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Greetings all,

In this week’s episode of Ventures, my guest Gary Raju and I discuss how venture builders and investors should be thinking about the upcoming economic downturn. We talk about the role of a CFO in a growing company, an overall assessment of the market conditions globally and in the US, how new and existing entrepreneurs should prepare, how Web3/Crypto will play a role, and market areas that Gary is most excited about in the future.

Check it out: How to navigate an economic downturn as a venture builder and investor :: with Gary Raju

Music NFTs

One of the main things that stood out to meet at NFT NYC last week was the abundance of amazing artists looking for inspiration and advice about how to get into the NFT world. A couple compelling project founders I met, for example, were from https://0xmusic.com/ and https://www.warpsound.ai/. They use AI-based generative/audiovisual NFTs to create unique experiences and next-level Web3 experiences, prepped for - among other things - metaverses.

Overall, most artists I know blend various types of visual and music arts. Because NFTs can hold a variety of metadata (including links to images and video/audio files), then - in combination with the various types of NFTs - the sky really is the limit in terms of what artists can create.

Of course, ironically, the best artists I know aren’t always wired to broadly promote their work. They aren’t prone to post to various social media channels and meet “influencers” to help pump their posts and art. With SO much noise and competition for attention in today’s landscape, marketing is arguably the most important ingredient of any venture.

In fact, we’ve all seen various types of less-than-high-quality “art” get into the minds of the public. While the “product” they are selling isn’t immediately obvious, the nuance here is that the status signals behind being part of a community that also owns it is a key part of what is being sold. While this is why many people roll their eyes at NFTs, I will say that going to parties IRL last week and meeting the humans behind the profile pictures, I am bullish. There is creative and collective entergy here that should not be underestimated.

Have a great rest of your week!

~Will