When Ryan Martin joined Wunder as Chief Marketing Officer, he didn’t come with a crypto pedigree or years of blockchain battle scars. What he brought was arguably more valuable: a world-class marketing brain honed at TikTok, Paramount and Netflix, and the audacity to leap into a sector in flux with just six months to execute a token generation event (TGE). “I joined in October. We launched in May,” Martin says. “I knew it would be a baptism of fire, but I didn’t expect it to be an inferno.” Six months. Product at MVP stage. Roadmap in flux. Community growing. And yet, Wunder now has a live token, functioning tech, serious partnerships, and a committed following. The journey from onboarding to open trading is a case study in Web3 startup survival. From History Degree to Global Launches From History Degree to Global Launches Martin’s career began far from blockchain. After earning a degree in history, he took the first media job that would let him move to London. It was 2012, and digital advertising was starting to boom. “I began in press ad buying at MEC, then quickly pivoted into digital,” he recalls. “I ran media for Morrison’s, then moved on to Michelin, Chanel, Netflix. At Paramount, I was doing full-blown entertainment launches for blockbuster films like Stranger Things, Mission Impossible. Big campaigns, big budgets.” The real shift came with TikTok. Recruited as the third employee in Europe, Martin helped define brand strategy from scratch. “I saw the vision before it was obvious. I met the only TikTok staffer in the UK at the time. He told me what they wanted to build. I left Paramount the next week,” says Martin. “It was like strapping yourself to a rocket.” A Change of Pace, A New Purpose A Change of Pace, A New Purpose After helping TikTok scale to a global brand, Martin was ready for something more personal. He had just become a father. He wanted to build something meaningful. That’s when he met Jay Boisvert, co-founder of Wunder. “I didn’t come into this as a crypto native. I was just looking for the next mission,” Martin says. “Jay reached out. We spoke. Then I met Paul Durose, his co founder. Then I went to an offsite and met the wider team. That’s when I said yes.” Wunder, then, was little more than a vision: a platform to let creators and audiences share in the value of attention, powered by blockchain, built on privacy, and obsessed with transparency. There was no product. Not even a working MVP. ( Building the Plane While Flying Building the Plane While Flying “There was no onboarding,” Martin recalls. “No boot camp, no intro deck. I logged into Telegram, texted Jay, and that was it, we were off.” He listened. For two weeks, he sat back and absorbed everything: what the team was building, what the market wanted, and what the community didn’t yet understand. Then he wrote a strategy. “I’ve written strategies for brands for years. This time, I was the brand,” he says. “Web3 marketing is not that different in theory. But the tools, the pace, and the stakes, those are very different.” Instead of CPMs and impressions, Martin was juggling Zealy quests, KOLs, tokenomics, and a Telegram community that acted more like shareholders than fans. “In Web2, community is a concept. In Web3, it’s the core product,” he says. “We didn’t have an app yet. Our Telegram was the product. That’s where people came to learn, believe, and invest in us, in the idea, and eventually, in the token.” The Balancing Act of Growth The Balancing Act of Growth Growing a Telegram community is a high-wire act. Grow too slow, and no one notices. Grow too fast, and you attract bots and mercenaries. “We were learning in real time,” Martin says. “You want growth, but you need engaged growth. It’s quality over quantity, but optics matter. It’s a tough line.” What helped was clarity of mission and a commitment to transparency. “Everything we said, we had to deliver on,” he explains. “This wasn’t about hype. We were building trust. We had to.” The Token Question The Token Question Some projects build the product, then launch the token. Wunder did the reverse. “We had to launch the token first, partly for funding,” Martin admits. “We needed runway to build the tech properly. That meant getting the token out sooner than ideal.” The team debated it intensely. “A token is a product in itself. It’s not just a means to an end,” he says. “We now effectively run two businesses: the platform and the token. Both need constant care.” Martin leaned on experienced partners to get it right. Secret Network, SilentSwap, Dynamic.xyz and others became crucial allies. “Lisa Loud and her team at Secret Network were key,” Martin says. “We’re building our recommendation algorithm using their privacy-preserving AI. That’s a real partnership, not just co-marketing fluff.” He also credits the Wonder ecosystem, including advisors, blockleaders, and silent backers, for helping make sense of the chaotic Web3 landscape. “Jillian, people like you made real introductions to real humans,” he adds. “In this space, that matters more than any software tool.” The Mechanics of a TGE The Mechanics of a TGE Executing a token launch requires both narrative and nuance. Wunder had to build out tokenomics, select a launch strategy, partner with exchanges, and work with a market maker. “We went with a market maker regulated in the U.S. and EU,” says Martin. “That’s deliberate. We want to be seen as serious. We didn’t want to play the meme game.” He’s blunt about the choices. “You can launch a token for a quick pump. Or you can build something sustainable. We chose the latter,” he says. “That meant serious tokenomics, vesting schedules, unlock timelines, all mapped with precision.” In Wunder’s case, only 8% of tokens were liquid at launch. “That created buy pressure. But we also had to plan our roadmap to align with future unlocks. Every announcement, every partnership had to match that rhythm.” Lessons from the Deep End Lessons from the Deep End Martin is clear about what CMOs stepping into Web3 need to understand. “First, be curious. You’re going to kiss a lot of frogs,” he says. “There’s no playbook. You have to test and learn fast.” Second, be ready to do everything. “In Web2, marketing is often siloed. Here, it’s cross-functional by default. Product, community, token, partnerships - they’re all interlinked. You can’t just paint the brand. You have to be part of the machinery.” And finally, understand the financial reality. “I’m not a numbers guy,” Martin admits. “I went to every tokenomics meeting, tried to keep up. It made more sense once we launched. Now I look at the chart and actually understand it.” The Aftermath The Aftermath Today, Wunder’s token is live. The price is stable. The community is active. The tech is coming together. And Martin has survived his first six months in Web3. “It’s been insane,” he says. “I’ve learned more in six months than in six years at TikTok.” He still has a sense of humour about it. “We didn’t die. That’s the first win. We shipped. That’s the second. And now we build,” he says. “We’re not here to make noise. We’re here to make value,” he says. “It’s easy to forget that in this space. But that’s what matters.” For all the chaos, Martin wouldn’t change a thing. “I wanted to do something good. Something that mattered,” he says. “And I think we are.”

Every

Bug Bounties: Crowdsourcing Security at Scale

Decentralizing Insurance: How DEIN.fi is Finally Fixing Blockchain’s Great Use Case

A rollicking good read!

From TikTok to TGE: How Wunder’s Ryan Martin Pulled Off a Web3 Miracle in Six Months

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

10 Questions for Cybersecurity Firm Resonance Founder Charles Dray

Big Ideas for Building Metaverse Neighborhoods & Micronations

From Primitive Minds to Futuristic Gaming: Amar Bedi's Vision for a Seamless Web3 Experience

COLD - a Poem by One Poet and Many More

How Cameo Has Come to Symbolize the Uncanny Valley of Modern Stardom

The Noonification: Pick Your Billionaire (11/12/2022)

10 Questions for Cybersecurity Firm Resonance Founder Charles Dray

Big Ideas for Building Metaverse Neighborhoods & Micronations

From Primitive Minds to Futuristic Gaming: Amar Bedi's Vision for a Seamless Web3 Experience

COLD - a Poem by One Poet and Many More

How Cameo Has Come to Symbolize the Uncanny Valley of Modern Stardom

The Noonification: Pick Your Billionaire (11/12/2022)

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Minty

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps