--- title: "Why Web3 and AI Founders Hire Shilika Jain" description: "Why Web3 and AI founders hire Shilika Jain: six years of tier-1 placements, 50+ protocols, an APAC footprint and six campaigns from Gaia to MANTRA Chain." author: "Shilika Jain" date: "2026-10-01T06:21:36.101+00:00" tags: ["shilika jain", "web3 pr", "ai startup pr", "apac pr", "case studies"] canonical: "https://www.shilikajain.com/blog/why-founders-hire-shilika-jain" --- # Why Web3 and AI Founders Hire Shilika Jain By [Shilika Jain](https://www.shilikajain.com/authors/shilika-jain) - 10/1/2026 Why Web3 and AI founders hire Shilika Jain: six years of tier-1 placements, 50+ protocols, an APAC footprint and six campaigns from Gaia to MANTRA Chain. --- # Why Web3 and AI Founders Hire Shilika Jain I'm Shilika Jain, a fractional PR operator for Web3, AI and cybersecurity founders. I've spent six years placing founders in tier-1 publications, including Forbes, CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, Decrypt, The Block, Blockworks, Bitcoin Magazine and AI Magazine, across 50+ protocols. I work across Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, India and the UAE, and I currently lead APAC PR and partnerships at Myosin, a growth-marketing DAO. Founders hire me because they get a senior operator doing the work directly, at $5K to $12K per month instead of the $20K to $50K a traditional agency charges. That's the pitch in one paragraph. The rest of this page is the evidence, the way I work, and an honest list of who I'm not right for. In short, you get: - One senior operator who writes the angle, the pitch and talks to the reporter - Six years of tier-1 relationships across crypto, AI and business press - APAC execution in six markets, not just a translated press release - Fixed structures with published price ranges - A clear "no" on the first call if your story isn't ready ## Six campaigns, and what each one shows Results matter more than adjectives. These are six engagements, summarised with only what's on the public case study pages. You can read each in full on the [work page](/work). ### Gaia: turning a technical product into one sentence Gaia is a decentralized AI company. We positioned it as "the Stripe for AI agents," then carried that frame through a Forbes feature, a Decrypt deep-dive, Benzinga coverage and a six-podcast founder tour timed to Consensus Hong Kong. What it shows: the angle does most of the work. A sharp comparison makes every later pitch easier. ### RARI Chain: an 11-outlet coordinated launch RARI Foundation's RARI Chain is NFT infrastructure on Arbitrum. For the global mainnet launch we secured 11 simultaneous tier-1 placements, including CoinDesk, The Block, The Defiant, Cointelegraph and CryptoNews, and lifted the embargo into coordinated APAC translations. What it shows: embargo operations at scale, across time zones and languages. ### MANTRA Chain: reframing a raise for a bigger story MANTRA Chain is an RWA Layer 1. Its $11M raise was reframed as a Middle East RWA story anchored on lead investor Shorooq Partners, which is based in Abu Dhabi. It ran as a CoinDesk exclusive on March 19, 2024, was re-reported across Decrypt, CryptoPotato, CryptoDaily and Milk Road, and was paired with a standalone Cointelegraph profile of CEO John Mullin titled "Everything Tokenized." What it shows: a funding announcement is rarely the story. The context around it usually is. ### Fluence Network: making a category a beat Fluence is DePIN compute. The work was to make DePIN a beat tier-1 reporters actually covered, with Tom Trowbridge as its category voice across CoinDesk opinion, Cointelegraph's "Hashing It Out" and Bitcoin Magazine NL, plus Decrypt, Benzinga and e27. What it shows: founder profiling done properly builds a category, not just a company. ### Web3Auth: one integration, many markets Web3Auth is wallet infrastructure. We drove its Google Cloud x Firebase integration story into Blockworks, CoinDesk, Yahoo Finance and Benzinga, with localised placements in French, Italian and Spanish. What it shows: a partnership announcement can travel well beyond crypto press when it's framed for the business reader. ### Bullieverse: a local exclusive that went global Bullieverse is an Indian Web3 gaming company. Its $4M seed in February 2022 launched as an Economic Times exclusive, then ran dual-track across Inc42, YourStory, TechInAsia and CoinDesk. What it shows: starting with the right local outlet can open the international one, and not the other way around. ## The pattern across all six | Campaign | Core move | Outlets included | |---|---|---| | Gaia | One-sentence category frame | Forbes, Decrypt, Benzinga, 6 podcasts | | RARI Chain | Coordinated multi-outlet embargo | CoinDesk, The Block, The Defiant, Cointelegraph, CryptoNews | | MANTRA Chain | Reframe the raise as a regional story | CoinDesk exclusive, Cointelegraph profile | | Fluence | Make the category a beat | CoinDesk opinion, Cointelegraph, Bitcoin Magazine NL | | Web3Auth | Business-press framing plus localisation | Blockworks, CoinDesk, Yahoo Finance, Benzinga | | Bullieverse | Local exclusive, then dual-track | Economic Times, Inc42, YourStory, TechInAsia, CoinDesk | None of these were won with a press release sent to a list. Each came from choosing the angle first, then the order of outlets, then the timing. ## Why the APAC footprint matters Most Western PR firms treat Asia as a translation job. Write the US release, run it through a translator, send it to a wire in Seoul or Tokyo. It rarely works, because each market reads a different story into the same news. Korean crypto readers care about exchange listings and retail community. Japanese outlets want regulatory clarity and named institutional partners. Indian tech press responds to local founders, local investors and a domestic growth angle, which is why Bullieverse opened with an Economic Times exclusive before anything global. The UAE story is often about capital and regulation, which is why MANTRA's raise became a Middle East RWA story. I've worked across Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, India and the UAE, and my day role at Myosin is leading APAC PR and partnerships. If Asia or the Gulf is in your next 12 months, that experience saves you a quarter of trial and error. The market pages for [Korea](/korea), [Japan](/japan) and [India](/india) go into more detail. ## How I work I'm a fractional senior operator, not an agency account team. In practice that means: 1. **You talk to me, and I do the work.** No hand-off to a junior after the sales call. 2. **Angle first.** The first two weeks are spent on positioning and the story a reporter would actually write. 3. **Outlet sequencing.** Exclusive, embargo or wide release is decided per story, not by habit. 4. **Founder prep.** Every interview gets a briefing doc and, for big moments, media training. 5. **Plain reporting.** Named outlets and what was published. No inflated reach numbers. You can read more about my background on the [about page](/about). ### What the first month looks like Founders often ask what they'll actually see in the first 30 days. Roughly this: | Week | What I do | What you see | |---|---|---| | 1 | Product deep-dive, coverage audit of you and three competitors | A one-page read on how the press currently sees your category | | 2 | Angle options and messaging | Two or three angles to choose from, with the trade-offs | | 3 | Press kit, founder bio, outlet shortlist and sequencing | A plan you can read in five minutes | | 4 | First outreach and interview prep | Calls on the calendar, a briefing doc before each | Nothing in that month is busywork. If an angle isn't landing with reporters by the end of week four, you'll hear it from me directly, along with what I'd change. ## What it costs All prices are published ranges. Full detail is on the [services page](/services). | Service | Price | |---|---| | Web3, AI startup or cybersecurity PR retainer | $5K to $12K per month, 3 to 12 months | | Launch sprint | $15K to $40K, 4 to 8 weeks | | AI startup founder profiling sprint | $12K to $25K over 90 days | | Token launch, pre-TGE retainer | $6K to $14K per month, 3 to 6 months | | TGE launch sprint | $20K to $60K, 6 to 10 weeks | | APAC quarterly retainer | $6K to $14K per month, 3 to 6 months | | APAC single-market launch sprint | $12K to $35K, 14 to 21 days | | Founder Voice retainer | $4K to $10K per month, 6 to 12 months | | Op-Ed of the Month | $2,500 per month, 3-month minimum | For comparison, traditional AI-PR agencies charge $20K to $50K per month, and crypto CMOs often pay agencies $15K to $30K per month. ## Who should hire me - [ ] You're a Web3, AI, AI x crypto or cybersecurity founder - [ ] You have a real story in the next 90 days: a raise, a launch, a mainnet, a TGE - [ ] You want tier-1 or strong trade coverage, not a volume of syndicated reposts - [ ] You're expanding into Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, India or the UAE - [ ] You'd rather have one senior operator than a team you rarely see ### Who shouldn't I'd rather say this now than three months in. - If you want guaranteed placements, I'm not your operator. Earned coverage can't be guaranteed honestly. - If you need a full-service team for events, paid media and social at once, hire an agency. - If there's no news coming and the product isn't ready, spend the money on the product first. - If your token plan has compliance questions you haven't answered, fix those before any comms. ## Objections I hear, answered **"You're one person."** Yes. That's the point. The person who understands your story is the one pitching it. Everything I produce, from messaging docs to media lists, is yours if we part ways. **"Our space is niche."** Fluence is the example. DePIN wasn't a beat before the work started. ## The next step Book a 30-minute teardown. Bring your next announcement and the three outlets you'd most like to be in. You'll leave with an angle, a realistic outlet shortlist and a view on timing, whether or not we work together. You can see [what happens on the call](/blog/30-minute-pr-teardown-what-happens) before you book. Good PR isn't louder. It's better chosen. *Ready to see if your story is tier-1 ready? [Book a 30-minute teardown with me](/contact).* --- **Book a 30-min teardown with Shilika** - https://calendly.com/shilikajain/30min/ Canonical: https://www.shilikajain.com/blog/why-founders-hire-shilika-jain