The NFT Nick Show

Patricio Worthalter's story is an inspiring one. He stumbled into cryptocurrency early on while running a tech support business. One of his clients suffered a ransomware attack for which the ransom was payable in Bitcoin. The result was Patricio rapidly went down the cryptocurrency rabbit hole. After a number of years in crypto he decided to start a business that would have broad appeal: a NFT based social network. The result is POAP and in this interview I discussed the journey with Patricio and where POAP is today.

When SupDucks launched in July there was a lot of hype around the launch and it sold out instantly. It was likely due to the fact that the team had extensive experience in the technology ecosystem and Franky, the creator of the SupDuck character, was no exception.  In this episode I spoke with Franky about the founding of SupDucks, the origins of the project, and Franky's background leading up to this moment. 

Victor Mosquera grew up in Colombia and has been creative for as long as he can remember. However living in Colombia didn't make it easy to succeed. In the midst of attending university he decided that it was smarter to take a year off and spend the money on a laptop. He eventually became an expert designer and was hired full-time, giving him the ability to move to Canada. After years as an employee he decided to go freelance and by last year, became an NFT artist.  The rest is history.

In this episode I discussed everything about Victor's background leading up to where we are today, in which Victor Mosquera has become of the leading NFT artists.

Anonymoux started with quite the advantage: a portfolio of over 50 Cryptopunks which he acquired back in January. However fortune favors the bold and his sizeable investment has converted into a much larger one. He consistently has some of the best trades in the NFT space which is exactly why I reached out to him. I had to learn what his strategy is, what some of his best and worst trades are, and how he would approach crafting a portfolio from scratch today. I absolutely loved this interview and I'm sure you will too!

Jack Butcher spent years in the ad agency world when he began creating visualizations based around some of his favorite books. His hobby quickly materialized into a full-time agency. Now with NFTs he has found his calling having sold dozens of NFTs so far. In this episode we discuss Jack's background as well as his migration into the world of NFTs.

Kyt is both a world class 3D designer and business person. After running an agency for years she decided to transition into the NFT world full-time. Initially it began with some drops of her own NFTs but it quickly began taking over her life as it has for many of us in this space. Now she's director of collector relations at Foundation. In this conversation she brought me through her back story and journey up to her role today. Kyt was enjoyable to connect with and I'm certain you'll enjoy this conversation!

I keep coming across Ben Jammin on Discord, Twitter, and elsewhere and I had to have him on the show. He's the creator of Dizzy Dragons and is now running a growing NFT agency to manage discords, communities, and more. In this episode we dove into Ben's experience in this space and went into some of his latest trading strategies he has been using to get to a full-time position and learn about Dizzy Dragons.

This has been a long time coming but Jess Sloss is operating at the front of social tokens. In addition to being advisor to Rally.io, Jess has created an incubator for entrepreneurs to develop their own community tokens. He knows the ins and outs of this space which is why I had to bring him on the show. If you are looking to learn the details of social and community tokens this episode is for you!

Chad Knight was made for this moment in time. He has been toying with 3D software for a long time but it quickly manifested into much more than a hobby. It started with skateparks and shoes, including a stint at DC Shoes and Vans. Now he's Head of 3D Design at Nike and has an exploding NFT art career on the side. You won't want to miss this episode!

You may have heard of NFTs but while the current social media craze is all about profile photos, the play to earn space is also heating up in a major way. Axie Infinity is at the forefront and Yield Guild Games is the largest franchise across not only Axie but the entire play to earn space. I had to learn more about it and there is nobody better to speak to than Gabby Dizon, the founder of Yield Guild. You must listen to this episode!

NiftyNaut has been in the crypto space for a while but he only recently decided to go all in. As the founder of NiftyHorde his team recently launched Swap.kiwi, a platform for safely exchanging your NFTs with another party at a very low cost. In this episode we discussed his background, his claiming of his punks, and went in depth on Swap.kiwi.

Karsen Woods aka Karsen Daily was responsible for pushing Superplastic into the world of NFTs. Riding the NFT wave on Clubhouse back at the beginning of the year, she became obsessed like most of us and has found her path to full-time NFT land. In addition to co-founding the company Triptych, which had a successful drop, she is now the Chief Experience Officer at 888 The New World. In this episode we discuss her journey and the new project they are preparing to launch.

I brought Nick Kneuper back on the show once again and we literally just degened out. If you are looking for one of my normal interviews this most definitely isn't it. We dove into the past month since I last had him on, talked about our wins, losses, and more. If you are looking for a state of the NFT trading market this is the episode for you.

Robbie Trevino has had quite a career out the gate doing professional design for Magic the gathering, Xbox, and more. However after taking time off and dealing with a chronic illness he found NFTs. In this episode we discuss his career in art, his entry into NFTs, and the launch of his Numinous Universe.

Earlier this year when a Beeple piece was sold for $69 million it took the art and NFT world by storm, setting off the largest NFT art bull rally to date. However the team behind the project was focused on on the massive purchase but instead the B20 project. In this episode I spoke to Twobadour, the steward of the Metapurse fund, to discuss how he got involved with B20 and Metapurse, some of his favorite projects, and plans for the future.

Alex Atallah is the co-founder and CTO of Opensea, the largest marketplace for NFTs today. For context on the company, Opensea did $325 million in volume in July 2021 and in the first 10 days of August have already done $578 million in transactions. In this episode I discussed with Alex the founding of the company, how they select which blockchains to support, the greatest challenges they are facing today, and what he's thinking about moving forward.

When the Bitlectro Labs team released Dreamloops earlier this year it was a major hit. In an ocean of avatar projects DreamLoops is goes against the grain. What they created was a project that I both am a collector of and find absolutely fascinating. They are 8-bit sound loops (or "chip tunes" as they call them) combined with 8-bit visual art. In this episode I sat down with Keil and Gabriel to discuss how they got started and learn more about the production of these NFTs. There was also a little bit of NFT degen conversation mixed in 😂

Conlan Rios went from being a virtual land landlord to artists to building a platform for those artists to sell dynamic forms of art. That platform, Async, now has hundreds of artists on it and includes a lot of well known names including Mike Shinoda, XCOPY, Colbie, Hackatao, AlottaMoney, and so many more. I loved chatting with Conlan about where the limitations and new innovation opportunities are within the NFT space.

Leandro and George both went to design school and came out focused on designing real world objects. However when Cryptokitties launched in 2017 it began to fascinate them. One thing led to another and today they have a team of over 50 designing and building assets for the metaverse as well as tools to make metaverse development more efficient. In this episode I discussed the type of projects that the team is working on to gain a better understanding of the types of companies investing here, the scale of projects, and more.

You wouldn't expect to have a full blown real estate development firm operating in the virtual world but here we are! The thesis of Republic Realm also makes A TON of sense. Janine Yorio & TJ Kawamura are partners running an investment fund and development team across all the key metaverses today. In this episode we discussed how they got started with this fund, why they are doing this, and where things are headed. You do not want to miss this episode!

Roger Dickerman has had quite the entrepreneurial journey and when you listen to our conversation it's clear that I'm a big fan. Roger and his wife have been running a fitness & wellness business for over a decade when Roger found his calling. Back in December he began collecting NFTs and after a Beeple auction he realized that we were witnessing something historic and had to document it. By January, Artifex.art was launching in conjunction with an associated podcast and he's creating a time capsule of the 100 top artists in the NFT space today. If you love entrepreneurship and how it's disrupting the art world, you have to tune in to this episode.

Last year Alex Masmej got a lot of attention when he decided to tokenize himself. Less than a year later he had become a significant player in the NFT space with the launch of TryShowtime, a social network for artists and collectors. In this episode I discussed with Alex how he first entered this space and the future of TrySowtime.

When Beeple's Everydays auction rocked the art market back in February, there was one aspect that dramatically differentiated the pieces: physical displays. Infinite Objects was the company behind those displays and has since partnered with a number of NFT artists and is now ready to expand. In this interview I discussed the company's new NFT product for artists and the founding story of the company. 

Sam Brukhman is the mastermind behind one of the most creative NFTs I've come across, Betty's Notebook. The project, which cover 15-year old Betty Klenck's documenting of what appears to be Amelia Earhart's distress calls before her disappearance, integrates visual art by Bryan Brinkman and the music of Verdigris Ensemble. I had him on to get his take on how NFTs will transform classical music and to learn more about this project.

Kevin Wu has been making physical accessories for digital products like phones and crypto hardware for years. However he recently entered the NFT space and has experienced some great success by selling out his first project, Graycraft, which melds physical sculptures and metaverse space ships. In this episode we discuss how he got into NFTs, learned a lot about his existing business, and discussed where Graycraft is headed.

In this episode I sat down with FVCKRENDER, a legend in the world of NFT art. He went from a sports injury to teaching himself 3D design. People really liked his work and he was able to make a career of it. Once he heard of NFTs he hopped on board and hasn't looked back. In this episode we discuss his background, his experience with NFTs and his recent security issue, and upcoming projects.

When I first stumbled across Utobits I was impressed by the art and shocked by how low the price was for their voxel-based avatars. I reached out to the team because I couldn't figure out why they were so cheap despite the quality (all of which were made by hand). What followed was a personal relationship in which I decided to help them out as much as I could. They've become friends and business partners and I figured I'd take my audience behind the scenes of an avatar project which is what this short series is about. 

This is the first episode which sets the context. We discuss who they are and what this project is about. 

In addition to a wildly successful career as co-founder of VaynerMedia and VaynerSports, AJ Vaynerchuk has built quite the track record with collecting. In this episode he provides some context for how he ended up in the world of NFTs and what he's thinking about as it applies to his clients at VaynerSports, VaynerMedia, and through a new NFT fund that he and his brother have set up. 

Back in March I stumbled into a Clubhouse room during which a 3LAU & Slime Sunday piece was bought by John Legere for $1.3 million live. The bidding war was documented live in a room that happened to be hosted by Farokh Sarmad. Sarmad had hacked his way to a massive following on Clubhouse and was a hub of activity among celebrity NFT drops on Nifty Gateway during the boom earlier this year. I had on Farokh to discuss how he got into this position and his thoughts on the NFT space as a whole. 

When the NFT boom took off at the end of 2020, there were a few companies that powered this explosion. Rarible was one of these companies. While NFT marketplaces are an increasingly crowded space, Rarible was early, well designed, and had the unique aspect of their own governance token. In this episode I spoke with Alex Salnikov, the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of the company to learn about the founding and the future of the organization.

Nick Kneuper is the first guest to come on twice. I'll likely have him on again as well as he is as deep in the weeds of NFT speculating as you can get. From becoming the largest holder of Pickles to being part of the launch of a number of projects, he is on the pulse of the space. In this episode we dove into the details of the current NFT avatar boom and his overall strategy.

Andy has been active in the crypto space in 2017. He quickly went deep down the rabbit hole and got a job which provided the opportunity to learn Solidity. He hasn't looked back, now creating Fractional Art, a platform which enables collectors to fractionalize their NFTs. In this episode we explored the nuances of fractionalizing NFTs including the legal aspects and risks and how Fractional Art is approaching it!

Matty DCL has become a staple in the world of NFTs. He began trading Decentraland land in 2018 and it has only taken off from there. He has a media publication, founded Metakey, and is continuing to invest in the NFT space. In this episode we explored how he got started and his plans for the future in the world of NFTs.

If you were to go all in on the NFT market, how would you approach it? For TopshotFund (as the name implies), it involved a major bet on Topshot and other crypto collectibles that has grown significantly in size. During this episode we discussed his strategies for Topshot and other NFTs. This was an overall entertaining collector conversation and well worth checking out!

On Thursday, a social media personality who goes by Taylor.wtf performed an act that enraged members of The Bored Ape Yacht Club: he burnt an ape, casting it into the ether never to be claimed by anybody ever again. This wasn't the first time an NFT had been burned but it is one of the first known times of an individual attempting to profit off that act by selling derivative pieces of the burnt art.

In this special edition of the NFT Nick Show I explore what happened and reach out to some of the members of the community. Enjoy!