Sesame Summit 2026 – application open

Ben’s List 43

So without further ado, I’m sharing a bunch of Web3 news as I’ve been doing for the past month or so. Am I convincing you to jump down into this particular rabbit hole with me?

This week I’m also sharing a great article about the dark side of e-commerce and sextoys, as well as a fantastic resource about community building. Do you have more than 1,000 community members already?

Let’s start with going viral with product launch strategies. I’m a Poolsuite Executive Member and can’t wait to meet you at the pool 🙂

Product

Founder of Poolside FM Knows How to Make Shit Go Viral

“‘Why it’s worth doing something like Poolsuite even though it’s been going since 2014 without making any money is having a digital playground to fuck around on with cool smart people, that’s an invaluable thing,’ he said. ‘We are building this for fun and because we know hundreds of thousands of people are going to enjoy it.'”

blank

The Hype Subsidy – Why Early Hype is Dangerous in Consumer Social

“As tempting and sexy as hype may be, I’m a believer in avoiding it as long as possible. This may seem counterintuitive. If a social network’s network effect is a function of how big the network is, then isn’t hype, which usually comes with a flood of users, a good thing?  …Hype creates the aura that something is bigger, more important, and more inevitable than it actually is. In this way, it acts like a subsidy on engagement in a consumer social network.”

blank

Web3

At the Intersection of NFTs and Creative Commons Licenses

“In short, if a CC license makes it legally possible to create infinite copies of a work, and NFTs are designed specifically to provide something that cannot be copied, is it problematic for a CC-licensed work to be minted as an NFT?”

blank

DAOs, A Canon

“What is (and isn’t) a DAO? Why do DAOs matter? How do DAOs fit into web3, crypto, the creator economy, future of work, and many other areas?”

blank

MIT Predicted a Societal Collapse. Here’s How NFTs Can Prevent That.

“Since its initial boom, developers and enthusiasts worldwide have found ways to incorporate NFTs into different aspects of life. As a company that uses blockchain technology to trace products throughout the supply chain, Real Items has created a way to pair physical products with digital twins or NFTs. These physical assets integrated with NFTs are called ‘Phygitals.‘”

blank

Community

A Founder’s Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your First 1,000 Community Members

“The friction to joining a Slack community is low, but the friction to forgetting about a Slack community is also low. We wanted to build the muscle memory of logging into a new app, a distinct URL, and commit to creating a community that would justify this new habit.”

blank

E-Commerce

“It Actually Hurt Me”: Inside The Dangerous Rise Of Dropshipped Sex Toys

“The dropshipper – who is effectively the middleman in a global online supply chain – will sniff out a trend, whether it’s cow-print skirts or viral vibrators, find a corresponding product from a wholesale site and create a listing for the item they’re selling – usually for a drastically marked up price. This technique has become a huge problem in the fashion world. Depop is full of dropshipping victims who believe they have ordered a gorgeous dress only to receive a cheap, ill-fitting garment. Now it is increasingly a problem with sex toys, too.”

blank

you might also like

blank
Events 2 days ago

Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

blank
New Materials 3 days ago

Lios Group, the Irish startup behind SoundBounce, was a winner of JEC Composites Startup Booster 2018, and has been making significant strides since taking home the award.

blank
New Materials 1 week ago

Tree Composites aims to accelerate the energy transition with innovative composite joints.

Subscribe to
our Newsletter!

Stay at the forefront with our curated guide to the best upcoming Tech events.