Jess chats with Nick Grossman, Partner at Union Square Ventures, exploring USV's investment theses. They discuss transformative pressures in significant markets like social networks, vertical networks, crypto, and climate. They highlight the importance of long-term commitment to ideas and people, the value of long-term partnerships in the crypto industry, and the benefits of earlier liquidity for the growth of protocols. They delve into the evolution of consumer crypto, building on existing infrastructure, and the emergence of two parallel tracks: crypto native and crypto enabled. They also explore the lack of discussion around AI, the significance of open networks, and the tension surrounding value capture in crypto protocols.

Jess sits down with Brian Flynn, Founder and CEO of Rabbithole to discuss the rise of points in the crypto industry and the challenges they present. They explore the drawbacks of points-driven businesses, the importance of substance behind tokens, and the potential shift towards on-chain actions for revenue generation. They also delve into the challenges of engaging the community without tokens and the importance of experimentation in consumer mobile apps and crypto projects.

A look at the people and products in SC06, Seed Club’s Consumer Crypto Accelerator featuring...   Host: Jess Sloss   Guests: Patrick Rivera, Steph Alinsug, Sam Spike, Ed Fornieles, Ren Stern, Jessica Van Meir, wijuwiju.eth, plus7, Thomas Chen, Ryan Hamilton, Ryan McMahill, Adi Sideman, Lucas Campbell   Collect this episode on Pods: https://pods.media/theevent   FOLLOW US Seed Club: https://twitter.com/seedclubhq  Jess: https://twitter.com/thattallguy Website: https://www.seedclub.xyz/ 

Jess sits down with Benny Giang and Jayden Windle from Future Primitive to talk about ERC-6551, a new token standard that enables every NFT to have its own wallet. In this conversation, they break down how an EIP works, why they chose to identify the Future Primitive brand so heavily with an EIP, and they lay out some interesting use cases for ERC-6551. Tune in for interesting takes on the Metaverse, NPCs, digital fashion, and more.    FOLLOW US Jess: https://twitter.com/jessewldn  Seed Club: https://twitter.com/seedclubhq  Benny: https://twitter.com/BennyGiang  Jayden: https://twitter.com/jayden_windle    LINKS https://www.seedclub.xyz/  https://m.twitch.tv/futureprimitivexyz    TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro  1:05 What is Future Primitive? 2:35 Launching Future Primitive as an EIP 6:11 What is an EIP? 8:04 ERC-6551 8:59 Future Primitive’s brand strategy 13:12 ERC-6551 use cases 17:42 User experience of ERC-6551 22:28 Benny’s view on the Metaverse 36:23 What makes Future Primitive novel 42:09 Closing thoughts 43:51 Outro   DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.  

On this episode of Building at the Edges we sit down with Deana Burke and Natasha Hoskins, co-founders of Boys Club, a social collective bringing new voices to the internet. We break down the structure of Boys Club, how the DAO fits into the larger brand, how the brand can become profitable, and their choice to focus on building the media business first. We discuss bootstrapping vs. venture funding, community growth vs. audience growth, and we have a really interesting conversation on how the belief in a brand is what makes a brand valuable.   FOLLOW US Jess: https://twitter.com/jessewldn  Seed Club: https://twitter.com/seedclubhq  Deana: https://twitter.com/medeana  Natasha: https://twitter.com/natashaghoskins  Boys Club: https://twitter.com/boysclubworld    LINKS https://www.seedclub.xyz/  https://www.boysclub.vip/newsletter    TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro  0:41 Boys Club 4:55 Is Boys Club a DAO? 11:27 Turning Boys Club into a business 22:44 Bootstrapping vs. venture funding 31:18 Belief in a brand 37:26 The Boys Club zine 38:55 Community growth vs. audience growth 40:34 DIMES 42:28 Outro   DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.  

On this episode of Building at the Edges we sit down with David Greenstein, co-founder of Sound, to talk about how Sound is creating better incentive alignment in the music industry. David shares why he co-founded Sound, how the project has evolved over time and what we can expect to see in their new mobile app. We discuss David’s choice to build Sound as a protocol and the value that interoperability and permissionless building brings to the larger Sound brand as we talk about the value of curation, how Sound is empowering listeners to be tastemakers, and how curators can build businesses on top of Sound. Tune in to hear discussions on music collection and digital identity, the impact of AI on music, and the redistribution of value in the music industry at large.    FOLLOW US Jesse: https://twitter.com/jessewldn  Seed Club: https://twitter.com/seedclubhq  David: https://twitter.com/dgreenstein1  Sound: https://twitter.com/soundxyz_    LINKS https://www.seedclub.xyz/  https://www.sound.xyz/    TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro  3:04 Sound.xyz 5:38 What blockchain technology can unlock for musical artists 8:13 The evolution of Sound 12:48 How Sound ships so fast 15:31 The choice to build Sound as a protocol 21:12 Turning listeners into tastemakers 25:22 The value of curation 27:21 Redistributing value in the music industry 29:34 The Sound mobile app 36:29 The role of AI in music 42:43 Closing thoughts 44:22 Follow David 45:59 Outro   DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.  

On this episode of Building at the Edges we sit down with Robin (aka SuperMassive) to discuss the intersection of storytelling and web3 tech. Robin tells us about his experience as a filmmaker over the past 20 years and how the advancement of technology has impacted his career. We talk about the implications and inevitability of the Metaverse - what Robin describes as “the internet built by game developers.” He walks us through everything he’s working on at BasedAF including the groundbreaking way he’s utilizing Unreal Engine to create instant motion capture, and we dive into his takes on co-creation, storytelling, and the web3/crypto industry at large.    FOLLOW US Jesse: https://twitter.com/jessewldn  Seed Club: https://twitter.com/seedclubhq  SuperMassive: https://twitter.com/IamSuperMassive    LINKS https://www.seedclub.xyz/  https://linktr.ee/based_af    TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro  5:56 The state of the filmmaking industry 12:16 Robin’s thoughts on NFTs 13:55 Thoughts on the Metaverse 18:52 The inevitability of the Metaverse 25:53 What Robin is currently creating 38:31 The business side of BasedAF 43:55 The valuation of IP 47:11 Co-creation 54:58 Storytelling 1:07 Outro   DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.  

On this episode of Building at the Edges we sit down with Matthew Chaim of Songcamp to discuss the intersection of music and web3 tech. Matthew shares how Songcamp has evolved over time, and what his experience has been like leading a decentralized music collective.  We cover topics like tastemaking as an individual vs. tastemaking as a collective, the value and challenge of leadership in DAOs, the concept of a headless band, and the intersection of music and NFTs - a space Matthew believes is still being defined.    FOLLOW US Jesse: https://twitter.com/jessewldn  Seed Club: https://twitter.com/seedclubhq  Matthew: https://twitter.com/matthewchaim  Songcamp: https://twitter.com/songcamp_    LINKS https://www.seedclub.xyz/  https://songcamp.mirror.xyz/    TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 2:23 Songcamp 4:39 The success of Camps 9:18 Experimenting at the edges of tech 18:55 Collective tastemaking 22:23 The challenge of collective consistency 25:07 What is a headless band? 27:46 Is Songcamp a music label? 33:22 Music NFTs 36:37 What’s next for Songcamp? 39:41 Outro   DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.  

On this episode of Building at the Edges we sit down with Li Jin and Jesse Walden, Co-founders and General Partners at Variant Fund. Variant Fund is an early stage fund investing in web3 that believes the next generation of the internet will transform users into owners.   We kickoff the episode by diving into that thesis as Li shares her vision for the ownership economy one day leading us to the passion economy. We break down some of the narratives around decentralization and distributed ownership to analyze what is truly driving value in the space - what kind of ownership experiences do users actually want?   Li and Jesse share their bedrock convictions in the ownership economy and Jesse gives his thoughts on token design as well as some frameworks to think about when designing a token. We also discuss tokens as products and token design as a consumer experience.    To close out our conversation, Li and Jesse give us the inside scoop on their recent announcement, the Variant Founder Fellowship, as well as how early stage founders can get involved.    FOLLOW US Jess: https://twitter.com/thattallguy  Li: https://twitter.com/ljin18  Jesse: https://twitter.com/jessewldn  Seed Club: https://twitter.com/seedclubhq  Variant Fund: https://twitter.com/variantfund    LINKS https://www.seedclub.xyz/  https://variant.fund/     TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:43 Welcome Li and Jesse 3:16 Ownership economy and passion economy 7:33 Turning users into owners with tokens 11:09 Why aren’t more products user-owned? 17:10 Do people actually want ownership? 20:17 The evolving culture of ownership 22:26 Bedrock convictions in the ownership economy 26:53 Tokens are products 32:16 Unpacking Jesse’s recent tweet 36:54 The Variant Founder Fellowship 41:12 Closing thoughts 41:52 Outro   DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.  

On this bonus episode of Building at the Edges, Jess sits down with Alex Zhang and Mike Bodge from Friends with Benefits to get the inside scoop on their new app - a reimagining of social media without the ads, algorithms, or spam bots. Alex and Mike explain how the app came to be, and how they built it with the FWB community alongside them every step of the way. They share what they feel is lacking in the current social media landscape and how they envision this new app creating a cozy place on the internet that’s optimized for meaningful connection and positive group dynamics. They wrap up the episode looking to the future as Alex and Mike share how they envision the app evolving over time. GET IN TOUCH Seed Club: https://twitter.com/seedclubhq FWB: https://twitter.com/FWBtweets Jess: https://twitter.com/thattallguy Alex: https://twitter.com/alexzhang__ Mike: https://twitter.com/mikebodge TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:49 FWB’s new app 5:39 What does this mean for the future of FWB? 10:37 Building in alignment with your community 18:21 User experience of the app 19:53 Design choices 30:42 Long term goals 39:37 Outro DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.