Pompliano, Ex-Journo Melinek Spin Up ‘Token Relations’ Startup for Blockchain Firms

Entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano, known for his work in the cryptocurrency industry, and Jacquelyn Melinek, a former tech journalist at TechCrunch, have established a new company called Token Relations that focuses on crypto communications.

Token Relations serves as a bridge for clients to engage with their community directly, discussing non-standard marketing topics such as metrics, milestones, and product launches, which don’t conform to traditional marketing agendas (interview with CoinDesk).

Token Relations aims to partially replace the role of X, previously known as Twitter, which serves as a disorganized platform for most crypto company content dissemination. According to Pompliano, the “one-to-many” distribution model used by Crypto Twitter makes it challenging for companies to effectively reach their key audiences.

The podcast host and investor explained that Token Relations would take on the role of actively engaging with your current investors or stakeholders. He distinguished this function from marketing efforts aimed at attracting new users and PR efforts targeted towards media communications.

Token Relations joins a field where prominent figures are known for arguing media theory and the worth of engaging with the press. Last week, Balaji Srinivasan, a successful entrepreneur and influencer, criticized PR firms as potential allies of unfavorable journalists towards tech, suggesting that founders should communicate directly instead.

Pompliano and Melinek aren’t setting up a PR firm for their blockchain project clients such as Avalanche, Optimism, and Aptos. Instead, they are placing their bets on direct communication methods. This could be through creating video interviews or distributing newsletters to crypto enthusiasts who crave the latest information.

A startup aims to address unique challenges in the cryptocurrency sector, as it brings together various groups with distinct motivations. These include investors (token holders), professionals (developers), and even those driven by cultural influences. The founders of Token Relations emphasized that these stakeholders desire transparency and unfiltered information directly from the source.

In the crypto world, the communication terrain is chaotic with no regulatory body enforcing clear channels for token-issuing businesses to distribute essential information to their investors, unlike publicly traded companies using investor relation sites.

An alternative interpretation is that Pompliano referred to the enigmatic nature of social media algorithms, which he believes can filter out or conceal certain information.

In the context of On Token Relations, he pointed out that there isn’t any algorithm capable of determining the significance of a communication.