Recently, while browsing Twitter, I noticed a pretty interesting phenomenon: there are a lot of women KOLs in the Web3 community who claim to be co-founders, many of whom have backgrounds as models or internet celebrities. At first glance, it seems like they are all project founders, but upon closer thought, things don’t seem that simple.

Honestly, in the Web3 industry, the title "co-founder" is indeed too easy to package. Because Web3 projects inherently have decentralized characteristics, the roles of team members are often not as strict or formal as in traditional companies. Some people may have only participated in promotion, fundraising, or planning aspects of the project, yet they give themselves the title of co-founder. Such titles can quickly boost personal branding and credibility, and also help in connecting with VCs and partners.

I’ve observed that many of these self-proclaimed co-founders are actually more involved in marketing, social media operations, or brand promotion, rather than in technical development or core business decision-making. But due to the ambiguity of identities in Web3, they can still confidently say they are co-founders. Plus, many models and internet celebrities already carry traffic, and entering Web3 to create a "female KOL + project founder" dual identity indeed makes it easier to attract user attention and interest from investors.

Of course, there are also genuine female Web3 entrepreneurs doing real work in the circle. But on platforms like Twitter, there is indeed a flood of voices claiming to be co-founders, but actually riding the wave of hype or self-marketing. So next time you see such self-introductions, it’s worth asking a few more questions: Are they the actual operators of the project, or mainly responsible for promotion and traffic? Only then can you better distinguish who is truly building Web3 and who is just using the co-founder title to build a personal brand.