Navigating the Metaverse

Guests: Joshua Roth is the VP of Development for Decrypt Studios. He is an Emmy-nominated and Clio Award-winning producer and writer with 15 years of experience in the film, television, and branded content industries. It's an honor to have you on the show, Josh! Andrew Hayward is the Senior Writer at Decrypt. He is a writer and editor of over 15 years covering topics on video games, gadgets, esports, crypto, apps, and more across 100+ total publications. He wrote for publications such as Rolling Stone, Vice, Playboy, Polygon, Edge, Official Xbox Magazine, IGN, The Esports Observer, Variety, and The Verge. We're excited to hear Andrew's take on NFTs and the Metaverse!

Guests: Miles Anthony is the Founder of Decentral Games, a next-generation entertainment and play-to-earn DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) at the intersection of the metaverse and NFT. The company is backed by key investor Digital Currency Group (DCG), whose principal subsidiary Grayscale is the world's biggest bitcoin and cryptocurrency fund manager. In this episode, we'll hear Miles share his insights and experience with Decentral Games and how they develop 3D metaverse games on blockchain for both consumer and business markets. Jason Chapman is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Konvoy Ventures, a venture fund investing in early-stage companies in the video gaming industry. Their recent investments include blockchain NFT games: Axie Infinity, Genopets, and Sky Mavis. In this episode, Jason will share with us his expertise and experience in investing in platforms and technologies at the frontier of gaming, particularly in the NFT and Metaverse space. Luca Passarotti is in International Business Development at Cagliari Calcio, the pride of a whole region, Sardinia, and one of the most popular teams in Italy. The club has partnered with Sorare, the digital football championship blockchain. In this episode, we're excited to have Luca Passarotti on the show as he shares his expertise and perspective on NFTs and the Metaverse.

Guests: Kate Mitselmakher is the CEO & Founder at Bloccelerate VC, a global decentralized engine for blockchain innovators. They are a team of serial investors, entrepreneurs, and executives from Fortune 500 companies passionate about supporting entrepreneurs in the blockchain space. In this episode, we'll hear Kate share her perspective on the Metaverse and the concept of the real world and the virtual world eventually merging into one. Martina Welkhoff is the Managing Partner at the WXR Fund, a venture firm at the intersection of two immense opportunities: female entrepreneurs and the next wave of computing. Their portfolio includes Metaverse platforms like Obsess, Scatter, and ShapesXR. We're honored to have Martina on the show to share with us how she helped companies realize the metaverse in some capacity to provide immersive content and experiences to the world.

Guests: Sandeep Nailwal is the Co-founder & Chief Operations Officer at Polygon Studios, an NFT-focused gaming and metaverse hub backed by a 100 million USD fund and already has multiple NFT projects with Decentraland, Opensea, Sandbox, Somnium Space, and Decentral Games. They have more than 3000 gaming and NFT decentralized applications. We're excited to have Sandeep on the show as he talks about various NFT projects he's led and how he set up Polygon Studios to make the best use of modern technology to shape fandom for generations to come and change the way the fans interact. Gabriele Bernasconi is the Co-CEO at Genuino, where they connect physical and digital commerce with authentic digital sport memorabilia. They help sports brands create trust with consumers by bringing transparency, traceability, and tradability of real-world objects into the digital frontier. In this episode, we're excited to hear from Gabriele Bernasconi and Genuino's NFT deals with brands and sports clubs like ACF Fiorentina. Thom Kozik is the Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at Campus Legends, a socially-driven community for officially licensed collegiate digital collectibles. He has had 25+ years of success in leading teams to deliver innovation and transformation at the intersection of consumer services, technology, and marketing at organizations such as Marriott, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Atari.

Guests: Ada Jonuse is the CEO and co-founder at Lympo. Acquired by Animoca Brands, Lympo is a sports NFT ecosystem featuring world-famous athletes and clubs together with a new ecosystem token LMT. Ada has co-founded 3 startups, 1 international startup community, released 2 crypto tokens, and was awarded the 2018 Women Technology Leader of the Year (Lithuania) and the 2017 Emerging European tech star. We're excited to have you on the show! Zach Zeurcher is the Founder of Gravity Space Marketing, a space-metaverse company and the only global marketing agency with the engineering and logistical capacity to take brands to space for marketing activations. Zach is an expert in finding and capturing value between the intersectionality of industries created through the adoption of new technology. We're honored to hear Zach's expertise and perspective in the future of the Metaverse. Josh Katz is the Founder and CEO at YellowHeart, a blockchain live event ticketing platform powered by distributed ledger technology. The YellowHeart platform is autonomous, fully decentralized, and runs on a public blockchain, which enables artists and teams to identify the market and sell directly to their fans. In this episode, we'll have the opportunity to hear Josh Katz talk about his perspective and vision on the future of NFTs and the Metaverse.

Guests: Avery Akkineni is the President at VaynerNFT, a consultancy that partners with the world's top intellectual property owners to develop market-leading NFT programs. VaynerNFT recently announced long-term NFT plans with their flagship client, Budweiser. In this episode, Avery Akkineni will talk about how she leads VaynerNFT in its mission to help the world's leading intellectual property owners navigate the wild and wonderful world of NFTs. It's an honor to have you on the show, Avery! Thibaut Predhomme is the Head of Operations & Chief of Staff at Sorare, well known for transforming online sports fandom and giving its community a new way to connect to the clubs and players that they love. With a monthly card sales volume of over $80M across 140 countries, Sorare is funded by a world-class team including Benchmark, Accel Partners, and footballers Gerard Piqué, Antoine Griezmann, and Rio Ferdinand. Thibaut Predhomme will share his perspective on NFTs and how Sorare achieved its success in the NFT space in the short span of 3 years. We're truly excited to have you on the show! Dr. Merav Ozair is a FinTech Professor at Rutgers Business School and a leading blockchain expert in NFTs, DeFi, DOAs, & Cryptocurrency. She has developed courses on blockchain and digital assets for both undergrads and graduate level while being the Research Director of the RBS Blockchain Hub. We're excited to dive into Dr. Ozair's vast knowledge and expertise in the NFT space.

Guests: Garrett Minks is the Chief Technology Officer at RAIR Technologies Inc., a blockchain-based digital rights management platform that uses NFTs to gate access to streaming content. Garrett is an early adopter of blockchain innovations, digital collectibles, and DLT based media platforms. In this episode, Garrett Minks shares how RAIR is at the forefront of revolutionizing streaming content. We're excited to have you here on the show! Dorukhan Acar is the Board Member, Executive Com. Member, & Chief Treasurer at Galatasaray SK, the only European cup winner football team in Turkey, holding the highest number of Turkish League cups. Galatasaray also won the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup in 2000. In this episode, Dorukhan Acar will talk about Galatasaray's NFTs deals with brands like Socios and more. We're excited to hear from you, Doruk! Murat Kristal is the Director of Centre of Excellence in Big Data & Analytics Leadership at the Schulich School of Business - York University. He has numerous publications in print, an analytics pioneer in Canada, an accomplished researcher, and is recognized as a Top 40 under 40 Professor. We're excited to hear Murat's expertise when it comes to NFTs and his perspective on the future of the Metaverse.

✅ Joe Pace is the Head of Business Development at ASICS Running Apps.ASICS, formerly Runkeeper, is a leading mobile running app, founded in 2008 and one of the first apps available when the app store launched that year. The app now has over 50 million users across 180 countries.Pace creates new products, services, and relationships for ASICS Running Apps business.In this episode, Joe Pace shares how ASICS dropped the world's first digital shoe, the ASICS Sunrise Red™ NFT Collection. ✅ Lauren Griewski has 15+ years media, advertising, technology and executive experience with the world's leading platforms including Roblox where she was responsible for brand integrations and 7 years at Facebook & Instagram. While at Facebook & Instagram, she was responsible for advertising sales and strategy, revenue growth, product development, partnerships, marketplaces advertiser effectiveness as well as global expansion and growth across priority verticals.She's now the Chief Revenue Officer at Permission.io. ✅ Dr. Farooq Anjum is the lead professor at the Harrisburg University Next Generation Technologies.Dr. Farooq Anjum recently discussed the rapid rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with FOX43 news. He is also the CTO & Co-Founder at GroGuru Inc. which is transforming the agriculture industry with IOT + AI by providing precise guidance about irrigation time and frequency to a grower.

Guests: Zeev Klein is a General Partner at Landmark Ventures and the Founder of the “Royal Society of Players”, a collection of 10,000 hand-made NFT playing cards offering members unique perks, prizes, and privileges spanning both the metaverse and real world. He is also personally active as an angel investor and advisor to several NFT & Crypto companies including ZED RUN (who we also have here on the episode), Sandbox, Wilder World, Grin Gaming, Polygon (Matic), Concept Art House, and more. Roman Tirone is the Head of Partnerships at gaming startup Virtually Human Studio— they develop consumer-first entertainment experiences with emerging technologies like blockchain. Their flagship game ZED RUN was one of the first of its kind created on the blockchain (raised millions of USD from A16z, TCG Capital Management, and investors including Zeev). In this episode, Roman Tirone will talk about his experience in NFT partnerships with brands like NASCAR and more. Felipe Ribbe shares his experience working in innovation and sports. He recently joined Socios as their Head of BizDev Brazil. Socios is a new app for sports and esports fans, where you acquire voting rights to influence the clubs and teams you love. Find your voice, get club rewards & compete for once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Episode 1 of the Navigating the Metaverse Show with our partner Decrypt Media. Guests: Daniel Roberts and Alanna Roazzi-Laforet from Decrypt. Highlights: