Earnscape’s CEO Steve Wood and his fellow entrepreneurs had yet another intense day in Bali, this time diving deep into the art of Web3 pitching strategies for startups. Today’s session was a masterclass in pitching and transforming technical complexity into compelling investor narratives.

The XFounders curriculum treats pitching as both an art and a science, requiring founders to master the delicate balance between visionary storytelling and hard business fundamentals.

“Hearing everyone else’s pitches was incredible,” Steve tells us. “You realize how different approaches can solve similar problems, and it really crystallized our own vision for making game streaming accessible to millions of mobile gamers worldwide.”

The Storytelling Revolution: Why Tech Talk Kills Deals

For those who weren’t able to be in the bootcamp, we’ve included a video from XFounders mentor, Stacey-Ann Pearson who brings a wealth of experience from traditional finance at Morgan Stanley, fintech innovation, and her pioneering work at AWS to deliver what Steve described as “the most eye-opening session yet.” Her central thesis challenges everything most Web3 founders often believe about investor presentations.

“Focus on the story,” Pearson emphasized repeatedly. “Unfortunately, customers whether they are an Enterprise or an individual user do not care about the technology. They don’t care what you have behind the screen, they don’t care what you have in a data center somewhere, they don’t care about your technical white paper.”

Her message is crystal clear: investors and users care about one thing above all else. “How does your product make my life better? How does it add value to my life? How does it solve a key pain point?”

According to Steve’s notes, the session’s most powerful insight centered on a common founder trap. Web3 entrepreneurs often become so passionate about their technical innovations that they forget to paint the picture of why users should care.

“Forget the tech,” she Pearson tells us. “Talk about how does it make your customer’s life better, what is the experience that your customer is going to have in your community, in your ecosystem, with your product. That is what sells.”

The Web3 Pitching Strategies for Startups: Three Critical Differences

Steve tells us the XFounders curriculum highlighted three fundamental ways Web3 pitching differs from traditional tech presentations, along with Pearson’s strategies for overcoming each challenge:

• Technical Complexity Overload: Web3 projects often drown investors in blockchain jargon, smart contract details, and consensus mechanisms. Traditional tech pitches focus on user benefits from the start. Pearson’s solution centers on leading with problem and solution before ever mentioning the underlying technology.
• Token Economics Confusion: Unlike traditional SaaS models, Web3 projects must explain tokenomics, utility, and value capture in ways that don’t sound purely speculative. Traditional VCs understand subscription models and revenue streams intuitively. Pearson advocates for connecting token utility directly to user value creation rather than focusing on token distribution mechanics.
• Community vs Customer Metrics: Web3 success metrics include governance participation, protocol usage, and community engagement alongside traditional KPIs. Traditional investors focus primarily on revenue, user acquisition costs, and lifetime value. Pearson recommends translating community metrics into business impact terms that resonate with traditional investors.

Real-World Application: The Earnscape Evolution

The timing of this pitching intensive couldn’t be more perfect for Earnscape’s current trajectory. Steve shared exciting news about the company’s expansion plans, revealing how the XFounders methodology directly applies to their mission of democratizing mobile game streaming.

“We’re making game streaming more accessible than ever,” Steve explains. “The traditional platforms require months of audience building before creators can earn meaningful income. We’re eliminating that barrier completely through immediate rewards and one-click streaming technology.”

According to Steve, applying this storytelling framework helped clarify Earnscape’s core value proposition. Rather than leading with their patented mobile streaming SDK or blockchain integration, the pitch now centers on solving the fundamental problem facing 90% of aspiring streamers: the inability to monetize their passion immediately.

The XFounders approach emphasizes that successful Web3 pitches must seamlessly blend visionary thinking with practical execution. For Earnscape, this means demonstrating how the platform serves as a gateway to financial empowerment for mobile gamers in emerging markets while building sustainable business fundamentals.

The Community-First Framework

Pearson’s expertise in partnership development, honed during her time scaling Web3 initiatives at AWS, provided crucial insights into building sustainable growth engines. The XFounders curriculum emphasizes that Web3 success requires genuine community engagement before product launch, not just marketing campaigns afterward.

“When you solve a real problem for people who are passionate about gaming, they become your best advocates,” Steve observed.

The session reinforced that authentic community building requires creating meaningful participation opportunities for users as projects scale. For streaming platforms, this translates into revenue sharing, creator tools, and governance mechanisms that give users genuine ownership in the ecosystem’s success.

Mastering the Investor Mindset

Perhaps the most valuable insight from Pearson’s session involved understanding investor psychology in the current Web3 funding environment. With Web3 funding declining from $7.5 billion to $1.8 billion year-over-year in recent quarters, founders must be more strategic than ever.

Steve tells us about three critical investor concerns that successful pitches must address upfront.

• First, proving that Web3 technology actually improves the user experience rather than just adding complexity.
• Second, demonstrating sustainable revenue models that don’t rely solely on token appreciation.
• Third, showing clear paths to mainstream adoption beyond crypto-native users.

The XFounders methodology treats each pitch as an opportunity to build long-term relationships rather than just secure immediate funding. Pearson’s background in traditional finance proved invaluable in bridging the gap between Web3 innovation and institutional investment requirements.

Building Momentum Through Progressive Disclosure

One of the most actionable insights from the session focused on user onboarding and pitch structure. The workshop advocated for starting users “in the middle of value creation, not at the beginning.” This concept of progressive disclosure applies equally to investor presentations and product design.

For Earnscape, this principle validates our streamlined onboarding process requiring only Gmail authentication or OTP verification. Steve noted how the XFounders framework is helping us recognize that reducing friction at every touchpoint directly translates to better pitch narratives and user adoption.

The session emphasized that successful Web3 pitches mirror successful product experiences: they eliminate unnecessary complexity while maintaining the innovation that makes the solution unique.

The Demo Day Preparation

As the XFounders cohort prepares for their final Demo Day presentations, Steve tells us the intensive has transformed how he thinks about communicating Earnscape’s vision. The bootcamp’s focus on practical application over theoretical frameworks means every session directly improves their investor-ready materials.

“The caliber of mentorship here is extraordinary,” Steve said. “Having mentors who’ve navigated both traditional finance and cutting-edge Web3 initiatives, share these insights in person makes all the difference.”

The XFounders format creates unique opportunities for founders to refine their pitches through peer feedback and expert guidance. Steve mentioned how hearing other projects articulate their visions helped clarify Earnscape’s own positioning in the evolving creator economy landscape.

Key Takeaways for Web3 Founders

Steve’s dispatch highlighted several crucial lessons that apply across the Web3 ecosystem:

• Lead with Impact, Not Innovation: The most sophisticated technology means nothing if users can’t immediately understand how it improves their lives. Start every pitch with the problem you’re solving and the experience you’re creating.
• Bridge Traditional and Crypto Audiences: Successful Web3 projects must appeal to both crypto-native and traditional investors. This requires translating blockchain benefits into universal business value.
• Community Equals Competitive Advantage: In Web3, genuine community engagement becomes a sustainable moat that traditional competitors cannot easily replicate.

According to Steve, the XFounders experience continues to exceed expectations in preparing founders for real-world challenges.

“Web3 pitching strategies for startups aren’t just about building better decks,” he said. “It’s about fundamentally rethinking how we communicate value in an industry that’s still defining itself.”

Check out a short video from XFounders below to get some idea what it was like to hear it live!

Steve Wood is CEO and founder of Earnscape, the mobile-first gaming platform transforming streamers into successful content creators. Connect with Earnscape on Discord.

About the XFounder Insider Series

These reports provide an inside look at the world-class mentorship and learning happening at XFounders Bootcamp. Each post shares actionable insights from leading entrepreneurs and investors, applied directly to building next-generation gaming and streaming platforms. For more information about Xfounders, visit x-founders.com.