287: Competing with Giants — How Kava Builds Community, Partnerships, and DePIN

Tony Pham, Head of Marketing & Growth at Kava.io, joins Sam to share lessons on building and scaling in Web3. He explains how Kava combines Cosmos scalability with Ethereum compatibility, their push into decentralized AI, and why community-first marketing beats massive budgets. Tony also weighs in on what’s overhyped (meme coins) and underrated (wallets), plus Kava’s roadmap into DePIN and AI.Key Timestamps[00:00] Intro: Tony Pham joins to discuss growth, Kava, and industry trends.[00:01] Background: From Web2 marketing to crypto stablecoins in 2018.[00:03] Kava’s mission: low-cost, scalable L1 combining Cosmos + Ethereum.[00:04] Kava AI: blockchain-native, open-source AI for DeFi and Web3 tasks.[00:05] Web2 vs Web3 marketing: grassroots, community-first, cooperative.[00:07] Competing with giants: why budgets don’t win—community and content do.[00:09] Authentic growth: partnerships, AMAs, co-marketing as a scrappy strategy.[00:12] Tether on Kava: stability and adoption vs gimmicks.[00:15] Underrated trend: wallets as gateways for mainstream adoption.[00:18] Overhyped trend: meme coins—and the hype cycle around criticizing them.[00:20] Roadmap: expanding into DePIN and decentralized AI.[00:22] Inspirations: marketers at Chainlink, Avalanche, and Eco Stablecoin.[00:24] Partnerships: Binance relationship, future AI and DePIN collaborations.[00:25] Ask: Builders, partners, and community engagement—plus meet at Token 2049.Connecthttps://www.kava.io/https://x.com/KAVA_CHAINhttps://t.me/kavalabshttps://x.com/tonyphamDisclaimerNothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. Finally, it would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend.Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/