In this episode of Ventures, my guest Jesse Bryan (https://twitter.com/JesseBryan) and I continue our conversation from episode 89 to discuss multiple aspects of NFTs and NFT clubs. We talk about the history of NFTs, the differences between Moonbirds, Crypto Punks and Bored Ape Yacht Club, the important nuances of intellectual property ownership and licensing, airdrops, community, “staking” of NFTs, cybersecurity, and thoroughly evaluating a team and their roadmap before deciding where to spend your time and money.

You can watch this episode below or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts (search for “Ventures”).

1:54 - Tee up for the episode, recap of Part 1 (Ep 89), storytelling in organizations, introduction to the world of NFTs.

2:40 - Quick background on Jesse and his introduction take on NFTs // He believes the next billion dollar brands are going to come out of the NFT space.

3:45 - Background on Ethereum, ICOs originally, but NFTs started in 2017…Punks, Kitties, and then Apes didn’t launch until April 2021.

5:19 - History of NFTs from Jesse’s brand-building perspective

9:53 - What the Bored Apes did that the Crypto Punks didn’t (e.g. IP ownership)

12:00 - Tweet, minting a bored ape 1 year ago turned into the best investment of all time. https://twitter.com/JulianKlymochko/status/1516920342400450562 

13:56 - NFTs are investing in a brand. You can essentially buy a brand name, like buying Radio Shack. “The most valuable real estate is the corner of someone’s mind” (John Hegarty quote)

16:30 - Status games / signaling w/ NFTs

18:22 - Summarizing the facets and layers of NFTs for entrepreneurs to be aware of. Networking benefits, status benefits, financial benefits, claims to airdrops, IP ownership, cooperation with other brands, and deal flow. None of this is new.

20:45 - Moonbirds. What are they? What just happened?

23:49 - NFT mint analogy to kickstarter; better when you already have an audience.

25:14 - Subgroups within NFT clubs, and subgroups of subgroups

25:35 - Jesse believes Quirkies is the strongest community in the NFT space. Examples of people helping each other out.

27:00 - Importance of understanding basic cybersecurity when diving into the NFT space.

27:10 - Recap of Moonbirds, why it seemed like a good investment (analysis from a VC perspective). Nesting. Problem of diluting the term “staking” https://cobie.substack.com/p/apecoin-and-the-death-of-staking 

29:20 - How to teach entrepreneurs to use NFT clubs to help humans flourish

32:53 - Two pieces of advice that Will got early in his startup investing career: (1) important to know you locking up capital for a long period of time (7-15 years) and thus indeed to invest in huge ROI potential, (2) invest in things that you are proud to tell your kids about.

36:20 - Typical investment model, comparing NFTs to traditional investments…e.g. is the team “known”?  Is there real traction or just “fake” traction? What’s the roadmap?

39:20 - 5 Part Matrix when evaluating an investment. Team, Product, Market, Traction, Financial Model, https://satchel.works/@wclittle/ventures-episode-62 

40:10 - Don’t silo your understanding in Web3. The multidisciplinary nature of DAOs, DeFi, Metaverses, NFTs, etc…

41:35 - APE Coin

43:14 - Where can people get a hold of Jesse to continue the conversation? https://twitter.com/JesseBryan