Luca Netz (Luca Schnetzler) is the CEO of Pudgy Penguins, an 8,888 NFT collection of adorable cartoon penguins. In April 2022, Netz took up leadership of the project and community in the aftermath of its fall from grace at the hands of its founding team. Since acquiring the Pudgy brand, Netz has turned Pudgy Penguins into both a comeback story and a breakout project that extends far beyond the walls of Web3. In May 2023, the company introduced a physical line of plushies and figurines called Pudgy Toys. The launch saw the IRL collectibles top the charts on Amazon and do more than $500,000 in sales volume over two days. Few Web3 projects have been able to involve and enrich their communities and appeal to the crypto-skeptic community more than Pudgy Penguins has, largely thanks to Netz’s vision for what the NFT project can ultimately become.

In this episode, we cover:

- What appealed to Netz about the Pudgy Penguins IP

- How he turned the project around

- The vision behind Pudgy Toys

- Netz’s plans for the future of Pudgy Penguins

To listen to the audio version of this episode, go to http://smarturl.it/nftnow

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To follow Luca on Twitter, go here: https://twitter.com/LucaNetz

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