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Greetings all,

In this week’s episode of Ventures, my guest Jesse Bryan (https://twitter.com/jessebryan) and I discuss his new project, Alphi (https://twitter.com/alphixyz). Alphi’s vision is to be a source of trusted and transparent information in the NFT community to help collectors “do their own research” effectively. We talk about the background and motivation for the project, why trusted information is so hard to find, analogies to information being shared from public companies, and more details about Alphi’s product roadmap and timeline.

Check it out: Introducing Alphi: Transparency and trusted information for the NFT community :: with Jesse Bryan

What’s up with NFTs?

First, NFTs are way (way) more than just for empowering artists. They can also be used for a wide variety of things such as education credentials, identity, concert tickets, licenses, personal data, proof of ownership (of basically anything), and a “digital twin” of any physical object on earth. The implications of this new technology is just at the very beginning of our understanding.

So, for now, we have mainly “profile pic” (PFP) communities that are doing their best to release products, experiences, and opportunities for their collectors. We also are seeing plenty of interesting art being released, from AI/generative art, to dynamic NFTs, to beautiful art by artists you have never heard of that should - indeed - be known.  

So - while it’s tempting to roll your eyes when looking at the top NFT projects on OpenSea, just know that this is just the beginning.

Still, navigating this space is hard. Alphi is going to change the game by allowing access to information that is currently extremely difficult to obtain. If you’d like to get involved, be sure to follow Alphi on Twitter (https://twitter.com/alphixyz).

Oct 4th Ideation Incubator

If you missed last week’s announcement, check out https://www.protaventures.com/labs. I’m helping to lead a cohort of startup founders/CEOs to refine and validate ideas.

We’ll be meeting a couple times per week for eight weeks in Q4, moving from initial ideation through creating a landing page and clickable prototype (or functional prototype) for ideas.

Check out this post on LinkedIn if you haven’t yet.

I’ve been working on the education curriculum for this incubator for many years. I’m excited to pull it all together and freshly present it to a crew of ambitious entrepreneurs who are ready to tackle new problem landscapes. Leveraging Web3 technology, embracing modern forms of digital marketing, and accepting help from a network of collaborators are all parts of this new program, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.  

I hope that you would consider applying and/or sharing this email with folks who you think should finally pull the trigger and start a company of their own.  

Have a great rest of your week!

~Will