MetaVault Season 2!
This is MetaVault, a weekly-ish newsletter that examines the rapidly evolving dynamics of the Web3 and NFT space. Creators, builders, communities, utility, simplicity, DAOs. Vibes.
I’m back after a little layoff and reset. You may have noticed a new intro. Same music from Virtunaut, but certainly different lines from me. Well, what’s going on?!
Ok, let’s go back to October of last year.
Pixel Vault had announced a ton of stuff, but there was no published roadmap. It was hard to get a sense of the sequence of deliverables like the planet mint window, PC2 launch, adidas partnership, Elite Apes. So I started the MetaVault newsletter on a whim and the very first post was what I thought the Roadmap looked like based on PV Town Halls and GFunk’s appearances on various podcasts. I published on a Sunday night, woke up on Monday morning, and my Twitter thread was retweeted by Beanie with snapshots from the newsletter. 100 subscribers that day. Wow. I was off and running.
I posted one to two newsletters per week, diving into the details of various drops, interesting mechanics, and a healthy dose of speculation. Always love some good speculation. I built a little following. It was fun.
So, cut forward. It’s around the turn of the year and I got a DM from a gentleman named Brad Barrett asking if I’d considered doing a podcast. I said yes, and asked if was he interested in doing something together. In our first call to sort of feel out each other and get a sense of what the state of the possibility was I immediately knew he’d be a great co-host. Just a reminder, Brad co-founded one of the most successful business podcasts in the world: ChooseFI. He’s built the top platform for people interested in the Financial Independence movement -- globally. And yet on this first call, he was a humble guy just geeking out about Pixel Vault.
So we did it. I quickly got up to speed on how to produce a podcast, host it, publish it across Apple and Spotify, and then push it on Twitter. We brought on fun members of the community, guests like Abraham, BCheque, Ned, FilmBook, Rusty. I remember the first time I reached out to GMAN, a top tier collector and Elite Ape, asking if he was interested in doing the podcast. He immediately said yes, and I realized, oh wow, this space is still, it’s small enough to where you can reach out to someone who has “status” and they’re 100% going to help you if they can. We even got some of the PV team to jump on the pod. Thanks to Jacob and Economist for joining.
Through the pod I’ve become real friends with a lot of our guests. Brad and I chat with these folks almost daily. And it’s fun to think that for most of them, guesting on MetaVault was their first appearance on a pod. I mean, Abraham is absolutely going to run a Top 10 Web3 company at some point in the future -- his first pod appearance was on MetaVault! S/o to Abraham.
Ok, before talking about what’s next, I want to acknowledge Brad’s genius. First off, he’s a pro on the mic. That’s immediately obvious to anyone who listens for two seconds. I learned so much from watching him work. Little stuff like cadence, emphasis, leading questions, transitions, taking a step back to explain a concept in further detail for the listener. All of that may seem easy to do -- believe me, it’s a skill. And he’s just damn good. And secondly, he managed to be an insider who followed a ton of PV news and held a good size bag of assets, while also still representing the smaller collectors and those who don’t follow every tweet. Carrying people through these complex topics in a way that’s approachable, logical, and also makes you feel like he’s on your side?! Crazy. And then lastly, Brad and I have become friends. He’s someone I can go to for advice, bounce ideas off of, or dream of running an English football team together.
Ok, so early on, when considering names for the podcast, we purposefully chose MetaVault for two reasons: 1.) the newsletter already had a small brand that we could leverage and 2.) the name is broad enough that we could theoretically cover anything going on in Web3, NFTs, and the metaverse. While we had every intention to start out squarely focused on Pixel Vault, there was room to expand to other projects.
And that’s what I’m going to do. This space is growing and changing constantly. I want to explore key concepts that stretch across projects, things like the future of licensing, NFT productization, operationalizing DAOs, the CC0 movement, community engagement from the community’s perspective. And I want to invite on people who are deeply knowledgeable about these topics -- the artists, creators, builders, and founders who are thinking through this stuff. At the same time, I want to do sillier concepts. The first episode of Season 2 will be The Top 5 pfps from the Future.
So here’s the thing, to build a show like that takes a ton of prep and coordination. Considering I have two little kids, a wife, a demanding IRL job, I’m active in a couple of DAOs, and run two newsletters -- I’m stretched pretty thin. When the MetaVault newsletter and podcast were singularly focused on PV, Brad and I could basically show up and record with zero coordination between us. The rundown was anything going on that week -- news big or small. And that sort of minimal prep show took over six hours per week to produce. Broadening the focus requires more coordination and prep -- it’s just harder to wing it. So I reached out to Brad to let him know I wanted to continue the pod, but didn’t have the time to coordinate between him, a guest, and myself. So I wanted to go solo. And he was incredible. He was excited to see the pod move forward and where I would take it. And look, he will absolutely appear on the show in the future. He’s a brilliant thinker and brings amazing vibes. So huge, massive thanks to Brad for being my co-pilot for the last six months.
Ok, so wait, a couple of questions:
1. No more Pixel Vault coverage? I’ll certainly discuss aspects of the project moving forward. I still follow the company’s news, I’m still very much a committed member of the Founder’s DAO. And I still have hopes of getting GFunk on the pod. But remember, when I started the newsletter and the pod, there wasn’t a ton of PV content being created. Now? There are a lot of community members doing amazing work. People like Rusty, Villiansky, Zentensivist, Bevs, Brain, Helix, West Coast Walker -- and a ton more in the Founders DAO channel in the PV Discord. The community is full of big brains. And while I’m on the Founders DAO, thanks for the community contribution reward! MetaVault was recognized by the DAO members as a significant content contributor. Appreciate everyone who reads, listens, and voted. I love being part of the community.
2. Will I do more of these quote-unquote One Man and a Mic shows? No, absolutely not. I’m not Carly Reilly or LG Doucet. They’re masters at this. I have a ton of respect for what they do. LG actually reached out early on after starting my newsletter to provide encouragement and advice. We only exchanged a few emails, but that kind of early support from a top person in the space was a big confidence booster. S/o to LG and The First Mint crew.
So that’s that. MetaVault Season 2 starts tomorrow! In the first episode I’m bringing back my good friend FilmBook to select the Top 5 pfps from the Future. I’ll try my absolute best to do weekly newsletters and pods. And then I’ll be out at NFT NYC! I’m planning to hang with a bunch of friends, attend as many parties as I can, and celebrate an incredible year in this space. If you’re there, DM me!
Disclaimer: None of this is financial advice. DYOR. And yes, I own pieces from the collections mentioned in this article.