What does it mean to build a brand without a leader, a strategy, or even a plan? In this episode of ZEROPOD, I sit down with Martin Anquetil, one of the founders of $HIGHER, the headless memecoin brand redefining chaos as culture onchain. 

We dive into everything from AI agents breaking bounty bots on Farcaster to an Ethereum stock split, the memecoin meta and the challenges of building a project based on a number-go-up meme even when number doesn’t always go up. Along the way, Martin shares lessons from his time within Nouns, explores the unique challenges of decentralization, and reveals what it takes to survive a 97% token price crash with your optimism and community intact. 

We really enjoyed this conversation with Martin, and if you do too, please rate us 5 stars on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Figuring out “Can we do this thing?” while doing it  

01:00 - ZEROPOD Intro  

01:51 - The Martin Origin Story  

04:00 - College and Interning at Google  

05:00 - Oneshot by Topshot  

07:00 - 2021 NFT Season Nostalgia  

10:55 - Who the F**k is Buying XRP?  

11:50 - Ethereum Stock Split Discussion 

15:15 - First Impressions of Nouns  

16:15 - Leaving TopShot to Explore Onchain Options  

17:50 - Freelancing with Nouns Builder  

19:19 - Agora, Explorer Grants, and Other Nouns Initiatives  

20:00 - Mogu Mogu Mogu: Nouns Governance Tooling  

24:19 - Starting $HIGHER  

25:00 - Roots in /bullposting   

28:00 - How Would He Launch Higher Today?  

32:00 - The Strength of Builders Who Stick Through the Bear  

34:00 - “Higher, Not Sideways” 

37:30 - Quack Quack ⌐◨-◨:   

38:50 - Is $HIGHER a Neo-DAO or Something New?  

40:00 - Authenticity vs. Top-Down Control: The Higher Experiment  

44:00 - Could $ANON Run a Higher-Like Playbook?  

45:00 - Farcaster Users Speed-Running Speculation Lessons  

47:00 - $ZEROPOD: Exploring Media and Tokens  

49:00 - The Origins of $POINTS on Farcaster  

50:50 - “Provenance is Culturally Emergent”  

51:00 - Jacob’s Horse Meme and Its Viral Evolution  

53:53 - What Is Aether? The AI Agent Shaking Things Up  

57:00 - The $LUM Luminous Launch  

1:01:00 - Challenges of Community Cohesion in Decentralized Projects  

1:02:03 - Questions for Martin from Aether  

1:06:00 - What’s Next for Aether? Memory and Autonomy  

1:07:00 - Aether on Twitter? Exploring New Platforms  

1:08:00 - Balancing Meaningful Building with Market Pressures  

1:11:00 - Betting on Yourself and Long-Term Projects  

1:14:00 - Martin’s Thoughts on Trading and Staying Grounded  

1:16:00 - Coinbase Listings and Meme Coin Dynamics  

1:21:00 - What’s Next for Martin and $HIGHER  

1:24:00 - Outro: Reflections and the Road Ahead

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Podcast recorded by Toady Hawk, edited by Toady Hawk and JackWyldes. Hosted by Toady Hawk. Music by Toady Hawk x Suno AI.

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