The Tiffany Huang Interview: Going All In On Crypto
The Tiffany Huang Interview: Going All In On Crypto
Tiff's origin story as marketing lead for Magic Eden, the differences in working for mega-corps vs. crypto startups and the experience for women in web3.
Tiffany Huang (better known as Tiff) plays an integral role in operations and marketing at Magic Eden.
Before entering web3 she worked in business development for consulting agencies and ran the gamut of roles at Marriot International.
We dive into her origin story with Magic Eden, the differences working for mega-corps vs. crypto startups and explore the current status for women in web3.
How did you find yourself working in the NFT & crypto space?
Tiff: I quit my job in hospitality in September ‘21 cold turkey without much of a plan.
A few days after I quit my job I got recruited by a friend into Magic Eden. Her name is Katie, she was on our founding team.
Tiff: I didn’t want to be full time at Magic Eden because I wanted to have an Eat, Pray, Love chapter. For this reason, I volunteered to write blog posts for Magic Eden.
My first job offer was $200 per blog post.
I wrote the first blog post and then got roped into a bunch of other things and was running Twitter within days.
I felt like for the first time in a long time, I was given the chance to stretch to my fullest potential. I could feel the impact of my work.
By the end of the week I suggested leading marketing. Zhuoxun, our COO, basically said, “Okay sure.”
That was early October.
Tiff: A few weeks later, Katie asked if I wanted to fly to Denver to work with her out of her house. I did. Almost the entire team was working at Magic Eden full time, and our other jobs full time.
We all quit around Breakpoint, flew to Lisbon [in] early November and met in the lobby of this cozy hotel. We looked at each other and were like, “Damn, we’re really doing this.”
That was really when it hit home.
I joined Magic Eden because I thought I could do many things and do them well.
I was caged in a corporate death spiral loop of making PowerPoints.
Like a panther that was forced into being a domesticated cat.
What is the biggest difference you have experienced in joining a startup company like Magic Eden compared to the global mega corporation that you left?
Tiff: There are so many things, damn.
There’s nothing like working at a marketplace that shows you how the world really works – where customer demand comes from and how you try to meet that demand.
On a more emotional level, if you do it right, you throw every part of yourself into a startup, and that startup will be a mirror back to you, if you’re brave enough to look at yourself.
You will see the ugliest sides of yourself, you will see just how capable and incapable you are at certain tasks, and you will be forced to swallow your pride many times over.
Tiff: Some magic happens when you see yourself in full technicolor with a team experiencing the same thing, and you are all blessed with the gift of growing with each other as people.
You work with people you might not have been friends with in real life. When you gain a mutual respect for the other person’s skill and craft, it’s profound. That collaboration challenges your world view.
Has web3 culture evolved to be more hospitable to women since the Be[In] Crypto interview?
Tiff: To be honest, it hasn’t materially in my view.
Tiff: There are beautiful communities of women including Solana Hot Girl Club (which I accidentally founded by creating a clubbing chat for women to go out together).
Attention, funding, and creators of the space are all still dominated by men.
What needs to happen to continue making the space more accessible?
Tiff: I could be doing a lot more, it’s just hard to find the time of day.
Tiff: My most genuine answer is that I am spending every waking hour thinking about how to make NFTs more accessible and fun so that more people can enter the space.
When gatekeepers in the space (who are usually men) no longer need to be gatekeepers, the space will naturally open up to people of all genders and backgrounds.
What women led projects are you bullish on right now?
Sharky is led by Rea, who’s a serial entrepreneur and beast.
Cindy Leow is a relentless professional as one of the cofounders of Drift Protocol.
Melty is the founder and creative director of Rooniverse and has the greatest bad bitch energy (I hope she doesn’t mind me saying this).
Crasskitty is unapologetically building an AI girlfriend platform called Proof of Peach.
Radica is a go-getter and created womenhack, an initiative to get more women devs on the blockchain.
How do you explain the blockchain to your friends and family that are outside of the web3 world?
Blockchain is a ledger that just tracks digital asset data. It’s just a place where you or anyone can verify transactions that happened publicly.
This level of transparency means that these digital assets are decentralized.
[It] means wonderful things for people who want to show indisputable proof that they own things or took certain actions.
What roles do you think will be needed in the future of web3 that we’re not focusing on now?
I think the space would benefit from all types of skill sets.
Because I’m closest to marketing in terms of my historical discipline, I’ll say I think we need better marketers in the space who want to think outside the fishbowl.
We need more people who are interested in positioning and building products for their desired future audience instead of propagating tired messages to the current audience of web3 native users.
Even the phrase “web3” is only interesting to people who are in web3. We’re all being forced to ask ourselves deeply why people should care about this industry.
For example, is the NFT market today a hospitable environment for new content creation if the only definition of success is floor price and trade volume? Or is anyone going to crack user retention–true retention–not token vamps?
Skepticism is healthy and we’re proud at Magic Eden to be confronting these questions. Ultimately I believe these discussions are healthy and will create more innovation.
