Why HOTsPOT?
Hotspot Labs was initially formed to launch a passion project — a series of research, dedicated to bridging the gap between the East and the West in the Web3 ecosystem. Our mission is to guide founders and investors through the intricacies of Asia's crypto-friendly markets, providing comprehensive go-to-market strategies and fundraising insights.
The Web3 revolution has reached a boiling point in Asia. Our goal is to guide investors and founders in navigating each culturally-nuanced market.
Here we draw on the analogy of a hotpot. While every culture has its own variation, the fundamentals remain consistent - the regulatory environment lays the foundation as the soup base, the investment landscape and key players signify the main ingredients that impart flavor to each distinctive hot pot, and consumer adoption exemplifies etiquettes that shape a successful experience.
On the same note, ‘the hottest spot’ is where all the action happens, and we are dedicated to covering exactly such markets. Therefore, hotpot merges with hotspot into HOTsPOT labs!
We recognize the significant challenges in understanding and entering new markets, such as information gaps, economic complexities, and cultural nuances. Our long-form market research and detailed analysis offer actionable strategies to navigate these challenges, helping founders make informed decisions and seize market opportunities. At HotspotLabs, we are passionate about fostering the growth of the wider industry, much like the varied yet fundamentally consistent elements of a hotpot, and are committed to being a trusted resource for the Web3 community.
Meet the Team!
Maria Chak, Connection Chief
Maria leads global business development and GTM at Republic Crypto, where she focuses on driving new businesses and market expansion. In this role, she has primarily worked with gaming and entertainment companies, both enterprises and startups, on their Web3 strategies, identifying target clients and partnerships, and securing fundraising. Previously, Maria played a pivotal role as the first hire on the blockchain strategy team at Onyx by JPMorgan, where she concentrated on go-to-market strategy for JPM Coin and revenue generation on the Liink platform. Maria holds a BA from Cornell University.
Cathleen Lyu, Market Queen
Cathleen is a go-to-market strategist at Immutable, where she manages a portfolio of 35 global gaming studios and advises on go-to-market strategy including NFT launch, user acquisition, technical integration, and token listing. In this role, she researches case studies and supports founders in making the most informed decisions adaptable to a fast pace market. Previously, Cathleen built VC & founders networks for an early stage ventures fund and led a sales team at a B2B SaaS startup. Cathleen holds a BA from Cornell University.
Aleksandra Nik, Information Wizard
Aleksandra is an Information designer, facilitator, and strategist, working towards the ultimate goal: to increase information transparency and make complex things understandable for every stakeholder. Psycholinguist by training, in 2017 Aleksandra pivoted from building her academic career with a designer side-hustle to go into web3 full-time to work with early-stage initiatives helping them to devise their product design, fine-tune their strategy, and craft their narrative with full-cycle market research, customer development, and packaging. Since then she has helped 20+ startups and currently leads Discovery and Token design Visualisation as a part of Token Economics team at Republic Crypto Advisory. Aleksandra is a MSc dropout from Higher School of Economics and holds a BSc cum laude from SPbU in Experimental Psycholinguistics.
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