
Web3 Talks: Stories & Tips from the Builders
Web3 Talks is a web3 podcast where founders of top crypto projects share the backstage perspective of their work and the lessons they learned along the way.
Join 1,500+ web3 founders, devs & operators who subscribe to Web3 Talks.
Hosted by Mac Budkowski.
Latest episodes

Oct 27, 2023 • 1h 9min
#48: Henri Stern, Co-Founder & CEO @ Privy | How they built a tool that brings web2-caliber UX to web3 products
Henri Stern, Co-Founder & CEO @ Privy discusses the early MVPs of Privy, how they designed smooth UX, and the challenges of building wallets for web3. They also talk about user onboarding, privacy preservation, acquiring users, and the future of web3 technology.

Aug 24, 2023 • 1h 1min
#47: Anjali Young, Co-Founder & CCO @ Collab.Land | How they built a community management tool used by over 50,000 communities
Collab.Land is a tool for managing web3 communities and bridging them to Discord and Telegram. It has already been used by 50k+ communities and 8M+ wallets.
Today we’re talking with Anjali Young, Co-Founder & CCO of Collab.Land, who shares their project’s story.
***
Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/web3talks/
Check kiwinews - a portal with news & content for web3 builders co-founded by Mac:
https://kiwinews.xyz/
Reach out to Mac if you want to reach European devs:
mac at web3talks.xyz
***
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Teaser about Collab.Land's app marketplace
00:56 Intro
02:41 Abridge's first product, pivots & Collab.Land as a hackathon idea
06:48 Early days of Collab.Land during the COVID pandemic
12:07 How did they "sell" Collab.Land to communities
15:50 Cooperation with Axie Infinity
17:54 How they transitioned from a crypto-native tool to a mass-market tool
28:27 How they designed the marketplace and what kind of Collab.Land apps are already out there
35:51 What's their plan if Farcaster or Lens get more popular
40:07 Why they created their token, how they designed its airdrop and what's the utility
49:47 Biggest surprises when building Collab.Land
57:27 Where people can learn more about Collab.Land

Aug 22, 2023 • 40sec
Support Web3 Talks via Gitcoin grant + info about the new episode
Our Gitcoin Grants page: https://explorer.gitcoin.co/#/round/10/0x2871742b184633f8dc8546c6301cbc209945033e/0x2871742b184633f8dc8546c6301cbc209945033e-322

Aug 7, 2023 • 4min
We are back (+ why there were no episodes for some time)
Web3 Talks is back!
Links I mentioned:
Library of web3 startup lessons:
https://goldmine3.xyz/
Web3 startup I'm building with my Co-Founder Tim:
https://kiwinews.xyz/

May 1, 2023 • 1h 3min
#46: Tim Boeckmann, Co-Founder & CEO @ Mailchain | How they built a privacy-first web3 e-mail protocol that lets you communicate between different blockchains
Mailchain is basically a web3 email. It provides a web app that lets you send your emails as if you used Gmail or Hotmail. But you send your emails via your wallet, ENS, Lens profile, and other identities you may use. Thanks to that and end-to-end encryption, your emails are 100% private.
Today we’re talking with Tim Boeckmann, Co-Founder & CEO of Mailchain, who shares their project’s story.
***
Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter:https://twitter.com/web3talks/
Get 15% off your EpicWeb3 conference tickets by using the WEB3TALKS code:https://www.epicweb3.com/
***
TIMESTAMPS:
1:46 Origins of Mailchain
6:01 Why they didn’t decide to put emails on chain
7:56 How Mailchain works
11:51 How the first versions of Mailchain looked like
14:56 How they acquired their first users across NFT artists and collectors?
19:09 How is Mailchain different from XMTP?
25:20 How do they decide which protocols to integrate
28:14 How do they acquire new users now?
30:16 What’s the process for integrating a new partner?
31:59 How do they want to prevent SPAM?
36:02 What’s enclave computing?
38:07 How do they plan to prepare for a scale of billions of users?
41:39 How do they plan to monetize Mailchain?
44:25 What metrics do they follow?
48:28 Why it might be hard to connect your Mailchain email to Gmail
51:08 How would the world of communications look if Mailchain became a household name
56:05 What would Tim build if he wasn’t building Mailchain
1:00:00 Guests ideas

Apr 19, 2023 • 1h 6min
#45: Dee Goens, Co-Founder & COO @ Zora | How they built one of the top NFT platforms used by Coinbase, Gucci, Grimes & thousands of creators
Zora is one of the most popular web3 tools, used by the biggest creators in the NFT space. What were its early days? How they acquired their first users? How have they organized the Base campaign that generated 700,000+ mints?
This and much more in our conversation with Dee Goens, Co-Founder & COO @ Zora.
***
Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter:https://twitter.com/web3talks/
Get 15% off your EpicWeb3 conference tickets by using the WEB3TALKS code:https://www.epicweb3.com/
Mint free episode NFT (pls share your e-mail address so we can let you know when it gets utility!): https://web3talks.xyz/nfts/
***
TIMESTAMPS:
0:58 Who is Dee Goens, why they started building Zora with Jacob and Tyson and what was the first Zora MVP
05:50 What were the hardest trade-offs at an early stage?
7:18 How they solved their dilemma between staying 100% on-chain and taking care of good UX?
10:46 How Zora acquired their first users?
14:42 How many people work at Zora now?
16:10 How they organized their teams?
18:26 Why they decided to work on a marketplace, NounsDAO builder & API?
20:48 How did they set up a Base campaign that generated 700,000+ mints?
26:01 How does their cooperation with brands look?
33:19 Are they planning Zora Academy for NFT creators?
34:27 Why they invested in Zine, which is a pretty old school content tactic?
40:42 How does Zora acquire new collectors and artists?
47:51 How they want the creator’s life to look in 2030?
54:07 Why they changed their fee structure from 5% for primary sales to a flat fee?
56:58 Mint market share, number of collectors, and other metrics Zora follows
58:32 What would Dee build if he wasn’t building Zora?
1:00:00 What would he fix with his web3 magic wand?
1:02:15 Where can people learn more about Zora?

Apr 14, 2023 • 59min
#44: Matt Galligan, Co-Founder & President @ XMTP | Building a web3 native messaging protocol that lets apps integrate DMs, alerts, and announcements
XMTP is one of the leading web3 messaging protocols. What were the early days of this project? What web3 native features they developed How they built a developer community around their protocol? How did they start handling DMs on Lens?
This and much more in our conversation with Matt Galligan, Co-Founder & President @ XMTP.
***
Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/web3talks/
Get 15% off your EpicWeb3 conference tickets by using the WEB3TALKS code:https://www.epicweb3.com/
Mint free episode NFT (pls share your e-mail address so we can let you know when it gets utility!):
https://web3talks.xyz/nfts/
***
TIMESTAMPS:
01:48 Why they built XMTP
07:45 What were the early days of XMTP?
10:11 How they acquired their first users?
15:00 How XMTP built a partnership with Lenster?
17:07 How does XMTP work?
20:08 What were the hardest tradeoffs in the early days?
25:57 What web3-native features does XMTP have?
32:29 What’s conditional deliverability?
35:29 What are the most interesting apps built on top of XMTP?
40:03 Why most wallets still haven’t integrated DMs?
43:17 Let’s say it’s 2030 - how does web3 messaging look?
48:47 Most important metrics and factors for XMTP?
50:15 How do they track developers’ happiness?
50:52 Biggest surprises when building XMTP?
52:57 What would Matt fix about web3 with his magic wand?
54:24 What would Matt build if he wasn’t building XMTP?
57:07 Where you can learn more about XMTP

Apr 4, 2023 • 55min
#43: Julien Genestoux, Founder & CEO @ Unlock Protocol | From the first NFT memberships tool in 2018 to a protocol that’s being used by hundreds of projects for ticketing, token-gating & subscription
Julien has been building tools for membership NFTs since 2018, long before the NFT boom. What were the early days of the NFT market? How dogfooding helped them to acquire their first users? How they organized ticketing with Unlock for EthCC? What they've learned from running a DAO program?
This and more in our conversation with Julien Genestoux, Founder & CEO @ Unlock Protocol.
***
Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/web3talks/
Get 15% off your EpicWeb3 conference tickets by using the WEB3TALKS code:https://www.epicweb3.com/
Mint free episode NFT (pls share your e-mail address so we can let you know when it gets utility!):
https://web3talks.xyz/nfts/
***
TIMESTAMPS
0:59 Who is Julien Genestoux and what does Unlock Protocol do
3:21 Julien's experience with RSS & Medium
5:42 Early Unlock MVPs
7:56 How does NFT expiration work?
9:13 How they've been educating people about NFTs since 2018
14:37 How Unlock acquired their first users?
16:32 How they came up with the idea of rebranding NFTs
17:48 What's their process of coming up with UX-friendly solutions like wallet-less airdrops
21:56 Message from OrangeDAO
23:17 How their ticketing partnership with EthCC worked
27:55 Why crypto subscriptions aren't widely adopted yet
32:34 How they transformed part of their operations into a DAO
38:24 What have they learned from running a Grants program
43:02 How they managed their token's value dropping during the bear market
45:58 What kind of metrics do they follow
47:49 How they world of memberships would look like if Unlock succeeded
49:49 Biggest surprises when building Unlock
52:12 What would he build if he wasn't building Unlock
53:42 Where you can learn more about Unlock
53:56 Guests ideas

Mar 27, 2023 • 1h 5min
#42: Stefan George, Co-Founder & CTO @ Gnosis | The OG team, which created Safe & CowSwap and has been building on Ethereum since 2014, working on the #2 most decentralized chain in the space
Stefan George is one of the most OG builders in the space. How was it building on Ethereum in 2014? Why they pivoted from their initial idea? How an ICO inspired them to build Safe? Why it later transformed into a DAO? How Gnosis Chain became the #2 most decentralized chain in the space? And why you used it without even knowing it?
This and more in our conversation with Stefan George, Co-Founder & CTO of Gnosis.
***
Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/web3talks/
Meet Stefan at the EpicWeb3 conference and get 15% off your tickets by using the WEB3TALKS code:https://www.epicweb3.com/
Mint free episode NFT (pls share your e-mail address so we can let you know when it gets utility!):
https://web3talks.xyz/nfts/
***
TIMESTAMPS
0:38 What’s Gnosis and how Stefan started working on it
3:28 Why it was hard to build on Ethereum in 2014 and how sharing the office with Ethereum Foundation helped them to keep up with the chain's development
5:18 Why they pivoted from building prediction markets and how multi-sig got designed to help with managing funds from ICOs
9:40 What was Safe’s MVP, and how have they been taking care of the UX to make it usable for as many people as possible
12:55 First users who haven’t even contacted the Gnosis team before they started their product
14:25 Why have they spun off such a popular product as Safe to a SafeDAO and how did it look
19:51 Why have they decided to bet on their own chain, and how does Gnosis Chain work
25:08 How Gnosis Chain got to 140k validators and became the #2 most decentralized chain in the space
28:00 What’s the geographical mix of the Gnosis Chain ecosystem
29:04 Three great apps DeFi that have been built on Gnosis Chain
36:00 Which of these apps can you use today
40:01 What are the most important metrics for the Gnosis Chain project
42:38 What zk & privacy capabilities they’re working on
47:06 What surprised Stefan the most during these 10+ years of building in crypto?
50:33 What would Stefan George build if the wasn’t building Gnosis
53:20 What would Stefan fix with his web3 magic wand?
57:48 What are Stefan’s favorite web3 projects?
1:00:00 Where can you learn more about Gnosis?
1:01:38 Stefan’s guests' ideas

Mar 1, 2023 • 2min
Genesis Talk - Open Edition
Mint "Genesis Talk" here:
https://zora.co/collections/0xf66f4e9667edb65fd7306c0711cb8fe66450419e
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