Building At The Edges

Jess chats with Nick Grossman, Partner at Union Square Ventures, to explore USV's investment theses. They delve into how USV tackles significant markets undergoing transformative pressures, spanning social networks, vertical networks, crypto, and climate in order to identify opportunities at the peripheries where change is most promising.

Jess sits down with Brian Flynn, Founder and CEO of Rabbithole (https://rabbithole.gg/) to talk about the rise of points, the challenges they present, and some insights from building in consumer crypto in 2023.

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.

On this episode of Building at the Edges, Jess sits down with Yancey Strickler from Metalabel to discuss the new era of digital records, the egalitarian structure of Metalabel, and the true value of creation. They dive into what Metalabel unlocks for creators and explore how Metalabel utilizes a heterarchical structure to distribute ownership and responsibility. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:36 Welcome Yancey 1:03 A shift in eras 4:04 The on chain era 8:35 Owning your data and your identity 12:56 The future of digital history 16:42 Metalabel's unlock for creators 20:54 Distribution and metalabels 26:24 Metalabel's organization structure 31:47 Ownership of ideas and responsibility 42:52 Exploring governance 45:35 The value of work 47:57 Closing thoughts 50:25 Outro FOLLOW US Jess: https://twitter.com/thattallguy Yancey: https://twitter.com/ystrickler Seed Club: https://twitter.com/seedclubhq Metalabel: https://twitter.com/Metalabel_xyz RESOURCES Seed Club: https://www.seedclub.xyz/ Metalabel: https://collect.metalabel.xyz/ 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.

Down cycles clarify true product market fit, especially in highly financialized industries like crypto. In this episode of Building At The Edges, Jess sits down with Scott Moore, co-founder of Gitcoin, to discuss insights from building the leading web3 grant funding DAO. FOLLOW US Jess: https://twitter.com/thattallguy Scott: https://twitter.com/notscottmoore SeedClub: https://twitter.com/seedclubhq Gitcoin: https://twitter.com/gitcoin RESOURCES Seed Club: https://www.seedclub.xyz/ Gitcoin: https://gov.gitcoin.co/ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 2:19 Market cycles 4:42 Product-market fit 9:07 The evolution of Gitcoin 18:57 Community and DAOs 24:54 Making an impact 31:40 The sustainability of impact DAOs 46:19 Bringing web3 to the real world 52:29 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.

We're taking a brief winter break and will be back soon with new episodes of Building at the Edges. In the meantime, enjoy this episode from the archive. For our final episode of Season 2, we return to web3 first principles: community tokens create yet-unrealized opportunities within an immeasurable design space at the intersection of culture, ownership, and value creation. The realization of these opportunities is inevitable — but the timeline and cadence remains unknown. Derek Schloss is a partner at Collab+Currency and a regular guest on Proof with Kevin Rose. Derek and Jess explore possible futures for the community token design space, taking both inspiration and cautions from Nouns, Art Blocks, Chromie Squiggles, and $10 pizza with a friend. While internet native communities have leveled up innovation on the side of pooled capital, we have yet to unlock truly novel ways of allocating that capital using shared decision-making. The builders who both perceive the unrealized opportunities and sit in the discomfort of a novel design space will be the ones to watch through the next cycles of innovation.

We're taking a brief winter break and will be back soon with new episodes of Building at the Edges. In the meantime, enjoy this episode from the archive. First Club episode! We talk with Aaron Wright, the co-founder of OpenLaw, the team behind the LAO, Flamingo DAO, Neptune DAO, and more. We talk about all things DAOs, and the value of having a sense-making organism. We talk about his excitement for the Metaverse being the next big play in crypto, and of course, we dive into Social Tokens.

Jess sits down with our very own Peace Node, the anon behind the indelible Seed Club brand. They talk through the unique discipline that is building a DAO's brand — a project that expands beyond the traditional modality of creating a static style kit. DAOs turn branding from single player to multi-player mode.

Kevin Owocki is the founder of Gitcoin. Earlier this year, Gitcoin transitioned from the original company structure to a DAO, and Kevin exited from his leadership role to cede full governance over to the token holders. In this episode, Kevin and Jess talk through the road that led him there and the many challenges and opportunities of decentralization that he — and Gitcoin — learned along the way, and how blockchain uniquely enables the transition from centralized company to fully decentralized organization.

Dan Romero is the co-founder of Farcaster, the decentralized social network that many in crypto are turning to as a Twitter alternative. Jess and Dan explore what it means to be a decentralized social network in 2022, the critical differences between stewarding an open protocol and a client, the transition from users to customers, and how to build for revealed preference vs. stated preference.

Nouns DAOs are having a moment in the spotlight, with Jacob Horne —founder of Zora — as one of the more prominent evangelists. In this conversation, Jess and Jacob discuss a core question: Why are ERC721 tokens (NFTs) a more compelling form of ownership than ERC20s? They explore the connection between Nouns DAOs and hyperstructures, and a compelling take that forkability is additive to the ecosystem as a whole. Nouns DAOs enable localized nodes of functionality, thereby increasing optionality and infinite possibilities for proliferating a community meme. Communities exist, communities want to do things together, and they need a medium to do that — the Nouns model provides the tools to do exactly that.

Justin Alanis is the founder of StoryDAO, an IP incubation hub and multi-media storytelling platform with community at the core. Justin argues for a rethinking of our NFT interactions as experiences in the stories themselves. With StoryDAO, he's hoping to create and incubate fresh stories told by emerging voices, and meaningfully empower creatives within the novel value-generation models of blockchain.

Are DAOs the logical evolution of a post-lifestyle culture? Toby Shorin is the co-founder of Other Internet, and author of the recent essay Life After Lifestyle. In this conversation, Steph (Media Steward) sits in for Jess while he's AFK. Toby and Steph explore DAOs as subcultures within a post-lifestyle zeitgeist, the evergreen moral impulse of world building, and the hubris of brands attempting to supplant meaningful community connection. In spaces without clearly defined doctrines, it's critical that we attune to the things we're dually instructing and absorbing.