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Hi Cedric, how you doing?


Fine, thank you, how are you Natassja?


Yeah, good thank you, sorry I was late! We will start straight away, you have a tricky question to begin with from our last guest, and the tricky question is: Have you seen any successful Web3 companies or endeavors that could be problematic further down the line?


First of all, I want to say thank you to you for having me. 


Thank you for coming on.


No worries at all. Honestly, thinking about the question I hate to be so optimistic about Web3 but truly I don’t think I’ve seen, personally, any Web3 solutions that I would say could have a negative impact. I will say, however, that I have heard some ideas, some visions, that are, you know… But I think the things that have made it so far are beneficial, otherwise, why do they make it? Some of the solutions that could be problematic… (inaudible) …I guess could be NFT projects that are launched without the community in place, that just goes against all the promises of Web3 and the reason these artists came to the space. I don’t think there’s any big problem though that isn’t being mitigated. That would be the caveat. 


What is it you do, what is your interest in Web3?


I’m the co-founder of AfroPunk NFT with my very great friend Aino, the artist. Essentially what we do is share African culture with the world. Aino and I are both Nigerians born and raised, lived there our whole lives. Now we’re college students in Canada so oftentimes I feel like we’re the youngest in the room. But AfroPunk was born of our experiences. Telling people we’re from Nigeria and sensing some kind of pity from them. Or they think Africa, and they think poverty or lack, which was a stark difference from my reality. The reason why is, well, sadly, there is that aspect of poverty in Nigeria, as there is in other parts of the world. But there is so much more to us than that. And when someone just focuses on that one aspect, it’s kind of insulting. I feel like there are so many different aspects of our culture and experience that should be highlighted. For example, Nigerians are one of the top-performing immigrants in The States. Out of the top ten fastest-growing economies in the world, six of them are African countries. We are home to many unicorns and attracting lots of talent to Africa because of our tech sector and how we are growing technologically. So personally, I don’t understand why these parts aren’t highlighted. There are so many key figures in history that tie back to our continent, so to share that culture with the world and highlight these icons is important. But we want to show everyday life and culture in general. Entertainment, tech, and co-investment back in Africa with our [NFT] holders. It’s exciting. It’s way bigger than this PFP collection. But right now, we are going to sell out the collection. We’re looking at Randi Zuckerberg and Deb Soon’s NFT accelerator The Hug which is fantastic, we love all the members of the team, they’re just amazing. Amy, Michael, they’re phenomenal. So just being a part of that ecosystem and being recognized by them has been fantastic. I’ve been rambling, but that’s a little bit about AfroPunk and what we do.


Nice! And then, what first attracted you to NFTs or Web3 in general?


I love telling this story, it’s very interesting. I’m a commerce student, a business student. I’m in business school. And, I’m the type of person that loves people that make a difference. And people that change the world so to speak. I could tell you everything there is to know about Steve Jobs. I’ve read books and books, Mark Zuckerberg, Nike, I’ve been really enthused by these people’s stories. Always reading about them. Then obviously because of Google Ads and the algorithm, it kept showing me this kind of stuff. This one fateful day, they showed me this thing about NFTs. I don’t remember if it was one that sold for US$69m, or if it was CryptoPunks stuff, but it was a story covered by Business Insider, and I begrudgingly opened it because I was like Ugh, crypto, NFTs, I didn’t want to look into that, I was a first-year student at the time. I decided to open it and when I did, I read the article, and it got in my head. I was like, What if you could share African culture on the Blockchain? What if you could use this means to tell your story the way you want your story to be told? I thought the idea was really cool. I called my artist friend Aino, we go to the same college. And I call and I’m like Dude, we need to do this. The first thing she asked me was Why the hell would anyone pay anything for a JPEG? As you do when you first hear about NFTs. Obviously, I didn’t know the right answer to that question because I too, was a novice. But I said, Well we’re young, let’s do this and try and get in this space. And we did. And so far, it’s been a fantastic journey. There was a lot more to it obviously, I’m keeping it short, but that was how it happened. And all this since March of 2021. It’s been a while!


Well, a while relatively in Web3 terms. Then what was your first step? How did you then learn which steps to take next?


Fantastic question. I believe, Gary Vee had a huge role to play. His marketing is phenomenal!


I’m a Gary Vee fan, too.


I was watching lots of Gary Vee videos, explaining the similarities between Web3 and NFTs and connecting them and comparing it all with the dot-com era, and that whole time and I could see the similarities, it made sense. When I wanted to mint an NFT or get involved in the space, I went on YouTube or just googled How to mint an NFT. And first, it was that you need to create a Metamask Wallet and blah, blah, blah. So I created the Metamask wallet. Then at the time, OpenSea was the major NFT marketplace. OpenSea had a one-time fee of about a hundred Canadian bucks. Me and my co-founder split the cost, and that was how we minted our first four pieces over the course of that summer. It was interesting because of how small the NFT space was at the time, we sold three out of four of them with almost no marketing. The NFT space was really small. Right now, it’s almost impossible, even if you wanted to they’re not selling. It’s still small now, too, but the number of people producing art… At the time on Opensea we reached out to our first-ever collector and we asked them how they were able to find us. We had like between 60 and 100 followers at the time, I don’t remember exactly. But we asked them how they found us. He said he went on OpenSea and searched Africa NFT, and we were one of the first that popped up. Now if you search that you’re going to see zillions of pieces. So it’s cool how we were there at that time and there were people looking to support and be part of communities that showcase African culture. Even at the start. It was cool to see everything come together.


Well done! What challenges have you faced along the way?


Being college students, money is a definite factor. A big challenge is partnerships, getting people to hear our story. Getting seen. A lot of the conversation around NFTs is Let’s make money. Buy this, flip it. That’s a dangerous conversation. It should be about creating value. Impacting and improving lives and society. That’s the only way that I think you can successfully buy an NFT and flip it. Once you create the value, it is there. It’s going to sell for a higher price guaranteed because the value has been created. 


What do you think is the core value of AfroPunk?


Honestly, I think the core value is embracing and not being ashamed of your own culture. Diversity. As Africans, I mean I’ll speak for myself, but I think lots of us have been taught to be ashamed of our own culture. There was a sort of shame. There was a time in Nigeria when you couldn’t speak your own language in school. Can you imagine? You’re from somewhere and you can’t even speak your own language in school. Like, you can learn how to speak English or whatever but you should also learn how to speak your own language. I had to unlearn a lot of the things I was implicitly taught, to be able to really be proud of who I am and where I come from, and share that pride with the world and other Africans. And to get people to see that full picture. I’m not denying that this or that is an aspect of the picture but look at everything. Then judge if you have to. That’s the core of our project.


Great.


And diversity too. In the summer of 2021 was when I discovered the importance of diversity. It was a great discovery. If we get there I’d love to share it. I carried that lesson with me.


Oh, go ahead! Tell me what happened in the summer of 2021!


Alright! I couldn’t go at AfroPunk full-time because my co-founder went back to Nigeria to connect with the family and stuff and I stayed in Canada selling door-to-door. If you know anything about door-to-door sales it’s the hardest thing you can do!


I would never even want to try it!


It was brutal, it was gruesome but it taught me a lot. So in my first month, I made nine sales. Now, for context, on my best day, I made seven. During my first month, I remember there were people who were pumping about four sales a day, so I was thinking in two days, they’re making the number of sales I’m making in a month. I was looking at who was making these sales, and it was all white males. And occasionally white women. There weren’t many, if any, people that looked like me making a lot of sales. Remember, I’m Nigerian, but coming from Nigeria I’ve never had to deal with racism because everybody there is black. So, I’ve always been the person that would look for another reason as opposed to the color of my skin if something isn’t working. But as I kept going out, I kept hearing their pitches, and mine was so similar. So slowly, that doubt began to creep in. What if I can’t make sales because I am black? It was a crippling feeling, there is nothing I can do about the color of my skin, so what could I do? Then this one day we were having our meeting, this one guy walks into the room, and he’s black. He’s like this superhero, he walks into the room to talk to us and apparently, in his first year he made 200 sales, which is a lot. And he’s even more rugged than I am, right? And I looked at him, and every single thought I had about me not being able to do it because I’m black left my head in that instant. It was like I had just seen someone in the flesh that had made it. I walked up to him after the meeting to talk to him about what it was like being a black man on the doors. The CEO of the company heard me ask him. He stopped and listened, and it was at that point in time where I was like, had this guy not walked in that door, had I not seen him succeed, I would still be doubting myself, you know. 


It goes to show the importance of having role models again.


Absolutely. Applying that at large, if you don’t see an executive that looks like you at a company, you’re gonna think OK, so I can never get promoted. That’s just emphasizing the importance. And the way that the story goes is that at the end of that summer, I had made a hundred sales. I was one of a handful of people to make 100 sales that summer. And I also won the award for most-improved team member because that first month having nine sales and ending the summer on 100 sales, that’s a huge feat. It was beautiful to see everything come together. Tying that into the NFT space. When we entered the space, working on AfroPunk, we were trying to see if there was any project to showcase African culture that had sold out (inaudible). That had done fantastically well. This was September 2021. The only thing remotely close to that that I can remember, I came across was AfroJoy. That one didn’t necessarily showcase African culture per se, it was more futurism, but it was founded by a Nigerian man. He sold out a 12,000 collection in 12 minutes. He did the impossible. That was all the inspiration I needed. That kept me going. We’ve had a rough time because of the bear market so everybody has been having a slow mint, but that’s essentially how we discovered the importance of diversity and how that connects to AfroPunk today.


Nice story. Partly sad, but something good has come of it. Listen, we normally keep these to about half an hour, but I think you have more to say so can we do this again? 


Absolutely! 


I’m really curious to learn from you. Just to finish off, I don’t know if you want to give us any small insights, something you want to squeeze in at the end?


I guess what I could say we are currently minting on our website at afropunknft.com, a beautiful thing about our project is after we sell out, each AfroPunk will have access to beautiful African artifacts that you can claim for free. These artifacts could range from tiny sculptures to tiny paintings, they are physical pieces made by Nigerian and African artists, that will help you to immortalize your experience with our community. You get this piece, we’re excited about it. Because even if you sell your NFT, you have this physical piece to always remind you that you were part of this community. When people come to your home, they will ask you where you got this or that from, and you get to say From my beautiful NFT project. 


Perfect. I like the idea, it spreads the educational aspect, and you have a little figure as a conversation point.


OK, I want to speak to you more but due to time constraints, I want you to leave me with a question for the next guest.


What do you think would be the future of Web3? So how do you think it’s going to be implemented in our everyday lives?


Right now, it’s very speculative.


It will be interesting to see. Like you say, everyone has their own interpretation. In theory, the next one is tomorrow, but in the next few days, we will know the answer to your question! Right, Cedric, thank you so much for coming on, appreciate it!


Ideal. Thank you so much!