So This Is My Why | Issue 28

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Hey STIMYers!

GM! (it means “Good Morning” & is a greeting that crypto-enthusiastics use all the time)

As you can probably guess, I’ve been stepping a little deeper into the Web3 Twitterverse & it really is a black hole. Just when I think I’ve got my head wrapped around something, I find another Tweet thread and even more questions pop up.

If you’re brand new to the crypto world, here are some common terms you might come across:

DYOR: Do Your Own Research
HODL: Hold On For Dear Life
NGMI: Not Gonna Make It
Shark: Someone with a lot of crypto
WAGMI: We’re All Gonna Make It

Two things I found that might interest you before we head to the main part of the newsletter:

Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit) has launched a 2-year 776 Fellowship program, that will equip 20 young leaders (aged 18-23) in the climate space with a $100,000 grant & full support of the Foundation’s network of founders, investors and partners. If interested, you can apply here.
Who Gives a Crap ( a real, Australian social enterprise) is looking for a “Chief of Puns”. If puns are your thing, head here.

STIMY Ep 76: Selling Out a 8,888 NFT Collection & Running a Web3 Business

Guest #2 of STIMY’s mini NFT series!

We kicked off with Episode 75 starring Moon aka Mumu the Stan – a young Muslim mother who shared how she got into the NFT world as an artist, because Mike Shinoda (lead singer of Linkin Park) encouraged her to do so and promised to buy her first NFT. Which he did!

Episode 76 features Nicole. She’s not an artist, but saw the huge potential for NFTs & a gap: creating a space for Asian women in the metaverse. And it looks like many agree! Because it’s 8,888 NFTs sold out & it became the #1 project ranked on OpenSea in 24 hours based on percentage increase of traded volume with over 3k+ Eth.

3:29 Getting into crypto/Bitcoin in 2013 & buying her first Chanel bag
6:48 Discovering NFTs
8:17 What is an NFT?
9:10 Not a scam?
10:30 Being told she didn’t belong in the NFT/crypto space because she was a female
12:49 How Nicole figured out the way to create and launch an NFT collection
14:43 Finding a Web3 developer (that doesn’t rug pull!)
16:42 Why NFTs?
17:57 The roadmap for 8SIAN
19:31 The launch of Genesis and Goddess collection before the main 8SIAN collection was dropped
22:24 Marketing 8SIAN & the hustle you don’t see
24:14 Launching the main collection & getting Steve Aoki as an 8SIAN NFT holder
25:09 What’s next for 8SIAN?
26:33 Why companies in Asia haven’t jumped into the NFT space yet
27:36 The plans for building Chinatown in the metaverse
29:37 Managing a 15k strong Discord community
30:59 Creating value while still generating revenue from royalties
32:56 How the 8SIAN 8% royalties are split
35:02 Why 8SIAN is setting up a legal entity
35:49 Are we in an NFT bubble?

Other places to listen to: Website, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Listen Notes

Looking for past STIMY guests? Check out:

Red Hong Yi: Artist who paints without a paintbrush. She has worked with Jackie Chan, Google, Facebook & Nespresso, was featured at the World Economic Forum & more recently on TIME Magazine’s 26 April special issue on climate change. Recently completed Malaysia’s most successful NFT collection, Memebank
MoonHMZ aka Mumu the Stan: Co-Founder of MalaysiaNFT. Mumu is a young Muslim mother/artist who first got into the NFT space because of her Stan account & sold her first NFT to Mike Shinoda (lead singer of Linkin Park)

Building a Meme Company

With Karl Mak (founder of Hepmil Media Group – SGAG, PGAG, MGAG) on how he built Southeast Asia’s largest meme startup.

Favourite Finds of the Week

Elizabeth Yin - How to Raise a Seed Round

Elizabeth Yin is a former founder, Partner at 500 Startups and General Partner at Hustle Fund who’s reviewed over 30,000 pitches.

She’s written extensively about fundraising and just released a one-page document linking to everything she’s ever written about fundraising a seed round no blogs/Twitter etc. including creating pitch decks, getting in front of investors, SAFEs, valuations and more.

VC Pretends to Invest in a Startup

I was shook to come across this article where a VC, Solid Capital, allegedly fabricated documents to show that they had invested in Heroes’ seed round.

TL;DR

1. Startup sends term sheet to VC

2. VC signs, Startup does not

3. Round cis oversubscribed but Startup doesn’t counter-sign the term sheet; VC clearly cut out

4. VC *wires £1.8M* (unsolicited & in 2 tranches) into the Startup’s bank account

5. Startup returns the money & receives *a series of wrongful allegations & threats* from the VC

6. VC *forges counter-signatures on the term sheet* & publishes a press release describing itself as an investor in the Startup

7. VC *threatens litigation*

Bored Bunny Rug Pull

Rug pulls are where NFT founders renegade on their promise & disappear with the profits.

Here, zachxbt gives a fantastic & very detailed breakdown of how the Bored Bunny NFT rug pull – which was endorsed by influencers such as DJ Khaled, Jake Paul & David Dobrik – happened.

Red flags:

randomly banning people
multiple mints within a short period
>0.4 Eth mint price
Anon (i.e. anonymous) team without a track record
Influencers promoting that don’t know much about NFTs
Low effort art

It’s still wild to me how all these things are happening.

Pitch Deck for Yuga Labs

Even if you haven’t been roaming the Twitterverse, you’ll have probably heard of Yuga Labs. The web3 company that created Bored Ape Yacht Club, recently purchased CryptoPunks & Meebits & raised $45M at a $4 billion valuation.

But have you seen its pitch deck?

Well, ask no more. Link is below.

Upcoming STIMY Guests

Lim Ee Ling: Executive Director of Global Programs, 500 Global
Mai: Founder of Curious Addys (an NFT project with links to NAS Academy)

Also, do you know anyone with an interesting/inspiring story? Or someone whose backstory you’d love to hear?

Feel free to hit me up @ sothisismywhy(at)gmail.com 😊

Until next week!

Ling Yah

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