Himran Zerhouni

I don't sell Web3 anymore. I architect how Web3 operators find their next buyer. After 6 years and 5 chairs in this industry, here's what I finally got right. 🧵

@neuralunlock push, pivot, or stop... knowing what you should do next is hard

It’s okay to pivot. If you have been working on something night and day for years, and you don’t see PMF, there’s no honor in continuing to bang your head against the wall. Everyone always talks about resilience and how you need to keep going. Don’t let hustle culture stop you from winning. Knowing when to quit is also a skill. Reset and come back 10x stronger on a new problem.

@KevinSzabo14 a stable = your life in the hands of someone else

“Get a stable job” is the riskiest advice anyone ever gave you. One decision by someone else could end your entire future overnight. Building your own thing is scary. Depending on a company is even scarier.

@espricewright might as well get paid for the anxiety you'd have anyway

If you're a naturally anxious person, I recommend pursuing a high stress career path where at least you'll be compensated for anxiety you're going to have anyways.

@Kpaxs we're social creatures, status-seeking is in our nature

Status is a drug nobody admits they are taking.

@TheGeoMethod reminds me of my first sales job. a teammate told me: 'Himran, sometimes you've got to pound your fist on the table.' some prospects only respect you once you push back

The fastest way to lose a high net worth prospect? Be polite to them. A Goldman Sachs exec once tried to humiliate me mid-pitch. Biggest mistake he ever made. “You crashed the world economy, took the bailout money, and paid yourselves bonuses. Don’t lecture me about ethics.” Everyone in the room stared at me in awe. Then he smiled, shook my hand, and the deal was eventually closed. Rich clients will challenge you just to see if you break. They want to test your confidence before they trust your competence. Flinch, and you lose. Hold your ground, and you win. Simple as that.

High IQ people are often worse at getting rich..... They see every reason something won't work. Which can be paralysing. They optimize for being right instead of being paid. Being right is an ego game. Getting rich is a distribution game. They overvalue credentials and underestimate leverage. The PhD route feels safer than the founder route, and on average pays 10-100x less. They mistake complexity for value. Rich people sell simple things to lots of people. Smart people tend to build elegant things for nobody. They're allergic to selling. The single highest leverage skill on earth, and most high IQ people consider it "beneath them".

@dara_venture agreed, came to dubai for the opportunities I couldn't get back home. the flash is fun once, then it's quickly boring. it's more about who you become, than what you own, but dubai is sending the opposite message

I'm the least Dubai guy you'll ever meet. Don't give a fuck about cars, brunches, beach clubs, or designer anything. Can't stand superficial people. I'm here for business and wealth building. Only fools fall for the distractions. Keeping up with the Jones's ain't for me.

@MrOverpaid the amount of leverage is insane today

Now a days with AI you can have 1 employee doing so many tasks for your business You don't need to have 20 employees 1 guy can DO SO MUCH if you train them up well

@Tim_Denning honestly the real productivity hack lol

Real flex: having a remote job so you can take 3 hours off a day from work to build your side business without anyone knowing.

You can launch a token and make money. That doesn't mean you built a business. A token gets you liquidity. A business gets you customers, partnerships, deals, integration for years after the chart stops moving. Many projects confuse the two. The launch hits, the team celebrates, money moves around. Six months later: no business model, no real revenue, no BD pipeline, just a token holders waiting for the next narrative cycle. Token launches are a moment. Businesses are infrastructure. The Web3 projects that still matter in 3 years won't be the ones with the best launch. They'll be the ones who used the launch capital to build a real acquisition engine and converted attention into compounding deals before the window closed.

@hthieblot the underdog energy is the best with that fire in the belly, you can do anything

Build like a underdog, but carry yourself like an incumbent.

@alexabelonix yep, the cycle is inevitable, prep work in the bear pays 10x in the bull. better early than chasing later

@le3imran facts, bear markets are the stealth advantage, do BD while others nap and you own the attention in the next bull. honestly, it’s the best time to test weird angles, lock partners quietly, and come out with a warm pipeline.

Most Web3 teams put GTM on pause during bear markets. "We'll push BD when the market comes back." Backwards. Bear is when your competitors disappear. When attention concentrates on the projects still visible. When buyers finally have time to evaluate seriously instead of chasing the next 10x. The teams that build their GTM in bear arrive in bull with distribution already warm. Partnerships already in motion. Deals already in pipeline. The teams that wait for bull start from scratch. By the time their BD motion is functional, the window has already moved. Bear isn't the off-season for GTM. It's the build season.

@GrammarHippy really?every time i pass through a coworking space and even some coffee shops, i see people using claude

Sitting in a coworking space full of expats. Mostly English-speakers. Not a single Claude in sight. Been here for three days now. Not ONE Claude. Not once. You’re so far ahead if you’re using Claude that it’s unimaginable.

@MrOverpaid true, give the brain something worth chasing and tiredness disappears

99% of the time you're not tired - you are just BORED Think about it.. If you were closing clients constantly and making money You would have tons of energy If you were hopping on jets and travelling the world You would have energy Only "tired" when life is stale

@alexabelonix you don't need the best product to win. You just need to be the best at selling it. distribution beats perfection every time

Why Fake Gurus Make More Money Than Technical Founders??? Steal Their Sales Funnel Not because their product is better. Because their funnel is stronger. They have: > content > lead capture > webinar > reminders > testimonials > follow-up > call > close Technical founders often have: > good product > weak funnel > dead CRM > lost leads > no follow-up > hope In my new video, I break down what founders can steal from fake gurus without copying the scam. Full video is out now.

@rauchg manage agents like a senior engineer reviews juniors: trust, verify, and never outsource the thinking

If you become exceptional at managing agents, but are also exceptional in your understanding of the fundamentals, you will be unstoppable. We all prefer to work with masters of their craft. What’s new: you can’t afford to miss out on the amplification agents have on your output

@Praiseakinlami ppl pay you for results, not for efforts

Working hard isn't the flex. results is all that matters

@andrehaykaljr usually tension dies on a call

when a client relationship gets tense, the instinct is to craft the perfect slack message you'll spend 10 minutes typing, rewording, softening, re-reading my rule: the moment you catch yourself doing that, pick up the phone instead at my companies we say the phone is where adults solve problems when there's tension with a client, we don't wait 24 hours we call within a couple minutes the client who sends the all-caps email threatening to dispute the payment and leave negative reviews 90% of the time they completely pipe down the second they hear an actual human voice the other 10% give you real signal about what's actually broken either way people are keyboard warriors over text but they're reasonable on the phone

Web3 GTM is mostly two extremes: Founders waiting for inbound from a community that doesn't exist yet. Or BD teams spraying cold DMs on Telegram hoping something sticks. Neither is GTM. Outbound is GTM that doesn't wait for the buyer. Inbound is GTM that respects the buyer's timeline. Same motion at different speeds. Both feed the same pipeline. The Web3 teams that scale build both into one engine, calibrated to where each prospect is at that moment. Founders stop guessing. BD teams stop scattering. Pipeline becomes predictable instead of vibes-based.