Week 31 – Nikita (Sachdev) Lord, Founder and CEO of Luna PR and Luna Media Corp
Nikita (Sachdev) Lord has built Luna PR into a global business by backing a style of leadership that is often undervalued in fast moving, male dominated industries. Her account of Web3 is not framed in slogans about disruption, nor in claims that technology alone will level the playing field. Instead, she speaks about conviction, resilience, trust and the ability to build relationships that last. In her telling, leadership is less about occupying space than about earning credibility over time.
The Case for Female Leadership in Web3
Lord entered crypto in 2017, at a point when the industry was even more visibly imbalanced than it is today. She recalls being the only woman in many of the rooms that mattered, a reality familiar to many women who have built careers in emerging technology. What is striking in her answer is not grievance, but clarity. She learned quickly that trying to mimic the dominant model of leadership was not the right route.
“Building Luna PR into a global company taught me that leadership is less about authority and more about conviction and resilience,” she says. Over time, she realised that the strongest way to lead was not by trying to fit the mould of the industry, but by bringing a different perspective to it.
That different perspective, as she describes it, is not softness, nor is it a rejection of commercial ambition. It is rooted instead in communication, emotional intelligence and long-term relationship building. Those are qualities that have not always been given proper weight in technology circles, particularly in sectors where technical fluency and financial aggression are often treated as the only credible forms of authority. Yet in Web3, where communities are global, ecosystems are fluid and reputations travel quickly, Lord sees those qualities not as secondary strengths but as genuine leadership advantages.
“Women often bring a strong emphasis on communication, emotional intelligence, and long-term relationship building,” she says. “In Web3, where ecosystems are global and communities matter, those traits become real leadership advantages.”
Her assessment of decentralisation is equally measured. Web3 is often described in idealistic terms, as though open protocols and permissionless systems naturally dissolve old hierarchies. Lord is too grounded to accept that at face value. She believes decentralisation has created real openings for women because it lowers barriers to participation. The ability to build, launch and contribute without waiting for institutional permission is meaningful. Yet she is equally clear that structural inequalities do not vanish simply because the technology changes. Venture capital, capital allocation and access to senior leadership still often reproduce the patterns of traditional finance.
“I think it’s a bit of both,” she says. Web3 offers new opportunities, but “traditional power dynamics don’t disappear overnight”. The difference, in her view, is that Web3 moves faster than older industries, which means those imbalances can also change faster, if people are willing to challenge them.
There is a practical toughness in the way she talks about being underestimated. Early in her career, she noticed that people sometimes assumed she was the marketing person in the room rather than the founder or decision maker. It is the sort of assumption many women in business will recognise instantly, subtle enough to be denied, obvious enough to shape the dynamic in a meeting.
Lord’s response was not theatrical. “Instead of reacting emotionally, I learned to let results speak,” she says. It is a line that captures both discipline and confidence. She does not suggest bias disappears on its own, but she does argue that in a sector obsessed with execution, consistent delivery changes perceptions. “When you build companies, close deals, grow teams, and deliver results consistently, perceptions change quickly. The industry respects builders.”
That emphasis on credibility runs through all her answers. Web3 often celebrates the idea of a trustless system, where blockchain reduces the need to rely on individual actors. Lord does not deny the elegance of that architecture, but she is careful to distinguish technical trust from human trust. Systems may automate transactions, yet people still choose who to work with, who to back and whose judgement they believe. In an ecosystem as interconnected as Web3, reputation accumulates.
“Blockchain removes the need for technical trust, but human trust still matters enormously,” she says. Her own leadership style, she explains, has always centred on relationships and long- term reputation. Transparency, authenticity and strong communication are not simply personal preferences. They are commercial assets in a sector where credibility compounds over time.
One of the more useful aspects of Lord’s perspective is that she does not mythologise technical expertise. Web3 can often appear forbidding to outsiders, not least because its language is dense and its culture can be performative. Her advice to women entering the industry is refreshingly direct.
“You don’t need to be a PhD, protocol engineer to succeed in Web3,” she says. “My own background isn’t technical, but I entered the space by getting my hands dirty, investing, learning the fundamentals and surrounding myself with brilliant minds.
Her account also captures one of the central tensions of Web3 today, namely the coexistence of grassroots communities and institutional power. On one side are open-source builders and decentralised networks; on the other are banks, regulators, sovereign actors and public markets. For many people, those worlds still feel culturally incompatible. Lord sees the movement between them as one of the most fascinating aspects of the industry. Her role, as she describes it, is often to bridge that divide by translating highly technical language into terms that institutions, governments and traditional finance can understand. It is an important observation, because translation is not a minor administrative task. It is one of the core strategic functions in any young industry moving towards scale. Here again, she sees an opportunity for women, particularly where communication and ecosystem building are involved. Those skills are not decorative to growth. They are integral to it.
The same instinct for breadth appears in her thinking about AI and blockchain. For Lord, the convergence of the two technologies will shape how societies deal with data, identity and financial infrastructure. That makes questions of governance and ethics too important to be left to a narrow demographic.
“It’s incredibly important that the people building those systems reflect diverse perspectives,” she says. If governance frameworks are designed by a small and homogeneous group, the outcomes will inevitably be narrow as well. Her argument for female leadership therefore extends well beyond career progression. Women, she says, should be leading conversations around AI governance, digital identity and ethical technology because these are not merely technical questions. They are societal ones.
It is notable, too, that when she speaks about what helped her early on, she does not mention credentials or gatekeepers. She points instead to mentorship and community. She learned by being deeply involved in the ecosystem, attending conferences, hosting discussions and engaging directly with founders, developers and investors. That route into an industry is familiar to anyone who has ever built a career in a field that is still defining itself. There is no single institutional ladder. Progress depends on participation, visibility and the willingness to keep showing up. Related: Georgia Hanias on Web3 communications and networks.
Three tips from Lord
• Stay curious and keep learning. Web3 evolves extremely fast, so continuous learning is your biggest advantage. • Build relationships. Communities and networks are the backbone of this industry. • Don’t wait for permission to build. One of the most powerful aspects of Web3 is that anyone can create, launch and contribute.
