Jillian interview part 1

Transcript

0:00 I did a little bit in high school, and so on this break from OKC, I was super excited to get back into it, but I bought a super set, and then I was just like, this is the best one. A CDJ, you mean? Like those things? Yeah, it's XDJ something. Anyway, I thought it was great, and it was just too high-tech for me, so I didn't need to spend too much time to try to get into it. I should have just gotten the basic ones and all of that. But yeah, we don't, I guess. I appreciate that Alright, sorry, I know you're probably recording already, but yeah

0:35 Yeah, it's fine, things can be cut, it's not an issue Yeah, let's go, what are we doing? Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of We Them Niggas Today we are in Nassau in the Bahamas, and I'm here with Jillian Bethel, correct? Yeah Yeah, one of the co-founders of CryptoIsle, really like the premier co-working space community Focused on crypto here in Nassau, in the Bahamas as well Yep Maybe in the whole Northern Caribbean Maybe in the whole Northern Caribbean, you know So a very important person And I'm super honored and super appreciated that, you know You're taking time to speak with us and share, you know

1:08 About your story and what you're working on And we're here Stefan De La Voa hosted this week The Oasis On Chain The first crypto conference out here And not the first Definitely not the first crypto conference But the first one of its kind The first one of its kind Like, shout out to Stefan Like, great conference I mean, everybody's given great reviews, but my review is that it's like, it's something I needed, you know It's a way for us to get back to like, get back to like, the real impactful stuff and do it with the community That's great, Stephan is king of it, and he did a really great job, yeah

1:45 Yeah, he said today, you know, we're building coalitions, and I'm really all behind that, you know How can we work together to create change, and you know, change demands us being political, implicitly And so, it's cool to be meeting people and learning about what people hear, the Bahamians are thinking Bahamians are thinking about the Bahamians are thinking about in the crypto space, you know, what's top of mind? What are the concerns? I'm hearing people talk about like payments as like an immediate use case here and how that's disruptive to the existing way of life is super compelling to me and definitely not something I anticipated, but I'm grateful to be here, be learning and yeah, I'd love

2:18 to hear a bit about how you got to come to found CryptoIsle and yeah. Yeah, so back in 2020, I started a crypto ATM company with my co-founder. She's also the co-founder of CryptoIsle. And we had to shut down. What's her name? Davinia. Davinia Bain. Best. She's really like grown CryptoIsle to what it is. She's a beast, like hands down. Shout out Davinia. We realized that if we wanted to, ATM company or not, but if we wanted to really push the benefits of crypto on the island, then we needed to educate the people. We understood that from the ATMs. One of the first customers we had had a laptop with her QR code in the grocery store where the ATMs were and was putting the QR code up to the screen from her laptop.

3:14 You know, didn't know about, like, mobile apps that had, like, wallets And from then, I think we knew immediately that there was a lot of, like, education that needed to come And at the same time, we realized that Bahamians were buying a lot of crypto This was 2020, the economy was shut down You could go to food stores, so that's where the ATMs were And, yeah, we just realized how much people really, really need to learn So it was an obvious pivot. It was a part of our business with the ATMs, but, you know, sans ATMs, like, it was really, really a thing for us to, you know, go ahead and educate the populace.

3:55 And our goal was always to do that Caribbean wide And so the inroads that we're making has just connected us with people in the Caribbean and beyond And we're grateful to be that center for Bahamians and others to come to really learn what they can do Learn how they can make themselves in the industry, all of that stuff So that's our mandate and we know that there is the need, so we do it That's beautiful, and what does programming look like, like month to month, week to week at CryptoIsle? What does that community look like? What are the dynamics, the concerns, the priorities? So, Oasis on-chain is, you know, truthfully an anomaly.

4:40 We tend to have a lot of events. A lot of events. We don't have as much co-working as we have events. But the events are actually... I didn't realize that. Yeah, and that's it. So, we'd love to build that. But unfortunately, the community is just not that large in the Bahamas, you know, you think that, you know, all of the things that you hear about crypto and Bahamas all put together, there's huge community here. But it's just growing. It's growing along with the regulatory regime. It's growing along with, you know, those people who fall down the rabbit hole monthly, like we see them. But truthfully, co-working and community and building on the crypto side is actually not as big as we would like it to be

5:26 But at the same time, business development, those types of things are growing exponentially And even tonight, there's a session on AI And people want to know how to leverage these technologies for what they're doing So, Stefan's conference, Oasis on Chain, which is all about consumer crypto, it's so, so fitting for this market because people want to know how to bridge that gap between, you know, this wonderful world of DeFi and then also the startup community and how they kind of put those together. So our day-to-day looks like trying to grow those communities But at the same time, we have events for startup communities The finance community here in the Bahamas

6:13 And the professional community as well And that's all attributable to my co-founder's background Which is in business development And those more mature professional finance, traditional finance sectors Very cool, and I'm curious like you speak like how your space is working with professionals and startups and people here thinking about finance what is like the startup culture here look like you know, what are the things, people are working on AI right now, I feel like around the world, so I heard that's part of it, you said that's the session this evening but yeah, I'm just curious, yeah Yeah, the startup culture is definitely growing, and I'm excited for where it is

6:53 growing to, and I'm excited that people want to know more about emerging technologies And how they can include it in what they're doing But honestly, there's still a lot of work You know, just education in general I think in the Caribbean can use a huge boost And with that and with exposure to, you know, with exposure to things You have communities that become more robust Right now, we're still in that ascending to that phase You know, we're in that phase where we're still ascending to get there. But I have met so many startup geeks. You know, when you hear someone say, hey, I just reached PF, and you actually know what it means, then it's just kind of like, yay! Like, you're chairing somebody on.

7:46 Product market fit? Different than product market fit? Yeah, product market fit, PMF. Let's go. So, yeah, I think I said PF, right? You did, and I was like, dang, I don't know. I know, PMF, or if they're like talking about getting the MMRs, the monthly recurring revenues. So when you hear like people like really just becoming conversant in the lingo, you know, we've done that in crypto. And, you know, actually, I haven't heard a lot of it like last year, but like, we've done that in crypto. It's really refreshing to see the startup community also do the same thing. And do things like, you know, really valuing what the market wants and tailoring.

8:23 their startup and their products to that. So that's new. And it's new in a community and environment where the population is small, where education is still ascending in quality. And yeah, we're getting there. And luckily we're getting there with emerging technologies because from a regulatory perspective, and also from an access to, you know, people like you who come down for a conference and then, you know, integrate and mix while you're here. Like, we get to make these connections and really, like, increase our exposure and our access to people who can actually help get us where we need to be. Because, you know, being on the island and having, you know, all of these corporates

9:11 come down doesn't mean that there's knowledge share. So, yeah, that's really our mandate at CryptoIsle To, like, really get that knowledge share going between the players in the industry Between external industry and what's here on the island That type of stuff So, slowly but shortly, yeah That's beautiful And as you've been, like, working at CryptoIsle, is how old now?

9:36 Almost three Almost three years old Three years old, and, like, how big, would you say, is, like, the community of people that show up to these events? Well, I think tonight the RSVP is at 70 or 80. Plato Alpha, a local tech company, they've been doing great. They're probably the same age, around the same age as CryptoWile. They focus a lot on traditional tech development, not necessarily blockchain, definitely some AI and some other emerging technologies. But, you know, they've done a good job of bringing to the Bahamas what can really benefit the Bahamas right now That's beautiful Yeah, so like, you know, so their event has 70 to 80 people

10:19 Typically on Wednesdays we do have another event called Hump Day Huddle And that one will bring in maybe about 30 registrants But then like 40 people show up And then we have drinks and then 50 people show up but yeah like you know it's it's it's a repetitive community yeah but then that's beautiful though it's great because then you also see like the bleed you also see how you know they bring somebody and now that person's like a mainstay in the community and you see that slow growth but the growth is is uh what's the word I'm looking for um it's like a recurring growth it's like the people who are our daily average users I guess

11:03 Yeah, those are the people who are there consistently They become more consistent, that's great Yeah, I mean, some of these people appreciate what you're doing They appreciate the space, they appreciate the community I think, like you said, coming here, as you say, integrating myself Just trying to speak with people I definitely had it be a goal of mine, you know, to connect with as many people as possible That are here from Nassau, at the conference or not, in the space, it's good with me Like, who are you? Yeah, yeah, yeah You know, I'm Maceo, I hear people playing 21 Savage over there Who are you?

11:29 Yeah, yeah, yeah And it's been dope to find people who strike me as like-minded who strike me as inspiring, motivated, hustlers. Those are people that I look for, people that are value aligned and making moves, knowing what it is that they want to see happen in the world and with what they're doing. Yeah, We Them Niggas. Yeah, and I guess I'm curious. Yeah, We Them Niggas, that's the facts. This is the truth. And I'm really curious if there's anything you feel like is missing from this ecosystem that you have that's keeping you from scaling at a pace that you feel like you could be if you had something.

11:56 Yeah, and we're working on it right now. We are trying to build the parts of the communities that are huge gaps here in the Bahamas And that's why we can't have a sustainable, not startup community But tech-oriented and emerging tech-oriented startup community We're missing, and I can be very clear about it And I want you to see it as a bank We're missing the developers and we're missing the VC And I'll say this And developers should come to the Bahamas because it's easy to be here, especially if you're from North America. It's easy to come down here and spend a month. It's easy to come down here and spend a year. Just come to Crypto Isle or wherever else you want to go and see what projects you can contribute to while you're doing your product management work elsewhere. If it's the same time zone, just do it. If it's close to the same time zone, just do it because you'll really see the impact you can make.

12:53 and then on the VC side, you know, there's just not enough money or there's money here now, but there might not be enough money geared toward, you know, some of the things that are being built. And then there's not enough diversity for the VC pool to meaningfully invest. So basically, you know, you might have someone who's like, you know, or a VC firm that's like we're willing to invest in payments and they can invest in one player in the payment sector or they might want to invest in HR tech and they can invest in one player there but it's like that's about it and then you don't have like more diverse VC pools unless

13:39 it has to do with you know traditional funds or I don't know something else. So those are the two big things that are missing and the thing is education is going to go where the the money is, frankly, or the opportunity, because more than needing the money, I think if people experience what we experienced this week, where you just run into someone who's just like, oh, I have that developed, like something close to it already developed, I can definitely help you to tailor it to exactly what you're trying to do, so let's work together and let's get it done, you realize that you probably don't need as much money

14:16 as you thought. And I think what the other thing that I see in the Bahamian community is, you know, we're always pushing like, oh, we can't do something because we don't have the money to develop it. But that problem goes away when you find that community. And now it becomes this whole thing of, I have the opportunity now, I can actually go forward and build this. And I think that feeling that, I mean, this week was empowering for, I think, a lot of people, even me, so Happy to hear that Yeah, like, big up Stefan like, you know what it is but basically, like, if we can, like, take away those barriers

14:55 and people, like, really see that those barriers are being, like, brought down because now you have the opportunity then I think we'll see, like, more people flourishing and then also, like, looking to, like, become educated in the space so that they can be a part of the flourishing and so those two things tech development and the financing are the big barriers and I really want more people like all of you great people, all of us great people, you know, to really just come down and like look at it, look at what happens. We did Crazy Ace today and... I love that exercise. I owe my fair things to the whole conference to be honest.

15:37 It was great because, you know, there was so much overlap in where the need is in the Bahamas. And what's crazy is a lot of you who are not Bahamian were able to see some solutions for things that we were not even able to see because we're not a part, we're not tourists. But then we were also able to say, oh my gosh, like that will help. Like a mesh network for cruise ship passengers will be very effective on a remote island during a hurricane, you know. So those things are powerful And there are Not protocols, but there's projects where it's already done You know, like imagine the

16:13 Impact that you can really have in our community Like with things that are already Done. It's crazy Yeah Well, I'm excited to go back out in the world And be an advocate for people to come out here And see what you all are doing at CryptoIsle As well as just like, let's come back for Oasis on-chain next year I heard there's going to be one in the fall this year We'll see news to me. But whenever it is, I intend to be here. I think, like I said, it's been incredible to connect with folks here. And I'm curious to hear a bit about like what you're working on personally. You talked about like this payments work project. You can speak to it better than I did just now.

16:49 Yeah, earn wage access. So the big problem here is that people's obligations are not well matched with their ability to meet the obligations from a financial perspective. A great example is the average behavior. And I don't know if this statistic is still true. But you know, there was something put out that the average behavior has less than $1,000 in their bank account. So if we look at that and we say, okay, that Bahamian blew a tire because we're looking at traffic go by, but blew a tire. Tires are crazy expensive here because we don't manufacture them, right? So you got to pay 300 bucks for that. And, you know, that eats into that.

17:38 So, the first thing is, if you don't have $300 in your bank account, you're going to go and take out a loan Now, like I say, funding is not easy in the Bahamas, and it's very expensive So, you're going to go take out a loan, and that loan is going to be pretty expensive And you're going to pay 7, 8, 9, 10, up to 16%, I've seen it, on that loan for $300 and now you're in a far worse financial position because you had to go into your bank account or you had to go and get a loan because you did not have that money available.

18:13 But the thing is, we have money that's actually owed to us. If we have a job, we have money that's owed to us most times. So I want to bridge that gap by giving people access to their earned wages for when they need it. so as you earn your wages you'll get it and or you'll have access to it and so when emergencies come up when obligations that are ill met on a time frame come up then you know you'll be in a better position. I know countless people who may be going through a divorce or had an emergency where money is tied up and you know their biggest thing is that their salary is coming at the end of the

18:55 but they've got to pay their rent in the middle of the month and if you suddenly have funds like tied up then it's a really hard thing to do so people may borrow money because they feel comfortable doing it because at the end of the month I'm going to be able to pay off that loan but they've already gotten hit with so many fees, so much interest that they've really lost money and it's a big problem so the solution that I see actually exists in the DeFi space already Streaming payments allows you to send people money over a stream as opposed to a one time payment and if people can get a stream that's equivalent to the rate at which they should get paid for the work they do then people will take out less loans people will take out you know do less expensive things with their money because they can't meet the obligation so earn wage access using DeFi protocols for me is the way to go to kind of make sure that this happens.

19:53 I'm still working on it, it's early stage, like really early stage, but hopefully by the end of the year we'll be somewhere Oh, it's exciting, and it sounds like there's kind of a paycheck to paycheck existence for a lot of people here Oh yeah, absolutely, and you know, like even people who don't make small sums of money, like sometimes you find yourself in a bind, but it's not even made for them It's made for, and you'll see a lot of people in the tourism industry, during the high season, they're fine, they're making ends meet because they're getting tips every day, you know, but during the low season, you know, they didn't save their money, for whatever reason, maybe they had obligations to pay, maybe they're just not good at personal finances, but the fact is, a large part of our workforce is in tourism, and during the low season,

20:44 They're going to get a salary And their salary may not meet some of the obligations that they have Imagine you're feeling good in October or whenever the high season is And you go and you take out a loan that feels fine And you're affording that loan at that point And then the low season comes and it's lower than average And you lapse on that loan All because you couldn't pay by the 20th or something of the month And really, the 21st is your payday yeah you know so like my research basically shows that you know people could make more money that would be a solution to but that also comes with a whole lot of education but now we have protocols that allow us to stream people's income at the same time but not only that you can now divert funding from the stream if you're getting a dollar a minute you can take 20 cents of that dollar and pay your electricity bill put toward an emergency

21:44 emergency fund, pay your kids school fees and so you have a stream and you have tributaries that stream that all contribute to people's personal finances and make their personal finance situation a lot healthier and yeah that's what I'm trying to do and it's very very possible with protocols like Superfluid, Polygon, Ethereum and you know it's bringing that world to our world and really making it impactful and I guess this is a nod to consumer Crypto, but I want to build it that way so that it's easier to do the startup, frankly. I got that. And it sounds to me like I can tell very clearly that you're all about the impact, all about

22:26 supporting people. Oh, yeah, for sure. And you came into this space, but you worked in medicine before this, no? Yeah. And so what had you end up in that space and how do you see the through line between that work and this work? Yeah. All right. the reason I ended up in that space is because I couldn't think or see beyond that space like I cracked the stroke and you know don't take it too seriously especially if you're Bahamian but you know it might be true what we see in the Bahamas is is what successful is and that means be a doctor a lawyer an accountant a politician or a drug dealer

23:05 and that's what our exposure and that's what our aim is and so I went for the medicine part and I don't think I've ever said this out loud as an adult but my dad and my brother told me not to do medicine and that I should do finance or business so I think it's really funny where I'm at right now. You were saying earlier business is your whole brain. Yeah business is like my whole brain and I guess they saw it but I didn't. I just wanted to do what would make my mom proud. She was a scientist, but she's also all business as well. And I took that route. And there's a funnier story to it, but it's a little bit of a longer story, so I won't go into it.

23:46 But, um, yeah, so did medicine, I was doing also some research on, um, primary troker entry points, which is that first insufflation that you do when you're having, like, keyhole surgery, that first hole that you make so the camera can go in and you can do everything else that you need to do, um, just finding the best place to, like, insert that and, you know, just looking over some of the research of my colleagues and we were trying to publish This is in China, and we're trying to publish English papers I had to help some of them, like, you know, get their stuff translated properly

24:21 To, you know, be the best it can be And I came across this Chinese word for distributed ledger technology Knew nothing about it, couldn't understand it Went by doing, by doing the equivalent of Google in China And I came across Bitcoin over and over and over again, I was like, you know what, maybe it's the same thing, let me just like look at this, only years later that I realized it said distributed ledger technology, but like, you know, so I went down the Bitcoin rabbit hole, that was 2016 and 2017, my first trade was Bitcoin to Bitcoin Cash, because I was like, looking to get that like, that drop,

25:09 that Bitcoin Cash drop, actually it was Bitcoin, I was holding Bitcoin, and then I was waiting for the kind of Bitcoin Cash fork and then I took the Bitcoin Cash and I sold it and somehow magically I hit the top right before I dropped down and I was hooked. I was in it. I was good. My mom was visiting. I was in Shanghai. I knew nothing about the area I was in. I knew nothing about Shanghai and so I just stayed in the hotel room and when she was done she left at like eight something to go to a nine o'clock like session and when she came back

25:41 I was in the same position on my knees trading. I had done so much studying up until then. I was like, I'm not going to just waste money by not trying to figure this out first. I learned what a fork was. I learned what so many things were. What I didn't do was look at when a coin hits an exchange. I didn't know that it pumps up and then it goes down. I just thought, oh my gosh, this thing is just going to pump up. And then I just said, you know what, my mom is going to come soon, I just need to like sell this and I sold it and it went straight down. And like I said, I was hooked. But then I started learning a lot more about blockchain. I was looking at a couple like cool things, NFT protocols back in 2018. I decided to come home and like see what I can do. The easiest thing was crypto plus money. Sorry, blockchain plus money being crypto because it was, you know,

26:39 a little bit more attractive in a finance place and I went down that rabbit hole but I don't intend to stay in blockchain plus money. I want to make impact so whatever I can do but obviously I feel like this space this finance and business part has really pulled me in and so I'm going to do the most I can do and then