Web3 Unlocked
Kenzi Wang
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We talk to founders behind some of the most interesting Web3 projects out there. We speak to them about how they got into Web3, built products, hired teams, failed or succeeded. In short, founder journeys in the Web3 fascinate us to the core and we are here to uncover them.
Available episodes
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4 days ago
From Underdog to Champion: Polygon’s Path to Winning the L2 War
Polygon is one of crypto's greatest underdog stories if not all of tech. And it all boils down to what makes one of its co-founders, Jaynti “JD” Kanani, a believer in Web3: that all you need is a laptop and an internet connection to build anything.
“You don’t need to be out there; put your name or face anywhere. You don’t have to go to Stanford or any big college. You don’t even have to go to school to be in Web3 because I see people in smaller villages from India building on Web3,” says JD.
In this episode, JD speaks about getting into Web3, scaling Polygon, and what he expects and would like to see for the future of Web3.
The epsiode is sponsored by Symbolic Capital and beacon Accelerator.
Topics discussed:
* How JD got into Web3 and growing up days
* The Early Days of MATIC
* How cofounders of Polygon work together
* How Polygon differs from other L2 solutions
* Who wins the L2 war?
* Why zero knowledge?
* Polygon’s Growth Strategy
* Polygon’s Focus on Building Partnerships
* What Web3 could solve for India
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May 2, 2023
Scaling an L1 in a bear market: Illia Polosukhin, Co-Founder, NEAR Protocol
In this week’s episode of Web3 Unlocked, Kenzi Wang, and Diksha Dutta speak to Illia Polosukhin, the Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol. He discusses NEAR’s creation, what it takes to have true scalability in Web3, and building through a bear market. Here is a list of the selected time stamps on the different topics discussed during the podcast: 0:25 to 2:01: What inspires Illia to work in Web3 2:02 to 6:29: How Illia started NEAR protocol 7:45 to 16:56: On what differentiates NEAR from other L1s 16:57 to 22:05: On NEAR’s ecosystem development strategy 22:06 to 24:31: On similarities and differences between Web2 and Web3 companies 24:32 to 26:14: On what helps Web3 founders be successful 26:15 to 28:30: On NEAR use cases 28:31 to 32:04: On Illia’s biggest learning in Web3 34:02 to 36:36: On how NEAR deploys its funding 36:37 to 39:19: On the biggest pain point in decentralizing NEAR 39:20 to 43:05: On what the bear market taught Illia as a founder 43:39 to 45:23: On the importance of community building for a protocol 47:01 to 50:36: On the intersection between blockchain and AI
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Apr 3, 2023
Data Scientist to Web3 Founder : Alex Svanevik, CEO and Founder, Nansen.ai
In this epsiode, Alex Svanevik shares his journey from data scientist to Web3 Founder, the business model of Nansen.ai, and how to scale a user-centric product in Web3.
Topics:
00:35 to 1:35: What is your favorite thing about Web3?
1:35 to 3:47: How did you get into Web3?
3:47 to 9:05: Idea of Nansen.ai and building a startup in Web3
9:05 to 17:59: Labelling and Privacy Concerns
18:00 to 22:00: Customer Acquisition Strategies in Web3
22:00 to 29:40: What makes successful Web3 Founders
29:50 to 31:50: Raising capital when you are profitable
31:50 to 38:40: Pricing strategies in Web3
38:40 to 46:20: Determining prices/values of NFTs
46:20- end: Rapid Fire
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Mar 6, 2023
Building a Web3 Unicorn without a token: Matthew Gould, CEO and CoFounder, Unstoppable Domains
In this episode of Web3 Unlocked, Kenzi Wang, Sachi Kamiya, and Diksha Dutta speak to Matthew Gould, the CEO of Unstoppable Domains. He discusses building a digital identity-focused Web3 company, what founders need to focus on for fundraising, and why he thinks token funding may be harmful to protocols. Here is a deep dive into the conversation, featuring edited excerpts from the podcast.
Here is a list of the selected time stamps on the different topics discussed during the podcast:
1:21 to 2:08: On what excites Matthew the most about Web3
2:09 to 4:27: How Matthew got into Web3
4:42 to 8:03: The founding of Unstoppable Domains
8:04 to 9:24: On how founders can distinguish good and bad ideas
9:28 to 13:14: On the biggest differences between Web2 and Web3
13:15 to 18:24: On being an atypical founder
18:47 to 29:06: On making decisions to survive downturns
29:40 to 34:00: On raising equity instead of doing token rounds for funding
34:01 to 35:57: On building a community without tokens
35.58 to 41:03: On what Web3 adds to digital identities that Web2 does not
42:39 to 46:52: On reaching a $1 billion valuation
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Jan 10, 2023
Harsh Rajat, Founder of Push Protocol on the Web3 market sentiment, raising funds & L1 wars
In this episode of Web3 Unlocked, Kenzi Wang, Diksha Dutta, and Sachi Kamiya speak to Harsh Rajat, Founder of Push Protocol. Push Protocol is the communication protocol of web3. It enables cross-chain notifications and messaging for dapps, wallets, and services tied to wallet addresses. In a chat with us, he discusses how they approached Ethereum Foundation for funding, their learnings in community building, mentors in the crypto ecosystem, and more.
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Nov 28, 2022
Jack Lu, CoFounder of Magic Eden on going multi-chain, building for Web3 and the future of NFTs
In this episode of Web3 Unlocked, Kenzi Wang, Diksha Dutta and Sachi Kamiya speak to Jack Lu, CEO and one of the four co-founders of Magic Eden. Before co-founding Magic Eden, Jack worked at FTX, Google, and Boston Consulting Group. Magic Eden is an NFT marketplace launched in September 2021 and serves as a home base for SOL NFT collections. Initially launched on the Solana blockchain, it has since become multi-chain by integrating Ethereum-based NFT collections. In November 2022, Magic Eden added Polygon as their third supported chain, committing steadfastly to their vision of a multi-chain future. Since it was launched, Magic Eden has been lauded for its creator and community-focused tools, and was one of the first NFT marketplaces to offer the Launchpad feature to its users, which makes it easier for creators to create, mint, market, and successfully launch products.
Jack speaks to Kenzi, Diksha, and Sachi about getting into the cryptocurrency world, Magic Eden’s journey from its conception to today, the challenges of running a Web3 startup, and how Web2 and Web3 have more similarities than we realize.
Here is a list of the selected time stamps on the different topics discussed during the podcast.
01:30 to 03:55: How Jack got into Web3 and Crypto
04:18 to 07:34: How Magic Eden was born
07:35 to 12:38: Breaking into the ‘NFT marketplace’ market
12:39 to 16:57: Failures and mistakes in the early days of Magic Eden
17:15 to 22:13: Differences in Web2 and Web3 work cultures
22:14 to 27:27: Similarities and differences between a Web2 and Web3 founder
27:28 to 30:12: Qualities of a successful Web3 founder
30:15 to 33:36: Getting users to adopt a Web3 product
33:37 to 36:46: Community building in Web3 and increasing network value
36:47 to 38:11: Hiring for Web3
38:14 to 40:46: Raising capital in Web3
40:47 to 45:48: The future of NFTs
45:49 to 48:00: Navigating the bear market
48:01 to 52:33: Solana community vs Ethereum community and going multi-chain
52:43 to 53:52: Magic Eden as a destination
55:51 to 57:09: How Web3 and Web2 are not that different
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Nov 8, 2022
Community Gaming’s CEO, Chris Gonsalves, on Web3 gaming ecosystem and eSports
In this week’s episode of Web3 Unlocked, Kenzi Wang and Diksha Dutta speak to Chris Gonsalves, the CEO of Community Gaming. He discusses how Community Gaming was created, how the Web3 gaming ecosystem differs from traditional eSports, and how Web3 gaming will change in the future.
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Sep 26, 2022
Sandeep Nailwal, CoFounder of Polygon, on setbacks, community building, and rebranding
In this episode of Web3 Unlocked, Kenzi Wang and Diksha Dutta speak to Sandeep Nailwal on his entire journey with Polygon so far. He discusses how he got into Crypto, his commitment to the developer community, and what the future looks like for Web3 today.
Website: web3unlocked.xyz
Twitter: @web3unlockedxyz
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Sep 7, 2022
Lucas Vogelsang on building Centrifuge and the Future of Defi
In this episode of Web3 Unlocked, _Kenzi Wang_ and _Diksha Dutta_ speak to _Lucas Vogelsang_, CEO, and Co-Founder of _Centrifuge_, focusing on bringing Real World Assets to Defi since the early days of Ethereum. During the discussion, Lucas covers the future of Defi, the Polkadot ecosystem, and his experiences of being a founder in the Web3 bear market.
Lucas had always been passionate about computers and coding. But, in 2017, after working in the tech space for seven years, he decided that he wanted to revolutionize the finance industry and use blockchain to build the backbone for financial transactions. That’s how Centrifuge was born and became a platform to help people access capital for future needs.
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Aug 4, 2022
Sota Watanabe on building Astar Network, Web3 valuations and the Future of Decentralisation
In this episode of Web3 Unlocked, _Kenzi Wang_ speaks to _Sota Watanabe_, Founder of _Astar Network_, on being a Japanese founder in the crypto world, parameters that affect Web3 company valuations the most, the multichain future and the exciting new projects at Astar. Here are edited excerpts of the episode.
Before Sota Watanabe founded Astar Network in Japan in 2018, he studied information technology at the San Francisco State University in the US. He then worked at a blockchain startup, Chronicled, in the San Francisco Bay Area. After returning to Japan, he worked as a blockchain researcher at the University of Tokyo. But when Gavin Wood, the creator of Ethereum and Polkadot, visited Japan and talked about Web3, Sota decided to make Astar the Future of Smart Contracts for Multichain Hub on the Polkadot blockchain network.
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Jul 11, 2022
Nischal Shetty of Shardeum on Building in Web3 and the Importance of Community
In this episode of Web3 Unlocked, _Kenzi Wang_ and _Diksha Dutta_ speak to _Nischal Shetty_, Founder of _WazirX_ and _Shardeum_,_ _on decentralization, the right way to build communities, and making it in web 3.
Before Nischal launched WazirX and Shardeum, he started his entrepreneurial journey by creating a social media company (what began as JustUnfollow is now Crowdfire) in 2010. He was a software developer, and before 2010, he had a day job and worked on his app on the weekends and any free time he had. This social media app was based on the idea that most people needed a single account to manage their Instagram, FB, and other social media pages. The app was successful and got 20 million users. In 2017, the large social networks started changing many rules, which affected all the businesses built on their platforms. That’s when Nischal decided that he would build his next projects on a decentralized platform.
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Jun 17, 2022
Andrew Durgee of Republic Crypto on building the fund and volatile markets
In this episode of Web3 Unlocked, _Kenzi Wang_ speaks to _Andrew Durgee_ on the work Republic is doing, its various arms, the current market cycle, the impact of the recent Terra-Luna crash, and why Republic has zero attrition.
In terms of structure Republic has four different companies - a holding company, Republic Retail, Republic Capital, and Republic Crypto. Its mission has been to democratize finance and increase access and inclusion. But the regulatory framework makes it very difficult for retail investors to invest in early-stage startups in the US. The framework is based on an accreditation system with a series of requirements that need to be satisfied for an investor to participate in an early-stage venture. These include an average annual income above $200,000 or an average household income above $300,000 or a net worth of $1 mn and a few other parameters that keep a lot of retail investors out.
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May 27, 2022
Ciara Sun of C² Ventures: Investing in Web3 founders, valuations, and women in crypto
In this episode of Web3 Unlocked, _Kenzi Wang_ and _Sachi Kamiya_ speak to _Ciara Sun,_ Founder & Managing Partner of C²_ Ventures,__ _on being a woman in web3, the challenges she faced, and the road ahead for her investment firm.
Before she dived into the world of web3, she was a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group and Deloitte. Her journey to discovering crypto began in New York in 2017 when the city had become a hub for investors and entrepreneurs interested in blockchain. Having spent years working in banking, capital markets, and private equity, she understood how crucial digital assets and blockchain were for making the global economy more inclusive. After working at the crypto exchange, Huobi, in international business development, partnerships, and leading the global markets institutional business unit, decided to launch her firm, C² Ventures. The company focuses on empowering the creators of the next-generation web3 and metaverse applications.
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Apr 29, 2022
Miles Anthony of Decentral Games: Building and sustaining Play-to-Earn in the Metaverse
In this episode of Web3 Unlocked, _Kenzi Wang_ talks to _Miles Anthony_, Founder of Decentral Games. _Decentral Games__ _builds games that give players economic freedom through aligned incentives, self-custody and delegation of yield-bearing metaverse assets. . The game first launched its closed beta in September 2019 and currently includes poker, blackjack, roulette, backgammon, and slots. In a candid conversation, Miles shares his journey of building play-and-earn poker in the metaverse, its search for establishing product-market fit, the future of Web3 and more.
This episode was supported by Diksha Dutta and Robert Do.
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