We recently had the privilege of interviewing Julian Stafford (a.k.a ruthybuilds), co-founder of Surgence Labs, offering customised go-to-market solutions on the blockchain. From starting his professional journey by offering traditional consulting services to filling the gap in a real go-to-market strategy, distribution engine, or user acquisition system, Julian’s path over the years has been marked by challenges and opportunities that have allowed him to unfold his true potential. Leveraging his expertise, Julian Stafford has established Surgence Labs as one of the leading marketing and consulting firms, assisting over 100 Web3 companies in the years since its inception.
The Beginning
We started the interview by asking, “Could you start by telling us about your professional journey and inspiration behind jumping into this industry?”
Julian shared, “My professional career began in traditional consulting, where I spent years at Deloitte working in professional services and management consulting. Those early experiences shaped my approach to structured execution, cross-functional leadership, and scaling complex systems. From Deloitte, I moved into the Australian startup ecosystem, where I helped scale multiple high-growth companies from early stage all the way to Series C, eventually leading go-to-market and product expansion into the United States.
After operating in Web2 for almost a decade, I transitioned into Web3 at the moment the industry began accelerating globally. I built and scaled my own NFT ecosystems and DeFi platforms, taking them from zero-audience concepts to thousands of active on-chain participants. That period opened my eyes to a major industry gap: brilliant founders with powerful technology, but almost no real go-to-market strategy, distribution engine, or user acquisition system.”
“That insight became the foundation of Surgence Labs, which today is one of the leading Web3 marketing agencies and crypto go-to-market consulting firms globally. Over the past three years, our team has worked with 100+ Web3 companies, including L1s, L2s, infrastructure protocols, DeFi platforms, AI ecosystems, gaming studios, VCs, market makers, and consumer crypto apps.
Across these clients, Surgence Labs has helped generate over $300 million USD in revenue, TVL, deposits, sales, and ecosystem inflow, while architecting some of the most viral Web3 campaigns in the industry, from testnet launches to token sales to product releases.
Our work spans clients like Falcon Finance, Animoca Brands–backed projects, Lotte World and Line Friends in Korea, StandX, Incentiv Network, Mawari, Zeebu, and many of the fastest-growing Web3 ecosystems of the last cycle. Surgence Labs has become the go-to partner for founders seeking end-to-end Web3 marketing, crypto user acquisition, community scaling, and full-stack GTM strategy,” he added.
Pivotal Lessons throughout the Journey
We then asked, “As a professional/expert in this field, what are a few lessons that helped you in leading your business?”
Julian mentioned, “Over the years leading Surgence Labs, a few lessons have consistently shaped how we operate as a Web3 growth agency. Firstly, we have learnt that distribution is the differentiator. In Web3, great products fail without great distribution. We learned this while running GTM for large ecosystems like Falcon Finance, which grew from zero to a $2.1B FDV token launch; and StandX, which went from stealth to $100M+ TVL in seven days during a pre-launch campaign. So, our entire agency is built on a distribution-first strategy.
Moreover, one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of our work was executing Korean go-to-market expansions with brands like Lotte World and Line Friends. Understanding local behaviour, fandom culture, and content psychology was essential, shaping how Surgence Labs approaches APAC GTM for L1s, games, and NFT ecosystems.”
He further added, “Also, our clients, whether they come from Animoca Brands, DWF Labs, Binance ecosystem, or top-200 CoinMarketCap protocols, rely on us because we operate with precision. You cannot scale 100+ clients without systems. Everything at Surgence Labs is built around compounding processes: KOL engines, content pipelines, incentive design, and testnet-to-mainnet growth frameworks.
And, undoubtedly speed beats perfection. Across Web3, timing is everything; narratives move fast, attention decays fast, and liquidity rotates fast. We learned from executing campaigns for DeFi protocols, L1 testnets, AI projects, NFT launches, and CEX/L2 ecosystems that the only competitive advantage is velocity paired with accuracy.
These lessons allowed Surgence Labs to become one of the most effective crypto marketing agencies globally, operating at the intersection of strategy, narrative, and distribution.”
Navigating through Uncertainties in Business
Starting a business is a daunting task and is filled with inevitable challenges. To learn how Julian Stafford dealt with the uncertainties of the industry, we asked, “Would you like to share what you feel is a major challenge in starting a business or career? And how did you overcome it?”
He explained, “One of the biggest misconceptions in business is that going from zero to one is the hard part. In reality, zero to one is the easiest stage, it gives you early validation, momentum, and enthusiasm. The real challenge is going from one to 100. Scaling requires process, alignment, consistency, operational maturity, team culture, redundancy systems, quality control, and high-trust client relationships.
Surgence Labs started like any scrappy Web3 agency, helping small NFT communities, running experimental DeFi growth loops, and testing social funnels. But scaling from those early-stage clients to serving tier-one ecosystems, top-200 market cap projects, VCs, market makers, exchanges, and L1/L2 foundations required an entirely new level of discipline.
Today we support a range of services: large-scale token launches, tier-one testnets, multi-million user campaigns, cross-chain GTM expansions, and institutional-grade marketing systems. We went from supporting emerging NFT collections to powering GTM for ecosystems generating hundreds of millions in on-chain volume. The solution to the scaling challenge was simple: compounding excellence. Do small things well, every single week, and momentum builds.”
Plans we asked Julian Stafford
To learn more about the plans Julian has for Surgence Labs, we asked him to share a bit about it with our viewers.
He mentioned, “Surgence Labs remains focused on delivering full-stack go-to-market for Web3 and crypto companies. Our services today include: narrative development & positioning, social media management & ecosystem storytelling, KOL network activation across diverse platforms, testnet/user acquisition campaigns, viral identity funnels & SBT systems, community management & retention cycles, token sale strategy, DeFi ecosystem growth, TVL acquisition, and liquidity loops. We even offer product strategy, UX feedback, and incentive mechanism design, PR, founder brand building, and multi-market expansion.
We are further scaling our KOL & creator database, which now includes thousands of creators across every tier, from top-tier influencers with 300K–1M followers, to niche on-chain analysts, to country-specific communities in Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, UAE, India, Europe, and LATAM.
Our roadmap includes expanding into AI-native creator systems, international Web3 GTM hubs, enterprise-grade analytics for campaign attribution, and always-on distribution engines for protocol ecosystems. Our goal is simple: to remain the most trusted Web3 marketing agency and the strongest full-stack crypto GTM partner in the world.”
Impact of AI on Businesses
We asked Julian Stafford, “Nowadays, as you would see, AI is everywhere. Even businesses are adapting to it increasingly. What are your thoughts on this?”
He mentioned, “AI is fundamentally reshaping how Web3 marketing, crypto GTM, and ecosystem growth operate. At Surgence Labs, we integrate AI into almost every layer of our execution. AI amplifies our ability to analyse market sentiment across millions of posts, optimize SEO for crypto and blockchain keywords, identify narrative cycles forming across chains, and build automated community insights. We further use AI to generate content variations for multi-language markets, scale KOL evaluation and fraud detection, and design predictive user funnels for testnets and token launches.
The intersection of AI and Web3 marketing is still in its infancy, and we expect it to define the next decade. But AI does not replace strategy, it enhances it. Human judgment, market understanding, and behavioural insight still determine whether a Web3 campaign succeeds.
At Surgence Labs, AI is a multiplier on top of the systems and expertise we’ve built.”
Words of Wisdom for Beginners
Lastly, we asked, “What would be your advice to beginners in this field or in any field of business?”
Julian responded, “Three pieces of advice I give to anyone starting in business or Web3. Firstly, learn faster than the market changes. Web3 evolves monthly, new chains, new narratives, new user behaviours. Read, research, test, and iterate constantly, and become impossible to ignore.
Also, build value long before you ask for anything. Whether you’re a marketer, founder, designer, or developer, reputation in crypto is built through proof of work, not claims. Ship consistently, share insights, and help others. The market remembers.
And lastly, start with one win, but scale with systems. You can get your first client, your first user, or your first dollar easily. But to scale into a real business, whether that’s a Web3 startup, a DeFi protocol, or a crypto marketing agency, you need systems. The companies that survive are the ones that build compounding engines, not one-off wins.
If you commit to learning, delivering value, and operating with discipline, Web3 is one of the few industries where young builders can rise faster than anywhere else.”
Connect with Julian Stafford (a.k.a ruthybuilds) on LinkedIn to get more industry insights.
Learn more about Surgence Labs on LinkedIn, X, and http://surgence.io/
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