Welcome to GM, BFF, your weekly roundup of insights, interviews and opportunities in Web3. This week, we're discussing how Web3 is changing entrepreneurship. Plus, why is everyone talking about NFT royalties? Let's dive in.
When Jackie Courtney started her lightly-used wedding dress startup in 2012, she relied a lot on her community to get it off the ground. Her brother and husband measured the gowns, and her friends modeled them.
As she looks to grow her next business in Web3 — QualiaDAO — that aspect of community involvement is even more important. A “Web3 LVMH,” Qualia seeks to put creators and partners at the center of the fashion model via an NFT collection run by a distributed team of 35 leaders across the industry. Nearly all those leaders are female.
“In Web2, it was very founder driven,” said Courtney. “Distributed ownership and leadership create more of a community mindset… It's a more intelligent way to look at building a business.”
62% of women have never heard of or understand NFTs, according to a new Web3 survey by Female Quotient. And that stat mirrors what we are seeing across the Web3 landscape: 72% of crypto owners identify as male.
Yet the opportunities within Web3 for entrepreneurs are only increasing. For the last several years, as much as 30% of Union Square Ventures funding has gone to Web3-focused startups, said Rebecca Kaden, a General Partner at USV. While she believes NFT projects have a long way to go to realize true returns for holders, she said the community aspect of Web3 has spurred a wave of innovation that is unprecedented.
And by the way, research has shown that women are among the most capable of tapping into the potential of community most effectively.
“The bright spot I have seen with the NFT communities is the desire for connection,” said Kaden. “The quality of female founders and entrepreneurs in crypto is high really, really, really high.”
We want to hear from you: How has Web3 shifted the way you think about your business or career? Let us know by replying to this email directly.
Listen: Rebecca Kaden on Web3 Investing
NFT royalties in question. If you spent any time on crypto Twitter this weekend, you'd see everyone is talking about NFT royalties. That's because certain projects have decided to go to market offering zero royalties to artists on secondary sales. But wait a minute, aren't royalties on secondary sales embedded in smart contracts on the blockchain? No, explains NFT Influencer Zeneca. You should give their latest newsletter a full read to understand why.
ETH Merge. The third big test for transitioning Ethereum from proof-of-work validation to proof-of-stake is complete, with the event likely happening in mid-September. This has a lot of people buying into the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap: ETH is experiencing seven straight weeks of positive inflows, reaching more than $16 million last week.
💡 What Our Founders Are Saying: Many NFT projects are feeling stuck right now. But they’re sitting on a bigger opportunity than they realize. In a larger thread, Jaime tweeted, "It comes down to identifying the common thread in what your community finds meaningful and what you’re equipped to own as your unique value proposition."
Coinbase earnings. The crypto giant reported a $1.1 billion net loss with revenue down about 30% for the quarter. In line with the rest of the market, Coinbase is suffering from the decrease in trading activity among regular crypto users.
Netflix plays in the metaverse. To promote its new Ryan Gosling flick “Gray Man,” the streaming platform is recreating a landscape from the movie in Decentraland. Rather than buy land in the metaverse, Netflix is renting it for just a month. Brands with other project-specific metaverse goals will no doubt follow suit.
CreatorDAO. The booming creator economy is coming to DAOs, and coming fast. DAOs, or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, have grown 8.5x in the last year, going from 700 to 6,000+. CreatorDAO just raised $20M in funding led by a16z. Founding BFF Paris Hilton went in on the round as well.
Are Web3 incentives enough to get more people moving? STEPN’s Chief Marketing Officer breaks down how the project is attempting to solve the age-long problem of keeping people consistent with exercise.
Listen Now
To realize our mission, BFF collaborates with the brightest diverse minds in Web3 and beyond and then brings those insights to you. That’s why we’re so excited to announce our latest group of Founding BFFs!
Welcome actress, writer, producer and director Natasha Rothwell, Outdoor Voices and Try Your Best Founder Ty Haney, theSkimm Co-Founders and Co-CEOs Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg and M13 Partner Anna Barber to the Founding BFF Family!
👀 Stay tuned for more updates from all of them shared right here.
From Our Founding BFFsLedger VP of Communications Ariel Wengroff announced a partnership with BRICK, a music venue by night and community-run creative space by day in LA. Holders will gain access to monthly concerts, workshops and more. Join the allowlist here. DAM Finance Founder Sophie Wiberg Holm just closed a pre-seed round of financing. DAM facilitates purchasing power from the broadest range of blockchain-secured collateral, including longer tail, yield generating and real world assets.
BFFs in the Metaverse. One of our BFFs, @TheMompreneur has offered to guide anyone with an Oculus headset to MetaHers, which is a virtual co-working and social club in the metaverse. If you'd like an exclusive tour, express your interest here
Thanks for reading! We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to let us know what you think of this newsletter and what you’d like to see from it in the future by replying directly.
🚨 This newsletter and all the information in it does not constitute financial advice. If you don’t want to invest money or time in Web3, you don’t have to. As always: Do your own research.🚨
