The Now Podcast

Luca Netz (Luca Schnetzler) is the CEO of Pudgy Penguins, an 8,888 NFT collection of adorable cartoon penguins. In April 2022, Netz took up leadership of the project and community in the aftermath of its fall from grace at the hands of its founding team. Since acquiring the Pudgy brand, Netz has turned Pudgy Penguins into both a comeback story and a breakout project that extends far beyond the walls of Web3. In May 2023, the company introduced a physical line of plushies and figurines called Pudgy Toys. The launch saw the IRL collectibles top the charts on Amazon and do more than $500,000 in sales volume over two days. Few Web3 projects have been able to involve and enrich their communities and appeal to the crypto-skeptic community more than Pudgy Penguins has, largely thanks to Netz’s vision for what the NFT project can ultimately become.

In this episode, we cover:

- What appealed to Netz about the Pudgy Penguins IP

- How he turned the project around

- The vision behind Pudgy Toys

- Netz’s plans for the future of Pudgy Penguins

To listen to the audio version of this episode, go to http://smarturl.it/nftnow

To sign up for the nft now newsletter, where we break down the NFT market into actionable insights each week, go to: https://www.nftnow.com

To follow Luca on Twitter, go here: https://twitter.com/LucaNetz

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Shira Lazar is an Emmy-nominated host, interviewer, and content creator covering social media, Web3, and digital wellness. Founding member of the Web3 community BFF and Co-Founder of the online yoga and meditation studio Peace Inside Live, Lazar has been a consistent proponent of mental health in Web3 — a dynamic often overlooked in the online-heavy ecosystem. She recently launched The JOMO Effect, a charity NFT collection featuring 40 artists with a focus on wellness and mental health. Partners include Deepak Chopra’s Seva Love project, Time magazine’s TimePieces, and more. Proceeds from the drop will benefit five mental health charities: Aakoma Project, Half The Story, The MINDS Foundation, LOVELOUD Foundation, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Lazar’s dedication to the NFT space — and to show those outside its walls the potential for blockchain-based tech to do good — is crucial to the growth and evolution of the ecosystem.

In this episode, we cover: 

- Why web3 has a mental health problem

- How The JOMO Effect turned into a community project

- The factors that make the NFT space prone to mental health struggles

- How she stays grounded in this climate

- Ways we can make Web3 a safer space for creatives

And much more

To listen to the audio version of this episode, go to http://smarturl.it/nftnow

To sign up for the nft now newsletter, where we break down the NFT market into actionable insights each week, go to: https://www.nftnow.com

To follow Shira on Twitter, go here: https://twitter.com/shiralazar

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Shannon Snow is the COO of World of Women (WoW), one of the world’s leading mission-driven NFT brands celebrating representation, inclusion, and equity in web3 and beyond. Before WoW, Snow worked in big tech; she led U.S. Entertainment at Meta and spent more than a decade at Google building and leading teams. Although she only came on as WoW COO about a year ago, Snow was a holder of the project and passionate about the world of web3.

World of Women was founded in July 2021, a time when there were other PFP collections on the market, but few featuring women avatars. Since then, the project has done more than $150 million in total volume on OpenSea, boasts 14,000 holders and collectors worldwide, and has a community that includes Eva Longoria, Reese Witherspoon, and Shonda Rhimes. 

This week, WoW is holding its Spring Artfest, a quarterly celebration of art and creativity that runs through May 25.

In this episode, we cover: 

- Why Snow chose to transition her career from web2 to web3 

- Everything to know about the WoW Spring Artfest

- What role art plays in WoW’s future plans

- Creating a community that sticks with you in a rocky market

- How the metaverse we all imagine could be 5-10 years away

- What’s next for WoW IP

To listen to the audio version of this episode, go to http://smarturl.it/nftnow

To sign up for the nft now newsletter, where we break down the NFT market into actionable insights each week, go to: https://www.nftnow.com

To follow Shannon on Twitter, go here: https://twitter.com/shannonsnow_sf

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andre Oshea is a 3D artist, animator, and musician who initially made a name in Web3 by partnering on NFT drops with Netflix, the Academy Awards, and the Grammys. Before finding his niche on the blockchain, Oshea cut his teeth through client work with Adult Swim, Snapchat, Tidal, Vogue, John Legend, and more. His unique style, which explores themes related to futurism, spirituality, new worlds, and aesthetic journeys, has continued to be tapped by many in the NFT space, with his solo pieces going on for auction at Christie’s. He has also continued to pursue philanthropic works, including a collaborative project with Web3 rapper Heno to fund prison reform.

In this episode, we cover: 

- Andre’s journey to embracing AI animation

- Why the bear market isn’t so bad

- Mental health and staying grounded as an artist in web3

To listen to the audio version of this episode, go to http://smarturl.it/nftnow

To sign up for the nft now newsletter, where we break down the NFT market into actionable insights each week, go to: https://www.nftnow.com

To follow Andre on Twitter, go here: https://twitter.com/andreoshea

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Frank DeGods (Rohun Vora) founded the highly acclaimed DeGods and y00ts NFT projects. He is also the co-founder of DeLabs. After working on movie sets in his early teens, he was inspired to study film at UCLA but dropped out to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. He was accepted to the startup fund and program Y Combinator, where he raised $1.3 million. Soon after, he joined a coding boot camp and landed a job at Main Street, a software development company where he raised a $500-million valuation. Frank went deep into the Solana ecosystem and established significant clout with the community after starting DeLabs in 2021. But his goals went far beyond Solana, with DeGods and y00ts poised to become multichain endeavors. DeGods left Solana in 2023 for Ethereum and even bridged over to Bitcoin as Ordinals Inscriptions, while y00ts found a home on Polygon.

In this episode of the nft now podcast, we cover:

- The origins of y00ts and DeGods

- What role storytelling plays within his ecosystem

- DeGods’ bridge from SOL to ETH

- How Frank cares for this mental health

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Long a mainstay in the Bitcoin community, Udi Wertheimer recently embraced the world of NFTs via Bitcoin Ordinals with Taproot Wizards. On February 1, 2023, Wertheimer announced the Taproot Wizards project to the world by orchestrating the largest block and transaction in Bitcoin’s history. Ultimately, the project achieved the absolute maximum block size of 4MB — something many previously thought impossible. While this move was considered controversial to some, it fulfilled Wertheimer’s larger goal of raising Bitcoin awareness and renewing interest in the chain. The Taproot Wizards’ tagline is “Make Bitcoin Magical Again,” and that’s precisely what Wertheimer plans to do.

In this episode of the nft now podcast, we cover:

- How Ordinals quickly gained traction in 2023

- The “cult” of Taproot Wizards

- His thoughts on Bitcoin Maxis

- The future of the Taproot Wizards community

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The co-founder and managing director for FirstLight, Megan Kaspar is renowned as a champion of digital fashion. In October 2021 she became the first person to wear NFT clothing while giving a video interview and was featured in Haute Living’s Miami issue wearing a digital outfit by luxury fashion designer Fendi. 

Kaspar took an early interest in crypto, investing in Bitcoin in 2011. She is now a founding member of the fashion-centered Red DAO, a group that purchased one of the most expensive fashion NFTs of all time, The Doge Crown by Dolce & Gabbana (423.5 ETH). A staunch advocate of the environmental and social benefits of NFT wearables, Kaspar was recently honored in nft now’s NFT100. 

In this episode of the nft now podcast we cover:

- Kaspar’s journey into into crypto and Web3 fashion

- How Web3 could disrupt the fashion industry

- What she looks for in Web3 companies when she invests

- The most-exciting use cases for digital fashion

- The background on the historic interview where she wore NFTs

- And much more

To listen to the audio version of this episode, go to http://smarturl.it/nftnow

To sign up for the nft now newsletter where we break down the NFT market into actionable insights each week, go to: https://www.nftnow.com

To follow Kaspar on Twitter, go here: https://twitter.com/megan_kaspar

To follow Kaspar on Instagram, go here: https://www.instagram.com/megan.kaspar/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sergio Silva, known in the NFT space as Sergito, is a prominent investor, collector, and thought leader who leveraged his background in traditional finance working at Goldman Sachs and Barclays into a thriving Web3 career. Hailed by the NFT community as a maximalist of Meebits NFTs and a curator of memes, Sergito currently acts as the Senior Director of Business Development at Fireblocks. As a founding member of the NeonDAO — a for-profit investment fund focused on building and promoting the open metaverse — Sergito has remained a staunch believer in the potential of blockchain tech to bring about the fabled next iteration of the internet. Notably, Sergito is also the founder of Seize The Meebs, an edition-based art and meme project that focuses on digital asset ownership and NFTs as value-delivery platforms, which has reached near viral popularity in 2023.

In this episode, we dive into:

- How Sergito went from traditional finance to Web3 and NFTs

- What changed him from an NFT skeptic into a leading trader

- How he’s gotten in so early on successful artists/projects

- Why he’s so bullish on Meebits

- How he transitioned from an NFT collector to a builder/creator

- The importance of NFT culture in creating his Seize The Meebs project

- What it’s going to take for consumers to actually start using the metaverse

- And much more!

To listen to the audio version of this episode, go to http://smarturl.it/nftnow

To sign up for the nft now newsletter where we break down the NFT market into actionable insights each week, go to: https://www.nftnow.com

To follow Sergito on Twitter, go here: https://twitter.com/sergitosergito

To follow Sergito on Instagram, go here: https://www.instagram.com/sergitosilva

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Meltem Demirors is the Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares — a leading full-service digital asset investment and trading group — the former co-chair of the cryptocurrency council at the World Economic Forum, and “High Priestess” of CryptoDickButts. An established veteran of digital asset investing, Meltem draws on her substantial experience to accelerate growth and acceptance of the asset class. She is a trusted partner to investors and entrepreneurs navigating the digital asset ecosystem and oversees strategy, investments, and growth at CoinShares. She has invested in over 250 companies in the digital asset ecosystem, first at Digital Currency Group, where she was a member of the founding team, and now at CoinShares as an active angel investor. She teaches at Oxford and is actively involved in crypto education and advocacy efforts, as well as causes related to civil liberties, consumer privacy, and freedom of speech.

In this episode we cover: 

- Why Meltem is so passionate about the CryptoDickButts project

- How the regulatory landscape might evolve surrounding crypto

- If NFTs will be a key driver of mainstream consumer adoption of blockchain technology

- Meltem’s thoughts on Bitcoin Ordinals

To listen to the audio version of this episode, go to http://smarturl.it/nftnow

To sign up for the nft now newsletter where we break down the NFT market into actionable insights each week, go to: https://www.nftnow.com

To follow Meltem on Twitter, go here: https://twitter.com/Melt_Dem

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’d like to give a special thank you to Atomic Form for helping bring our studio to life with their NFT displays. To learn more about Atomic Form, go to: https://atomicform.com 

Dave Krugman is a photographer and writer based in New York City who has embraced the NFT community wholeheartedly as a new platform for expression and education for his fellow creatives. Following the successful release of his collection DRIVE — taken over the course of 10 years of street photography — Krugman founded the creative community ALLSHIPS.CO. Through this community, Krugman hopes to highlight and nurture rising talent within the NFT art community, since “a rising tide raises all ships.”

In this episode we cover: 

- The problems photographers faced in web2, and how web3 empowers them

- The inspiration behind ALLSHIPS and the company’s future

- Krugman’s thoughts on community and building audience

- Caring for your mental health in Web3 

- What the future of web3 looks like for photographers

To listen to the audio version of this episode, go to http://smarturl.it/nftnow

To sign up for the nft now newsletter where we break down the NFT market into actionable insights each week, go to: https://www.nftnow.com

To follow Dave on Twitter, go here: https://twitter.com/dave_krugman

To follow Dave on Instagram, go here: https://instagram.com/dave.krugman/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.