Rethinking Grants: From Black Hole to Growth Engine w/ Mashal Waqar, Octant
Grants were supposed to grow crypto ecosystems. Instead, hundreds of millions disappeared into a black hole - no accountability, no results, no clear strategy. The industry is still recovering from it.
Mashal Waqar has been studying this problem longer than most. With a background in media, security, and serial entrepreneurship, she co-authored some of the most referenced research on crypto grants funding before joining Octant - one of Web3's most underrated experiments in sustainable ecosystem growth. Now CMO of the newly independent Octant Labs, she's building a model where yield funds operations, communities guide capital allocation, and ecosystems can finally measure what they're getting for their money.
In this conversation, we unpack the full arc of grants in crypto, what ecosystems like Solana and Stellar are actually getting right, and why crypto marketing is finally growing up - beyond CT, beyond conference season, and toward real web2 playbooks.
→ Visit www.podpage.com/ogc for all OGC podcast episodes!
---
- 0:00 Introduction
- 1:00 Mashal's Background: Security, Media & Getting Crypto-Pilled
- 4:10 What Octant Is and How the Funding Model Works
- 8:25 Octant V2 and the Octant Labs Spinout
- 13:10 The History of Grants in Crypto: From Bounties to Black Holes
- 19:30 What Good Ecosystem Growth Looks Like Today
- 22:35 Octant's Vault Products and Open Ecosystem Model
- 28:45 The State of Crypto Marketing Right Now
- 33:05 Conference Culture, InfoFi, and What's Actually Working
- 38:30 DEVCON Location Debate: Accessibility vs. Capital Hubs
- 42:50 Where to Find Mashal
---
CONNECT WITH MASHAL:
- Mashal on X: https://x.com/Arlery
- Octant: https://octant.app/
CONNECT WITH NORMAN:
- X: https://x.com/normanwiese
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/normanwiese
- Onchain Growth Club: https://x.com/onchaingrowth
---
ABOUT THE OGC PODCAST:
The OGC Podcast tackles crypto's biggest unsolved challenge: growth. Host Norman Wiese sits down with founders, growth leaders, and crypto marketers sharing strategies and frameworks driving real results in web3.
→ Visit www.podpage.com/ogc for all episodes!