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0:00Well, what’s up everybody? Welcome to another episode of We Them Niggas. We’re out here at ETH Denver. Shout out to FWB, everybody who voted for me to come out here and work on this project. I’m super excited to be out here with Trav, founder of Webby, a big guy in the space. I’m excited to be connecting with you. I know I talked a couple months ago about doing an interview. It didn’t come to fruition as I was being a bit frantic, but... Timing. Timing, man. And I’m excited that we’re here and getting some IRL, because I think that really does bridge the gap, I think.
0:26And yeah, how has your ETH Denver been, man? Real smooth, this is actually my first ETH Denver Okay So it’s been real smooth, lived up to the hype, I will say Yeah, I really enjoyed it I like Denver in general, but coming here for a crypto event is really a different, you know, like a unique way to be here, I guess But it’s been cool, no complaints And what’s been most exciting to you, like, being here this year? First ETH Denver, what’s the impression of the value? Most exciting is seeing people I’ve met over the last two, three years in the space at other conferences
0:52I saw a lot of people I stayed at, we stayed at a hacker house in Paris together last summer at ECC So just running into people I’ve met over the last couple of years, being with my boys Russ and Dave, we’ve kind of like really built a really cool friendship because of this space over like the last two or three years and just, you know, seeing the growth of what they’re building and what other people are building over time and I think it’s really cool to just, you know, check in with people in real life and just see the progress. I appreciate that and I have to say I agree I think it’s cool like even for myself to see like how far I’ve come in
1:21in the space I’ve got the space that moves so fast I think just continuing it show up makes a difference I know I connected with Russ last year at ETH Denver and him and Catalyst I was like walking around trying to meet black people who’s here who’s here people like oh you got to meet 40 acres they’re the community yeah I’m like oh okay and so it’s dope to be back here full circle at the event that he’s organized you know he’s a people of color black people you know it’s me them niggas so yeah yeah You must be partnering up with Russ and other folks just to highlight and tell the stories
1:47100% This is your first ETH Denver, but how did you actually get into the Web3, into the tech world? You say you have an artistic background as well Yeah, funny enough, actually, real estate brought me into Web3 space I was just wrapping up some time in the real estate space doing some real estate development projects, actually And someone who knew my work in the real estate space who was venturing into digital real estate with the NFT-backed, like physical locations backed by NFTs, put the bug in my ear about the space. It really wanted me on their team for what they’re about to do in this space.
2:21And they just made it make enough sense where I was like, oh, this sounds interesting. Like, okay, I want to go see what’s going on over here. And three, four years later, here I am now, you know, Webby, a few hackathons, like a lot of projects, you know, out in the ecosystem. It’s just really cool. Like, it’s funny, that’s what brought me in because it wasn’t my creative. If it wasn’t anything creative, it was actually real estate, which was just, you know, funny And how long did you have been in real estate at that point? A couple of years maybe, I started out with like some rental properties and then I ended
2:49up getting into, during the pandemic, I ended up locking in and like really meeting some people because of the clubhouse, I got to meet like a crazy network that I probably wouldn’t have gotten any other way, and that led me to real estate development for a while, so So, like, maybe, like, let’s say about four years total, I guess, from that to 2017 to 2021-ish, yeah. And what would you say have been some of the key milestones in, like, seeing your progression as, like, a learner in the space or someone that wants to contribute to the space culturally and other ways? And even now, like you’re saying, you do work professionally with HBCU students, helping them think about how they can use this emerging technology and innovative ways to be, like, out in the workforce and on the forefront.
3:26Yeah, so many milestones, man. Like, too many, honestly. I’ve done a lot of pivoting. Like, you know, I kind of, I like that challenge of being able to pivot I don’t like being stuck in one space As I always say, I have past lives I like to evolve, I like to be, you know, water, you know, so to speak So, it’s so many milestones in so many different areas of work I’ve done And I’m just like, I’m really just grateful to even be able to do that You know, I think that’s a skill in itself It’s very challenging, you know A lot of times making pivots quickly
3:56Like you said, this space moves really fast So to even be able to be in this space as long as I have been It’s only been a few years, but to be able to adapt to what the space was doing and, you know, continue to build and have success, it’s just like, it’s a blessing, bro. Like, I’m super grateful for that. And a lot of help from cool, meeting the right people along the way, you know, like yourself. So, yeah. Too many Miles songs and names. I can’t pinpoint one. That’s okay. What about like a core memory, core memory? Webby’s first hackathon win. We got our first hackathon win. It was an ETH Global and Zora hackathon. I’d never done a hackathon. I did it for my 30th birthday, actually. That was my, I decided I was going to sit there for three days with two of my homies and jam on a project for a hackathon. And we ended up getting a, we won, we were top eight finalists. We won a prize from Polygon. We got second place from Polygon. And then we won something, I think, from like NFT Wizard or NFT Storage or something like that. And that was just cool. It was really reassuring because I knew I wanted to go
4:51I wanted to go into products at that point. I had done art in the space, but I knew I really wanted to get into consumer products and building things that people can use outside of just collectibles. So that was really reassuring and just like, that’s what, it gave Webby validation in my eyes first to continue doing what we were doing. And so was that product that you were building Webby at that point or was something different? No, it was a Webby product. It was a Webby product. Webby already existed, but up until then we had only done a couple of collectible projects. We did an AI-generated project, which is our first project as a collective
5:23So I’m remiss to not have really asked to introduce what WebE is to my audience So can you speak about what WebE is and what your mission is, what your vision is for it? Right now, we are rebranding Web3, right? We’re trying to make it make more sense culturally, especially for our communities, for sure That’s first and foremost And so, yeah, when you say Web3 or blockchain, crypto, the people who aren’t in this space It comes with a certain, I don’t know, energy So we’re trying to rebrand that in our community’s eyes And make way more user-friendly products We’ve really been having fun in the Web3 gaming space
5:58I believe in the Web3 gaming space a lot But we’re really just a collective of builders of color A lot of them are my friends before Web3 Who I just kind of pushed down the rabbit hole with me They saw me having enough success to come look Some already knew about it But, yeah, we’ve been jamming, you know, together for about two, three years now, I think I can’t even remember, I think July 4th, 2022 was Found on Mars That was our first project, so, yeah Very cool, and what was Found on Mars, what was the premise of that? Yeah, that was an AI-generated, it was mid-journey-generated artwork
6:31It was just a digital collectible project Right after NFT NYC that year, we went up there and promoted Webby Like, we had just started our Twitter and Instagram So that was the alpha we were giving out, like, hey, follow this page and then we did a no marketing free drop and that my goal was to mint out the project I had never it was 3333 pieces I never like had that many pieces out in the world as an artist and so I just wanted it to all be collected I thought that would take a couple weeks maybe a month it happened in an hour funny enough and we didn’t do any pre-promotion so that was really cool and the cool thing that started happening after that is because of
7:12Web3, the secondary market immediately started happening after it meant it out. And that was just really big for me as an artist to see people buying and selling something I put out in the world for free. And not only did we get to make some money because of royalties, other people made money. That’s what I love the most about that is I think it’s only done like two and a half ETH or something like that. It’s like we’ve made two and a half ETH for people off something that we put out for free, which is just really cool. I think that’s definitely incredible, and I think that really speaks to what’s so exciting about the spaces of creative, is being able to do your creative process, create because you want to create, and walk away with a portfolio. I think that’s something that really excited me, compelled me to start wanting to speak to creative specifically. And as you’re looking at trying to rebrand Web3, what are the things that, sticking points, what are the things that you see as making this space culturally relevant? What’s your approach to that? What do you feel like are guide points?
8:05Yeah, like I said, better user-centered products, stuff that people can actually use in their lives, whether it’s a game because you game or something like the Nasty Pass, which is one of our early products we did for DJ Mike Nasty out of New York, which is basically like a fast pass, you know, for its events. If you’ve ever gone to a New York, I mean a DJ Mike nasty party, the lines are long, crazy But to be able to mint a fast pass with different levels of rarity that would grant you Not only skip the line, but you can bring a plus one to a plus four depending on which rarity you got
8:39That’s real utility, that’s something people, it can make it make sense for people That you don’t really have to care about, well three, you go to this party every week, right? You stand in this line for X amount of hours, you spend this money, not only you get in for free You get to skip the line and you can bring, you know, more people with you, so That makes a lot of sense, user-centric, user-centric, like tools Yeah And things that pertain to everyday life For the next year, like this 2024, what’s on the horizon for Webby? What should you be looking out for? We’re trying to figure out what our North Star is as a product
9:06And we’re trying to just expand the brand And like, we’re very much so water too as a collective We haven’t kind of put ourselves in any kind of corner Just like taking a hard direction on anything Because this space is so volatile and it moves really fast So we’re staying flexible Just more presence overall, I think, in this space I think we want to have a larger presence in this space And outside of this space as a brand So whatever that means, like whatever that is that leads to that The goal is to expand, just to be, like I said, a larger presence I got that, Will, I’m excited to think about how we can play positive some games
9:40So I can apply what you’re up to, how I can show up to you I know you have a Discord, I’m in your Discord I’ve come to some of your calls this year I’m a big fan of Ken, Ken’s come to my calls throughout the year and most people don’t really come to my Discord calls in the bear market, but I think it’s been really cool to see Ken as a continuous space. He’s the man, bro. He’s been gassing you up to me for a couple months as well, so I’m excited we really got to do this interview. I want to say this before we dip.
10:00Congratulations on getting that proposal passed because that’s not easy in this space. Governance is crazy. It’s kind of difficult sometimes. It can be strenuous, so having that success with getting an idea passed by a body of governance in this space is something to be applauded, so salute on you coming out here and fulfilling what you proposed because a lot of people get stuff passed and get the funds and then they disappear. Shout out to you I appreciate that, I’m trying to make it happen, shout out to my team, shout out to Jules, shout out to Gabrielle Shout out to Foran as well as we’re showing up a little bit
10:25And shout out to you for really being here and letting me do it So thank you again so much If you have anything you want to let people know where they can find you, keep up with you Go ahead and shout it out BigTrav205 on Twitter and Instagram Webby, W3B-B-I-E dot XYZ is our website You can find everything else from there Alright, shout out to Webby, shout out to Trav Thank you all very much, we had to say booyah So booyah, thanks for another episode of We Them Niggas We Them Media, Maceo, Piano, Piano, Piano, Piano, Piano, Piano, Piano,
