Web3 w/ Me

My guest today is Hrish Lotlikar (https://www.linkedin.com/in/hrishlotlikar/), CEO and Founder of Superworld. His career has spanned Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Hollywood all as a true digital nomad. As Co-Founder & CEO of SuperWorld (https://www.linkedin.com/company/superworldapp/), he connects communities, brands and influencers that would like to create, discover, monetize and own their virtual world. As Co-Founder of The Rogue Initiative, he connects those who are interested in VR/AR, Feature Film, TV, Gaming content creation, publishing, distribution and investment. He also does early stage venture investing globally to find new disruptive web and mobile startups.

We discuss...

Studying medicine, management consulting and investment banking in RE, VC, operator at Top tau, Production Company (Rogue Initiative)

What does the mainstream understand that will help them conceptualize a virtual world on Web3 rails?

How will Superworld grow?

• Organic first - NFTs in 2018
• Mainstream interest early
• Web and Mobile App - be where the customers are
• Partnerships 
• 
  

What is the metaverse?

• Matthew Ball’s Book - https://www.matthewball.vc/metaversebook 
• Tony Parisi’s 7 Rules - https://medium.com/meta-verses/the-seven-rules-of-the-metaverse-7d4e06fa864c
• Meeting of physical and digital

Power of Partnerships - Hurricane Relief to Super Yachts

• aligning brand business models to achieve better outcome for customers
• B2B - Brands buy virtual RE in Superworld, then they partner to build it out and use it
• Abstract away technology
• Make a positive impact on the world

Thanks for listening! Did you know you can also watch the show on YouTube? Just hit the link below and don't forget to subscribe!

Web3 w/ Me - YouTube

My guest today is Marlon Williams (https://twitter.com/marlonwilliams), founder of Atlanta Blockchain Center (https://www.linkedin.com/company/atlantachain/). Marlon is a serial entrepreneur, starting and selling his first business at 25. He currently operates 4 different successful businesses. His company Starter Labs has helped raise over $45million for blockchain startups, and is the parent company for Atlanta Blockchain Center. We also get the tea on Immutable, the conference that will put Atlanta on the map. This episode is a powerful one because Marlon’s mission of making Atlanta a blockchain hub is near and dear to my heart and he and his team have supported the growth of this show tremendously.  

We discuss...

Marlon’s humble beginnings feeding his drive  

Why he became addicted to programming

Find the right mix of sales and engineering skills and anything is possible

The hustle, moonlighting his business then moonlighting bitcoin 

How Marlon helped one of his early employees to pay for college through bitcoin mining

First crypto business - replacing incentive structure in call center business

Marlon’s first blockchain developed was a DAO before DAOs

• 100 contributors from the start
• Organized into working groups
• Co-chairs to set the vision
• Using telegram to communicate

Starter Labs

• Autonomous funding mechanism
• Built on binance smart chain
• EVM projects
• Ranked #1 for ROI on Cryptograph

Journey to Atlanta Blockchain Center

• Logical extension of launchpads already building
• The city was ripe for building fintech companies
• Lack of cohesive blockchain community
• It’s a slow burn

Thanks for listening! Did you know you can also watch the show on YouTube? Just hit the link below and don't forget to subscribe!

Web3 w/ Me - YouTube

My guest today is Avery Bartlett (https://twitter.com/avedarave_), who handles short-form videos for socials at Avalanche aka AvaLabs (https://twitter.com/avalabsofficial). Avery has accumulated over 30m views across all social channels and has grown an account with over 100k followers. Avery has a unique background, working as a software engineer at The Home Depot after an illustrious running career where he was 3x State Champ in Florida, 5x All-American at Georgia Tech and a professional runner. If you want to learn how to reinvent yourself to be the best in whatever you do, you will love this episode. 

We Discuss:

Avery’s first attempt at being marketable because it boosted his ability to go pro as a runner

Identifying early social media when demand exceeds supply - Tik Tok in 2019

Athlete identity crisis, what happens after sports?

• Be grateful for what you had
• Go back to freshman year and climb a new mountain

Mental Model from Computer Science - Randomized Hill-climbing Algo

How do you get over your fear of failure?

• Spoiler Alert you have to fail a lot
• Prioritizing process over result
• Removing emotions from results
• Experiential learning, learning how to fail

Key to Web3 Content

• Be cool
• Be fun
• Be simplistic
• Be iterative

Avalanche and the Blockchain Trilemma

• Decentralization and Scalability - Subnets, the real difference maker
• Scalability and Speed - gossip consensus 

What is the future of the blockchain?

• 40% of all transactions on chain
• Currently we are around 1%

Thanks for listening! Did you know you can also watch the show on YouTube? Just hit the link below and don't forget to subscribe!

Web3 w/ Me - YouTube

Today my guest is Greg Johnson. Greg is the co-founder of Rubicon Crypto, an investment solutions focused company that focuses on taking a pragmatic approach for individual investors, RIAs and institutions that are "crossing the digital divide." Greg's background as an executive at places like American Express Ameriprise Financial, gives him a perspective from the world of high level traditional financial services that is so unique and insightful, making this a can't miss episode!

Thanks for listening! Did you know you can also watch the show on YouTube? Just hit the link below and don't forget to subscribe!

Web3 w/ Me - YouTube

My guests today are Chris Powell (https://twitter.com/LeftyChris13) and David Edwards (https://twitter.com/CriticalComp_D). Chris is an educator who has taught classes on topics such as Blockchain, Crypto, Nodes, and NFTs. Chris has a strong background in technology with his Bachelors in Physics, and is certified in Blockdegree as a Blockchain Advanced Expert. When he's not teaching, he's working for GoPlugin, a decentralized oracle based company, as a Community Contributor. David Edwards brings experience in coaching and consulting on blockchain and crypto for almost 3 years. David is passionate about teaching people about this technology and how people can take advantage while we are still early. In addition to Cryto Ed Courses, he is the founder of criticalcomplex.com.

We discuss:

• David’s journey started with trading stocks, but his ultimate goal was seeking freedom
• Chris’ journey started as a curious physics student whose curiosity sparked interest in blockchain
• Both started as educators for discord communities
• Leveraging social capital to grow demand for courses
• Taking a concierge level approach
• Blockchain empowering the next generation of creators
• Inclusivity + Empowerment = Global Scale
• It is about educating others how you want to be educating - the Golden Rule of Web3

Thanks for listening! Did you know you can also watch the show on YouTube? Just hit the link below and don't forget to subscribe!

Web3 w/ Me - YouTube

My guest today is Giuseppe Stuto (https://twitter.com/gstuto), who is the first repeat guest on Web3 w/ Me. He is the first US-born member of his family who was from Italy. He is a deep technical thinker who does a great job of using analogies to explain his outlook on investing in Web3. He founded his first company fresh out of college, and sold it to DraftKings a few years later. Giuseppe started angel investing while at DraftKings, and ultimately partnered up to form 186ventures. He plays on his unique technical experience as a founder to help provide a value add to his portfolio companies. We go deep on the potential for Web3 infrastructure and developer tools.

Show Notes:

🚨FIRST REPEAT GUEST🚨

Current State of Web3 Investment

- Hypothesis:  slow down of crypto native capital allocators

- 6-9 months ago, capital flowing into consumer brands and creator teams

- Shifting bc of missing infrastructure needed to enable better UX

- Corporate Sponsors - still very active, but know their role

- Is there enough opps to fund?

- Founder focus - build > growth

- Funding Experimentation vs. Catalyzing Growth

- Web3 perception problem is rooted in Web3 ego:

- Too much focus on novel terminology

- Too much focus on solving problems in a novel way

- Companies are companies and they solve the same problems

- Teams and responsibilities are the same

- Meetings with investors are still about marketing, sales, operations, etc.

Thanks for listening! Did you know you can also watch the show on YouTube? Just hit the link below and don't forget to subscribe!

Web3 w/ Me - YouTube

My guest today is Zeneca (https://mobile.twitter.com/Zeneca_33). He is a web3 and NFT investor, advisor, content creator, and project founder. He writes a Newsletter on NFTs, host two podcasts, run a YouTube channel, and has ~300k followers on twitter. Zeneca manages two NFT communities: all with a focus on creating educational content to help people learn about this wild world of web3.

We discuss:

Zeneca’s Evolution to ZenAcademy

Pre-NFTs

Professional Poker Player and Poker/Travel Blogger

• Healthy Dissociation to Money (a balance between caring and not caring) - If you care too much, everytime you make a bet you think about what else you could be buying. If you don’t care enough then you blow your bankroll too quickly
• Fostering a lifelong practice of writing because it requires him to think analytically (research, write, explain to others)

NFTs

• Initially completely skeptical
• Started simple on content - floor price updates
• Response to content is that he is providing utility, moreso than trading NFTs
• It gave him energy, rewarding and fulfilling

ZenAcademy 1.0

• Looking at ways to monetize content in a truely Web3 way so he launched an NFT community
• Currently: Zen Academy Membership through Membership Token or 333 Club which is for founders, builders and others who want advice on their project

Insights from Membership Pass and 333

1. there is a wide disparity in talent and knowledge between people so how do you make a community valuable to people from every level
2. Social Identity - PFP - community have been demanding one to show their love

ZenAcademy 2.0

• Middle layer of PFP 
• Target Audience for PFP: people who are a little bit deeper, more risk tolerant, degens, developers, in the space
• ZenAcademy (free) NFT - students who want to learn the industry and NFTs who will get a soulbound NFT as their first NFT - sole goal is to onboard to millions to NFTs

ZenAcademy 2.5

• Future of Monetization if No Royalties
• Content
• Consulting
• Incubator programs

Insight about Community:

• Any two people that are part of community, have similar values and ethos
• Understanding that the dynamics of virtual location, shows even more intent on where time is spent
• Almost everyone is underestimating the rate of change over the coming
• Zeneca’s Why: He and Zen Academy are in a unique position to achieve scaled community goals that will do good in the world
• It is of primary importance to build a self sustaining community. One that can live on beyond the founder

ZenAcademy 3.0 - 1 billion+ people

How do we onboard billions of users? https://zeneca33.substack.com/p/how-we-onboard-billions-to-web3 

1. Education - new technology interactions in a safe way, how do we make it like email?
2. Infrastructure - abstract away technology, make it frictionless - take us from dial up to fiber
3. Mentality (Perception) Shift - early adopters are tech or finance minds, which most of the world is not - marketing mainly consists ways to make money, not everyone wants to commercial

Where does Zen Academy fall?

• Education and Mentality first
• Infrastructure possibly in the future

Which companies embody the characteristics necessary to go mainstream?

1. Reddit - 3,000,000 wallets with a conservative estimate of tens of thousands of new users; educated them through content; infrastructure was easy, buy with a credit card; mentality shift was positioning was not about making money but rather about identity and avatars which reddit community is familiar with 
2. Starbucks (future) - 25,000,000 loyalty rewards members, outcome not yet here
3. If a small percentage of Reddit and Starbucks users decide to dig deeper, what does that mean for the NFT community?

Flywheel of Ownership and Identity

Advice to Startup Founders

Product-Market Fit

Know your Why

Find one thing to do really well and focus on it

Role of Data 

1. ZenAcademy not yet leveraging but will start with emails
2. The tools are not there yet
3. Customizability of experience is not yet present because of a lack of use of data

Thanks for listening! Did you know you can also watch the show on YouTube? Just hit the link below and don't forget to subscribe!

Web3 w/ Me - YouTube

My guest today is Brennen Schlueter(https://twitter.com/brennenschlu). Brennen has spent a decade building brands at the intersection of innovation and culture including Jordan, Robinhood, Amazon Music, and most recently was Head of Marketing at web3 company RabbitHole. He co-founded web3 marketing community JUMP (https://twitter.com/jumperstweeting). After a decade of investing in crypto, he’s excited to see the expansion of the technology to bring in the next generation of crypto users via web3 brands.

Show Notes:

Brennen’s Core Philosophy and Role

1. 2 people - Company & Audience
2. Between Company and Audience is:

• Empathy
• Curiosity
• Courage

1. Brand definition

• Not the product or company
• Its relationship they are built between a community and the product or services offered

1. Brennen’s role as marketer 

• In-house audience advocate 
• Intersection of brand and tech and culture

What is the evolution of marketing? - How did we get here?

1. Shouting AT you
2. Becomes a conversation
3. Now, a complete blur of the line between brand and community, ownership of a brand by its community

What is the current state of Web3 Marketing?

1. Hype and financialization
2. Not a lot of great businesses…yet.
3. Great ideas, theories and experiences
4. UX and Comms - reminiscent of internet in early Web2
5. Brands starting to listen - the Web3 community is incentivized to shout (write twitter threads) about why they love a brand

What is the future of Web3 marketing? 

1. Communication - progressive decentralization
2. Data - Avoid top-of-funnel, bc on-chain data is pure conversion data
3. Empathy - embrace the Web3 perception problem in campaigns like Brennen did here https://thedefiant.io/airdrops-data-dive and https://twitter.com/brennenschlu/status/1575605593724682240?s=20&t=Q0JCeMo8z1lv0YHjPBdCRw 
4. MarTech - complete reboot to accommodate new community/brand dynamic
5. Perception - abstract away blame on the underlying technology for core societal issues
6. Internal - Mktg and brand face massive restructure
7. Diligence - stress test this technology against all of our human anxieties             

What are some Web3 brands to watch?

1. Rainbow - beautiful design
2. Doodles - here to make the world smile
3. Bankless - full control of finances without traditional finance involvement
4. Others from brennen - https://twitter.com/brennenschlu/status/1584249429862731776?s=20&t=Q0JCeMo8z1lv0YHjPBdCRw

Thanks for listening! Did you know you can also watch the show on YouTube? Just hit the link below and don't forget to subscribe!

Web3 w/ Me - YouTube

My guest today is Keith Wilson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kowilson1/). Keith is the founder and CEO of Klearcoat Labs, a Web3 company that empowers automotive brands to bring their legendary IP to life through non-fungible tokens. A veteran executive in the automotive industry, Keith is leveraging his decade of experience to build  a bridge between the auto industry and the Web3 community. 

Show Notes:

What lessons can you take from a f500 to a DAO to help move the needle?

1. Internal relationship management - speaking the language of various teams, meeting them where they are
2. Data -  competitive benchmarking, traditional sales data, profit/loss data, and customer data
3. Go-to-market - marketing that only highlights the new feature, comparisons to other similar features across the market

How do you bridge the gap between traditional automotive companies and Web3?

1. Onboarding - giving purchasers of cars the option to go and personalize a digital version
2. Expansion of digital use cases - building a digital car from scratch and playing with it
3. Integration with traditional use cases - priority for service appointments
4. Using IRL touchpoints - car companies are everywhere, like stadiums, let the digital vehicle provide a unique experience
5. Collaboration w/ Non-Automotive Brands

Launching a Consumer Strategy in Midst of Bear Market

1. Utility - not just a jpeg, partnerships
2. Price - reasonable to macroenvironment
3. Blockchain Selection - consumer friendly, previous partnerships 
4. Leveraging Concept Vehicle - they can’t build IRL, but they can build digital

Thanks for listening! Did you know you can also watch the show on YouTube? Just hit the link below and don't forget to subscribe!

Web3 w/ Me - YouTube

My guest today is Brandon Martinez (https://mobile.twitter.com/proudlywashed). He is a veteran entrepreneur having previously founded music startup INDMUSIC, most known for working behind the scenes of the 2013 viral meme, “Harlem Shake.” Martinez sold that business to Live Nation in 2016 and went on to run their YouTube business for the next three years. Martinez participated in Snapchat's Yellow accelerator, Transparent Collective, First Round Fast Track, On Deck Founder Fellowship, and is a member of Friends with Benefits.

He is currently building SNKRHUD (https://mobile.twitter.com/snkrhud), an NFT-based playground for sneakerheads and their kicks, and FlowScore (https://mobile.twitter.com/flowscorenft), a Ranking & Token-Based Rewards Platform for the best projects on the Flow Blockchain.

Show Notes & Topics:

• Scientific approach for building your personal brand or business
• Do your own research - you need to find the opportunity you want to spend your time on Create a hypothesis - find a person or company who has achieved the result you want then breakdown the path it took for someone to get there
• Experiment with the right audience - be simplistic and clear in your presentation; think of it as a series of 1 act plays because reactions will vary
• Iterate - be open-minded; no two paths are exactly the same so be flexible and dynamic in your narrative and thinking to account for context
• How do you bring your brand into Web3?
• Understand the community, and all of the different ways they interact with their common interest - for sneakerheads this was understanding the whales ability to buy a collection on Sotheby’s for millions all the way to the individual who only buys fractional interests in top end pairs of sneakers
• Look for shifts in the culture and identity of a community - collectors in NFT world reflect same behavior of new sneakerheads
• Grassroots, authentic WOM marketing based on your own identity - Brandon was everywhere, AMA, pods, sharing collection
• Education - bridging the gap between Web3 and the current landscape - starting with Telegram before Discord to avoid the scammers
• Embrace the early adopters to help you build the best product
• Leaning into your blockchain - Flow (and Snap in Web2) provided tools that helped them grow early
• Tourists vs. Purists - why is your community here?
• The tremendous opportunity for curating Web3 data
• Compile the known data, what is on-chain
• Create archetypes of the on-chain data
• Understand how IRL data impacts the community
• Where does the data live?
• Aggregate in a manner valuable to everyone, from individual collector to entire blockchains

Thanks for listening! Did you know you can also watch the show on YouTube? Just hit the link below and don't forget to subscribe!

Web3 w/ Me - YouTube