The Exchanges

Q So, so is that what you're doing? You're almost like, you're almost like Sotheby's you're, you're actually spending all your time recruiting artists effectively.

A Uh, yeah. So we, we've got two main business lines. We've got, uh, a business line called launch pad where we help artists launch their NFTs for the first time. And that is absolutely what, you know, as you described, it's very much like artist outreach, right? And then we have a, another business, which is called secondary, uh, secondary trading. So this is where the art is already in the hands of holders and they're trading it back and forth. It's more like a Craigslist kind of thing. Um, that, that piece of it is much more about being in touch with the collector community and, you know, uh, marketing to them and incentivizing them to come to Magic Eat It.

AI assessment note: “And that is absolutely what, you know, as you described”

Q Okay. Uh, that's amazing. And so what, what enabled you to grow so quickly, right? Obviously you ran BD at a massive exchange. Maybe there are some connections there that helped you grow, but what, what was the credit to that original mousetrap and the growth?

A Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, I think there were a couple of things. Um, well, number one, you know, I have to definitely give credit to the timing, right, of the market. So, uh, you know, Q, Q one, Q two last year was when Ethereum NFTs really took off and really caught the cultural zeitgeist, right? With BPLs, BAYC, and so on. But Q three, there was a huge boon of interest in Solana, the blockchain that we're built on. As well as the NFT activity there. So we caught that timing really well and broke that tailwind. Um, but separate to that, I think within the company itself, the main point that really helped us grow, I think was the, the skillset of the founding team. So we've got four founders, myself, uh, uh, our CTO, his name is Sid. Um, I, uh, my, uh, our chief operating officer, his name is Joshin and our chief engineer, his name is Joji or Rex. Uh, and I really felt like the four of us came with a good synergies of skill sets that allowed us to build something really fast and, uh, have really good intuition about what were the right things to build. Um, so the key there were two of us came from crypto exchanges. So I came from FTX and our chief operating officer, officer Joshin came from Coinbase and BYDX, which is, uh, you know, one of the largest DeFi exchanges. And then my two technical co-founders came from Uber Eats. So they came from really big consumer marketplaces. A…

AI assessment note: “the main point that really helped us grow, I think was the, the skillset”

Q slash remote and promo code LATKA. Check it out today before you miss out. Very interesting. Okay. So how do you, I mean, if I'm a series A investor looking at this, I'm going, my gosh, where is Jack going to grow this thing? They already make up 95% of Solana. So you must be telling some massive growth story that does not have to do with Solana moving forward.

A Uh, yeah. So there's a couple of things. Um, I think the NFT market growth starts with, growth starts with the creators. Growth doesn't necessarily start with the chain, right? It's the creators who create use cases for NFTs, and those use cases pull in new users. Chain is just a technology, just like an operating system on which it lives. Um, we're very bullish on, uh, new categories. So, uh, the category that we have Uh, that we've built our business on that's kind of our bread and butter today is digital collectibles. So like profile photos, digital art, and so on. Um, but the category that we're super bullish on going forward, uh, and we want to invest deeply in this gaming, right? Uh, in-game assets, in-game purchases, that's been a tried and tested business model for a decade for, for the gaming industry and users that are very tech savvy and, and, and, and, um, Uh, uh, you know, would be open to much more, uh, open to adopting new technologies. So for us, we want to bet deep on serving game developers and Solana as a chain, um, with some of its new, like technical, fancy technical properties of being super fast and cheap and so on is pretty adept at serving those use cases. So even though we don't see that those, uh, gaming developers launching too many of those gaming developers launching their games Now on Solana, we're betting on the future and we're very bullish.

AI assessment note: “the category that we're super bullish on going forward... is gaming”

Q Yeah. I mean, just for my audience too, to paint the picture here, right? So 6000 unique holders, there's only 10,000 in supply. There's 1300 listed right now, I guess, for sale on Magic Eden, right? What part, what makes a NFT take off? Is it more, more unique holders, just higher per unit Sale price, like rarity, what makes it work?

A I think, uh, I think for OK Bears, it's really about community, right? It's about branding and community. Like, um, in some fundamental value, like, uh, in some fundamental ways, um, collections like, uh, OK Bears, they're profile photos, right? And in a way it's your, uh, internet version of, I don't know, like a Rolex or something, uh, or like a Nike bag. It's your personal branding on the internet. And what the okay best team did extraordinarily well was they did a lot of super organic grassroots community building to build interest in their project over six months. There's a lot of NFT projects, which try to, um, uh, uh, you know, cut a lot of corners, right? Basically they'll pay a bunch of influencers, get some juice up some marketing, but there is no real, uh, organic interest, uh, from the, from the community, uh, uh, in the collection. And I think what okay best did was just really Pound the pavement and do the hard work and build out community. And that strength really shows. And, you know, in some ways that translates super well into their brand.

AI assessment note: “it's really about community, right? It's about branding and community.”

Q did you just like, just people are going to hear these numbers and be a little bit in disbelief. So I want to try and break it down to like Lego blocks, right? Where you've now built this masterpiece, the first Lego. The first NFT store on your platform. What was it? How much did it sell for? And how did you help that buyer or seller? Do you remember?

A To be honest, I can't remember. I'm embarrassed to say, but we've, we've got like almost 10,000 collections. Uh, now this is a, I can't remember. Although I do remember one of the earliest, um, One of the earliest collections, this must be in, you know, the first 10 or something, was called Cybertrolls. And, um, our team, we were trying to BD the artist to list their collection with Magic Eden. But then, uh, the, the creator of that collection turned, you know, turned the, turn, turn the conversation around and started showing himself to us and say, yo, you know, I actually want to work for you guys because you guys have something really special going on. We hired him. His name is Igor. He was our first BD guy and he was just a killer, like absolutely, um, integral to, to the, you know, the founding story and the early success of Magic Eden.

AI assessment note: “To be honest, I can't remember. I'm embarrassed to say”

Q own okay bear number four or five, three, three with honey dripping out of his mouth and one suspender on what do I get access to community wise? Are these people that I can go to a digital world somewhere URL and talk to people in a chat room, or is it a physical meetup in LA? I can only visit once a year. Like what is the community part?

A Yeah, so I think for, for OK Bears, they have a roadmap. I, I'm not super familiar with exactly the ins and outs just because, um, uh, you know, we, we serve so many creators, um, but, um, The, like, creators typically, what I would say, uh, at a higher, in a more generalized level is they will, um, use the funds from the Mint to then build some kind of virtual world or, like, internet-gated experience, and they will curate the, the audience that is there, right, for that specific purpose, and people who, who go there will say, hey, like, um, You know, I really like the vibes or I really like the experience you're creating. Another way of describing it would be, it's almost a little bit like an internet version of a exclusive club. Right. And you really like the people that you hang out there. And a lot of people who buy okay bears would be, you know, crypto influences or, uh, social leads or something like that in the crypto verse. And generally it might be really hard to be able to have a conversation with them and talk about, or have a common language with them or common topic, but because you're bonded by this, You know, in some ways like an internet luxury purchase, ah, you know, you can create that common language.

AI assessment note: “build some kind of virtual world or, like, internet-gated experience”