Founder's Story - Avery Akkineni CMO of VaynerX: Navigating the Future of Technology | S2: E50

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

In this episode, Daniel Robbins interviews Avery Akkineni, the CMO of VaynerX, a consultancy focused on helping enterprises navigate the next era of the Internet founded by Gary Vaynerchuck. Avery discusses her extensive experience in Southeast Asia and the rapid tech adoption she observed there. She highlights the potential impact of Web3, AI, and blockchain technologies on developing countries and how VaynerX is guiding enterprises through these innovations.Avery shares insights into how Fortune 500 companies are adapting to new technologies and the role of VaynerX in helping these companies discern meaningful advancements from mere noise. She also touches on her routines for maintaining balance and creativity in her busy life, emphasizing the importance of sleep, exercise, and time away from work.Key Points Discussed:Avery's role as President at VaynerX and the company's focus on Web3 consultancy.Observations of rapid tech adoption in Southeast Asia.Impact of Web3, AI, and blockchain on developing countries.VaynerX's approach to advising Fortune 500 companies on new technologies.The importance of separating signal from noise in tech advancements.Avery's routines for maintaining balance and creativity.The future potential of blockchain in various sectors.The role of immersive and personalized Internet experiences.The intersection of AI and blockchain for verifying digital content.Encouragement for entrepreneurs to embrace emerging technologies.Relevant Links:Avery AkkineniVaynerXOur Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

So I'm Avery, and I am the president of VNR3. VNR3 is a consultancy focused on helping enterprises navigate the next era of the internet. And for the last two years, we've been helping, you know, big companies understand, embrace, and activate the world of Web3. So Avery, you spent a lot of time in Southeast Asia, APAC. I believe you were in Singapore, Thailand, Australia, some other countries as well. There's so many new technologies, Web3, AI, all these things that are coming up. How do you feel this is going to impact places like the Philippines, Thailand, these developing countries? What do you see as positivity, entrepreneurship?

How is this going to impact the people there? Oh, yeah, absolutely. One thing that really impressed me during the couple of years I spent in Asia was just the speed of tech adoption. You know, you think New York is fast, you spend a week in China and oh, wow, it feels like a year, right? And you know, the pace of everything there is just continues to accelerate. And I think, you know, what I observed in Southeast Asia was these communities are very open to embrace the new and the next. And I think we've seen that manifest in terms of, you know, digital first realities. We see this, of course, in the Philippines, through very high crypto adoption for the population, a lot of time spent in gaming

experiences. So I think that, you know, we're actually seeing some of these Southeast Asian countries drive this new behavior more so than the Western world. So it's really exciting. And I think there are a lot of these entrepreneurs who are actually based out of Southeast Asia or sort of APAC at large, building really cool tools that are ultimately be sort of Asia first and then scale out to the US and the Western world. So I think that it's such a natural fit. And particularly for solutions that they don't necessarily need to replace something, they're coming up with something net new. We're seeing a lot of adoption potential in those sort of emerging markets, particularly in the financial sector. Hey, everyone. I'm not sure if you've heard, but our show Founders Story is now available

on the iHeartRadio app. So check that out. iHeartRadio online or you grab the app. It's super easy. You can listen to all of our episodes wherever you enjoy your podcast, whether that's iHeartRadio, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and many more. But check it out. That's so fascinating. So just a quick, just for some context, I've been out in the Philippines for 15 years. And I was born and raised in America, but I'm not Filipino. And as you were saying, like the tech boom in the area has been exponentially growing so quick. And I've been there and I'm there in the middle of it in the trenches. And I'm seeing so many developers, so many gamers, so many crypto wallets being added. And how is Vayner 3 going to intertwine into that? And how are you guys going to leverage that

for you guys, for your business? Yeah. So Vayner 3 isn't a public phasing company necessarily because we're a services business. Our role is really to help enterprises understand how they should participate in those ecosystems. So, for example, like we work with companies who ultimately are building products that will be available to folks in the Philippines, available to folks everywhere. We also might be doing something with a brand that's doing a global campaign and maybe they decide to do it in Roblox or Zepeto or Fortnite. And we might see, wow, Southeast Asia is really over-indexing. There's more to this and kind of dig in. So our role is really an advisor and a partner versus Vayner 3 necessarily activating. Though I will say, VFriends has a thriving community all across the globe. VFriends is a separate sort of sister company,

but they have this incredible global community. Many of those folks from all across Southeast Asia are actually here with us today in Indianapolis, which just shows the power of building that brand global first. So what are you seeing with fortune companies now? It seems like focuses have changed over the last year or two, focusing on metaverse, Web3, NFTs, things are shifting, AI, all these things seem to be growing in different paces. How are you seeing brands and Fortune 500 companies? What are they looking after? What are they coming to you for? I think you're exactly right that all of these... Whether you're starting or scaling your company's security program, demonstrating top-notch security practices and establishing trust is more important than ever.

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even orcas. Go to Monday.com to dive deeper. Things are kind of percolating into this bucket of innovation and under this bucket of like this new era of the internet. And it's very hard for them to separate the signal from the noise. There's a lot of noise and picking out the signal and determining what's the right move for their brands is not so easy. And actually, that's why I think a lot of partners come to Vayner 3 is to help them understand what really makes sense for their brand versus what something that doesn't have longevity. I think they're curious how AI and AR and metaverse and web three all kind of interlinked together. And at Vayner 3, we have a very expansive view of web three as the next era of the internet. And we see

advanced computing, whether that's AI, machine learning, immersive experiences, whether that's, you know, in the metaverse or in AR and blockchain based programs, whether that's crypto or NFTs, being complimentary and actually working together to inform what the next internet sort of is all about. At the end of the day, it's all driven by what consumers want. Consumers want an internet that's more immersive and personalized and ownable. And technology is just manifesting to, you know, deliver against those consumer needs. You can keep that mic for now. Two minutes. Okay. I want to pivot a little bit away from business in South and state market. I want to focus a little bit on you.

Okay. And you have such an illustrious career. You have a lot going on, just like most people that are presidents of companies. How do you balance all of this? Like, I'm a guy of routines. I understand routines are something important to be successful. What is your secret sauce? If there is anything. For sure. So I always get eight

hours of sleep a night, except the last night, maybe when I got seven, but I always get a good night's rest. I'm a person who totally needs my sleep. I also like to work out a couple of times a week. I, you know, lift weights. That's been really fun. And I'm a data driven person. So I like to see like numbers, you know, increasing and growing, track my macros, all that fun stuff. That's very important. And I also think that one of my routines is also taking time away from work is very important. When I lived in Singapore, we used to go spend the weekends in Bali and Vietnam, go to Japan,

go to India, all of these cool places where you can really turn off and shut off. And ultimately, many times over, those have been the time that those have been the times when I have the best creative ideas is actually when I'm outside of that day to day. And I'm just like on a hike or surfing or doing something that's completely different. And taking that time for me and, you know, connecting with my husband as well, friends and family is a very important part of my balanced routine. Do we have room for one more? 30 seconds.

You might have a dog. I'll close it. So Gary has talked a lot about blockchain the last few days. I was really surprised. I didn't know there's going to be so many conversations about blockchain, which I think is incredible. How are you and Vayner looking at what's going to be able to be used with blockchain in the next few years? I think that blockchain is going to be used for so many different use cases. A very clear one is in the financial services sector. We're already seeing that today.

We're seeing that with companies who are in the crypto space like Coinbase, our partner. They're here with us this weekend in Indianapolis. We're seeing this in cases like supply chain. There's some early tests that are very interesting. And we're also seeing blockchain matter for things like provenance of luxury assets. We're seeing that in places in fashion, jewelry. Those early days of that are starting to happen. But I will say that we're still at the very, very early days of this. I think there's a few blockchains that have been heavily adopted, but there's so much more. I don't have a crystal ball, but I do believe that blockchain will be a major part of the future of the internet. And without being too much of a

futurist, every single time I see these deep fakes produced by AI, I'm like, oh, wouldn't it be so perfect if there was an immutable way to track, to verify what's real and what's not. And of course my mind goes straight to blockchain. But that doesn't exist yet. So it's something I'm looking forward to seeing that prove out. Did you hear the Drake and Weekend song? Yes. Isn't that incredible? It's incredible. I mean, there's so many different AI tools that like the popper thing also blew my mind. Oh, you got to look at. Thank you for tuning in to Founders Story. Keep exploring, keep dreaming, and join us next time for more inspiring entrepreneurial journeys.