40. Technical Poetry
Nadja Bester, Co-founder of Engage of Earn investment platform AdLunam, Inc., joins the show today! Nadja has a career in tech, journalism, and travel all rolled into one. We talk about building a platform, why crypto and Web3 projects are important, and what tools founders can use to set themselves up for success.
Episode Resources:
https://hackernoon.com/engaging-to-earn-with-adlunam-co-founder-nadja-bester
https://www.benzinga.com/fintech/22/05/27186631/women-leading-in-the-journey-toward-web3
Transcript
Welcome to the meadow woman podcast. We address the
Unknown:issues, opportunities and challenges facing women in the
Unknown:development of the metaverse the biggest revolution since the
Unknown:internet itself. Every week we bring you conversations with top
Unknown:female talent and business executives operating in the
Unknown:gaming and crypto industries. Here's your host Lindsey the
Unknown:boss POS, the meta woman podcast starts
Lindsay Poss:now. Hello, and welcome to the meta woman
Lindsay Poss:podcast part of the holodeck media Podcast Network. I'm your
Lindsay Poss:host, Lindsay the boss POS. And from struggle to success. We're
Lindsay Poss:covering it all. To our returning listeners. Thank you
Lindsay Poss:so much for supporting the show. And for all the new listeners
Lindsay Poss:out there. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you'll join us again.
Lindsay Poss:Today's guest is someone I'm really excited to introduce and
Lindsay Poss:we spent a long time going over how exactly to pronounce her
Lindsay Poss:name and her native language and I know that I'm still going to
Lindsay Poss:butcher it but that's okay. We'll do our best. Nazia Bester
Lindsay Poss:is the co founder of ad Luna and has an illustrious background as
Lindsay Poss:a marketing executive, cmo agency, Director, journalist and
Lindsay Poss:traveler. She's joining us today from Istanbul Turkey, which is a
Lindsay Poss:place I've always wanted to visit my secret favorite, or my
Lindsay Poss:secret, kind of number one travel dream is to go to the
Lindsay Poss:balloon festival in Cappadocia, Turkey. So Nadia, if you've been
Lindsay Poss:please tell me and welcome to the show, please introduce
Lindsay Poss:yourself, give the audience a bit of your backstory. And tell
Lindsay Poss:me if you've ever been to the hot air balloon festival and
Lindsay Poss:capital Jaya.
Unknown:Hey, Lindsey, very good to be on. Sorry, I
Unknown:unfortunately, I haven't been I got to Turkey, just the summer
Unknown:was starting. And so I tried to stay indoors as much as
Unknown:possible. So I've only really explored the Istanbul in the
Unknown:area surrounding it, but absolutely has to be on your
Unknown:travelers. It's one of those cities that just blew me away. I
Unknown:didn't know what to expect, but it superseded my expectations in
Unknown:so many different ways. And as for the way that you pronounce
Unknown:my name, I think it's very, very close to how I would say it. So
Unknown:fantastic job. And then lastly, I'm actually no longer in
Unknown:Istanbul, I am in Kosovo, in the Balkans in Europe. So very
Unknown:interesting place for very different reasons. But a great
Unknown:experience all
Lindsay Poss:the same. You're living out my my travel bucket
Lindsay Poss:list.
Unknown:I mean, it's a difficult job, but someone has
Unknown:to do it. So you will asking a little bit about me and my
Unknown:background. Origin Stories are one of my favorite things as
Unknown:well. Because I think there's so many different points of entry
Unknown:into anything, you know, probably as many as they will
Unknown:fingerprints in the world. So I would say if I have to really
Unknown:kind of look over the journey that I've taken to get to where
Unknown:I am today, a lot of it was quite serendipitous. So I got
Unknown:started originally studied psychology started in
Unknown:therapeutic field and went into marketing very much by chance,
Unknown:my son, he's an unschoolers, or you know, he doesn't go through
Unknown:traditional go through traditional schooling. And at
Unknown:those in those days, there was this community spread out across
Unknown:the world, people who practice alternative education, but we're
Unknown:not connected, because the internet itself was you know,
Unknown:really in its infancy in the sense that people didn't use the
Unknown:internet the way they do today. And so I started learning how to
Unknown:create websites. So I could create this community to connect
Unknown:all of these different people in different geographic locations.
Unknown:And, as a result, learned a lot about marketing. And before I
Unknown:knew it, I was working in the industry and had started my own
Unknown:agency. From that point on, you know, this sense of serendipity
Unknown:really just continued. At some point, I was leading digital
Unknown:marketing, and this was back in 2015. So digital was this
Unknown:freshly minted adjective. I mean, today, we don't use the
Unknown:word digital. It's all just marketing. So I was working for
Unknown:the head office of a multibillion dollar pharma
Unknown:company, which probably the least fun industry in the world
Unknown:to full digital marketing. And, you know, after a few years of
Unknown:constant international travel, high stress, I was supporting
Unknown:over 60 different country offices. So work was 24 7365. I
Unknown:woke up one day and I decided, Okay, that's it. I've had
Unknown:enough. So I plan to hand in my resignation a few months down
Unknown:the line. But on an almost daily basis, I woke up and I would
Unknown:say, You know what, I'm going to decrease this period by one
Unknown:month. And so they weren't that many months before. Long before
Unknown:I knew it. I'd done it. My resignation was in and my son
Unknown:and I he was 10. At the time we were on a plane to a tropical
Unknown:island, and I had no plans Other than the intention that I would
Unknown:stop working so damn much and just relax. Now, what I didn't
Unknown:anticipate is your as a workaholic, I had no idea how to
Unknown:relax. So I couldn't actually achieve this objective. I very
Unknown:quickly got into environmental marketing consultancy. And I
Unknown:worked on a range of different projects, including, funnily
Unknown:enough the island that we had stayed on. But the seed I think
Unknown:had been planted, that I really wanted my life to take a
Unknown:different turn. Yeah, fast forward a few months, I was
Unknown:sitting in a villa, right next to a rice paddy, central Vietnam
Unknown:that we were renting at the time. And I was still in this
Unknown:process of, you know, learning to take in the stillness of the
Unknown:moment. But old habits die hard. And I was still at the same time
Unknown:longing for what's next. And you know, what can I kind of what
Unknown:can I kind of dig my teeth into sink my teeth into a funny story
Unknown:in the sense that it really wasn't something I was planning.
Unknown:But a friend tagged me in a post on Facebook in a group. And this
Unknown:post was looking for journalists. So I had loved
Unknown:being a journalist for my high school paper. And when I was a
Unknown:teenager, I used to win, you know, many writing awards and
Unknown:things. But I never seriously considered making a career. So
Unknown:when I saw this person, you know, my name was there. And I
Unknown:was like, Okay, this is a sign, I'm going to go for it. I'm
Unknown:going to, you know, live this other life that I that I was
Unknown:never going to choose for myself. Sorry, it wasn't at all,
Unknown:I think a very serious thing. For me, it was like, Oh, this is
Unknown:the next thing that's going to come up. And it's also I guess,
Unknown:the way that I live my life in general. So this this job
Unknown:opening was with a newly launched crypto publication. So
Unknown:I very quickly became hit news editor, post that I went on to
Unknown:write for other publications like investing.com bitcoin.com,
Unknown:B and crypto, etc. And yeah, history tends to repeat itself.
Unknown:Because before long, I found myself again, with a
Unknown:communications agency that I had started, I worked as a CMR. And
Unknown:you know, leading up from there, now, I'm the co founder of at
Unknown:Luna. So yeah, roundabout way to get into the industry. But if I
Unknown:look back, I really see kind of the trajectory and how it led me
Unknown:there. That is
Lindsay Poss:quite the origin story. And I love that it's all
Lindsay Poss:tied up in travel and journalism and all kinds of other things.
Lindsay Poss:Can you tell me how, as someone with less technical background,
Lindsay Poss:how you've been able to fit in into kind of the crypto tech web
Lindsay Poss:marketing world, and how you've been able to transition from
Lindsay Poss:someone who may have done more, you know, writing and traveling
Lindsay Poss:and kind of creative pursuits into a role that requires kind
Lindsay Poss:of quite a bit of maybe technical knowledge, but not
Lindsay Poss:technical application, or just what it's like, I myself and
Lindsay Poss:also a non technical person, I do not have a software
Lindsay Poss:engineering background by any means. So I'm always curious as
Lindsay Poss:to how other people kind of handle that and the roles that
Lindsay Poss:they wind up in,
Unknown:I first encountered Bitcoin back in 2012, which is a
Unknown:lifetime go. And I was at the time setting up a digital
Unknown:marketing agency. So this was really early in this digital
Unknown:slash Internet revolution, you know, in terms of mass adoption,
Unknown:you know, so compared to the average person, at that time, I
Unknown:felt that I was, let's say, not technically able, in terms of
Unknown:skills, but I had a more technical understanding,
Unknown:perhaps, of, you know, something as simple as HTML. When I
Unknown:encountered Bitcoin, it seemed like absolute rocket science,
Unknown:not only the technology, and of course, the technology really
Unknown:appeared to be central to understanding anything about it.
Unknown:But in general, it was just so above my mental paygrade, that I
Unknown:told myself really, that I would revisit this whole concept, you
Unknown:know, if it became bigger, and had become idiot proof, fast
Unknown:forward to 2017, it reappeared on my radar. And this is with,
Unknown:you know, this opportunity that I got as a journalist that
Unknown:technology had, like, already expanded into this newly born
Unknown:business sector. So there was this whole array of professional
Unknown:services that go with it for me, because my entry point came
Unknown:through journalism. I had the opportunity on a daily basis to
Unknown:school myself about all these various aspects. So I quickly
Unknown:became, let's say, a Joel of all awareness, not necessarily of
Unknown:trades, but I had this bird's eye perspective of the industry
Unknown:as a whole. So it was easier for me, I think, to grasp that I
Unknown:didn't have to know everything. And in fact, no one And does,
Unknown:because I think there's this belief in not only crypto but in
Unknown:general, when it's a technical industry that you have to
Unknown:understand things inside and out. And while of course, that's
Unknown:a huge strength, it's really not necessarily and not not
Unknown:necessary, not required. So in the web three space or in
Unknown:crypto, I mean, I don't have to train as a solidity developer in
Unknown:order to legitimately create a valuable place for myself. So I
Unknown:would say, you know, for me, personally, if I look over my
Unknown:own journey, I had already had a career as an agency director,
Unknown:you know, marketing, executive consultant, and all of those
Unknown:things found their place in krypter. So I was back to
Unknown:business as usual before long, but just you know, in a
Unknown:different industry. The difference was that in this new
Unknown:industry, they were possibilities to rise up to
Unknown:almost I don't want to say break through the, the glass ceiling,
Unknown:because for sure, there is a glass ceiling everywhere. But
Unknown:the glass ceiling in this industry probably is higher than
Unknown:it is in others. And so I've never really felt personally
Unknown:speaking, that my lack of technical expertise has held me
Unknown:back because there are so many other aspects to being in this
Unknown:industry that doesn't require technical knowledge. I mean, if
Unknown:I look, for example, to add Luna, we are three co founders,
Unknown:Jason Fernandez and I, we used to work on a different project
Unknown:together a couple years ago, and we stayed friends. And then
Unknown:Lawrence Hudson, who is also our CTO, he joined us shortly as
Unknown:well. And between the three of us, I think we bring to the
Unknown:table, so many different, like a huge, wide variety of
Unknown:experiences and skill sets, many of which probably most of which
Unknown:we acquired before coming into this industry, the reality is
Unknown:that I am by far the least technical between the three of
Unknown:us, while at the same time, the value that I add to the company
Unknown:is instrumental to its existence. So I think you know,
Unknown:that's really important is owning who you are. And not
Unknown:everyone is technical, and we don't all have to be technical.
Unknown:So own who you are. And at the same time, you know, stay fluid
Unknown:and flexible, because you still want to grow into whatever it is
Unknown:that you wish to be. But not feeling like what you are now is
Unknown:inadequate, because you'll only be good enough, if you have,
Unknown:let's say technical skills,
Lindsay Poss:that makes total sense to me. And again, as
Lindsay Poss:someone who is non technical, I very much appreciate that
Lindsay Poss:answer. This is a question. I've kind of asked folks in the
Lindsay Poss:gaming industry. But can Are there any gaps that you
Lindsay Poss:currently see in the web three industry, we'll get more into
Lindsay Poss:what aluminum is and what it does. But you've been working in
Lindsay Poss:web three and working in crypto, and there is a dearth of, of
Lindsay Poss:creative and bright software engineers and electrical
Lindsay Poss:engineers, computer engineers who are working on these massive
Lindsay Poss:projects, right. But is there a gap in in these non technical
Lindsay Poss:positions that you're seeing? Like, are you seeing companies
Lindsay Poss:that have a brilliant product with very poor marketing or a
Lindsay Poss:brilliant product that they can't bring to launch? Because
Lindsay Poss:there's bad project management or not even bad, but you get
Lindsay Poss:what I'm saying? Basically, are there any kind of overall gaps
Lindsay Poss:that maybe people who are non technical looking to get into
Lindsay Poss:crypto should think about learning the skills for or
Lindsay Poss:bolstering their skills for to actually enter the industry?
Unknown:Yeah, that's a really fantastic question. And I think
Unknown:it's such an important question, because you look to this
Unknown:industry as it has everything it needs. Its you know, like the
Unknown:cool kid in class who you might sit there at the boring desk,
Unknown:but listening to the boring teacher and the boring
Unknown:classroom. But you know, that this kid, as soon as they leave
Unknown:school, their life is just going to be Technicolor. Where's
Unknown:yours? I don't know, whatever the opposite is. So on the
Unknown:surface, it seems like crypto has everything that it needs.
Unknown:And it's, you know, like speeding through space at rocket
Unknown:speed. But in reality, what is needed are the non technical
Unknown:skills. And this, I would say is probably one of the things that
Unknown:hinders progress, in terms of building sustainable companies,
Unknown:what hinders it the most, because, you know, in any
Unknown:startup in any industry, you have different people playing
Unknown:different roles. You have founders who bring the vision
Unknown:and the strategy, and you have different departments and
Unknown:different employees who execute on that vision and that
Unknown:strategy. A startup is like a well oiled machine. And it's,
Unknown:it's a bit of a catch 22 Because in business in general, and
Unknown:especially in this space that seem to move at triple the speed
Unknown:as other industries. It's very difficult when There are dynamic
Unknown:processes at play, macro and micro economic and political
Unknown:environments that are out of your control. So it's very
Unknown:difficult in general, to run a business as a well oiled
Unknown:machine, when there's so many things that can go wrong, it
Unknown:almost makes me think of, you know, if you look at the rate of
Unknown:car accidents that people across the world are involved in, on an
Unknown:annual basis, it's amazing that we are still getting into moving
Unknown:vehicles. So in the same sense, as a business, we know the
Unknown:statistics, we know that the likelihood that any business is
Unknown:going to succeed is really very slim. Now in crypto, the
Unknown:lifecycle, unfortunately, is very often so short, in the
Unknown:sense that the company gets an idea raises funds, maybe build
Unknown:the product, maybe not. And before long, you'll never hear
Unknown:from them again. Now, in some ways, that is definitely because
Unknown:they are, you know, people with ill intent in this industry. And
Unknown:they use these opportunities as ways to hit and run, make as
Unknown:much cash as I can in the shortest amount of time and then
Unknown:disappear, you know, into oblivion. But I think in most
Unknown:cases, and I speak really from experience, having consulted
Unknown:with, I don't know, hundreds of companies over my career, most
Unknown:times, this is really more from a place of not knowing how to
Unknown:run a business. And so if you look at the roles that are
Unknown:needed, in order to make a business successful, this
Unknown:doesn't require technical expertise only right, I can have
Unknown:a fantastic product. But if I don't know how to sell, and I
Unknown:don't know how to project manage, and I don't know, I
Unknown:don't know how to run the office, or my HR isn't good,
Unknown:then that great product is going to mean nothing. So ultimately,
Unknown:I would say that, you know, not even a concept of what are the
Unknown:gaps. But to think about crypto as being any different than any
Unknown:other industry where it takes, you know, this whole concept or
Unknown:concept of it takes a village to raise a child. But in crypto in
Unknown:web three, in general, it takes an entire world to build an
Unknown:industry. And I genuinely believe that a there is space
Unknown:for everybody, no matter what your skill set is, of course,
Unknown:upgrade as much as possible, so that you continue to skill up to
Unknown:make yourself valuable, but everyone has value because there
Unknown:are there's so much that needs to be done. And second, you
Unknown:know, the industry as a whole, which is really, really new.
Unknown:It's only being built out by the contributions of people who are
Unknown:in this industry. So if you are not a crypto native, and you are
Unknown:coming into the space, you don't have technical skills, but for
Unknown:example, you have fantastic project management skills, you
Unknown:are going to translate a vision into an actual process that is
Unknown:going to be executable and is going to be you know, manageable
Unknown:and accountable. And so completely, this should not be
Unknown:disregarded. No matter what it is that you bring to the table,
Unknown:it is going to be not only valuable, but extremely
Unknown:appreciated. I mean, I have worked with so many different
Unknown:companies in the space where the technical skills are not only
Unknown:there, I mean, it's impressive, like you speak to, you know,
Unknown:some of these founders, and it's like, Oh, my God, it's, it's
Unknown:like technical poetry listening to them, you might not
Unknown:understand exactly what they mean. But I mean, they really
Unknown:talk the talk. But then the simplest of things in terms of
Unknown:management and execution is absent. And this is really where
Unknown:those technical folks come in, because the foundation needs to
Unknown:be there. So we can but we cannot build without foundation,
Unknown:because then it becomes you know, like castles in the sky.
Unknown:And unfortunately, this very often is what happens with the
Unknown:best of intentions. But there is zero reason to discount oneself
Unknown:because you are not technical because in some ways, you know,
Unknown:you might not be technical and you might not feel that you have
Unknown:the same level of value. But I promise you to a technical
Unknown:person who doesn't have the skills that you do what you
Unknown:offer is incredibly valuable. So I think that really is the
Unknown:number one thing to keep in mind is there is space for everyone.
Lindsay Poss:I love the term technical poetry. I'm taking
Lindsay Poss:note of that because I think that's a very succinct way of
Lindsay Poss:describing a lot of what we hear from from people who are
Lindsay Poss:actually on that design backing back end engineering portion.
Lindsay Poss:very succinct way of describing it and Now that we've kind of
Lindsay Poss:talked about the industry itself, I want to learn more
Lindsay Poss:about aluminum. And I want to start with ideas and just walk
Lindsay Poss:through what an ideal is why web three companies should engage in
Lindsay Poss:the ideal process and what ad loon him kind of offers as a
Lindsay Poss:launchpad. So we've talked all about what it's like to be in
Lindsay Poss:crypto and web three. So now tell me what you actually what
Lindsay Poss:you're actually working on the company, you've founded what it
Lindsay Poss:does,
Unknown:so I'm going to stay true to the spirit of saying
Unknown:that you don't have to be technical to get in to the
Unknown:industry and say, as a disclaimer, you know, there's a
Unknown:lot of terminology and that terminology is intimidating. So
Unknown:I'm going to try and answer this question in as much of a plain
Unknown:speak way as possible without referring, you know, almost
Unknown:leaning in to these different acronyms that, you know, people
Unknown:might or might not understand or have heard or might not have.
Unknown:But
Lindsay Poss:I love that just as an aside, it's like the
Lindsay Poss:explain it like I'm five method.
Unknown:Exactly. And I mean, that's the way that people that
Unknown:people, even myself, I mean, I would love for, okay, maybe I
Unknown:don't like mansplaining, so much, so maybe I wouldn't want
Unknown:everyone to explain it to me, like on five. But I mean, in
Unknown:general, if, you know, it's this whole idea that if you cannot
Unknown:explain it to a five year old, then maybe you don't understand
Unknown:it yourself. And on the flip side, if you can understand it,
Unknown:like a five year old, it would become easier to understand it,
Unknown:you know, from you, as you go higher up, let's say knowledge
Unknown:hierarchy, in simple terms, when a startup raises funds, now, in
Unknown:web three, this would be a startup that's launching a new
Unknown:token, they are different funding rocks, starting with
Unknown:seed, and private. And potentially this is now in the
Unknown:traditional space, potentially culminating in a in a public
Unknown:sale. So in traditional finance, you know, public sale, of
Unknown:course, means the company is going public, there is an IPO
Unknown:and they are going to be listed on a stock exchange. In crypto,
Unknown:it's a little bit different. A public sale is almost a given
Unknown:and post that public sale, this is now what's referred to as an
Unknown:IPO, or an initial Dex offering, but really, you know, don't
Unknown:worry too much about what the term means at this point. So
Unknown:after this public sale, the token gets listed either on a
Unknown:centralized exchange on a decentralized exchange or both.
Unknown:And this, of course, allows you to buy the token, sell it or
Unknown:utilize it on whatever platform that it is native to
Unknown:historically, before it was called an IPO. It was an Ico so
Unknown:that was an initial coin Offering projects would raise
Unknown:huge amounts, specifically from the public. Yeah, that left a
Unknown:lot of room for a lot of scams, because it was very easy to get
Unknown:a retail investors to invest into your project, especially if
Unknown:you know the amount that they invested didn't have to be that
Unknown:much. But at scale, you had like all of these people ultimately
Unknown:giving you millions. And it was really easy to just kind of run
Unknown:away, which is what a lot of projects did. But so things have
Unknown:evolved in the sense since of course, so nowadays, I think the
Unknown:public sell is more likely to be the smallest funding round, you
Unknown:can think of something as little as $400,000, as opposed to the
Unknown:235 million that it was in the in the earlier days. What this
Unknown:means the indication for retail investors is now the opportunity
Unknown:to invest in an IVR is much smaller than it was before. So
Unknown:competition, of course is fierce to the extent and I always find
Unknown:this so funny. But at the same time, it's really indicative of
Unknown:this industry as a whole. People become influencers really on
Unknown:YouTube and Twitter, simply so that they can be guaranteed
Unknown:allocation. So and maybe just to add here, so allocation stands
Unknown:for the ability and the amount that you are able to invest in a
Unknown:fundraising round. In light of all of this a launch pad. This
Unknown:is now what aluminum is as well. The word launch pad, I would say
Unknown:is crypto speak for an investment platform. So launch
Unknown:pads perform many of the same services as a venture capitalist
Unknown:firm, including doing due diligence on projects before
Unknown:they are listed for public or private sales. So the difference
Unknown:between a VC and a launchpad is a launchpad connects projects
Unknown:with retail investors and it's the retail investors that invest
Unknown:in this project as opposed to launch pads can also invest from
Unknown:you know from their position as a launch pad, but their job is
Unknown:to connect projects to retail investors. So because of this
Unknown:come competitive, highly competitive nature of IPOs.
Unknown:Because the amount raised is smaller than the amount of
Unknown:people wanting to invest in this fundraising rounds. launchpads
Unknown:use a few different mechanisms to distribute allocation. So one
Unknown:is guaranteed allocation via staking. Staking refers to
Unknown:locking your LaunchPad tokens, so you can't use them during
Unknown:that time that they are locked. And some of the most popular
Unknown:launch pads guaranteed allocation via staking can be
Unknown:priced as high as $25,000. Or even more. So it's really not
Unknown:very accessible to the average retail investor who simply
Unknown:doesn't have 25k lying around. Now, the alternative is
Unknown:mechanisms like lotteries, and auctions. So these as opposed to
Unknown:the guaranteed allocation, these rely purely on the randomness
Unknown:factor. And they are often touted as a fair distribution
Unknown:model. But in truth, I mean, neither project nor retail
Unknown:investor benefits truly benefits from this arrangement, if you
Unknown:are familiar with pumping dumps. So this is where an investor,
Unknown:this is when an investor will really hype up token, only when
Unknown:the price goes really high at the public, you know, during the
Unknown:public round and beyond, they will sell off the tokens as soon
Unknown:as they can to make a profit. So they will dump the tokens back
Unknown:on on the open market. And of course, for the project, this is
Unknown:going to be devastating. And on the other hand, you have retail
Unknown:investors who are truly valuable to a project's long term growth,
Unknown:but there's no way of identifying who these people are
Unknown:and ensuring that okay, you can actually reward them
Unknown:specifically. So this is really the idea the core behind it,
Unknown:Luna, we wanted to democratize crypto investment. This is the
Unknown:objective that we set ourselves, you know, and for us, I mean,
Unknown:all three of us are founders, we've been in the industry for
Unknown:years, we've seen many things, some of which were great, some
Unknown:of which were, you know, things we'd rather forget. And so for
Unknown:us who and we are very committed to being in this industry long
Unknown:term. So I think this is what happens is you come into the
Unknown:industry, and you know, you're blinded by all the bright shiny
Unknown:objects and, or the hype and the opportunities, and there's so
Unknown:much happening, and it's so amazing. And the ethos, I mean,
Unknown:you know, this idea that radical freedom and empowerment for all
Unknown:people, and it's just all wonderful utopia. But then at
Unknown:some point, you realize, okay, the reality is actually very
Unknown:different. It is an industry, like any other industry, and
Unknown:you, you know, you bring people to a new industry, but they come
Unknown:with their own legacy ideas and legacy behaviors and beliefs. So
Unknown:really, what we wanted to do is we wanted to democratize krypter
Unknown:investments specifically. And how we've done that is we
Unknown:created a model a business model called engaged to earn, I'll go
Unknown:a little bit in a while into exactly what that is, but
Unknown:important that it's powered by an allocation mechanism called
Unknown:Proof of attention. Now, this is very, very significant. And this
Unknown:is definitely what I'll go into in a little bit more detail. You
Unknown:know, in general, our model is designed to make crypto
Unknown:investments accessible to all income levels, because you have
Unknown:the situation of Wales kind of coming in and gobbling up all of
Unknown:the available allocation opportunities. And people have
Unknown:to pay these really high sort of staking fees and or you know,
Unknown:the staking in order to do ensure allocation. And for the
Unknown:average person who doesn't have a lot of money to invest in the
Unknown:first place. It's almost as though the door is being shut in
Unknown:your face and you are being left in the dark. And in the cold,
Unknown:like the legacy financial industry also does. So the whole
Unknown:idea behind crypto I mean, at least the philosophical idea
Unknown:behind it is to democratize access to finance and, you know,
Unknown:a step further access to investment but the reality is
Unknown:that they still this lack of access, that's being perpetuated
Unknown:because we are bringing these legacy thinking patterns into
Unknown:this new industry. So, you know, in a nutshell, that's really the
Unknown:value driven aspect of aluminum is to make sure that everyone
Unknown:has equal access to crypto investment.
Lindsay Poss:That was a really great summary and you've led me
Lindsay Poss:perfectly into some of my next questions which mostly have to
Lindsay Poss:deal with some of the issues that we are seeing. So I
Lindsay Poss:definitely first want to get into the proof of attention
Lindsay Poss:model and kind of How you are able to protect customers from
Lindsay Poss:crypto scams? I do feel like there's a little bit of a, I
Lindsay Poss:don't I don't know exactly what the word is, but there's
Lindsay Poss:definitely an imbalance, at least in the news cycle of good
Lindsay Poss:crypto projects versus bad crypto projects. And the bad
Lindsay Poss:ones are just getting all the news. So I asked this question
Lindsay Poss:with the caveat that I, I and you and hopefully our audience
Lindsay Poss:all know that there's tons of really, really cool stuff
Lindsay Poss:happening in crypto that is totally worth investing in. But
Lindsay Poss:that unfortunately, people with very bad intentions often get a
Lindsay Poss:lot of money as well. And we're still a little bit in that wild
Lindsay Poss:west phase. So what are you doing? And how does the proof of
Lindsay Poss:attention model work to protect customers from or retail
Lindsay Poss:investors, I should say, from some of the less savory projects
Lindsay Poss:that are happening.
Unknown:So I am very excited to hear you talk about all the
Unknown:problems in crypto because I can go on at length about this
Unknown:topic. But to first answer your question about proof of
Unknown:attention. And I think even more specifically, to begin with the
Unknown:responsibility and the onus that rests on the shoulders of a
Unknown:launchpad in order to protect investors, I have this analogy
Unknown:that I used when I did an interview with hacker noon,
Unknown:about the mangrove, you know, the estuary, where before a
Unknown:project is ready to go out into the open sea, the big wide
Unknown:ocean, where there's sharks and weird fish with, you know, scary
Unknown:teeth, and all of those things that's out there to ready
Unknown:yourself in, you know, this sort of nursery environment, which is
Unknown:what a mangrove is in, in ecology. And I see the role of a
Unknown:launchpad as really being that nanny in the nursery. So
Unknown:projects have a lot on their shoulders, there's so much
Unknown:happening in terms of setting up a new company, and building
Unknown:product and building community and launching and running this
Unknown:thing, and, you know, weathering all the storms that come with
Unknown:it. So the role of a launchpad for a project is really to offer
Unknown:a lot of support that is genuinely helpful.
Unknown:Unfortunately, because of the nature of, well, again, humanity
Unknown:launchpads have become a dime a dozen. And a lot of times, the
Unknown:only role really is to conduct the sale, but there's no further
Unknown:support. And, you know, they even require, for instance, that
Unknown:a new project that has no community come with a very large
Unknown:significantly numbered community, otherwise they will
Unknown:not accept them. So this you can imagine perpetuates this trend
Unknown:that we have of building vanity numbers on social media without
Unknown:any substance behind them. I would say that for projects, you
Unknown:know, a launchpad has a very, almost a sacred responsibility
Unknown:to support these founders in making their vision a reality.
Unknown:But even more so in terms of investors, retail investors, you
Unknown:know, I speak to a lot of people, people who are in crypto
Unknown:people who are not in crypto people who have dabbled in it.
Unknown:And it's ironic, it doesn't matter which group it is, it
Unknown:could be any one of those three, even people who work in crypto,
Unknown:one of the top things that I hear over and over again, is
Unknown:man, this is all so much to take in. So you know, there's so much
Unknown:information out there, you don't know where to turn, you don't
Unknown:know who to turn to you don't know who to trust. And so if you
Unknown:put yourself in the shoes of a retail investor, you are parting
Unknown:with hard earned money. And you really want to make sure that
Unknown:this company that you invest in a is not a scam and of course be
Unknown:you know, you can't guarantee the kind of gains you'll make
Unknown:but you don't want to invest in let's say a losing project but
Unknown:particularly in terms of scams. We've seen over the years, on
Unknown:the one hand, how sophisticated scams can be but on the other
Unknown:hand, how easy it actually is to spot them due diligence is
Unknown:something that is so incredibly important. But if you look at
Unknown:the type of scams that have taken place and how they fooled
Unknown:even some of the top VCs, you know I sometimes cannot believe
Unknown:that these things take place but at the same time I know that the
Unknown:cycle is so fast moving maybe not now in the crypto winter but
Unknown:in general you know this it's a it's a case of you snooze, you
Unknown:lose. So if you get an opportunity you know the
Unknown:dopamine sets in and you have to say now, yes or you have to
Unknown:snooze and lose and you know, bad luck to you. So the
Unknown:responsibility of a launchpad then to retail investors is to
Unknown:really make sure that there's due diligence that takes place
Unknown:is done well, diligently, because retail investors don't
Unknown:have the time capacity, and sometimes the technical
Unknown:expertise in terms of what to look for how to make sure that
Unknown:something is really legit, versus it only seems legit. So,
Unknown:you know, just to answer your question in terms of what role a
Unknown:launch pad can play, to safeguard investors. But so
Unknown:specifically in terms of the proof of attention model that we
Unknown:have. So other launch pads, take this pop up store approach, the
Unknown:community comes together for a specific idea or the specific
Unknown:public sale, and then they disband again, until the next
Unknown:time when you know, there's another sale. So we, on the
Unknown:other hand, really believe that a community should be
Unknown:permanently engaged. But this comes with a caveat because
Unknown:first of all, why does a community have to be engaged on
Unknown:a permanent basis, it demonstrates to projects that
Unknown:investors have a certain value that's not just monetary,
Unknown:because money in crypto is really easy to come by. So
Unknown:there's always someone who you know, willing to give you and
Unknown:not just willing, but there's always some someone begging you
Unknown:to take their money, in fact, so money is not the issue. But what
Unknown:other what other value can an investor bring to a project. So
Unknown:when you are engaged, and when this kind of engagement that you
Unknown:are engaged in is demonstratable and visible to a project, they
Unknown:are much more likely to want you to invest in them. The funny
Unknown:thing about all of this, the ironic thing is that investors
Unknown:are already engaging on a daily basis, or on a weekly basis,
Unknown:because as I said, it's a lot to make sense of, and people need
Unknown:to stay up to date with what's happening. They need to, you
Unknown:know, wrap their head around all these different things that are
Unknown:happening, all the different concepts, technologies, new
Unknown:companies, updates, developments. So they are
Unknown:already taking these daily engagement actions, but on a web
Unknown:to platform, whether it's Twitter, or Reddit, I don't know
Unknown:discord, Telegram, etc. What we have done with the proof of
Unknown:attention allocation mechanism is we've really gone the
Unknown:gamified approach way. So there are regular interactions on our
Unknown:platform, that will give you points, badges ranks, so the
Unknown:engagement that you put in and that you've already been putting
Unknown:in because this is what's needed, if you want to, you
Unknown:know, stay abreast with whatever's happening, these
Unknown:actions, these engagements lead to some kind of reward. And so
Unknown:what this reward is beyond the points and the badges and the
Unknown:ranks, etc, you have a dynamic investor profile. And this is
Unknown:powered by dynamic NFT. So the technology really is dynamic.
Unknown:And this acts almost as your passport across the whole Atlona
Unknown:ecosystem. So what does passport control mean in the sense, so
Unknown:when a project wants to list, whether it's the public sale, or
Unknown:whether it's the private sale on at Luna, they have access to our
Unknown:leaderboards, the data analytics that we gather all of these
Unknown:things, the analytics, we have the leaderboards, it all
Unknown:demonstrates, which investors are the most actively engaged,
Unknown:what a project can then do is they can look at these active
Unknown:investors. And instead of using these lotteries, or auctions as
Unknown:a distribution mechanism, instead, they can specifically
Unknown:offer their location to investors of their choice. Now,
Unknown:this is significant because this happens in the private round. If
Unknown:an institutional investor wants to invest in you, you know,
Unknown:maybe this is not so typical in other industries. But in crypto,
Unknown:there are more VCs wanting to invest than there are projects
Unknown:offering investment. So a project can very, very easily
Unknown:and does say no to certain VCs, because they don't feel like
Unknown:this VC is going to add as much value. There's even been
Unknown:projects where they've raised funds from VCs, VCs made certain
Unknown:promises. And when they didn't deliver on these promises, these
Unknown:projects would pay back their money they would refund them. So
Unknown:value driven contributions are extremely important. But this
Unknown:has not happened at the retail level, which is why at Unum is
Unknown:really focused on instead of everything being random. We
Unknown:believe that due diligence on one end should be extended to
Unknown:the retail investor. But on the other hand, that investors
Unknown:should be rewarded for the actions that they take. You
Unknown:know, I find it so funny that especially in the web three
Unknown:space, we always hear the beause that community is everything,
Unknown:you know, community is all there is. And without community, we
Unknown:have nothing. But if you look at the type of engagement that is
Unknown:happening, even in web three, it's so one sided, and there's
Unknown:no recognition. So we are still, you know, fostering that whip to
Unknown:era mentality where the community needs to give to the
Unknown:business to the company to the project, by showing up by giving
Unknown:them attention. And as a result, well, what do they get back?
Unknown:Nothing, they just part of the community and the community is
Unknown:so important. So I think in this attention economy that we live,
Unknown:in, which I mean, we all know, it's incredibly demanding. Yeah,
Unknown:as a company, you cannot afford to take people's attention for
Unknown:granted. Because if you do, it's the same as a relationship, they
Unknown:will get sick of it, and they will go elsewhere to where they
Unknown:are appreciated. So you're in a nutshell, and maybe that was not
Unknown:such a small nutshell, this is what proof of attention is all
Unknown:about.
Lindsay Poss:I'm so sad that we're actually at the end of
Lindsay Poss:this interview. Because this has been so fascinating for me to
Lindsay Poss:learn. Kind of glad that we started off by talking about you
Lindsay Poss:and your history, because we got into such a discussion on how
Lindsay Poss:algorithm works. And kind of the methods behind it that I want to
Lindsay Poss:I'm glad I got to know you first before we jumped into that,
Lindsay Poss:because I can ask a bunch of questions and more about this.
Lindsay Poss:I'm just going to quickly summarize our discussion. And
Lindsay Poss:then we'll move into the very last section of the podcast. So
Lindsay Poss:we started off by talking about you and talking about the
Lindsay Poss:differences between technical and non technical backgrounds.
Lindsay Poss:And what folks with non technical backgrounds can do.
Lindsay Poss:This is very near and dear to my heart. Because I am also a non
Lindsay Poss:technical person, I think one of the great pieces of advice that
Lindsay Poss:you gave is that it is important to have an understanding of kind
Lindsay Poss:of what you're getting into and, and what projects you're working
Lindsay Poss:on. But you don't need to have an in depth knowledge of exactly
Lindsay Poss:all the ins and outs of the crypto space. If you can talk
Lindsay Poss:about it, if you can understand how the pieces work and how they
Lindsay Poss:fit together, you don't necessarily need to understand
Lindsay Poss:each individual piece to its absolute depths. There are so
Lindsay Poss:many things that need to be addressed by a variety of skill
Lindsay Poss:sets and knowledge that just kind of generally understanding
Lindsay Poss:what's going on. It is enough, if you can't list the entire
Lindsay Poss:technical stack. One other thing that you said was the thing
Lindsay Poss:about crypto as the same as other industries, you need the
Lindsay Poss:business infrastructure to build the industry, you need people
Lindsay Poss:who are going to build run interact with the entire
Lindsay Poss:industry, you don't need to understand technical poetry you
Lindsay Poss:need to offer what you can offer, I wanted to bring that
Lindsay Poss:technical poetry bit back in. We talked a lot about aluminum and
Lindsay Poss:how it works. We talked about the evolution from coin
Lindsay Poss:offerings, which got a lot of attention three or four years
Lindsay Poss:ago and not usually not good attention. So that used to kind
Lindsay Poss:of be the way that the that crypto companies or projects
Lindsay Poss:would raise money from the public, there has been an
Lindsay Poss:evolution in this funding process. Public sales are
Lindsay Poss:perhaps the smallest portion of funding routes with things like
Lindsay Poss:private investors, or self investment or other things
Lindsay Poss:taking over. Thank you specifically mentioned private
Lindsay Poss:investment being big there. That means that retail opportunity,
Lindsay Poss:retail investors have fewer opportunities to invest in new
Lindsay Poss:projects. They're all kind of competing for the same projects.
Lindsay Poss:And they're often competing with people who have much deeper
Lindsay Poss:pockets. So launchpads, what they do is serve as investment
Lindsay Poss:platforms. They provide similar services as VC firms, but
Lindsay Poss:instead connect retail investors to projects. And the goal that
Lindsay Poss:you have at aluminum is to make crypto investment available to
Lindsay Poss:all income levels, then we kind of got into discussion of some
Lindsay Poss:of the issues on crypto. Again, I'm glad that we started talking
Lindsay Poss:about you because I could keep going I think for another two
Lindsay Poss:hours on this. And I think you could as well. And but we talked
Lindsay Poss:to what we ended on when we talked about a lot in the past
Lindsay Poss:20 or so minutes was the importance of engagement and of
Lindsay Poss:protecting users on the platform. So the one way of
Lindsay Poss:doing that is to build trust between people who are
Lindsay Poss:interested in investing and those who are creating projects.
Lindsay Poss:So to encourage this, what I've learned them does is build a
Lindsay Poss:community based platform that rewards engagement. So as
Lindsay Poss:investors discuss and analyze projects, they earn rewards for
Lindsay Poss:their contributions for their input on those projects. When
Lindsay Poss:companies then list they can choose to look at the
Lindsay Poss:leaderboard and see who is engaged with their work and give
Lindsay Poss:that investor the chance to invest rather than using a
Lindsay Poss:lottery model, which as you said before, given that the pool for
Lindsay Poss:retail investors is ever shrinking that lottery, you
Lindsay Poss:stand to win fewer and fewer opportunities through the
Lindsay Poss:lottery model because there's more and more competition for
Lindsay Poss:fewer and fewer projects. So what this does when you are
Lindsay Poss:actually rewarding engagement is it allows people to find
Lindsay Poss:projects that they're passionate about and allows people who are
Lindsay Poss:running those projects to connect with people who are
Lindsay Poss:passionate about seeing them succeed. So it's kind of this
Lindsay Poss:symbiotic relationship between Investors and people who are
Lindsay Poss:actually building the project, it can be a little bit more
Lindsay Poss:successful than finding VCs who are just anxious to throw their
Lindsay Poss:money into crypto may not have as much incentive to actually
Lindsay Poss:stay on or help build or help guide the project. So I think I
Lindsay Poss:covered a lot of what we talked about, I wish that we had two
Lindsay Poss:more hours to keep going. What I like to end on each podcast is
Lindsay Poss:what I call a moment of reflection. And this is just a
Lindsay Poss:chance for you to kind of look back on all the things that
Lindsay Poss:you've done. And we've talked about some of them, I'm sure
Lindsay Poss:there's many more. But I would love to ask you what is one
Lindsay Poss:thing you would like to tell your younger self about getting
Lindsay Poss:into the crypto and web three space and being successful?
Unknown:First of all, I just want to compliment you. In our
Unknown:in the therapeutic field, there's this concept of active
Unknown:listening. But I think you have demonstrated today what active
Unknown:interviewing is, because that was an incredible summary. And
Unknown:I'm almost grateful that I didn't answer any of these
Unknown:questions before we spoke, because I think there would have
Unknown:been no need for this episode, if you had only summarized it.
Unknown:That was an incredible summary, life is always so much easier in
Unknown:the rearview mirror. I would say that, you know, because I wasn't
Unknown:that young. When I got into the space, I definitely feel like
Unknown:I've done a better job of things here than I did earlier in my
Unknown:career. But of course, there are certain choices I wish I hadn't
Unknown:made. It did teach me a lot. But you know, it's an icky feeling,
Unknown:knowing that inadvertently, I have contributed to, for
Unknown:example, scammy projects who take advantage of people in the
Unknown:industry. So on the one hand, you know, I would say to my
Unknown:younger self to better vet people and projects that I work
Unknown:with not worry about passing up opportunities that doesn't sit
Unknown:well with me, even if I can't express myself why that is I
Unknown:think doing business or building a career. It's always a question
Unknown:of aligning yourself with others who share the same values. And
Unknown:in this sense, shared values means don't be a crook. So if
Unknown:you fail to be intentional about your values, I think you
Unknown:inevitably open yourself up to getting involved with you know,
Unknown:all sorts of people. But the point here is that this happens
Unknown:to the best of us. As I said, Life is always easier. In
Unknown:hindsight is 2020. If you look back, you can see, okay, this is
Unknown:you know, where I got where I went wrong and what I should
Unknown:have done. So, really, I'm going to cheat a little bit here and
Unknown:not make that my my number one advice to myself. I think I want
Unknown:to just very briefly get back into this discussion we had
Unknown:earlier about, you know, really the imposter syndrome, I guess
Unknown:about entering a space and feeling like you have no
Unknown:business being there. Because you don't know as much or you're
Unknown:not as technical or as as much an expert at something as other
Unknown:people. If I had advice for my younger self, it brings to mind
Unknown:this idea or that this chord really that I think Eleanor
Unknown:Roosevelt said, but no one can make you feel inferior without
Unknown:your consent. And of course, this is easier said than done.
Unknown:Because a if you are non technical or be I mean let's
Unknown:face it, if you're a woman, we are notorious for undervaluing
Unknown:underselling ourselves, it is difficult to, you know, kind of
Unknown:believe in yourself. And yes, we can whip out all of these
Unknown:cliches like fake it till you make it acting as if but in the
Unknown:end, you get what you think you deserve. And so really, you can
Unknown:have everything but if you don't believe in your own value and
Unknown:your own worth, then the best opportunities will come and go,
Unknown:and you won't be able to hold on to them. Because you cannot
Unknown:reconcile what you have with what you believe you're
Unknown:deserving of. So really, if I have a piece of advice for my
Unknown:younger self, it would be that everything happens in our own
Unknown:heads. So beauty is created in the head problems are created.
Unknown:They're not to discount the actual legitimate systemic
Unknown:problems on the outside. But there's so much that we are able
Unknown:to do simply when we have our own internal business, let's say
Unknown:straightened out. So you know, this inner work that you do as
Unknown:you come into an industry or as you build up your repertoire in
Unknown:an industry, like that's that core inside of yourself that you
Unknown:strengthen this thing doesn't matter if it's if you're
Unknown:technical or non technical. It really is all about learning to
Unknown:own whatever inherent worth you have. And I mean every person,
Unknown:every single person has something to offer. It really is
Unknown:just about understanding what is the particular niche that you
Unknown:fit into. And as a young person, I think I always wanted to get
Unknown:to the finishing line of oh, I needed to find that answer of
Unknown:what is my place in the world. And I needed to do it really
Unknown:quickly. If I have any piece of advice, it's there. You know,
Unknown:this will happen in due time. In the meantime, keep an open mind,
Unknown:listen to your intuition, look out for opportunities, you know,
Unknown:take it one day at a time, take it as it comes, because all will
Unknown:fall into place. I just have to take the right next step.
Lindsay Poss:I liked that because you kind of started off,
Lindsay Poss:we started off with that discussion. And you had said
Lindsay Poss:everyone has something to offer. So I think circling back on that
Lindsay Poss:is is a perfect way to end. So I would like to compliment you on
Lindsay Poss:your ability to keep a thread through a whole conversation. I
Lindsay Poss:think that's great. Nadia, thank you so much for coming on. Where
Lindsay Poss:can people find you follow you if you want to be found and
Lindsay Poss:followed?
Unknown:Yeah, that's definitely the question of the hour. I'm
Unknown:not a big social media person anymore. But for sure, the best
Unknown:would be on LinkedIn or Twitter. I also host a weekly podcast on
Unknown:the future of NF. TS, just live on Twitter spaces every Tuesday,
Unknown:or you can catch it on a podcast platform after the fact. And if
Unknown:you are interested in working in web three, I would also watch
Unknown:out for a YouTube series from add Luna that I'll be hosting,
Unknown:which deep dives into, you know translating the ins and outs of
Unknown:building a startup that's specific to web three. So in
Unknown:that sense, definitely follow at LUNA also on Twitter or@luna.cc.
Unknown:And yeah, Lindsay just absolutely want to compliment
Unknown:you. It's like a ping pong ball going around now. But this has
Unknown:been an absolute pleasure speaking to you. I want to mimic
Unknown:your sentiment that I wish we had two hours, although it feels
Unknown:like we would spend a lot of that time sort of critiquing
Unknown:what is going on. But those conversations I believe, are
Unknown:really important in order to highlight what's problematic. So
Unknown:we can also talk about what the solutions are and how to build
Unknown:them together. But in general, absolutely. Enjoyed this time
Unknown:with you so much. Yeah, it's been a pleasure.
Lindsay Poss:Yes, I totally agree. I also I was just able to
Lindsay Poss:find you on Twitter. So for all the followers out there, it's
Lindsay Poss:Nadia and a DJ A and then Buster, which is exactly how it
Lindsay Poss:sounds. For all the listeners, be sure to leave those five star
Lindsay Poss:ratings and reviews. I do see them and it makes me happy every
Lindsay Poss:time. Check out other holodeck media podcasts, including meta
Lindsay Poss:business for all the finance stories you could ever want in
Lindsay Poss:business of esports. I'm on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn
Lindsay Poss:and Lindsey poss. You can catch me Wednesday afternoons on the
Lindsay Poss:business of esports live after show and you can catch this
Lindsay Poss:podcast and your feed every week. See you next week.
Unknown:Thanks for joining us here on meta woman. Make sure to
Unknown:subscribe to this podcast everywhere you get your
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