Who to hunt

9 ICPs Zucity should be actively recruiting

Three tiers. Tier 1 already speaks your language and shows up at adjacent events. Tier 2 needs a warm intro or a themed-week hook. Tier 3 is volume play, lower fit, useful only when a themed week needs filler bodies.

Every card has a "find via" with named sources (X bios, Lu.ma host pages, specific Mirror tags, Farcaster channels) and a "first-touch hook" that's the angle Zucity has for THIS persona, not a generic Karuizawa pitch.

Tier 1 ICPs

Highest fit, easiest to convert. Already crypto-native, already nomadic, already think in network-state terms.

Tier 1 · ICP 01

Web3 founders building in Asia

Pre-seed to Series A crypto founders living between Singapore, Tokyo, Bangkok, Chiang Mai. Already nomadic, already pay for trusted IRL spaces, already understand popup-city as a format because they were at Zuzalu or Edge City.

Find via

ETHGlobal Tokyo + Bangkok attendee lists, X bios with "BUIDLing" + Asia city, Farcaster /founders + /asia channels, Devcon side-event hosts, Token2049 speaker lists.

First-touch hook

"Karuizawa for the d/acc week in October. 30 builders, 3 protocol foundation sponsors, no panels."

Tier 1 · ICP 02

DAO ops + community leads

The people running 100 to 1000 person crypto communities who already hunt for offline IRL formats. They have budget, they have rosters, and they need credible third-party venues for cohort retreats.

Find via

Bankless DAO contributor roster, Mirror.xyz authors tagged "community", DAO Square host directory, Snapshot space admins, Discord mods of top 50 DAOs.

First-touch hook

"Book a whole Karuizawa property for your contributor cohort. We handle logistics, you handle the program."

Tier 1 · ICP 03

DeSci + d/acc researchers

Academic-adjacent, conference-driven, value curated peer cohorts more than any other ICP. They will literally fly across the world for a 5-day room of the right 25 people. Zucity already runs DeSci weeks, so the wedge is proven.

Find via

VitaDAO + Molecule contributor lists, Mirror DeSci tag, ResearchHub power-users, Bio Protocol grantees, Foresight Institute attendee roster.

First-touch hook

"DeSci week 2 in Fukuoka. 25 researchers, 4 funders, a real lab visit, one onsen."

Tier 2 ICPs

Warmer-up needed. Right culture, but the wedge is less obvious or the budget is downstream.

Tier 2 · ICP 04

AI agent builders

Kiba's home tribe. Already in the Chiang Mai cluster, already shipping agents weekly, already curious about Japan. Lower individual budget but high social-graph value as anchor tenants who pull in everyone else.

Find via

AI agent X (LangChain / OpenRouter / Replicate power-users), Cognition + Anthropic devrel followers, Chiang Mai builder house alumni, the Karpathy + swyx orbit on X.

First-touch hook

"Agent Builder Week in Karuizawa. Wifi that holds. The exact same crew you sit next to at Vault but with mountains."

Tier 2 · ICP 05

Crypto VCs scouting talent

Investors who pay real money to be near builders before the round closes. Themed-week sponsorship + presence package is the offer. They cover the budget gap and you upgrade the room.

Find via

ParaFi, Variant, 1confirmation, Robot Ventures, Dragonfly Asia, Hashed Tokyo, Symbolic Capital partners (LinkedIn + X bios + recent thesis posts on Mirror).

First-touch hook

"30 pre-seed Asia-based founders in one place for 5 days. Sponsor a meal, sponsor a track, or sponsor the whole week."

Tier 2 · ICP 06

Protocol foundation grant managers

Long-cycle recurring sponsorship. Ethereum Foundation, Optimism, Arbitrum, Polkadot, Near all run regional builder grant programs. A themed week aligned with their ecosystem priorities is a clean grant deliverable.

Find via

Ethereum Foundation ESP team, Optimism RetroPGF round leads, Arbitrum Foundation grants page, Near Horizon program managers, Polygon Labs ecosystem leads.

First-touch hook

"Builder residency week for your ecosystem grantees in rural Japan. We co-brand, you fund the cohort, grantees get a real cohort."

Tier 3 ICPs

Long-tail expansion. Lower fit per head, useful for filling capacity in shoulder weeks. Don't burn outbound energy here until Tier 1 and 2 are saturated.

Tier 3 · ICP 07

Indie hacker + solo SaaS founders

Adjacent to AI agents, value coliving infra, willing to pay for community when the alternative is a Bangkok hostel. Lower trust capital than Tier 1 but higher conversion when the price is right.

Find via

Indie Hackers forum top posters, MicroConf alumni list, MegaMaker community, WIP.co (Marc Lou + Pieter Levels orbit), Twitter #buildinpublic with MRR in bio.

First-touch hook

"Coliving month in Fukuoka. Fast wifi, weekly demo night, no Bali rave noise."

Tier 3 · ICP 08

Creator economy operators

Newsletter, podcast, YouTube operators between 5k and 50k followers. Value travel infrastructure and the chance to record on location. Tend to bring their audience as inbound by accident.

Find via

Substack growth lists (Top in Tech / Top in Crypto), Creator Now alumni, ConvertKit Spark Awards finalists, Spotify for Podcasters mid-tier rosters, Beehiiv recommendations network.

First-touch hook

"Karuizawa for 2 weeks. Record 4 podcast episodes on location, get a 'I lived at Zucity' newsletter dispatch out of it."

Tier 3 · ICP 09

Japan-curious nomads

Generic nomad pool. Low cultural fit, high volume. Useful only as fill for accommodations during weeks with no theme programming. Be honest with yourself that this ICP dilutes the brand if it ever becomes more than 20% of the room.

Find via

NomadList Japan + Thailand boards, Remote Year alumni, Selina property reviewers, Roam alumni community, /r/digitalnomad active posters.

First-touch hook

"Daily access membership starts at [$X]. Karuizawa, Hokkaido, Okinawa on rotation. Show up, plug in, no commitment."

Anti-ICPs

Actively avoid. Wrong culture, will dilute community, will cost more in member churn than they pay in fees.

Do NOT recruit

Backpacker + party-tourism crowd. Wrong rhythm, wrong noise level, will turn a builder week into a hostel.
Short-stay-only travelers (1 to 3 nights). The whole value of Zucity is the cohort. Drop-ins never bond, never refer, never return.
Crypto pump-and-dump bros. They sniff out token-native rooms and ruin the room within 48 hours. One in a cohort is fine, three is a flag.
People who can't articulate a project. If they can't say what they're working on in one sentence, they won't contribute to the room and they won't get value from it.
Anyone treating it as a wellness retreat. Zucity is a builder space, not a yoga shala. Misaligned expectations create the worst kind of review.
Influencer freebie hunters. Trade for trade only works when the influencer's audience overlaps your ICP. Most don't. Default no.

One starting move. Hunting 3 ICPs hard beats spraying all 9. The shortest path to compounding is Tier 1 ICP 01 (web3 founders building in Asia). Closest cultural fit, warmest existing network, and the themed weeks Zucity already runs (d/acc, jp/acc) are built for them.

Get 30 of them through a single themed week in the next 90 days. The DAO ops crowd (ICP 02) and VCs scouting talent (ICP 05) follow them in for free.