Bankless - 1 - Betty NFT & Deadfellaz | Overpriced JPEGs

Episode Date: November 13, 2021

Betty NFT joins for the first episode of Overpriced JPEGs. As the self-described Horde Mother of Deadfellaz, Betty has built a career on creative producing and community building. With a fierce passion for design and culture, Betty has emerged as a key member of the space after NFTs clicked. This episode covers launches and price, but opens into a wider discussion of branding, community, ownership, and the ecosystem at large. ------ 🚀 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER: https://jpegs.banklesshq.com/ 🎙️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/overpriced-jpegs/id1591954323 SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/5G2HSDneVg8mZUQ3zUIoLX?si=6d57ee1f89184974 ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 👀 ZERION | YOUR NFT PORTFOLIO https://bankless.cc/Zerion 💸 ONJUNO | YOUR CRYPTO PAYCHECK https://bankless.cc/OnJuno 🌊 INDEX COOP | METAVERSE INDEX https://bankless.cc/MVI 🦄 BLOCK::BLOCK | METAVERSE IP https://bankless.cc/blockblock ------ 📣 DHARMA | From Dollars to DeFi in a Tap! https://bankless.cc/dharma ------ Topics Covered: 0:00 Introducing Overpriced JPEGs 4:23 Intro 6:45 Betty NFT 10:18 When NFTs Clicked 15:09 Launching Deadfellaz 17:37 Identity 20:03 Price & Floor 23:19 Initiatives & Innovation 27:17 Advice to Artists 30:39 The NFT Ecosystem 35:36 Hogwarts Houses 38:20 Branding & Steve Aoki 42:17 Metaverse & Ownership 47:05 Building a Community 51:14 Roadmap & Team 55:10 Art First & Alpha 59:00 Mindy Kaling & Closing ------ Resources: Betty NFT: https://twitter.com/betty_nft?s=20 Deadfellaz: https://twitter.com/Deadfellaznft?s=20 MarkTheHabibi: https://twitter.com/MarkTheHabibi?s=20 Ethereals: https://twitter.com/Etherealswtf?s=20 Cool Cats: https://twitter.com/coolcatsnft?s=20 Flower Blocks: https://twitter.com/Flowerblocks?s=20 cyber_YuYu: https://twitter.com/cyber_yuyu?s=20 Amy Woodward: https://twitter.com/amy___woodward?s=20 ----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research. Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures

Hey guys, David and Ryan here from Bankless. We got something special for you today. This is a weekend podcast. We don't normally release it. David, what do we have planned for today? Oh, this is my favorite day when Bankless releases another podcast. We have another podcast coming to the Bankless ecosystem. This one, a little bit different because it actually won't be hosted by me or Ryan.

We are bringing in Carly Riley, who is delivering us a NFT Metaverse-focused podcast called Overpriced JPEG. And this is going to be coming out on the bankless RSS feed over the next few weekends or so, but it also has its own RSS feed that you need to subscribe to. So wherever you listen to podcasts, iTunes, Overcast, wherever you do it, go type in Overpriced JPEGs. There's also a link in the show notes to go subscribe to that RSS feed. We'll be releasing these dual both on the bankless feed and on Carly's own overpriced JPEG's feed. But at some point, we will stop releasing them on the bankless feed and will only be an overpriced JPEG's feed. really excited to bring Carly on board here. Ryan, tell us a little bit about how we found Carly.

Yeah, so two things I guess I want to say. First, before we talk about how we found Carly is, number one, I feel like the space needs this podcast, okay, because we are moving into a world where digital objects in the metaverse is going to become increasingly important. And the mainstream still doesn't know why an NFT should cost more than your house. Right. They're still just trying to get their mind wrapped around digital scarcity. So I think Carly is going to tap into all of that energy and figure this out for us and bring you along her journey as you've listened to David and my journey into kind of this whole crypto landscape. She's going to do that for NFTs and for JPEGs and for the Metaverse and for collectibles.

So that's really cool. But in terms of how we met Carly, actually, funny story, David, you met her before I did. But I met her earlier this year. I was invited to speak on Andrew Yang's podcast, Yang Speaks. and Carly was one of the co-hosts of Yang Speaks and talked about crypto during that episode. And I was like blown away by the questions Carly was asking me because she hadn't gone fully down the crypto rabbit hole, but she had like dabbled in it at that point in time. So like she was asking questions about Monero and like privacy coins. What did I think about wealth?

Just like really informed questions. Apparently after that episode, she just took a deep dive into crypto. Okay. She got pills. She got pills. She would, look, I can't take, you know, full credit for this, of course. But, like, I think she did start listening to some bankless episodes after that. And the community just sucked her in, as it has sucked all of us in.

So she is fully down the crypto rabbit hole. She was formerly a financial advisor for Andrew Yang's campaign, like played a pivotal role in helping get that campaign off the ground, that grassroots movement. And now she's applying these talents and skills to crypto. She's all in crypto. It's her full-time job now. And so when we heard that there was an opportunity to work with her from a podcast perspective, like this is the type of talent. I want to bet the farm on because I think you guys are really going to enjoy her journey,

the experience she has, the interviews she's coming out with. But David, I left a hole for you to fill in. When did you first meet Carly? Yeah, you hinted that Carly was the campaign finance advisor for Andrew Yang. Well, I met Carly while volunteering for the Andrew Yang campaign in Seattle. She actually didn't remember me. She goes around the nation and meeting all the volunteers. But I remember her.

And then we were talking to her on Zoom. I was like, oh, yeah, Carly, we've actually met before at Gasworks Park in Seattle. So small world, but also there's a certain amount of values that crypto attracts people in towards. And we definitely see those values in Carly. And I'm really excited to see the overpriced JPEG's podcast blossom into hopefully what becomes the best NFT Metaverse podcast that is around. Yeah, it's going to be awesome.

So make sure you do what David said. go subscribe to the RSS feed right now. It's a different RSS feed than the bankless RSS feed. So you can type in Overprice JPEGs in your podcast player or click the link in your show notes. This will also be published as a video on Bankless YouTube for now as well. So with that, let's get to the podcast. This is Overpriced JPEGs with Carly Riley. Welcome to the inaugural episode of Overpriced JPEGs by the Bankless Network.

My name is Carly Riley. and this is the show where I interview the folks shaping the future of NFTs and the metaverse so y'all can decide for yourselves whether or not they're just overpriced JPEGs. And on this very first episode, I am interviewing Betty NFT. Betty is the co-creator and the community lead

for the project Deadfellas. I really wanted to interview Betty because I think of Deadfellas as a project that has done very well. The floor price has steadily risen over the just a few months that the project has been in existence. and they have a really robust community.

But I wanted to better understand and evaluate for myself whether or not I thought the team behind the project really had the capacity to make this something that could last for the long term. You'll find this is a continuing theme for me, what projects will really have staying power in this space? So I'll leave it to you to evaluate for yourself what you think of Betty and the team behind Deadfellas.

But I hope you get something out of it. I think if you are thinking about buying a dead fella or you're new to this space and evaluating the projects that are out there, this is a must listen. It gives you a really good sense into who Betty is and how she thinks about this space. And at the very end of the episode, she gives us some insight into what artists she likes and what NFT projects she's buying. So you might get a little alpha on the side. As always, please stay super safe in this space. Do not, do not, do not spend money. You can't afford to lose.

We are in the Wild West. There's a lot of speculation happening, and you never want to be in a position where you can't pay rent because you aped into a project that went down for whatever reason. So with that warning out of the way, thank you all so, so much for listening and enjoy this very first episode. Everyone is talking about the metaverse these days, and we're all still trying to figure out what it actually is because everyone is looking for how to get exposure to it. That is why a Metaverse Index Fund is so important, because in such a young market, an index can give you broad exposure to all the very very, players who are building out all these digital worlds that will ultimately become the Metaverse. And that's why you should check out the Metaverse Index from the Index Co-op. The Metaverse Index gives you simple, easy, and safe one-click exposure to the emerging

open Metaverse trend. The MVI Index contains some of the biggest Metaverse projects out there, including Axi Infinity, DeCentureland, Alluvium, and more. So join thousands of holders who have already trusted nearly $50 million to the MVI Index. And if you buy $500 of MVI on the Dharma app, you can receive $50 worth of ETH on the Polygon Network. There's a link in the show notes for you to click so you can get started on your journey into the Metaverse. Xerion is the perfect place to view the entirety of your crypto portfolio all in one spot. Not only does Zirion aggregate all the tokens across all of your wallets, but it also displays

the NFTs that you've been tirelessly collecting. Zirion even reports the value of your NFTs in your overall portfolio, giving you the most comprehensive report on the entirety of your crypto portfolio. Zirion isn't just a place to get an understanding of your portfolio. but it also hooks into defy activities like trading, borrowing, and lending, all in one convenient place. So you don't have to memorize all the various defy websites to do all of your defy activities. To get started, go to zirion.io slash bankless and load up your wallet or wallets into the Xerion interface and supercharge your defy experience and enrich your NFT lifestyle.

That's ZERI-O-N slash bankless. Betty NFT. That's what I'm calling you. That's your Twitter handle. So that's how I know you. I know everyone in this space based on their Discord and or Twitter handle. It is so nice to have you on the show. Thank you so much for making the time.

I know your schedule is bonkers, especially this week leading up to Halloween. Yeah, thanks. It's actually nice to be doing something other than sitting in my office doing that. I'm having so much fun, but I've moved my laptop to a different room for a different. Oh, wow. Yeah, I know. Wow. Big walk of the day.

From the office to the living room. Love it. Love that. Yeah. Well, awesome. Well, I would love to kick off with you telling a little bit about your story and how you ended up managing a, I guess, multimillion dollar brand over the span of what I imagine is a few months.

So why don't you tell people a little bit about who you are and your story? Yeah, thank you. So when you put it like that, it's very crazy. It's been a very wild journey to be on. But it started years and years ago. So I've always been creative. My husband Syke, who is the artist on the project and the co-founder, has also always been creative.

He's been a digital artist forever and I've been a creative producer forever. We spend our whole lives focusing on making really cool, innovative things. But up until now, that's been in a very corporate setting. So we have run agencies. We recently have shifted from the agency, actually, but we've spent years making animations and infographics and video games and all kinds of things. So the biggest brands in the world, but it's been basically under the radar because when it's for that sort of brand on that level,

you can't always put it on your portfolio. You can't always talk about it. And it's been fun, but it hasn't offered the creative freedom that this space has. And up until now, it's been quite stifling. I think any creative that's in that sort of work would understand that to a point. You know, you get rained in. So, yeah. And when did you first learn about NFTs and how?

So psych. We were actually in a really bad spot. It's a funny thing. I think that things kind of explode when you're in the worst circumstances. So we have. have been through a lot of different things. There was bushfires and that, you know, the pandemic. And we had suffered financially quite substantially because of all of those things.

And at the start of the year, Syke had reconnected with his art collective that he's been in connection with for many, many years and working with for many, many years, Depth Corps. I think they're like 20 years old now. So that name again? Depth core. Depth, like D-E-P-T-H. Yeah, yeah. It has some of the original digital artists in the space.

They're really the ones that paved the way for the movement now, I feel, in many ways. And it's really cool because a lot of them are in NFTs now and they did a drop recently. And it's just, it's really awesome to see that happen. But yeah, some of the depth core people reached out to psych and they were like, hey, you should get involved in NFTs. It's this really amazing thing. psych immediately launched into it like no questions thought it was the best thing ever and explained it to me and for me it was like a door opening and like you know when that starrie like cliche moment where it's like ah you know like the solution the sun shines in and the skies part yeah like

the solution and i was like oh my god this is it and i got so excited i grabbed him screamed, I think. He was very taken aback like, what the hell. Why did it strike you so immediately like that? Because there's plenty of people in the world, right, who were still very skeptical of NFTs. What was it about you that or about, you know, your background or the way it was explained? That was just an automatic click. So for me, the way I work and the way I've always worked is through a lens of wanting to innovate and wanting to build new things past what we already conceive as possible. And so for NFTs, it's a step in that direction, I feel. The decentralized aspect of it is really attractive to me. I feel like the systems that we've got going up until

this point are, you know, only beneficial to a certain few and not conducive to a healthy future for anyone. And so for me, it was, you know, combining that, combining decentralized finance, combining blockchain and the empowerment of artists, there was all of these different aspects that just seemed to amalgamate in this amazing technology that I was like, oh my God, we have access to this, like we can do this. Did you immediately recognize the freedom piece, like describing how stifled you felt in agency work for lack of better term or working for corporations? Did you immediately see that this was the kind of opposite of that or had the opportunity

to be the opposite of that? Yes, immediately right away. Because, so using psychon as an example, like his work is just amazing. And he has had to create under a pseudonym forever because anyone that found him in a corporate setting would be immediately confused and put off, you know, unable to separate that style from what we would produce

in a corporate setting. So it's like you break out from that and make your own rules and there are no rules. And, you know, you're only limited by your own imagination and how far you're willing to push your art and your tech, you know, the use of the tech that you utilize to bring that forward. So for me, it was just like this opportunity where we can really run. Like, I feel so free because I'm able to utilize what I'm good at

on something that I'm really passionate about. you know, we're calling the shots and it's really awesome. Like every single meeting, I know we live together. So it's weird to like say it. Yeah, if we haven't said it already, you guys are married. Yes. Yeah, we're married. Married with three children. So yeah, it's, it's weird to pose our conversations as meetings, but we do have to kind of sometimes separate our conversations into meetings. it's really invigorating because it's like is this possible we'll throw ideas around and you know he'll be like I don't know let's just try and we we just throw ourselves into things and see if it works and everything that we have tried so far has worked so yeah it's just very very amazing and so talk me through

I want to talk about the timeline here for people and dig into sort of the project and what you guys have been doing with it some of the experimenting you've done when when did you launch we launched we launched on Friday the 13th of August. It was a very intentional date. So Friday the 13th, obviously, is the spooky day. Everyone knows it as that 13 people think is unlucky. It's actually not 13 is the number of the divine feminine. It represents the amount of moon cycles in the year. And yeah, Friday is for Freya's day. It was like a day for reverence of women. So I've always really liked Friday the 13th. Anyway, I have 13 tattooed on me. We got married on the 13th.

And so it just kind of... Yeah, it just fit in with the theme of what we were going for. And it did really, really light a fire under everyone because it was like we really had to get things ready for Friday the 13th. And, you know, at one point the developers came back and they were like, is okay if we push to the 14th? I was like, absolutely not. This has been set intentionally.

I'm sorry, guys. We will not be changing anything. The phases of the moon of 13. We have to go on the 13th. It's the feminine energy. The, um, well, so, and how much time at that point had you spent in the space? Like, what was the, what was the period of time between, okay, you've heard about this thing called an NFT. We're now launching this project on August.

Syke, um, so Syke had been involved since about January and had been releasing, um, different things through different projects, um, just as himself. So like he had done artwork for a few of the different crypto voxels exhibits. I don't know if you heard of the 4156 one and they had the Rare Pepe one. He did all of the branding and everything for those. And then his drops with depth core and he'd some of his own stuff. So just kind of experimenting in that and I was just lurking pretty heavily. Because I was nervous to engage, to be quite honest.

Like I was obsessed with it and I was on the discords and I was like, you know, watching people talk. and like I was really in observation mode for quite a long time because I felt the the crypto bro type thing that was underlying a little bit was a bit intimidating for me. I wasn't sure how it would be received. So yeah, it took me a little while. How did you feel you were received once you sort of found your voice and started speaking out? Immediately amazing. Amazing.

Cool. Yeah. It's been really, I mean, I have like. So that's the lesson. Yeah, no, that is the lesson, guys. It might seem intimidating, but just go do it. It's actually an incredibly loving space as far as I found. It is.

It's welcoming and it's progressive. But again, I'm conscious of saying that as, you know, a white woman in the space as well, a white cisgendered woman, because there's a lot of people that have a different experience to me because of their identities and that's fine for me to say that, but I can't speak for everyone, you know? I do think part of the beauty of this space is the anonymity. committee piece though, right? Is that you could engage with an avatar and a pseudonym and nobody has to know parts of your identity and you can be yourself without having to be. I think so too. Without those

features known necessarily to ease your way in, so to speak. Yeah, I think so too. So there was a, you know, a whole kufel went on a few months ago with a project that turned out to be not who they said they were. Same lady squad. Is that what we're? Oh, we true. we dropping the bomb. Okay. I'm saying it. It's not like people don't know. Yeah, let's not tip her around it. And why we, you know, we got bored Becky now. It's turned out okay. Exactly. It's a beautiful thing how that's turned around. But the thing that was annoying me at the time when that happened was all of these screams for the doxing of project leaders. And I was defending the anonymity of people because it's like, you know, a lot of us find safety.

and the anonymity. There are a lot of people that might not feel safe to be themselves in this sort of space. And I think that we need to respect that. So, yeah, I really like it. It feels like in that case, if you're putting your identity front and center as like a marketing, a marketing ploy, right? Like there was sort of a real push with Fame Lady Squad of like we're the first fully female team or something that felt core to the messaging.

that's when I can understand being like, okay, well then, you know, maybe we have a right to know if you're actually women, right? But aside from that, I think teams absolutely have the right to their anonymity if they want it. Circling back to that moment,

okay, Friday the 13th in August, you're launching your project. For context for folks who maybe don't know, we should maybe say, dead fellas, are they zombies? They're like, they're a spooky sort of looking character. dovetails very well with Friday the 13th from the spooky thinking of it.

And it dovetails with Halloween, which is coming up. What was the initial mint price when you launched? It was 0.025. We did that because we wanted it to be accessible. Again, I'm conscious of using that word because, you know, accessibility is very different across different people. But as far as NFTs go, we wanted to be a pretty easy entry point. So yeah. 0.025s.

And so when I looked recently, the floor was, I think, at 0.7.6. I know we were in a little bit of a bear market right now, right? Recently it was as high as an Eth for the floor for dead fellas. That's awesome, right? Like that's a huge jump to make as a project in the span of the few months, essentially, that you've been doing this. What would you attribute that success to if you could summarize Is it in, you know, a couple words or sentences?

So I feel that personally, I don't know, I don't care about the floor and don't take that the wrong way. I feel like as we move, the value of what we bring with deadfellers is inevitable and grows exponentially as we move forward. And so it makes complete sense that the market would move with that. Is what I hear you saying that you have a long-term orientation with this project? Yes, I feel like the space is full of this beautiful meshing of different worlds. So we've got the people that are in here for the art.

We've got the people that are in here day trading. I can't focus on the day traders because it isn't something that is going to build the brand and build the sustainability and the longevity for us. So the value for me is constantly building and constantly working. and over time having that that gradual growth that you know the pump and dump thing is is not for me we haven't done any influencer marketing we haven't done any paid advertising or anything like that up until obviously this point we've got Times Square that was that was paid guys but um yeah it costs a lot of money but it's cool um but yeah the the the whole vision for us

is to build a brand that is in here forever. We want to be, you know, leaders in this innovative space and bringing new technology and new experiences and opportunities to our holders and keep exploring things under the brand just to see what's possible. And so far we're doing really amazing things and it's kind of mind-blowing and doesn't feel real still. It's hard to get used to. So talk to me about some of the innovations and,

and amazing things that you've done up to this point. So again, in the last like three months we're talking about here, it moves, it's not that much time in the long term, and then it feels like so much can happen in this space in three months. So I have a list of some of the cool community initiatives and things that I think you've done, but we'd love to hear from you, what stands out to you is like, that was innovative. We're so excited we did that.

It worked so well or didn't work, whatever. I think it goes back to the start of the project, the very start of the project. We didn't focus on trying to build numbers very quickly, because I knew that it was going to blow up straight away. So I was very careful because we wanted to avoid gas wars and all of that sort of thing. So we had coded games into our Discord server for our community to connect on a different level. And they formed relationships really quickly, which is it brought value to people immediately. And then we were the first ones or one of the first ones to have the pre-sell thing happen.

I don't know anybody that's done a pre-cell that has completely absorbed gas fees either. that's what we did we had people register so you launched you had people who were on your pre-sale list yeah so they had like a 24 hour period to mint or something without fear of gas wars and then you also said you would cover the cost of gas for them no what happened was it was it was it was it was a huge undertaking and honestly if we had time to create something better i think other projects have managed to build on that and make something that that works more efficiently for them, but what we did was we just had a Google form where people would put their wallet address and, you know, their Twitter handle and their Discord name, they could reserve up to

five. And then they would just transfer the ETH without the gas or anything for the, you know, all of that sort of stuff straight to us to a specific wallet. And then we just went through and transferred all of the tokens directly to them. We had reserved. I think it was 1,300 tokens initially. And yeah, Syke had to do that one by one, which took so long and it turned into a meme, as everything does in NFTs.

As everything does, yeah, yeah. And now that meme is an NFT and it's selling for 100 Eethon. Yeah, but that was the first thing. And I think that everyone appreciated that because it was, you know, we saved a lot of people, a lot of money and gags. and, you know, people that would not have survived gas wars managed to get in and get five. And it's really changed people's lives, really, at that point.

Like, you know, we've had such a job in value. So, yeah. And let me ask you, when you said you knew this would blow up, you were like, you know, I was just trying to do right by my community and, but you knew this would be very successful. How and why did you know that? Because it's just what I do. I build brands and I build communities and we've done it professionally. you know, on a global level for many years.

And so being able to do that with creative freedom without time constraints and to our own limitations, I just knew it was going to work. As soon as we made the, like I saw the design in my head. I knew what I was going to call it. I know, you know, we knew the stories. Everything rolled so quickly when we started to talk about it. We sat at the computer and Syke did some mock-ups. And it only took us, I think it was about two hours to get to the main, you know, what you see as a

dead fellow, like the main thing. And I just knew, I was like, this is amazing. I love this so much. And I think that that is the important thing and the thing to take away is if you see something that you love and you see that there is a niche for it and no one else is doing that, it's going to work. And how much was your confidence, at least that in the short term it could succeed, which I know is not your orientation, which I love, related to also having this community of fellow NFT artists that you were plugged into?

That was really important. And I think has been a big driver in what we've been doing and the value that we have is the focus on art, Sykes and artist. and it was the first thing we created was the art. Like that was the first thing and then we built everything around the art. It is important to both of us and it's something that I look for in projects. I won't buy a project unless I don't like the art.

We respect the, I guess, the industry for what it's bringing to artists because it's changing our lives, we're artists. I want to empower other artists. it's the whole thing people that we respect in the space have really paved the way like people like lorona and like mark the hubibi and those people and ghosts you know those people have really turned the industry into what it is and so it's like a great honor for us um to receive respect from them and to be able to work from them now like that's an amazing thing to me i get a lot of questions and I'm guessing you get even more than I do about artists who are saying, hey,

where do I start? You know, I see the opportunity in this space, but I don't really understand how to capture it. What is your, what are your, what is your advice to just starting out artists who are trying to break into this space? It sounds so cliche. So I apologize, but it's true. You just need to be yourself and you need to do what you like, what you love, what you good at. Um, and, you don't need to worry about sticking to what you think people will buy. I think that's where people fall is trying to commercialize. You're not in a commercialized space. You're not commercializing yourself.

You're putting your artwork out there for the people to appreciate if they appreciate it. And, you know, many people will. And I think there's another level of connection to the pieces because of the community aspect of the space. So, you know, when you're creating those friendships, engaging with people that like the same things as you, you're forming that, that mutual admiration, you're likely to support people that you have relationships with. They're going to support you back. And things snowball from there. And we're in that build space, that build mode at the moment, I think, as a community in general, an NFT community in general, as that grows, I don't know what that's going to look like. But for now, it's like, a little insular economy in itself, like an ecosystem. And I think really just, yeah, leveraging that for not just to sell artwork, obviously, because you come away with real

friendships and real connection, which is something I think people really want, especially now after, you know, the state of the world at the moment. It's just, it seems like a very hopeful thing for a lot of people. So just don't be scared and just do it. I want to talk more about the ecosystem in general and where you see deadfellas within that ecosystem because I think there are different cohorts within NFTs. But before I get there, I want to ask, you talked about kind of lurking in these Discord channels for months. And it's like obviously, you know, doing his own form of sort of market research for a few months before actually launching something. do you think that's necessary or how would you value that or would you recommend that to somebody

who's starting out and wants to jump in this space? Yeah, I actually would. And while I think just do things when you want to do them, just launch into them, don't be frightened. At the same time, it did really benefit me because I got to learn from the space. I don't think I would have had as deep an understanding of how things work and how to run my own project had I not had that time to really just sit back and listen and learn. Because at the end of the day, the innovators are the people that have preceded you. And while you don't need to copy off what other people are doing, because we're not,

we're doing our own thing. At the same time, there's many lessons to be learned. And especially with a space that's so new, it is just having that humble attitude. Like, you know, I do have a lot to learn. and there is a lot here for me to absorb. So spending time listening and learning is always going to be beneficial, I think. Yeah. And looking at the ecosystem in general, first of all, do you pay attention at this point

to other projects that are launching and the space sort of in the macro sense? Or are you very heads down just like, I'm focused on deadfellas and building this brand? And that's where your attention is. What's your balance on that, the macro and the micro? I think any creator will tell you in the NFT space that as much as you're focused on your own project, I am very heavily into NFTs on a large scale. So I will spend time regardless of how busy I am looking for new artists going through different, you know, those like shell threads.

People might not think that they, I actually do go through those. and I'll go through like my illustrator friends and like see who's reposting what and I search like recently bought on open sea just to have a look at what's going on I think it's very very smart to have an understanding of the market that you're working in at all times so it would be detrimental to just completely have your head down and not not be focused on what else is going on so I want to dive in more on that and see if you'll give us any alpha on what you're tracking or what you like. But before I do, I want to ask, do you have mental models in your head for, like, where you see deadfellas in the market? Or, hey, there's PFP projects, there's art projects. There's, like, do you have anything where you kind of create categories in your head for these projects or other, do you see dead fellas in a cohort? I think of dead fellas and cryptogachias for some reason in my head. I don't know if I learned about them at a similar time, but I think of them and sort of being in a cohort. That all me? Or do you have some? sort of map in your head of where Deadfellas lives and the market in general?

Yeah, I think there is a spectrum of the type of projects that exist in the space, but I think that that is limitless because, you know, everyone is self-determined in their own identity of what they're putting out. So you've got projects. I think people put too much pressure on artists to have roadmaps. You should not need a roadmap to release an NFT project if what you're doing is just art, and that's all you want to do. because at the end of the day that's what you're doing there shouldn't be this expectation of anything

else for us that is what we want to do we do want a roadmap we do want to push into different industries and have deadfellers in different contexts so for us that is a focus um i see us and we're we're obviously we're put together in with projects such as um cool cats robotos and creatures That's another one that I think of for you as well. And it's not just the art because I think the art is of a similar vein across all of those projects in terms of its 2D illustration. But I think the vibe of the communities are very similar as well. And so it attracts similar sorts of consumers, I guess, for want of a better word. So yeah, there is a beautiful crossover between.

all of those communities and that mutual respect between them is a very nice thing too. So, yeah, it kind of feels like having houses in school, you know, when you're in different. That's an Australian thing, I think. I think. Or Hogwarts. That's a magical wizard thing as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, Hogwarts. Exactly like that. All right.

Which house is Deadfell is in? In Harry Potter. I'm going to say Slyther and guy. Yeah, I was going to say, I mean, it's green. I feel like it kind of, not even just that. It's badass. I don't know. This is taking a turn, but I feel that Slithering, if we're going to delve into that,

I feel like Slytherin, not necessarily the bad guys. I feel they're the edgy cool guys. And I feel we're edgy cool guys. So I think it is important for anybody who might buy a dead fella's, dead fella, dead fella, dead fellas. Yeah. To understand which house you think they belong in. So I think we've gotten some critical insight here.

That's your aisle for them. Yeah, there you go. On Juno is your new crypto-enabled financial services company. On Juno lets you get your direct deposit paycheck paid to you in crypto. Set up your direct deposit with On Juno and receive part of your paycheck in your preferred crypto asset, reducing the time that you're holding on to your inflating dollars. The best thing is, On Juno sends your crypto directly to your own wallet, whether it's your ledger, your Metamask, or however you hold your crypto.

On Juno can also be a checking account for your crypto, where you manage both your cash and your crypto from one simple account. It's free, and opening up an account with On Juno comes with a metal debit card that gives you 5% cash back at select businesses, including Uber, Starbucks, Walmart, Target, and other Webtoe companies. Use code bankless when you create your On Juno account, and our friends at Juno will air drop you $50 in Eth when you set up your first crypto paycheck. Sign up at OnJNO.com to get started. That's onjuno.com slash crypto. I want to give a special thanks to overpriced JPEG partner Block Block. not only because they are a sponsor of this show, but also because they are my employer.

Block Block is an innovative blockchain lab. We work across NFTs and the Metaverse, and our goal is really to push the industry forward with every new project we take on. We founded and currently run the Nebitz Dow, which just partnered with Larva Labs to create more Metaverse-friendly renderings of Neibits, which is awesome.

We are also partnered with a Sundance Award-winning filmmaker to build the first Dow that will own a, a feature-length documentary film. We have a ton of cool projects down the pipeline and are really looking for cool people to partner with on this. So go to blockblock.com. To subscribe to our newsletter

and be kept up to date about what we have going on and also to check out open roles we have available. We'd love to have you apply. Come work with me coming out, block block.io. Would I be right in saying that the big picture goal for dead fellas. And you might be like, no.

But it's to build IP, right? And to build a brand that crosses fashion and music and, you know, film or or any combination of the few or tell me if you're like, no, we're only focused on one thing. But is that sort of roughly what you'd say big picture you're shooting for? Yeah, that's exactly it. And not only that, we want to empower the holders to utilize their IP to explore those avenues as well. So that is going to be a focus. We want you to hold deadfellers and have, you know, not just the art or the community, but like experiences and opportunities. So like we've

developed, the first thing we did basically as soon as we sold out was by a large plot in Decentraland, which people were like, why are you doing that? Why not sandbox? Why not this? why aren't you going to do that? Again, we're not focused on what other people are doing. We do like sandbox and we are moving into sandbox too. But the point is we want to investigate different areas that make sense for us. So DeCentral Land is just this amazing. We've built this huge city just for Deadfellers holders.

It's got a club. It will have playable games in there. It's got, we'll have stores and galleries. and there's an eight-story mansion and just loads of cool things. The first thing we've got this weekend for Halloween in there is a token-gated event exhibiting all of the collaborations that we've got going across with, you know, many creators in the NFT space, well-loved ones. Did I see Steve Aoki was going to be a guest performer?

Yeah, babes, he did. Steve Aoki. Yeah. So we made Steve Aoki. that's amazing into a deadfeller as well and he is going to be playing uh exclusively for dead fellas holders and aoki nfti holders um from Halloween till the i think it's the fourth uh just on a loop so like those token holders can just go in there and just party um so what's the pitch to steve was he already a dead fellow's fan or how did that come out kind of be or when you're talking to these

collab, yeah. Yeah, their team, their team knew about us and we're fans. I think it's, um, everything that's happened so far comes from, uh, I'm relentless in what I do, like, and I know I'm good at what I do. So I think that I'm able to get what I feel is the value that we bring across to people quite easily. Um, but also people that have received that value talk to each other, right? So we have, I'll be speaking to someone and then they'll be friends with someone else and then they'll be friends with someone else and that's just how things go it's all about networking and and building relationships and i will say that the relationships that i've built so far from this are extremely valuable and i hold um very closely i'm very very grateful um to be able to

to work with people that i've admired for so long like we were in the discord a few weeks ago and like keith from time magazine came in onto the voice chat just to hang out like Keith Grossman. Yes. And Keith is an amazing person. And I think someone that represents that bridging of, you know, old industry and media into this beautiful, new, innovative space and pushing and leading the way for those people to follow. Is there a time collaboration in the future a la cool cats? Or can you share?

Is that alpha we can know? It's going to be quiet on that one. Okay. Plead the fifth. Understood. Understood. When you're thinking about brand building, do you think Metaverse versus physical? Are you saying, hey, we're going to put more chips on building a brand for the Metaverse,

or we're going to put more chips on building a brand for the physical? No, I see it as a collaboration of both, a combination of both, which is why we're in New York on Billboard's. I think that that is bringing those worlds together. and you know how you see like the POAP treasure hunt that's going on in New York for an NFT NYC that is a beautiful combination of those worlds because you all of a sudden bringing it to the real world so yeah I see it as both I see like fashion that you can buy from a store or an online store but then you get the NFT of that of that collectible item that you

you can also wear in real life and also in the metaverse. I think there's so many opportunities that we haven't explored along those lines that it's exciting. And we're going to focus on both at the same time. And I meant to ask this earlier, what is precisely the ownership licensing agreement with deadfellas holders? I think this is a broader question that every project needs to answer. What rights, if I own a dead fellow, what can I do with it? Um, anything you want, really, anything you want. So it's more in the like cryptodes category than yes and no.

I think of like a V friend. V friends is very clearly like, hey, this is, you own this NFT representation, but you can't, you can't really do anything else with it. Yeah. I think we are in between probably V friends and cryptodes. I think what Gremlin has done with cryptodes is genius and absolutely groundbreaking. And we very much respect to Gremlin. Syke has knew him before the project and it's like seeing that really run has been a really

cool thing. I think that for us, it's more we own the overarching brand and the, you know, the logo and the name and that sort of thing. But each individual holder owns the IP to their own token to be able to utilize to like we've had people release um derivatives songs um what else their own like little nfti line of of different variations of their fella but i mean the options there are also very limitless so we have had our legal team um draw up a guide on how people can use their IP so that's going to be on the website um i think this weekend actually uh because It's something. By the time this airs, it'll probably be there.

So if I could take my dad fella and put it on a t-shirt and make $100,000 off of it and you would say, great. Yeah. We love it. Right? Like, go monetize that. That's the other thing that I think you see is you can monetize up to a certain level, right? Or, you know, like as long as you're not making more than 50K or 100K. But y'all are like, go, go forth and prosper.

I think that really it only strengthens our brand, you know. I think the actually. Punk 4156 and also David Horvath have really refreshing opinions on this. And I've listened to David and Punk 4156 speak on this at length in the way that derivatives and other people using your IP to create things really does strengthen a brand in ways that transcend the way that things have been done typically. And it's, again, that old world way of thinking and doing is quite stifling. and I think that releasing that,

I'm not suggesting that all people do it because, you know, especially artists, you own your art, like you don't have to give that to anyone to increase value to anyone else, but it's a cool thing to be able to explore and something that we're quite enjoying. And you definitely are a project

that I think of as having a really awesome community and you empower them as you're describing and I'm sure that's a piece of it. And you've also done a lot of, you've put a lot of, of time into your community. I think you mentioned like the survival games piece, if that was the game that you were, you had as part of launch and the billboard, you know, that's up in Times Square. And I mean, you just did an art contest that I think I saw had like nearly 800 submissions.

Like you have this really engaged in active community, which is amazing. And I think it's obviously contributed to the success you've had so far. How do you balance and do you see? And do you see, it as a balance, I would call it short-term community engagement activities with long-term brand building. So we treat them as two different streams and focus on them at the same time, but in separate ways. So, you know, many people will start with their roadmap. And it's something that I would suggest people, if you're building a roadmap, don't promise the world and, you know, have these lofty ideas. don't especially, you know, video games and things like that. It takes so long to build something of value, but something that you can bring immediately is, is community for people. So for us, it has

been important to focus on those activities because it's brought people together and people have real relationships. So while I focus on that, we'll plan the community activities based on what we think will bring the most value for people socially. We'll, you know, we'll have like incentives so you can win NFTs and those sorts of things. Something that we did in the survival game when we first launched was if you won twice, you had to give your NFT your second win to someone else that was trying to win. So it was really- Do you want to describe to folks what the survival game is?

Yeah, it was just a- for people who don't know. It was a really basic, a really basic game within the Discord server. Syke just coded it. It was like you put in a basic command and then you were, you either die a funny death or you survive with an NFT. And the deaths were like all zombie related and submitted by the people in the Discord as well. So we had a channel where people could suggest different hilarious things and we would load them into the game.

And so just I think honestly people just want to be heard and people just want to feel a part of something, me included. And so, you know, those sorts of activities together. do bring value as small as they are in comparison to, you know, building a metaverse city or having Steve Ayoki play for our holders or getting a billboard and putting our holders up on a billboard. Like those are big things, but it's not day-to-day. So bringing that day-to-day value is super important, I think, for projects. And having holders that are able to access the founders to some extent is also important.

like people know who I am and they know what I'm like like you know they know my sense of humor and they know different things that I do in the day and the same with psych and it's important I think to have that connection because we're not a normal brand where an NFT brand which is completely new and different so leaning into doing things differently that way so looking ahead for dead fellas I'm sure you have a lot of that long-term brand building you know that that work stream you're working on and have a bunch on the horizon, anything you can share, anything coming up that that's on the brand building side that I can pull out of you? Well, we have the roadmap 2.0 being released on Halloween.

That's exciting. It is exciting. I like that you launched on Friday the 13th, presumably with your initial roadmap. Yeah. And then Halloween, you have your second roadmap. Yes. We'll know whenever there's a next Friday the 13th that will get more info. I think it's next May, so maybe.

Okay. Yikes. Yeah. We're basically just going to, now I think what we've done is we've built our foundation and we have a very strong solid foundation. We have a strong community. And we have been able to build out our infrastructure that we need to explore. So we've got our city and decentral land.

We've got, you know, our 3D team turning all of our deadfellers into 3D avatars like completely rigged. And we have all of these things. So into the next year, we're just going to be focused on exploring those, empowering our holders even more, pushing into different industries as well. You know, everything you can think of in terms of media, so music, gaming, TV, everything, fashion, like we're extending into all of them in aligned ways. Do you, how big is your team right now?

Oh, I couldn't say. Honestly, it's grown incredibly. So obviously it was just me in psych at first. We got a couple of mods that we trusted very, very much and have known since the time we've been in the space. I think that is obviously very imperative, as we know, from recent events. You need mods you can trust. And we've expanded as we've needed to.

So we've got lots of developers now on the Decentral Land. We've got our core developer team. So Kingmaker and Nine who were both part of our launch and very integral to how smooth the launch was. Very grateful to have those. We've got Dan Petty joined us as our web design lead. And that's also been fantastic. He's worked at the same level as Oz and is an absolute legend in his own right. So we've managed to grab people like that and pull them into the team.

copyrighters and project managers and social media managers and you need you really do need to delegate otherwise you'll go insane yeah and as it is with even with all that i get the sense you're not sleeping much so no we're not Halloween no Halloween is uh yeah a big time yeah we're basically working 24 hours at the moment i will say that people often will um assume that once a launch is finished that the hard work is over it is not the hard work really hard work has started The hard work starts launch. Like, however much work you think you've done prior to launch, times it by like 100. Yeah.

Well, I think that's another good piece of advice for artists who want to launch. It's like, please buckle up and know what you're getting into because I've seen that happen. I know that there are teams. We're like, all right, we got it to launch. And then it's like, now is when all the expectations from the community begin. Yeah. Now you have 4,000 people yelling at you on the server. It's just where you've got to be careful as well.

because if you make all of these promises to people prior to launch, and then all of a sudden you find yourself in a situation where you're like, oh my God, I've got to deliver. You know, don't make those promises. Just build quietly. And I think under promise and overdeliver is a solid way to be. A good mantra. Yeah.

Okay, well, I know how busy you are, so I don't want to take up too much more of your time. But I do want to wrap with some of your, some of the projects you are watching outside of Deadfellas. what what do you look for when you're scrolling through those shill feeds on Twitter? What are you looking for? What catches your eye? It's always,

any projects you like, would love to hear it. Yeah, whatever you're comfortable with. It's always art first. So I'll always look for art first, anything that catches my eye. I'm actually, I'll go two ways. So the first thing that I'll do is my friends.

So, you know, like Mark Habibi has just released, his generated Habibis. And I'm a huge fan of them, not just because I'm friends with Mark, but because I just love them. A link to it. Yeah. Yeah. They're very beautiful. I'm just going to my wallet and see what I've bought recently. I bought Ethereum's recently because...

I like that project too, yeah. Yeah. It's not something that I had noticed immediately. And then Bobby Hundreds got me on the, on this Twitter spaces with their team. And they are amazing, an amazing team. And that is something, that's an example of when you know the team and you're looking, you're researching the founders and you understand, you know, what the wise and wares of the project. Often then you'll see the value.

Not that I didn't see the value before. I just wasn't aware because I, you know, I hadn't seen it yet. But I think I saw Ethereum's dipped recently. I mean, a lot of these projects are. So that's been on my like, oh, I want to go in and buy. But then gas has been so high. I've been like, well, it's been offsetting. The dips I wanted to buy.

Yeah, I think it's the market on as a whole has dipped, but then the gas has been an absolute nightmare, isn't it? Ghosts, I love ghosts. I love toy faces. These are not generated projects, but, you know, I love them. What else? Obviously, I love cool cats, but that's not very accessible for people, just joining the space at the moment. I buy a lot of one of ones. I really enjoy one of one art,

so I'll often buy one of ones. My favorite artist at the moment is Nook. He's been my favorite artist for a long time. He's in depth call with Syke. Yeah. Do you ever have like, do you ever, do you have any of the frames where you like physically hang them in your house at this point? Or is it, it's stayed in it's in the digital world? So we've been renting for so long and we're not allowed to hang artwork up, but I've had physical. Yeah, it's a, nightmare. We'll hopefully get out of that situation next year. But I've had lots of physical art sent to me through buying NFTs. So flower blocks is a really beautiful project. And he has sent me physicals. Yu Yu, Cyber Yu, beautiful, beautiful artwork, sent me physical pieces. Amy Woodward

is an incredible photographer. And she's semi-physical. pieces as well. I love Lorona's boys. I don't know. There's loads of different things come up. That's awesome. Well, we'll link to all the projects you mentioned so that folks can go explore and check it out. I think especially for people who are just starting to get into the space, it's really helpful to hear from folks, like what they're tracking and then you can go follow those artists on Twitter. Like that's how you start to get kind of ingratiated in this world and start to follow what's going on. I think following what artists are doing is definitely a very smart move. Yeah, definitely. Okay, last question.

Yes. Mindy Kaling, I saw, she tweeted about NFTs. I saw it, you responded. Have you talked to Mindy Kaling yet? Do you know what? You would know if I had talked to Mindy Kaling because I would be like three octaves. Everyone would know.

Yeah, the world would know. I would have tweeted about it in the most, you don't even, right, so here's the thing. I didn't realize what a fan girl I was about people until now. Because when people are interacting, with what I've created or interacting with me directly and they're people that I have been obsessed with for years. I'm like freaking out, like speaking to Reese Witherspoon. Like I spoke to L Woods on Twitter Spaces. It's insane. Absolutely crazy. Yeah, that was on the Adam Baum Squad.

Yes. And like Pussy Riot. Like I engaged with Pussy Riot, like the Pussy Riot. That is crazy to me. So being able to interact with heroes is. very cool part of this whole thing. And yeah, Mindy, if you're listening, let's be friends. Yeah. Coming out with us for really fun. We talk about NFDs all the time. I've now asserted myself into this friendship you're establishing Betty with Mindy. Yeah, yeah. No, I get it. Well, awesome. Well, I can't wait for the day that you do get to talk to Mindy

and then we'll hear all about it on Twitter. And this was so fun. I so appreciate you taking the time out during this especially busy week for you all. I hope folks really learn something about dead fellas. I think you're amazing and I will go double down on my my dead fellow's conviction. And yeah, I hope you have a great rest of your week. We'll be watching what happens on Halloween. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks. Yeah, it's been nice chatting.