My guest today is John Burris, the Chief Strategy & Blockchain Officer at Together Labs. Together Labs aims to redefine social media as a catalyst for authentic human connection through the development of a family of products grounded in this core value. Together Labs are the makers of IMVU, a social gaming space that has been around since the early 2000s. It’s similar to Second Life, where players gather with virtual avatars and items you can buy. The service operates in over 140 countries, and it’s best thought of as an adult-oriented version of Roblox. Prior to joining Together Labs, John spent the bulk of his 20 year career working in very high growth industries: he began his career at Netscape as an engineer, he spent time at Sprint where he helped lead product, business development and marketing teams across a number of quickly transforming industries: media, music, sports, gaming, social, messaging, data plans, etc. He would later go on to be one of the founders of Silver Chalice, a capital deployment firm focused on building high-tech, sports and media businesses. In our discussion, we go deep on the Metaverse and how socio-economics present within the Metaverse. We also touch on why internet-first friendships are empowering, the future of live events, and why NFTs and the Metaverse will be a major sector in crypto. We also discuss IMVU, how they hosted the first metaverse fashion show, how they integrated crypto into a non-crypto native business and much more. Please enjoy my conversation with John Burris.

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