real users. I can tell you for a fact that it’s not a failure. It’s a design flaw. You didn’t buy growth, you bought buzz. And the marketing agency delivered exactly what you asked for. No CAC. No ROI. No product KPIs in sight. Just vibes: • “Top-tier influencer campaign pre-TGE.” • “Generated 50k X impressions in 48 hours.” • “Raised $12M in a private round.” You didn’t hire marketing, you hired capital formation. And honestly? That’s not on the agency. It’s on you. They gave you the win you wanted, but not the growth you needed. Let’s zoom out for a second. Web2 founders hire marketers to drive: • Adoption • Retention • Revenue Web3 founders hire marketing for the pitch and glamour. The goal isn’t usage. It’s excitement. The outcome isn’t users. It’s a token. And deep down, you know it. One founder told me: “We spent 6 figures and nailed our TGE goals… but we couldn’t get 300 people to try the product.” I felt that. He wasn’t betrayed, he got what he paid for. He paid for drama, not distribution. But this is the moment you can rewrite your story. Your product is live. You’re past the deck, past the sizzle. Now comes the steak. Ask yourself: • Who owns product growth? • Who’s running the experiments? • Who’s optimizing funnels? • Who’s measuring CAC to LTV? Because hype gets you funded. But users build the business. Here’s the truth: If your marketing plan doesn’t mention: • Onboarding flow • Retention levers • Activation metrics • Paid acquisition • Growth loops Then you don’t have a marketing plan, you have a stage play. You don’t need more exposure, you need conversion. You don’t need better storytelling, you need more users telling stories. You don’t need noise, you need a signal. So before you hire again, ask yourself: Did you really mean to grow your product? Or did you just want to look like a rocketship, before it ever left the ground?