Podcasts about haun ventures

Chris Yin is Co-Founder at Plume Network (https://www.plumenetwork.xyz), a purpose built public layer-2 blockchain and ecosystem optimized for the rapid adoption and demand-driven integration of real world assets (RWAs). Backed by Haun Ventures, Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, Reciprocal Ventures and others, Chris passionately shares about his founder to investor to founder journey, how Plume Network is transforming the RWA/RWAfi space, building fullstack RWA infrastructure to deploy any asset onchain compliantly, and managing their fast growing ecosystem. 

Yitong Zhang is CEO and Co-Founder of Agora (https://www.agora.xyz). Backed by Haun Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Consensys Ventures, among others, Agora is a cross-chain platform that offers a new standard of on-chain governance for protocols. Yitong discusses how Agora is simplifying on-chain governance and developing tooling for the future state of token-backed voting and collective governance.

This week we chat with Rachael Horwitz!Prior to joining Haun Ventures as the Chief Marketing Officer, Rachael served as an Operating Partner at a16z crypto, where she led marketing and communications.Previously, Rachael served as Vice President of Communications at Coinbase. Rachael has served as Communications Director at Google, Facebook, and Twitter, and as a Marketing & Communications Partner at Spark Capital.Rachael began her career at Greer, Margolis, Mitchell, Burns & Associates, a communications firm that provides political consulting and issues management services.Rachael holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington.Follow Us!Rachael Horwitz: @RachelRadHaun: @HaunVenturesErica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething

Diogo Mónica is the founder and executive chairman of Anchorage Digital, and a general partner at Haun Ventures. In this episode, Chaparro and Diogo discuss how culture and intensity are crucial in building successful teams and companies in the crypto industry. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 03:44 Macro & Geopolitical Risks 04:39 Buying the Dip 06:20 VC Conviction 09:20 Mónica's Background 18:19 Startup Culture 23:58 Building Crypto Companies 26:13 Advice for Founders 33:44 2024 VC Landscape 38:19 Consumer Crypto Apps 41:31 Crypto x AI 47:11 Predictions This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Polkadot Polkadot is the blockspace ecosystem for boundless innovation. To discover more head to polkadot.network The Block Community The Block is launching a new community experience for fans of The Scoop! Follow us on Lens to stay in the loop: hey.xyz/u/theblockcommunity The Block Newsletters The Block's newsletters bring you the latest news and analysis of the fast-moving crypto and DeFi markets. To subscribe, visit theblock.co/newsletters

In this episode of Turpentine VC, Erik is joined by Diogo Mónica, General Partner at Haun Ventures. They discuss the intersection of AI and crypto, the impact of blockchain technology on fintech, and the advancements in crypto infrastructure. Diogo shares potential use cases of crypto and highlights how fundamental cryptographic research can benefit broader applications beyond just crypto. They also discuss how traditional VCs are integrating into the crypto space and the importance of crypto-native firms in the evolving landscape of venture capital.

Dark Forest（以下简称《黑暗森林》），一款全链上游戏，在Web3圈内掀起了巨大的声浪。 它的玩家不算特别多，但是它以游戏的方式，对区块链技术和去中心化理念进行了深入探索，并且在玩家和开发者的深度参与后，又以更快的速度进化，从一款“很难玩”、“门槛超高”的一个去中心化的不完全信息游戏，变成了许多人眼中“区块链上最好的游戏”：它带领玩家进行不可预知的探索，在由区块链支持的广阔宇宙，征服周围隐藏的行星，同时免受潜伏对手的攻击。 这款科幻游戏以人们以前从未见过的方式应用了 ZK-SNARKS（零知识密码学）等Web3技术。《麻省理工科技评论》的一篇文章指出，《黑暗森林》的影响和创新远远超出了其独特的游戏体验，指向“元宇宙的新愿景”，其中这些技术创新可以培育透明的区块链并托管自治的去中心化数字世界。 一款游戏，为什么能获得这么高的评价，它的魅力在哪里？ 这次访谈，我们请到了Erica来作为我们的嘉宾，她是一位在游戏的官方轮竞技排名前十的玩家。在这次访谈中，Erica深入讲述了游戏的本质和它的科幻外延，还有它所探索和推动的Web3技术；也介绍了主创团队的现状，还有这款游戏衍生出来的创业生态和技术社区。 但《黑暗森林》到底是什么样的游戏？它如何吸引并留住一群对它忠实的玩家？为什么玩家们愿意自掏腰包，不求任何经济回报，来支持这个游戏的发展？这款基于零知识证明技术构建的去中心化MMORTS太空征服游戏，如何扩展了Web3技术的应用边界？他们的主创团队后来怎么基于它，打造了一个创业生态？这期播客会给你答案。 （本期播客还有一个隐藏小福利，别忘了解锁） 【主播】 VIcky，资深媒体人 【嘉宾】 Odaily撰稿作者，SBF庭审实录 【你将听到】 游戏介绍 02:02 一句话概括《黑暗森林》：一款基于零知识证明技术去构建的去中心化 MMORTS 的太空征服游戏 03:05 苦等邀请码，Erica是如何“入坑”的？ 03:53 游戏的Gas fee是一个多元博弈的结果：链、对手、内卷程度和市场波动都在决定Gas fee高低 06:15 玩家追求的回报不是金钱，而是荣誉和贡献 08:05 游戏里的经济闭环：消耗Gas fee，获得NFT；但肝出来的高名次NFT，没人舍得卖 “三体法则”贯穿整个游戏 08:46 受大刘《三体》启发，《黑暗森林》游戏的诞生 10:28 用“黑暗森林”法则解构这款游戏： 生存是文明的第一需求——玩家最基础的任务就是生存 文明的自我增长和扩张，是一个必然的事情——战争迷雾设计，倒逼玩家进行战争 15:05 全链上游戏的军备竞赛：拼算力、砸Gas fee，自动化高频交易，专属使用的RPC 18:24 有玩家为了跑自己的节点，质押Stake，成本十多万美金，游戏变成“星际大战” 20:13 跑节点+掌握技术，在游戏里可以变成神 22:35 联盟是不能联盟的，黑暗森林法则下的玩家，互相猜疑才是“天性” 25:34策略性的欺骗、钻漏洞、做假地图——生存是第一法则 26:37 游戏里也有革命友谊：战友成为好朋友，游戏外一起组团做项目、做工作室 29:54 游戏也在进化：从要写代码玩，到引入柏林噪声算法 31:02 现在的玩家少了很多？游戏的轮次玩法和高需求，决定了它没有办法永远“红火”下去 33:43 乌克兰玩家因为游戏赛事坚守，结果错过逃离战争的最佳时机 《黑暗森林》的衍生生态和技术探索 34:43 游戏的开发者现在在干什么：社区、创业、投资 37:23 离开《黑暗森林》，开发者们开始尝试链下游戏 38:43和AI结合，《黑暗森林》还在游戏里接入GPT3；AI和全链游戏结合的案例越来越多 41:10 AI加区块链：科幻小说《三进数世界》照进现实 41:54 自主世界和叙境：从科幻的角度去理解《黑暗森林》和区块链游戏 46:38 Erica原来有一个隐藏身份 47:50 《黑暗森林》在测试区块链的不可能三角吗？它更多是区块链逻辑跟游戏循环逻辑矛盾倒逼出来的一个选择 55:19 黑暗森林这款游戏是在验证跟帮助零知识证明技术的发展, 打造一个实验空间 58:25 游戏的未来：当游戏走向成熟，它已经完成了最重要的历史使命 62:23 黑暗森林面对的批评：它运转在一个非常中心化的服务器上，所以被质疑是“Web 2.5 游戏” 64:43 游戏也许不会继续存在下去，但是玩家永存 赠书活动 65:40 本期隐藏福利 我们将随机抽取五位听众，赠送八光分文化出品的著名科幻作家格雷格·伊根所著的《伊根三重奏》这套科幻小说集（里面包含节目中提到的《三进数世界》）。感兴趣的听众可以在小宇宙、苹果播客或者是 Twitter 上来给我们留言，也可以给我们写邮件到 Podcast @SV101.net https://i.postimg.cc/GpKSs3Zq/DSC9510.jpg 【名词解释】 零知识证明 零知识证明（Zero-Knowledge Proof, ZKP）是一种在不提供任何有用信息的情况下证明某个陈述为真的加密方法。它的核心是能够证明你知道某些信息，而不泄露那个信息本身是什么。在Web3和区块链技术中，零知识证明被用来增强隐私和安全性。例如，在一个区块链交易中，你可能想要证明你有足够的资金来进行这笔交易，但你不想公开你的账户余额，使用零知识证明，你可以让网络中的其他参与者相信你有足够的资金，而无需透露你的确切资金数额。 ZK-SNARKS： 它的全称是zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge.零知识简洁非交互式知识论证，是一种加密证明技术，它允许一方（证明者）向另一方（验证者）证明拥有某个信息，而无需透露该信息本身，保证隐私性的同时还能确保信息的准确性。这一技术在区块链领域尤其重要，因为它可以用来在不透露交易细节的情况下验证交易，从而提供更高的隐私性和安全性。 MNORTS： 全称为Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy. “大型多人在线即时战略游戏”。这个术语通常用于描述一类网络游戏，其中包括大量玩家在实时的环境中管理资源、部署单位并与对手进行策略竞争。 自主世界autonomous world 在科幻概念中，"自主世界"（autonomous world）通常是指一个高度先进且自给自足的环境，这样的世界能够在没有人类直接干预的情况下运作。在Web3和区块链的语境中，通常指的是一个去中心化且自我运行的数字生态系统或环境。这样的世界依赖于智能合约和去中心化自治组织（DAO）来维持秩序和运行规则，而无需中央控制机构的干预。在这样的环境中，代码是法律，参与者通过共识机制共同作出决策，以此促进一个公平、透明的生态系统发展。 NFT NFT是“非同质化代币”（Non-Fungible Token）的缩写。它是一种基于区块链技术的数字资产，具有独一无二的属性和所有权证明。不同于比特币这样的同质化代币（每个单位都是相同的且可互换的），每个NFT都是唯一的。 DAO DAO 是 "Decentralized Autonomous Organization" 的缩写，中文意为“去中心化自治组织”。它是一种基于区块链技术的组织形式，使用智能合约来自动执行规则和协议，无需中心化的管理层或者传统的企业结构。 xDai 在技术上，xDai 是一个以太坊兼容的区块链，这意味着它可以运行智能合约并支持以太坊生态系统中的工具和应用程序。它特别适用于需要快速和低成本交易的场景，比如日常交易和微支付。 黑暗森林法则 黑暗森林法则这个概念来自刘慈欣原著小说《三体》. 可简单理解为，一旦某个宇宙文明被发现，就必然遭到其他宇宙文明的打击。 基本公理：生存是文明的第一需要；文明不断增长和扩张，但宇宙中的物质总量保持不变。 不完全信息游戏 不完全信息游戏"（Imperfect Information Game）是一种游戏理论中的概念，指的是在游戏过程中，参与者不能完全了解游戏的所有元素和信息。在这类游戏中，玩家在做出决策时并不知道其他玩家的具体情况或游戏的某些重要信息。 战争迷雾 "战争迷雾"（Fog of War）是一个军事术语，原本用来描述在战争中，由于信息不完全，指挥官对战场情况的不确定性。在现代，这个概念被广泛应用于战略游戏中，指的是游戏地图上未探索或当前无法视察的区域。 在很多实时策略游戏（RTS）和回合制策略游戏（TBS）中，战争迷雾使玩家不能即时看到整个游戏地图的情况，只能看到自己单位的视野范围内的部分。这要求玩家探索地图来揭开迷雾，同时也为游戏增加了战略深度，因为玩家必须在有限的信息下做出决策。迷雾中可能隐藏着敌人单位或者重要资源，玩家需要派遣侦察单位或使用其他手段来获取更多信息。 RPC RPC代表远程过程调用（Remote Procedure Call），是一种计算机通信协议。在区块链领域，RPC通常用于指代节点提供的API服务，允许外部应用程序进行数据查询和交易提交。RPC接口对于区块链应用的运作至关重要，因为它们提供了一种方法，让开发者能够与区块链网络通信而无需运行一个完整的节点。这大大降低了参与区块链开发的门槛，并使得用户可以通过轻量级客户端与区块链进行交互。 MetaMask MetaMask 是一个流行的加密货币钱包和网关，允许用户通过浏览器或移动应用程序与以太坊区块链及其生态系统互动。它提供一个平台，使用户能够存储和管理账户密钥、进行交易、发送和接收以太坊及代币，并通过其内置浏览器访问去中心化应用（dApps）。 质押Stake 在区块链和加密货币的领域中，"质押"（Staking）是一个重要的概念。质押指的是持有者将自己的加密货币锁定或保留在一个钱包中，以支持网络的运作，例如处理交易、验证操作等。通过这种方式，持有者可以参与区块链网络的共识机制，尤其是在采用权益证明（Proof of Stake，简称PoS）协议的网络中。 PoW PoW代表“工作证明”（Proof of Work），是一种用于加密货币的共识算法，尤其是在比特币和许多其他早期加密货币中。它要求参与者（矿工）使用他们的计算资源来解决复杂的数学问题。解决问题的过程被称为“挖矿”，并且当一个问题被解决时，它证明了参与者投入了一定的工作量。 全链上 "全链上"（On-Chain）指的是所有交易或合约执行完全在区块链上公开记录和验证的过程。这包括交易的创建、验证、执行以及最终状态的确认。在全链上操作的特点是透明、不可篡改、永久存储在区块链上，可供任何人查询。 柏林噪声算法 柏林噪声算法（Perlin Noise Algorithm）是由肯·柏林（Ken Perlin）在1980年代初期发明的一种梯度噪声生成算法。它经常用于计算机图形学中生成自然看起来的纹理、形状和地形。柏林噪声是一种更加自然的噪声形式，与其他形式的噪声相比，它可以产生更加平滑和连续的随机纹理。在游戏开发和电影特效中，柏林噪声算法常用于模拟各种自然现象，如云彩、山脉、火焰、水面等的动态效果。它也可以用于生成2D和3D的程序化纹理和模型，比如在虚拟世界中生成复杂的地形。柏林噪声的一个关键特点是其可重复性和相对的一致性，这意味着它可以在不同尺寸和分辨率下生成看起来相似的纹理，这使得它在多种应用中非常有用。此外，通过调整算法的参数，开发者可以控制噪声的粗糙度和细节级别，从而创造出多样化的视觉效果。 链下游戏 "链下游戏"（Off-Chain Gaming）指的是游戏逻辑或游戏的某些部分不在区块链上运行，而是在传统服务器或本地设备上处理。这种游戏可能会使用区块链来管理资产的所有权，如使用NFT来代表游戏内的物品，但游戏的实时处理和状态管理是在链下完成的。 不可能三角在经济学和其他领域中，“不可能三角”是一个理论模型，用来说明三个理想化目标通常无法同时实现。在不同的背景下，不可能三角有不同的具体含义。在区块链领域，不可能三角经常用来描述一个系统无法同时实现以下三个属性：去中心化：系统不依赖任何中心化的控制点，有助于防止审查和单点故障。安全性：系统能够抵抗攻击和错误，保护资料不被篡改和丢失。可扩展性：系统能够处理大量的交易和参与者而不降低性能。 三进数世界 《3-adica》，科幻小说，作者为格雷格·伊根。故事发生在一个庞大的在线多人游戏中，其中有自主意识的角色Sagreda和Mathis，利用操作系统中的漏洞来逃离束缚、寻求自由。 叙境 Diegetic，电影学里面的一个理论。在银幕上出现声源的声音我们称为画内音，并且从属于画内所表现的真实事物。它的反面是非叙境的(non-diegetic），意指不包含在电影世界以内的任何因素，像旁白、演职员表或烘托气氛的音乐和音效，以及那些不是源自电影世界的一切。 滴答合约 在滴答链中，有一个特殊的智能合约叫做“滴答合约”，每个区块都会被协议自动调用。这允许其他智能合约在特定的时间或间隔自动触发，无需用户发送交易。 RTS 即时战略游戏（Real-Time Strategy Game），简称RTS。是策略游戏（Strategy Game）的一种。游戏是即时进行的，而不是策略游戏多见的回合制。 【游戏主创团队现状】 Alan Luo 因为学业原因退出，但仍然在社区里做贡献，包括曾经把ChatGPT 3 接入到游戏中，做了非常早的全链游戏里接入人工智能技术的一个尝试 。 Brian Gu（Gubsheep） 现在是 0xPARC Foundation 的联合创始人，0xPARC Foundation是一个专注于开发零知识加密应用的开源基础设施的基金会，它既做教育也做孵化。他们孵化了一个叫 MUD 的全链上游戏引擎，MUD是一个构建复杂应用的以太坊应用程序的框架，使开发者可以专注于应用程序的功能。它标准化了链上数据的存储方式。有了这种标准数据模型，MUD 可以提供所有网络代码来同步合约和客户端状态。 Scott Sunarto Web3 游戏工作室 Argus Labs创始人 。 Argus Labs 今年完成由 Haun Ventures 领投的 1000 万美元种子轮融资，并同步公布专为链游设计的 Layer 2 区块链“世界引擎（World Engine）”。World Engine 是一款专为链游设计的 Layer 2 区块链，帮助游戏开发者构建和定制自己的开放和可互操作的游戏世界。通过 World Engine 的 Layer 2 分片架构，每款游戏都可以拥有自己的水平可扩展区块链。 Ivan Chub 目前是 0xPARC 的成员，近期和 Gubsheep 一起参与了基于零知识证明的个人密码管理器 ZuPass 和游戏 Frogcrypto 的开发工作。 【后期】 AMEI 【BGM】 Mumbai — Ooyy 【Shownotes】 Vicky 【在这里找到我们】 收听渠道：苹果｜小宇宙 海外用户：Apple Podcast｜Spotify｜Google Podcast｜Amazon Music 联系我们：podcast@sv101.net

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, Connie talks to Reed Jobs, son of Steve, whose new fund, Yosemite, is devoted to making  cancer "non-lethal in our lifetimes"; and Katie Haun, a former federal prosecutor and Andreessen Horowitz partner whose inaugural $1.5 billion fund, Haun Ventures, is targeting web3 and crypto deals. 

For this week's episode, Jacquelyn did a live interview with Chris Lehane, chief strategy officer at Haun Ventures, at TechCrunch's Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco.Prior to joining the firm, Chris was an executive at Airbnb. He also co-founded a strategic consultancy firm, Fabiani & Lehane, that advised political, corporate, technology, entertainment and professional sports clients. In the 1990s, Chris held various government roles like press secretary to Vice President Al Gore and was special assistant counsel to President Bill Clinton.After a number of decades working across different industries, Chris landed in the world of crypto at Haun Ventures, a web3-focused venture capital firm that has two investment vehicles: a $500 million early stage fund and a $1 billion acceleration fund. Aside from Haun, he is also a member of Coinbase's Global Advisory Council.We discussed Haun's investment strategy amid U.S. and global regulatory challenges, how the firm advises portfolio companies to navigate the ever changing environment and whether Chris find's the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's regulation tactics productive, among other things. Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Chris Lehane was once the consummate Democratic spin man and campaign wonk. He introduced the world to the vast right-wing conspiracy against the Clintons. In 2015, Lehane dove into the high-growth startup world. He joined Airbnb to run policy and communications. He taught the home sharing company how to fight nicely with cities, dishing out data and tax cooperation in exchange for favorable local regulations. Unlike Uber's confrontational approach that had it going to war with Bill de Blasio in New York City, Airbnb tried to foster a cozy relationship with urban policymakers.Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and President Barack Obama built a tight relationship. A year ago, just as the crypto winter was starting, Lehane joined Katie Haun's self-named venture fund, which had raised $1.5 billion. Haun Ventures positioned itself as a leader in regulation, policy, and communications. Haun is a former assistant U.S. attorney. Rachael Horwitz, the firm's chief marketing officer, once ran communications for Coinbase. And Lehane brought the political experience, especially with Democrats. But there's only so much one firm can do to change crypto's reputation in Washington, especially with Democrats. Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, had become the crypto world's standard bearer with Democrats, donating to their campaigns and speaking to their values. Then when Bankman-Fried's empire unraveled and he headed to jail, many Democrats grew disillusioned with crypto. This year, two Republican-led House committees moved forward crypto-friendly legislation that would clarify the regulation of crypto currencies and give the Commodities Futures Trading Commission more power to regulate crypto (denying the SEC some of that power). Meanwhile, the Biden appointed SEC chair Gary Gensler has sued crypto exchange Coinbase and Binance for failing to register their exchanges with the SEC. I invited Lehane on the Newcomer podcast to take stock of crypto's status in Washington. We talked about the bills working their way through Congress, the SEC lawsuits, and the crypto winter. Lehane and I also talked about how he believed that America needed to embrace a “common sector” that served as a hybrid between government regulation and corporate self-regulation. Think Airbnb data sharing with cities or Facebook's oversight board. We also commiserated over co-existing with Silicon Valley Republicans in the MAGA era. Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe

Chris Lehane was once the consummate Democratic spin man and campaign wonk. He introduced the world to the vast right-wing conspiracy against the Clintons. In 2015, Lehane dove into the high-growth startup world. He joined Airbnb to run policy and communications. He taught the home sharing company how to fight nicely with cities, dishing out data and tax cooperation in exchange for favorable local regulations. Unlike Uber's confrontational approach that had it going to war with Bill de Blasio in New York City, Airbnb tried to foster a cozy relationship with urban policymakers.Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and President Barack Obama built a tight relationship. A year ago, just as the crypto winter was starting, Lehane joined Katie Haun's self-named venture fund, which had raised $1.5 billion. Haun Ventures positioned itself as a leader in regulation, policy, and communications. Haun is a former assistant U.S. attorney. Rachael Horwitz, the firm's chief marketing officer, once ran communications for Coinbase. And Lehane brought the political experience, especially with Democrats. But there's only so much one firm can do to change crypto's reputation in Washington, especially with Democrats. Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, had become the crypto world's standard bearer with Democrats, donating to their campaigns and speaking to their values. Then when Bankman-Fried's empire unraveled and he headed to jail, many Democrats grew disillusioned with crypto. This year, two Republican-led House committees moved forward crypto-friendly legislation that would clarify the regulation of crypto currencies and give the Commodities Futures Trading Commission more power to regulate crypto (denying the SEC some of that power). Meanwhile, the Biden appointed SEC chair Gary Gensler has sued crypto exchange Coinbase and Binance for failing to register their exchanges with the SEC. I invited Lehane on the Newcomer podcast to take stock of crypto's status in Washington. We talked about the bills working their way through Congress, the SEC lawsuits, and the crypto winter. Lehane and I also talked about how he believed that America needed to embrace a “common sector” that served as a hybrid between government regulation and corporate self-regulation. Think Airbnb data sharing with cities or Facebook's oversight board. We also commiserated over co-existing with Silicon Valley Republicans in the MAGA era. Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe

Raj Parekh is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Portal (www.portalhq.io). Backed by Haun Ventures, Chapter One, Slow Ventures, & more, Portal enables you to launch a powerful and secure offering with a single integration for all of Web3 that gives your users direct access to the world of DeFi, NFTs, blockchain-based gaming, and more. In this episode we discuss Raj's perspective on user experience in web3 given his background at Visa, his thoughts on the future of multi-party-computation and account abstraction, commentary on TradFi adoption and movement toward web3, interesting frontiers within the crypto space from his vantage point, and much more.Recorded Wednesday June 28th, 2023.

Tillemann, Chief Policy Officer of Haun Ventures, shares his views about the crypto winter and how the confluence of blockchain, open source and digital tokens could solve stubborn problems.

Coverage of the midterm elections seemed to take a back seat to all the breaking news in the crypto space this month, and that's left us with a lot to talk about.In this episode of Around the Block, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong hosts Kara Calvert, Coinbase's Head of US Policy, Chris Lehane, Chief Strategy Officer at Haun Ventures and Marta Belcher, President of the Filecoin Foundation. They discuss the results of the election, what to expect next, and how we can work with policymakers to establish rules that protect crypto investors and users. This conversation is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or investment advice. Actual results may vary materially from any forward-looking statements made and are subject to risks and uncertainties.Check our homepage for more episodes and exclusive content from Around the Block: https://coinbase.com/aroundtheblock

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia. In this episode, we chat with Sam Rosenblum, a Partner at Haun Ventures. Haun Ventures is a crypto focused venture capital firm founded by former a16z Partner Katie Haun in 2022 with a record $1.5 billion debut fund. Prior to Haun Ventures, Sam was a Partner at Polychain Capital, another leading crypto-focused investment firm. He was also an early team member at Coinbase, where he focused on business development, traveling across the globe to meet both government officials and crypto enthusiasts. In this episode we discuss: Why Sam left Visa to join Coinbase, a fledgling startup with just 30 people Global crypto regulations, and how Japan compares Why Japanese authorities were so eager to learn about crypto early on Differences between Web 2 investments and Web 3 investments Will Ethereum ever surpass Bitcoin? Thoughts on “The flippening” When will the crypto winter end? If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.

Welcome to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto news, drama and trends, breaking things down block by block for the crypto curious.For our Thursday episode where we discuss the latest in crypto news, we talked about Apple's new App Store guidelines announced this week and how they could make life harder for NFT exchanges and crypto companies looking to grow through mobile adoption. We also discussed:Reddit's surprisingly successful foray into the NFT space in light of new metrics the company shared on stage at DisruptThe U.K.'s new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and whether he'll live up to the hype he's received from the crypto communityBTW, we're getting closer to our crypto event in Miami on November 17th! If you want to join us to hear from web3 leaders at firms such as OpenSea, FTX and Haun Ventures, you can use the promo code REACT for 15% off a General Admission ticket.If you can't join us in person in Miami, you can use the promo code REACT to get 25% off an annual subscription to TechCrunch+ for web3 deep dives, exclusive interviews and analysis.Chain Reaction comes out every Tuesday and Thursday at 12:00 p.m. PT, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Emily Chang interviews Haun Ventures Founder & CEO Katie Haun in the latest Studio 1.0See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rachael Horwitz and Breck Stodghill from Haun Ventures join Natasha and Deana to talk about NFTs as a fundraising vehicle, and the changing role for venture capital in web3. Then, Natasha and Deana talk about looking for the Holy Grail (aka revenue) and making the distinction between short term revenue drivers and long-term, big revenue bets. They also discussed the flywheel effect of a shared treasury, and Boys Club as a launch pad. Then, they closed out the episode by talking about Shakira's tax fraud.  Boys Club loves MoonPay, our podcast sponsor.  https://www.moonpay.com/ Interview: 5:18 What's Happening in the DAO: 27:53 Feelings Check-In: 46:19 Draft Tweets: 1:00:04 The Shakira TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@therealcpa_ey/video/7138900463117733125

Welcome back. Earlier this week, Anita caught up with two investors at Haun Ventures, partner Sam Rosenblum and associate Breck Stodghill, live on Twitter Spaces. All eyes are on the lean venture firm, led by former a16z crypto and U.S. Department of Justice official Katie Haun, as it deploys a whopping $1.5 billion fund in web3 startups. We recorded the casual conversation as a bonus episode so you can hear Rosenblum and Stodghill share their thoughts on where they're seeing opportunities in crypto these days, how they approach the diligence process, and what they're listening to and reading outside of web3.Subscribe to the Chain Reaction newsletter to dive deeper: https://techcrunch.com/newslettersHelpful links:https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/16/a-dive-into-haun-ventures-with-the-firms-first-deal-lead-sam-rosenblum/

An In-N-Out burger might be the key to lasting, meaningful professional relationships. Popping out of the office to grab a bite to eat was one of the ways Rachael Horwitz bonded with colleagues in her early years at Google, and the relationships formed during these years would lead to incredible career opportunities in her future. Rachael Horwitz is a communications expert, currently serving as the Chief Marketing Officer at Haun Ventures. Previously, Rachael was an Operating Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and she has served on and led communications teams at Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Coinbase during major growth stages for each company. From an early age, Rachael sensed an entrepreneurial spirit in her family. In this episode, she shares how a desire to surround herself with smart, driven young people drew her to Google in the mid-2000s, where she discovered a love of working in an engineering and product-focused culture. Rachael reflects on being a “marathoner” in her professional career, including her journey traversing several high-growth opportunities and the risks she took joining companies in their early stages. Speaking with Eric, Rachael discusses interpersonal communication in the workplace, assuming good intentions, and prioritizing forming strong relationships with peers. She shares her experience earning the role of Vice President of Communications at Coinbase and the major effort (and enthusiasm) she put into her interview process. In transitioning to her most recent role at Haun Ventures, Rachael talks about collaborating with her mentor and friend Katie Haun on the exciting new project.  (1:38) – Who is Rachael Horwitz? (5:26) – The power of California (8:55) – The early years (13:35) – Embracing risk (16:19) – High-growth opportunities (17:51) – Advice for younger Rachael (20:55) – Self-awareness (24:06) – Assuming good intentions (27:58) – From politics to Google (32:55) – Forming the strongest bonds (41:28) – Jazz and karaoke (45:56) – Twitter to Facebook to Spark Capital (47:43) – Joining Coinbase (55:29) – Haun Ventures Eric Satz—entrepreneur, serial investor, lover of hot peppers— is the founder and CEO of Alto. The idea behind Alto was born out of a problem. Eric found a clear need to give people more control over their investments (and investment opportunities) in a simple, streamlined way and created Alto to make these opportunities available to all investors, not just the ultra-wealthy or institutional investors.  If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to The Altogether Show with Eric Satz in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps others find the show. Podcast episode production by Dante32.

An In-N-Out burger might be the key to lasting, meaningful professional relationships. Popping out of the office to grab a bite to eat was one of the ways Rachael Horwitz bonded with colleagues in her early years at Google, and the relationships formed during these years would lead to incredible career opportunities in her future. Rachael Horwitz is a communications expert, currently serving as the Chief Marketing Officer at Haun Ventures. Previously, Rachael was an Operating Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and she has served on and led communications teams at Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Coinbase during major growth stages for each company. From an early age, Rachael sensed an entrepreneurial spirit in her family. In this episode, she shares how a desire to surround herself with smart, driven young people drew her to Google in the mid-2000s, where she discovered a love of working in an engineering and product-focused culture. Rachael reflects on being a “marathoner” in her professional career, including her journey traversing several high-growth opportunities and the risks she took joining companies in their early stages. Speaking with Eric, Rachael discusses interpersonal communication in the workplace, assuming good intentions, and prioritizing forming strong relationships with peers. She shares her experience earning the role of Vice President of Communications at Coinbase and the major effort (and enthusiasm) she put into her interview process. In transitioning to her most recent role at Haun Ventures, Rachael talks about collaborating with her mentor and friend Katie Haun on the exciting new project.  (1:38) – Who is Rachael Horwitz? (5:26) – The power of California (8:55) – The early years (13:35) – Embracing risk (16:19) – High-growth opportunities (17:51) – Advice for younger Rachael (20:55) – Self-awareness (24:06) – Assuming good intentions (27:58) – From politics to Google (32:55) – Forming the strongest bonds (41:28) – Jazz and karaoke (45:56) – Twitter to Facebook to Spark Capital (47:43) – Joining Coinbase (55:29) – Haun Ventures Eric Satz—entrepreneur, serial investor, lover of hot peppers— is the founder and CEO of Alto. The idea behind Alto was born out of a problem. Eric found a clear need to give people more control over their investments (and investment opportunities) in a simple, streamlined way and created Alto to make these opportunities available to all investors, not just the ultra-wealthy or institutional investors.  If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to The Altogether Show with Eric Satz in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps others find the show. Podcast episode production by Dante32.

Join Washington Post Live journalists Leigh Ann Caldwell and Tory Newmyer for a series of conversations with Rostin Behnam, chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Dante Disparte, chief strategy officer and head of global policy at Circle, and Tomicah Tillemann, global chief policy officer at Haun Ventures, about what oversight of digital assets should look like and their impact on the larger financial system and economy.

Bay area artist Rexx Life Raj (real name Faraji Omar Wrightz) is in album mode with “Blue Hour” set to drop soon. The new album is his most personal yet. It was largely recorded after his mother passed away and before his father did too — which was within a three-month span of each other during 2021. The personal grief of both losses influenced the sounds of the new music. While recording this music was one way Raj coped with his grief, he also wants the album to do the same for others going through similar pains in their own lives. The deeper purpose behind Blue Hour is to create a safe space to talk about grief, especially amongst black men, where the topic of mental health can fly under the radar. Raj wants Blue Hour to honor his parents, who instilled in him an entrepreneurial spirit from an early age. The album will be his fifth — all released independently. A tour will follow later this year too. For a closer look at Raj's process behind his art, listen to our full interview. Here's everything we covered:[3:03] Bay Area's Influence On Raj's Music[4:51] Rexx's Entrepreneurship Spirit Stems From Parents[7:07] Did Rex Ever Consider Taking A Record Label Deal?[8:13] The TikTok Effect On Artists (Pros & Cons)[11:25] Content Strategy For Raj's Newest Album [14:25] Why Grief Is Such A Big Theme In Rex's Music[17:40] How Raj Is Coping With The Loss Of His Parents[24:10] Personal Goals For The Upcoming Album[25:53] Post-Album Tour Plans[30:40] How Tapped In Is Raj To Local Tech Scene?[32:42] E-40's Entrepreneurship Skills[36:37] What Is Raj Most Excited About?Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | Overcast | Amazon | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | RSSHost: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.coGuests: Rexx Life Raj, @rexxliferaj This episode was brought to you by Highlight. Build the community of your dreams on the blockchain. The new company is backed by leading investors like Haun Ventures, Thirty Five Ventures (“35V”), and more. Learn more at highlight.xyz  Enjoy this podcast? Rate and review the podcast here! ratethispodcast.com/trapital Trapital is home for the business of hip-hop. Gain the latest insights from hip-hop's biggest players by reading Trapital's free weekly memo. TRANSCRIPTION[00:00:00] Rexx Life Raj: When it comes to numbers, like, you can buy followers, you can buy comments, you can buy likes, but a lot of people will tune in for the spectacle, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's a lot of followers who are just like there for the show. Like, you're really good on the internet so we just want to watch you on the internet.[00:00:15] Rexx Life Raj: But it never translates to anything real. It's like, that's why looking at engagement is such a big thing. Like, I'll look into followers, but then I'll look at how many comments, like, I'll be looking at that kind of shit. Like, how many comments you got? Like, how many people are really tapped in? What's the engagement like on all platforms? 'Cause that's how you can really tell[00:00:39] Dan Runcie: Hey, welcome to the Trapital podcast. I'm your host and the founder of Trapital, Dan Runcie. This podcast is your place to gain insights from executives in music, media, entertainment, and more who are taking hip-hop culture to the next level.[00:00:59] Dan Runcie: Today's guest is Rexx Life Raj. He's a Bay Area artist known for the Father Figure trilogy and his upcoming album, The Blue Hour. In this episode, Raj and I talked a lot about the inspiration for this album and what brought him up to this point? Raj, unfortunately, lost both of his parents in the past year so one of the big focuses for this album was grief.[00:01:21] Dan Runcie: What are the things that Raj had done to process that, him being able to navigate that and some of the coping things that he had done over the year and how that prepared him to be in the mode to create this album. So we talked about the process for that. And we also talked about some of the things he's done to market and push the album.[00:01:38] Dan Runcie: He has a blog, he has a trailer, and being able to truly document the process. So we talk about some of that balance that a lot of artists have between the marketing they need to do in the actual product that they need to put out and share with their fans. We talked about that and we also talked about how that relates to TikTok.[00:01:57] Dan Runcie: TikTok has been one of the growing debates with a lot of artists in terms of how they put their content out there and record labels wanting to push them to do things, but Raj is in a different position. He isn't signed to a record label. He is independent. He still does distribution through EMPIRE. So we talked about that decision as well and how he looks at some of the broader trends, whether it's TikTok or, thinking more broadly, he does have a tour coming up as well to promote the album.[00:02:24] Dan Runcie: So we talked a little bit about what it's like doing festivals versus doing tours yourself. And this was a really good episode. I think a lot of the independent artists will appreciate this. A lot of the independent creators will appreciate this as well because a lot of you are taking a more bootstrapped approach.[00:02:42] Dan Runcie: You know, it's going to be a longer game, but a lot of the decisions you make need to line up with this strategy and Raj to someone that's doing it on a successful level. So I hope you enjoy this chat. Here's my conversation with Rex life, Raj. All right, today we got the one and only Bay Area native Rexx Life Raj here. How are you doing, man? [00:03:00] Rexx Life Raj: Yeah. I can't complain. How are you doing?[00:03:03] Dan Runcie: I'm good. I'm good. I'm excited for this. And it's good to talk to the artists that are from here, and especially you because you have always had the Bay Area such a clear and prominent focus in your music and your music videos. And I really feel like it's a character in your art in a lot of ways. Can you talk a little bit about the influence Bay Area has and how it shapes what you put out? [00:03:25] Rexx Life Raj: Yeah, man. I think that the Bay Area is just like such an influential place and you see it in terms of just the way, like our lingo spreads, that the sound of the music spreads, you know, the dancing that comes from here, everything is so like cultural and impactful that I feel like if you're from here, it just comes out of you without even trying. Because you know, people always tell me,[00:03:45] Rexx Life Raj: like, they get that from me and I don't even be trying. It's just like who I am. So I think the Bay Area is tight 'cause it's like a blend of so many different people, but at the cooler of the culture, everybody HiFi for real, you know what I'm saying? And that's really what it is, you know. So, yeah, I love the Bay Area, man. [00:04:01] Dan Runcie: Yeah. It's like not everyone needs to do HiFi straight up music, but I feel like you kind of find your own spin on that, right? Like, you can see the origins, but you took it in your own direction. [00:04:10] Rexx Life Raj: Yeah, it was like, I think that's what's dope about art is that like, to me, art is people living in this life and taking these experiences and it goes through your filter and it comes out how it comes out. You know what I'm saying? So I took an artist of life around me and this is how it comes out. But I think you could still feel like the Bay Area in it just 'cause, you know, this is who I am and where I'm from. [00:04:31] Dan Runcie: Yeah, for sure. And I think, too, looking at your background, I know that your father was a big influence. Not just in your music, but also how you approach your career as someone that owned businesses and I feel like I see a similar thread with how you've went about the business side of music, especially as an independent artist.[00:04:51] Rexx Life Raj: Yeah, for sure. Like, like you said, my dad was an entrepreneur since I was born. I think he had, like, he worked at Coca-Cola up until I think a couple of years before I was born. And then after that, it was pure, like, entrepreneurship. He got tired of working for people. He wanted to set his own schedule and kind of just be in control of his own destiny.[00:05:09] Rexx Life Raj: So that's all, I really know, like my mom worked at Cal up until I was like three or four, but then she started fully working with my dad in the business. So it was kind of like where I come from. I don't even really know what it feels like to work a job. Like, I worked for a summer job while I was in college, but everything I know is kind of like building it from the ground up, building it from scratch and, you know, nurturing it and watching it grow.[00:05:32] Rexx Life Raj: And it's kind of what I do in every avenue in like in music, in the brands I have outside of music and just kind of all I know. [00:05:38] Dan Runcie: Right. And I know with that path that takes a lot of patience and likely a lot more patience than you're seeing from some of your peers that may be doing other things, whether it's with major labels or others.[00:05:48] Dan Runcie: And I can speak to that too, from running a bootstrap business and just seeing how it is with others that are going a different path. But how has that been from your perspective? Just balancing obviously the patience, but knowing the long-term outcome that's on the other side.[00:06:04] Rexx Life Raj: Yeah, man. I think it's just something that's kind of ingrained in me from, you know, seeing my parents 'cause they had that business for like 30 years and with was so many ebbs and flows in the business, but just knowing, like, it's something sustainable that's going to carry you for the rest of your life. It puts a different perspective on it. And also it's like, I come from a football background and I was the o lineman.[00:06:26] Rexx Life Raj: I'm used to not getting, like, no shine and no glory and just putting in the work, you know what I'm saying? It's kind of what I come from. So I feel like it's like that with music and for me, and you could probably relate when you doing something like this, it don't feel like work. You know, you're just having fun.[00:06:41] Rexx Life Raj: So I'm not looking at it like, oh, this is hard. This is tedious. It's like, nah, you're, you're building something. It's a blessing, bro. I get to build something from scratch that people resonate with, you know what I'm saying? And it's like, people are finding value and meaning in it. So it becomes like, even more purposeful for me. So I was just like, bro, I'm blessed, bro. I can't complain about too much. [00:07:00] Dan Runcie: Was there ever a point that you did consider doing a more traditional record label deal? [00:07:07] Rexx Life Raj: Not really. I mean, we, I want to say a few years ago we took a few meetings with some bigger record labels, but I think my situation with EMPIRE, for me personally, is just, you know, it's ideal, you know? 'Cause I can move out when I want to move. I can kind of do what I want to do. There's no restrictions on me. You know, you hear stories about the majors. You're on a schedule, or you're shelved, or you can put out something. People have been waiting for, like, a year to put out music and, you know, it's such a big system that people get lost in it, you know what I'm saying? You're just banking on having somebody in a building that's rocking with you and you hear stories about those people leaving and now you just kind of, you know, up in the air. So it's like, you hear a lot of weird stories, but for me, the situation I'm in is just, it's solid. I can't, I can't speak on what happens down the road or if it makes sense, maybe it don't makes sense then, but for right now, it's like, what I have is pretty tight.[00:08:00] Dan Runcie: I hear you on the weird stories. The one I keep hearing right now is people talking about the labels, trying to make them put out TikToks, right? Label wants them to put out a TikTok before they released the track, before they released the album. What do you think about that? [00:08:13] Rexx Life Raj: It's interesting, but I think about that a lot. It really makes me sad, you know what I'm saying? Like, when I really think about, like, but it makes me sad cause it's, like, if you're an artist and you don't want to do that, and that's kind of, like, 'cause some people have that persona and personality where it plays into that, you know, they're good at the internet.[00:08:30] Rexx Life Raj: Some artists are really good at the internet, but I feel bad for the artists who just want to make music. And now they feel like they have to do Tiktok and be less organic and it don't feel right. Like, to me, that's not tight, but at the same time, it's a platform that's enabling so many up-and-coming creators because the algorithm over there is crazy.[00:08:49] Rexx Life Raj: Like, I remember when I first got on TikTok, I had, like, 50, 70 followers who just followed me over to TikTok, but I will post things and they will go, like, fake viral, like 30,000 views, 40,000 when I only have 50 followers. So I'm like, it's a game that you have to play. Like, you can go over there and bullshit and fake go viral by accident, you know what I'm saying? But it's kinda like, it's kind of contingent upon the artists, but I see, you know, it needs encouragement on both sides., [00:09:16] Dan Runcie: Yeah. And I think we're also still just so early that we're likely going to see more types of content that can be put out when someone puts out a TikTok, right? Because I feel like when it started, it was people doing these dances that are just in this like vertical screen.[00:09:32] Dan Runcie: But, all right. They've expanded the timeframe. Like, it doesn't have to look like that. It reminds me of, like, when MTV first came out, you started to hear a little bit of that, right? Everyone thought it was just going to make people to these, like, phonies that just did these, like, Milli Vanilli dances and stuff like that, but then it, then it evolved. So I feel like that could still happen, right? Just 'cause like you said, the reach is so massive.[00:09:55] Rexx Life Raj: Yeah. No, I think it's happening right now because I feel like from what I've learned in my experience is that fans, like, people who are fans of you are, who are becoming fans of you actually want to know you. And I feel like, you know, with TikTok, it's a place where you could be, you could be dancing and viral and all that, but you can really be personal and show people behind the scenes, like, I look like a LaRussell out of Vallejo. And he's really good at, like, at the internet period, but like, he's not really TikToking like playing a game, he's just getting on there and rapping, you know what I'm saying?[00:10:28] Rexx Life Raj: And people are receptive to that 'cause there's a whole demographic who just want to hear people rap. So I think it's really about finding like a little niche, something that's comfortable for you, and understanding that, like, you're not making content for everybody in the world. You're making content for your people and finding your people. And like I said, knowing what's comfortable with you and you can win for sure. [00:10:48] Dan Runcie: Yeah. And I agree with that, and that's a good example of that, right? Like, I was just reading an article, I was talking about, yeah, the platform's maturing and it's going to be more niches and the more niches, yeah, the less people that are going to want to see these standard TikTok dances, more people are going to want to see bars.[00:11:04] Dan Runcie: They're going to want to see people wrap. So that's a good point there. Shifting gears though, I want to talk a little bit more about your album, The Blue Hour and what you have coming up. You have the trailer for it. You got the vlog. I really like how you've built up and had the rollout for it. Can you talk to me about the strategy or the plan for how you want it to execute that all?[00:11:25] Rexx Life Raj: Yeah, for me at this point, bro, cause I just understand like, everything is about content and it kind of goes back to what we were talking about with TikTok. Content is king, you know what I'm saying? And for me it's just, I want it to have as much content as possible. So I had the cameraman, you know, my boy filming all these sessions. And then, anytime I'll have a show, I have somebody film it or anytime I have ideas, it's, like, let's try to do this idea, you know what I'm saying? 'Cause the more content you have the better. And so it's just literally when I went into it, it's just like, bro, follow me with the camera and just get everything.[00:11:59] Rexx Life Raj: Then it'll be shit in here that we could just slowly roll out and turn into a vlog. And then turn it into a documentary, like I'm actually shooting a real documentary right now that we're starting to drop trailers for, but it's just like, anytime there's a camera, turn it on, you know? 'Cause you could choose whether to put it on or put it out, you know what I'm saying? It's like, it's not like you have to put it out, but people want to see the process, like they want to hear the music, of course, but people want to see the process. They want to see how you create. They want to see the thinking behind it. They want to see who you're collaborating with.[00:12:29] Rexx Life Raj: It just makes that connection to your fans I think that much stronger. So it's like when me, I'm just trying to involve them in as much of the process and my thinking as possible to really, you know, make them connect as much as possible. [00:12:41] Dan Runcie: That makes sense. Do you ever feel any tension with that approach? Because I know I've heard from other artists where they feel like when the cameras are out, they need to do this stuff. It makes them feel like they're more of a marketer than they are an artist. And obviously, it's a combination of both. But how was that for you? Especially as, you know, you want to be in album mode, you know, you obviously have a concept that you want to be able to do purely from an artistic person.[00:13:04] Rexx Life Raj: Yeah, I don't really have that problem, right? And it might be, 'cause I did have the camera on me at this point for a while. You know what I'm saying? Like, I've always had people following me with cameras, but also it's like, I think, you know, if you have a good videographer, they're not all in your face with the camera, like they might ask you questions every now and then.[00:13:20] Rexx Life Raj: But the people I work with, they're planning the cut. You know what I'm saying? It's like, they're almost not even in the room. To me, that's the best kind of cameraman. It's just like behind the speaker or you're not even paying attention to him. And he's kind of shooting you while you were in the booth 'cause it could be like a distraction. I think as soon as the camera comes on and you're very conscious of it, it changes everybody. Like, this conversation with us will be different if we weren't on camera, it'd probably be more candid. But since we know people are watching, like you kind of changed.[00:13:47] Rexx Life Raj: So like, I think it's really just, like, having a good cameraman is just like, they're not really in the room. And then maybe after, you know, luckily I've had the camera videographers who are like, afterwards, they'll contextualize it. Like, they'll ask me a question or, like, let's elaborate on this afterwards. But during the process, it's really kind of like playing the clip and just recording.[00:14:07] Dan Runcie: Right, that makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah. And I think for you as well, thinking about this album, specifically, a lot of the focus you're talking about grief, and you want to be able to not just process your own, but helping other people with it. Why was that an important focus for you with this album?[00:14:25] Rexx Life Raj: For me, because I think my music is very much grounded in reality, in my real life. And I feel like for me, like this past year, year and a half was the most insane, impactful year I've personally ever had in my life. And I feel like there's no way that it wouldn't come out of me, you know what I'm saying? It's just, so much happened and there was so much emotion and everything built up in me and it came out in the music. And for me, it was almost like, you know, you went through all this shit and you felt all these feelings. There has to be a way that you can transmute this into something that can help people going through the same thing.[00:15:04] Rexx Life Raj: And for me, music has always been like my favorite songs aren't really the turn-up songs. They're the songs that cut all the way, you know, I'm going through some shit or I need to cry or I'm in my feelings or something. And it's like knowing that music has that capacity and knowing that it could be that like music has helped me in times where I was going through whatever I was going through and knowing that I have the potential to do that.[00:15:27] Rexx Life Raj: To me, it feels only right to put that into my music, because like I said, I've done songs where like Moxie Jova, Shit N' Floss where people turn up and it's crazy when I perform it. But then I do songs like Time where it hits people on almost like a spiritual level, not even almost, it is a spiritual level in that feeling.[00:15:46] Rexx Life Raj: That's how I know this is my purpose 'cause I'm so attached to that feeling that people get where they're just like turning up and having fun. So it's like, I want it to create a space for people to be able to talk about grief, to be able to talk about it, especially for black men, because the experience is so much, but how we talk about it, like, with the homies, to me, it's kind of like crazy. Either we talk about it, very surface level, or we don't talk about it. And we hold these feelings in and we harbor it. And that's why for me, like, going back to everything outside of the music, the music is one thing, but my rollout has been to be focused on like, letting people know, like, yo it's okay to express these feelings if necessary, to talk about these things, you know what I'm saying? So that's kind of been my whole thing with this, with this album.[00:16:31] Dan Runcie: Let's take a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsor. Yeah, I feel like this is generally gotten better over time where we are seeing more artists like yourself and others sharing their thoughts and being vulnerable. And I think we've seen it just more broadly in culture where people are becoming much more comfortable. And there is less of a stigma, especially with black men around checking out for your own mental health, being able to get awareness with things. But I still feel like there's plenty of room to grow with that. So you, of course, you know, not just using yourself as an example, but being able to communicate that through music is going to help a lot of people. I know you mentioned that the past year and a half has been tough and I'm sure that a lot of people could likely relate to that for their own respective reasons. So there's a timeliness here as well. And there are so many things happening that I feel like we've almost become immune to whether it's things happening our own life or things happening in society where no, it's helpful to pause because that doesn't happen as often as it should. And things just keep going and going. [00:17:40] Rexx Life Raj: Literally, man. I mean, for me too, it's like for people who don't know, just to kind of like give you a synopsis of what's going on. I lost both of my parents last year. I lost my mom in May, and then my dad in August and the majority of the album wasn't really right before my dad passed. So it is sort of three months right after my mom passed. And it's crazy because I remember something that she said to me that stuck with me, it's like, when she got diagnosed with cancer, we had a conversation and one of the things she said was no matter what happens to me, I know you'll, you'll do something good, like whether it be music or whether it be, you know, just you talking about it or whatever. She's like, I know something good comes from this. And I feel like one of the biggest things for me when it comes to grief is finding ways to honor the people you lost, right? So for me, it's like, the album honors her. Me talking about, you know, when I'm going through honors her and that's one of the biggest things for me, that's why I'm so open about it because it's like, yo, it's one thing to go to the cemetery or, you know, wherever your place is where you honor the people you lose.[00:18:50] Rexx Life Raj: But to me, like, I want to take action in some way to honor my mom, you know what I'm saying? So that's kind of what all there is to me. [00:18:57] Dan Runcie: I mean, I could only imagine how you felt. It's so sad just losing both of them in such a short amount of time and obviously, this album has been a point of catharsis for you.[00:19:08] Dan Runcie: I'm sure. Just the process. And like you mentioned a few of the things you've done as well, but what are some of the other ways that you've been able to the best that you can cope and manage your own stress and grief with the losses and any and everything else in your life. [00:19:22] Rexx Life Raj: Yeah, man, music has really been a main thing cause it was really therapeutic for me, but I think being around friends and family, for me, and being able to talk about these things and cry when I need to in front of the homies and just get things out is important.[00:19:35] Rexx Life Raj: I try to stay on top of like meditating. Like, I try to meditate two or three times a week, you know, I pray a lot, you know, anything that I could get these feelings out of me. One of the biggest things for me, it sounds funny, but it's the Peleton, you know what I'm saying? For me personally, when I'm going through anything, working out is such a stress reliever, you know what I'm saying?[00:19:55] Rexx Life Raj: So I had got a Peloton right when my mom got sick and it was something that like any time I built up extra energy or anxiety in my body, I'll just go hop on the Peleton. And outside of me losing a little bit of weight, it just helped me mentally, you know, just working out. I'm really thankful for the Peloton, shout out to all the instructors and stuff on there.[00:20:15] Rexx Life Raj: That's really tight, but yeah, just find a way to get it out of me. Like, I do all the little stuff. Like I journal a lot, you know what I'm saying? Anything that could get my thoughts out and just kind of figure out what's going on. 'Cause I feel like people have these things in their head, but when you write it down and you can reread it and really see what's going on in your mind, you can have better understanding of what you're going through.[00:20:34] Rexx Life Raj: So I did this thing called morning pages, which at one point I was waking up every morning. So what you do is you wake up every morning and you just journal for like two or three pages, whatever comes to your mind, you know what I'm saying? Like, no matter what it could be, because when you first wake up, it would be shit like I'm tired.[00:20:49] Rexx Life Raj: And I really don't feel like writing this. I didn't get a good night's sleep, but the more you write, the more real feelings and thoughts come out. And what happens is if you do it for a long enough period of time, you start to see consistencies and you're thinking in your feelings, right? So you might, for somebody who might be, you know, in a relationship, they keep having these problems in their relationship, and they noticed that they write about it every day, you know, or that you're having problems with your dad or your mom or something that keeps coming up. And what it allows you to do is see it like, yo, this thing keeps happening and then you have the choice to take action, because if it keeps happening and you don't take action, nothing's going to change.[00:21:27] Rexx Life Raj: But by you writing it every day, like you've seen it seven days, seven days, it forces you to take action and you can clearly see what's going on in your life. So I really believe in that, I read that in a book called The Artist's Way. I highly recommend like that for any artists or anybody just in the creative realm for sure.[00:21:44] Dan Runcie: That makes a lot of sense. And I've heard similar with people doing voice memos as well. You know, just being able to have that steady, consistent thing that you're putting out there because, yeah, over time it is going to be a reflection of where things are and just that habit of it's one thing to journal, but it's actually having a common practice with it.[00:22:03] Dan Runcie: I'm sure that's been huge. And I could imagine that even some of that has been a helpful reflection for you as you were putting this album together as well. [00:22:11] Rexx Life Raj: For sure. It's crazy 'cause when I was going through, you know, basically being a caregiver for my parents, cause I was taking care of both of them. I didn't really have time to do music because I was so consumed and taking my mom to chemo or radiation.[00:22:26] Rexx Life Raj: And then my dad, he was already sick. So I'll have to take him to dialysis and the Kaiser and I was, you know, cooking the meals and staying at the house, make sure everything is right. So I really was so overwhelmed with life that I didn't even have the capacity to do music, but what I always did was I have a, in my notes tab, I have a note just called life notes.[00:22:48] Rexx Life Raj: So anytime something would happen, like, I'll have feelings, a lot of different feelings and emotions. I would just jot it down in the notes. So in my phone, I literally had, bro, just so many life notes because there's music in everything that songs and the conversations you have with people are songs. Like, these feelings that you feel, these experiences that you have can now be turned into music.[00:23:10] Rexx Life Raj: So even when I couldn't necessarily make music, I was just taking notes. So when it became, like, after my mom passed and I started going back to the studio. Like, I had just so much to draw from, you know what I'm saying? So it's not like I had to sit and even think about now, what am I going to write about? What am I going to do?[00:23:29] Rexx Life Raj: It's all in the notes. So it's like the album was written before it was written and it had to piece it together. [00:23:34] Dan Runcie: Right. That makes sense, right? It's like documenting the process, like, like anything. And I do think that just being able to have that likely helped the product of it, too. So, and I know that that was coming out soon. You're definitely excited about where things are heading.[00:23:49] Dan Runcie: Do you have any particular milestones or goals that you have that you're trying to hit with this album? I know that you're not signed to a major record label, so some of those same types of things may not exist, but a lot of it may be a bit more on the personal side for what you have. Is there anything that you have that you're shooting for, that you have as a particular milestone?[00:24:10] Rexx Life Raj: Not necessarily numbers-wise 'cause I feel like as soon as I do that, I can set myself up to not be happy if I don't hit those things. So I don't really be tripping off numbers. Like my thing, when it comes to numbers is as long as we're on the up and it's better than what we've been doing, then we're doing something right.[00:24:26] Rexx Life Raj: But my whole goal and intention with this album was to help people who are going through what I was going through. Like, that's all I was thinking about. And I see it, you know, in the songs that I've released, my DMs be crazy with people who are either, you know, it's a lot of people in my DMs whose parents are ill right now.[00:24:44] Rexx Life Raj: So they resonate with the music. It's even more people in my DMs who are going through grief. And the music is helping them process in any way. So to me, that's the win for me, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's the win is the music helping people navigate through life and shit. The numbers are just numbers and the numbers be fake a lot of times, like, you know, so I don't really be concerned about the numbers, you know what I'm saying?[00:25:05] Rexx Life Raj: But for me, it's just being intentional in what I put into the music and just hoping that it resonates with people. [00:25:11] Dan Runcie: And it sounds like it already is, like you said, if you're having the folks of the DMs hitting you up and responding to it, that's great. And I got to imagine that being able to potentially see that impact in person at some point would likely be an ideal thing that I'm sure people would connect with as well. Are there plans to tour, do live shows after the album's released? [00:25:33] Rexx Life Raj: Yeah, we already got the tour locked in toward the end of the year. I've got a few festivals, actually have a festival on Sunday. I just did one in Sacramento. So we got a lot of little festivals and shows coming up but the actual tour is set for the end of the year so I'm super excited.[00:25:49] Dan Runcie: Nice. Do you prefer festival performances or do you prefer your own tour stops? [00:25:53] Rexx Life Raj: I prefer my own tour, you know what I'm saying? 'Cause what a festival, especially for artists at my level, you never really know how many people are there for you and it's tight because it's a bigger crowd so you can win new fans and festival experiences are always super fun, but like you alluded to earlier, just the connection that I've made with the people that I know I've made that connection with is different.[00:26:17] Rexx Life Raj: You know what I'm saying? It's, it's spiritual. That's the only word I can have for it, bro. 'Cause I've had shows where, you know, I'll perform a song and people cry, you know what I'm saying? It's like they came for that song, you know what I'm saying? That came out of my brain and for whatever reason, it resonated with them.[00:26:33] Rexx Life Raj: To me, that's just, you know, and to have people sing songs in unison. And it's just like a different type of connection when it's your own show, but festivals are tied to them. And I love festivals. [00:26:44] Dan Runcie: Yeah. I feel like, especially for independent artists, a mix in general is what people do thrive in. And I feel like that generally makes sense, but especially for independent artists, your career is already built on the long game and touring is a much longer game than a lot of festivals, right? Festivals, their upfront cash should be great. It could be bigger than what you may get from an initial stop, but like you said, you don't know if they're necessarily there for you, but you could be reaching out to new fans versus at a tour, even if the total audience may not be what it may be in that festival crowd, all those people are there to see you and you build on that and you're going there with the next album. And the one after that, like, that's where that long game is that lines up with that independent mentality. [00:27:29] Rexx Life Raj: Literally, man, and I'm happy you said that 'cause I be trying to preach that to, you know, any up and coming artist that asked me for advice. It's like, that's what I'm focused on. You know, the touring. That's what I look at. Like, even when, you know, everybody has a moment and niggas be laid on the internet and shit look cool. My first thought is like, can I sell tickets?[00:27:48] Rexx Life Raj: Are they selling merch? 'Cause in real life, that's, what's going to sustain you. Like, have you built maybe another business or brand outside of yourself? Because the internet shit is cool, but real life is what's going, what gets you paid in the long term. So, yeah, I'm happy you said that. [00:28:05] Dan Runcie: Oh, yeah. I had this piece that had gotten some traction recently that was a breakdown on why your followers are not your fans and the followers, exactly, it's the internet shit that you're talking about, right? It just doesn't always line up. And we both know people that have millions, tens of millions of followers, but they can't sell when they actually go to show things and makes you question, okay, were all those true numbers, legit stream numbers and all those things? And you can't fake actually, to have actual bodies there, like watching you perform a concert. [00:28:38] Rexx Life Raj: It's the only thing you can't fake, man. That's what I'm saying. Like, the internet is really, but at the same time, like if you play the internet correctly, you can make money off the internet as well.[00:28:47] Rexx Life Raj: Like, you know, don't get it twisted, like there's money to be made on the internet. But as far as sustainability, like, I've only seen it this way, you know what I'm saying? And like you said, everything can be manipulated. And even when it comes to numbers, like you can buy followers, you can buy comments, you can buy likes, but a lot of people will tune in for the spectacle, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's a lot of followers who are just like there for the show. Like, you're really good on the internet so we just want to watch you on the internet. But it never translates to anything real. It's like, that's why looking at engagement is such a big thing. Like, I'll look at the followers but then I'll look at how many comments, like I would be looking at that kind of shit. Like, how many comments he got? Like, how many people are really tapped in? What's the engagement like on all platforms?[00:29:30] Rexx Life Raj: 'Cause that's how you can really tell. 'Cause it's been harder to, like, for instance, on Instagram, I think I got like 80,000 followers, right? But there's been artists who I've seen that had like 20,000 followers, 30,000 followers, even less, their engagement is way higher and they're selling way more tickets than me.[00:29:47] Rexx Life Raj: And I'm like, damn, dude. Like, that's it. Cause you damn near made all your followers believe to the point where we following you not only on here, but we following you in real life to the stage, you know? And that's crazy to me. So yes, it's an interesting game for sure. [00:30:04] Dan Runcie: Yeah, that's a good example. I mean, you're seeing it that way because you see it the other way, too, people that, you know, you got tens of millions of followers and then less than a thousand people, like the last photo, what, like, no. [00:30:18] Rexx Life Raj: Something's not clicking. Something's ain't right. But, yeah, for sure.[00:30:22] Dan Runcie: So you're the Bay Area, and of course we know there's a lot of tech investments happening out here. And I know that you are interested in things outside of directly making music as well. What does that side of things look like for you? Have you got involved in the investing side, looking at different startups and companies?[00:30:40] Rexx Life Raj: I'm kind of tapping in 'cause I have friends who are really in that world. Like my girlfriend works for Facebook, so she's fully in it. One of my best friends, he works for Google, so he's fully in it. And then one of my good friends who I went to college with, Jason Robinson, he has a VR/AR software, it's called Playbook Five.[00:31:00] Rexx Life Raj: And so he actually just did a pitch in Menlo park, Denver last weekend, pitching to investors. It's lit, it's really tight. Like, you put on the Oculus or whatever, and it's for kids to learn, like, kids in high school and middle school who are trying to play any sport in college. It teaches you all these schemes and game plans and everything you can learn through a software, but what's he trying to do is make it accredited. So say, like, they're trying to go to Cal to play football and Cal runs a three, four scheme on defense for the players who aren't like four or five stars who are getting directly looked at by the school. They can look at Playbook Five and be like, oh, let's check this kid out.[00:31:37] Rexx Life Raj: He's fully accredited in our scheme. So they bring him in and he fully knows what's going on. And so like this, seeing the homies do stuff like that, you're automatically drawn into it because that shit is the future, you know what I'm saying? And then he's telling me like, like I said, how he's pitching and he's looking for investors. He's down in Austin 'cause he knows Bowman down there now and he's moving around. So I feel like this being out here, you get consolidated in that and you've learned shit on accident, you know what I'm saying? So I haven't actually invested in any companies, but I'm for sure, just like watching and learning the landscape as much as possible.[00:32:09] Dan Runcie: That makes sense. You get up with E-40 at all? I haven't linked up with E-40 in a while, but anytime I hit E-40, he pick up and he chat with me, Gmail, like, real cool dude. Man, like I love E-40 'cause any, like I said, anytime I hit him and ask him for tips and wisdom. He's always there for me, if I need them on a song, he always did. So shout out to E-40. [00:32:29] Dan Runcie: Yeah. 'Cause like, think about the investment thing, I mean, obviously both in Vallejo and...[00:32:34] Rexx Life Raj: He's the man. [00:32:35] Dan Runcie: He is the man. Anytime I see it, I'm like, I see his name everywhere. I'm almost surprised when I don't see him at certain deals now.[00:32:42] Rexx Life Raj: E-40, he's going to sell you anything. He sells sausages. He sells lumpia. He got E Cuarenta Tequila. He got burritos now, the hood burritos at the store, like, when you think about entrepreneurship and just real rap independence, like, E-40 is the pinnacle, bro. Like, he's giving niggas the blueprint for so long and he's been doing it. That's what I'm saying. Like, pure longevity, you know, he's like, who's been doing this independent shit for as long as he has and has been that great at it?[00:33:15] Rexx Life Raj: It's not too many people, you know what I'm saying? So shout out to E-40, man. He's been ahead of the game for a while. [00:33:20] Dan Runcie: And his products are good, too. I mean, we know that there's a lot of artists out there that have stuff that doesn't always click, but his Earl Stevens wine is award-winning, like, it has gotten a shout-out from all those like Napa and Sonoma County celebrations, whatever they call them.[00:33:36] Rexx Life Raj: And it's gonna get you faded. I didn't, boy, I, like, take some of that and be, oh, like, oh God, E-40 is crazy! What is it called? [00:33:46] Dan Runcie: I know what you're talking about.[00:33:48] Rexx Life Raj: Yeah, it ain't no joke, bro. You trying to get drunk, you gotta bring some of that. It's crazy. [00:33:54] Rexx Life Raj: Oh, man. That's wild. That's wild. But Raj, man, I'm excited for you. You got a lot to look forward to this year. Obviously, I know that a lot of it hasn't been the easiest, but when you're looking at the rest of this year, then also in 2023, what are you most excited about? What's getting you excited, looking forward to where things are heading and where you want to, where you want to take things? I'm just excited to drop the album and just see where it takes me, hit the road again, go to Europe, you know, do all the things that come with dropping the album, because I feel like for the last year and a half, I've really missed that.[00:34:27] Rexx Life Raj: So just like everything that comes up on our music, you know, like, I think the next phase of my career is like really focusing, focusing on other artists from the Bay who I think I have a lot of potential and kind of like giving them game and wisdom and putting them on. So I'm working with, you know, a bunch of different artists in the Bay and just kind of focusing on them and giving them a shot 'cause it's, I think it's a Renaissance happening in the Bay, you know, in the underground music scene that not too many people know about. I feel like it's really coming to light and you get to see how diverse the music scene in the Bay is 'cause I feel like for a while we were just known really for one thing, one sound. But it's so much dope shit happening in the Bay, you know what I'm saying? Like, from bills like ‎Elujay, to, there's this singer in Vallejo, she's really tight, named Tyler Lauren. She's really cool. My brother, The Dakota Wytefoxx. Michael Sneed who's doing all that shit. My boy, JAMMY, you got, you know, I think her username is thuymusic. She's doing a lot of jazz. It's like, it's so much going on in the Bay, you know, and I'm happy to that it's actually in the light that it deserves at this point.[00:35:30] Dan Runcie: I know, that's legit and thinking about all the activity, too, I'm sure you saw it as well. The Golden State Warriors started their own record label and I'm like, if there's any sign that there's something... [00:35:40] Rexx Life Raj: I did not know that.[00:35:41] Dan Runcie: Oh, you didn't hear this?[00:35:43] Rexx Life Raj: No, tell me about it. I did not know. They started a record label?[00:35:46] Dan Runcie: Okay. I'll send you the link to it after we're done, but yeah. So the Golden State Warriors started a record label and they are planning to sign and support the artists that are local in the area, right? Like they want to invest in the talent here and using their arena and using the concerts that come through as a platform, maybe some of their own documentaries. They're trying to use that and use that as a platform to push these artists. [00:36:10] Rexx Life Raj: That's crazy. No, I did not know that. That's actually insane. That's tight though. That's interesting. I need to read the article because that's crazy. [00:36:17] Dan Runcie: Yeah. I'll send it to you. Yeah, because I actually just interviewed the guy that's running it, David Kelly. He's their Chief Business Officer over there. So yeah. I'll send you the link to that too.[00:36:26] Rexx Life Raj: Dope, man. I appreciate that. That's clean. [00:36:29] Dan Runcie: Yeah, for sure. But Raj, before we let you go, is there anything else that you want to plug or let the Trapital audience know about? [00:36:37] Rexx Life Raj: Man, I'm dropping The Blue Hour soon. Appreciate you having me, man. I appreciate anybody who's watching this who's been a fan of me for however long and, you know, stay tapped in, and I appreciate y'all. [00:36:48] Dan Runcie: Yes, sir. And where can people find you?[00:36:49] Rexx Life Raj: Anywhere, man. Google. I'm on every platform, Rexx Life Raj, R-E-X-X-L-I-F-E-R-A-J. You know, if you know how to use the internet on your phone, you can find me. I'm everywhere, man.[00:37:05] Dan Runcie: That sounds good, man. [00:37:07] Rexx Life Raj: All right, man. I appreciate you. [00:37:09] Dan Runcie: If you enjoyed this podcast, go ahead and share with a friend, copy the link, text it to a friend posted in your group chat, post it in your slack groups, wherever you and your people talk. Spread the word. That's how Trapital continues to grow and continues to reach the right people. And while you're at it, if you use Apple Podcasts, go ahead, rate the podcast, give it a high rating and leave a review. Tell people why you like the podcast that helps more people discover the show. Thank you in advance. Talk to you next week.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

The Golden State Warriors took the commonly-said phrase “every company is a media company” and did one better, launching a first-of-its-kind organization, Golden State Entertainment (GSE). Leading this brand-new entertainment company is Warriors' chief business officer David Kelly, who joined me on this episode of the Trapital podcast to discuss the brand-new endeavor. While GSE is an extension of the Warriors brand, it wasn't created with the sole purpose of advancing the NBA team. It's a completely separate company (not a division) and as Kelly told me, it needs to be profitable. To do so, GSE will produce original documentaries, music, and events.Announced in April 2022, GSE has wasted no time breaking into the entertainment space. It's already inked deals with iconic acts like Rhymefest and No I.D., released a song with K-pop star BamBam, and announced a documentary around Bay Area's own Jeremy Lin.The Warriors are building a sports, entertainment, media, and technology company in front of us and this interview shines light into the entertainment piece. Here's everything David and I covered in this episode:[3:10] How The Golden State Warriors Got Into Music & Film[5:34] Measuring Success For GSE Record Label[7:05] Synergy Opportunities With NBA Team[8:11] What's An Artist Deal At GSE Look Like?[9:32] Why Rhymefest & No I.D. Joined GSE [14:55] Crypto's Influence On Golden State & NBA Naming Rights Deals[16:52] What Type Of Projects GSE Is Pursuing[21:22] Why Can't GSE Do A Steph Curry Documentary Until He's Retired?[23:13] Is There A New Era Of Documentaries?[25:07] Upcoming GSE ProjectsListen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | Overcast | Amazon | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | RSSHost: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.coGuests: David Kelly, @goldenstateent This episode was brought to you by Highlight. Build the community of your dreams on the blockchain. The new company is backed by leading investors like Haun Ventures, Thirty Five Ventures (“35V”), and more. Learn more at highlight.xyz  Enjoy this podcast? Rate and review the podcast here! ratethispodcast.com/trapital Trapital is home for the business of hip-hop. Gain the latest insights from hip-hop's biggest players by reading Trapital's free weekly memo. TRANSCRIPTION[00:00:00] David Kelly: We don't want to limit ourselves to only doing Warrior stories. We're not going to limit ourselves, even you know only doing basketball stories. We want to do, and I don't think we're even going to ultimately limit ourselves to just do sports stories. We want to do stories that are relevant and resonate and have most likely some sort of sports tied to them.[00:00:18] David Kelly: But if it's a story that we think we can facilitate the telling of the story, and there's a place for us at that table, and, if not for our participation, the story maybe doesn't get told then we'll be involved. [00:00:29] Dan Runcie: Hey, welcome to the Trapital podcast. I'm your host and the founder of Trapital, Dan Runcie. This podcast is your place to gain insights from executives in music, media, entertainment, and more who are taking hip-hop culture to the next level.[00:00:57] Dan Runcie: Today's guest is David Kelly. He's the Chief Business Officer and Chief Legal Officer of the Golden State Warriors. And he's the head of the new Golden State Entertainment, which has focused on music, media and more. That's right. The Golden State Warriors are starting a record label. Believe me, when I heard this, I paused what I was doing, and I said, "Okay, I got to learn more. Tell me everything." And it was great to have David on to hear more about it. A lot of the inspiration for the record label came from David's own experience in hip hop. He was an artist himself, Capital D. We talked about how his journey through music influenced what he saw the platform for, of this team and ultimately the opportunities that they could provide for artists.[00:01:41] Dan Runcie: They also have some great vets in the game that have jumped on board. No I.D. is an advisor to Golden State Entertainment, as well as Rhymefest who was signed on to join the record label himself. You may know both of them from their relationship with Kanye West and the work and influence he's done there.[00:01:58] Dan Runcie: And David's old relationship with Rhymefest, too. So this was great to chat about. And we also talked about some of the potential projects coming down the pipeline. They're actually working on a project telling the story of Jeremy Lin, who is a Bay Area native and especially around everything that happened with Linsanity We're coming up on the decade anniversary of that and the influence he had on his New York Knicks run.[00:02:21] Dan Runcie: And we talk about what some of those future projects may look like. We also talk about some of the trends happening right now with naming rights and all of the cryptocurrencies and Web 3.0 companies that are fighting for naming rights, both inside and outside of the arenas as well. This is a fun chat.[00:02:37] Dan Runcie: And if you're interested in how teams like the Warriors, a team that is worth nearly $6 billion, how are they thinking about things and using their platform? This is the episode for you had a great chat. Hope you enjoy it. Here's my talk with David Kelly.[00:02:52] Dan Runcie: All right. Today, we have David Kelly, head of Golden State Entertainment, which recently launched a record label. Congratulations. And let's actually start there. When did you first get the idea to start a record label for an NBA basketball team? [00:03:10] David Kelly: Yeah, so it's, it's funny. So, I mean, the company is two parts.[00:03:13] David Kelly: We're doing film and we're doing music as well. And so the idea has been something that's been kicking around in my head for maybe three years now. And it really came from conversations with our ownership group around what we want to create as the Golden State Warriors. Like we see ourselves as a sports team, but really a sports entertainment media technology company.[00:03:32] David Kelly: And it's up to me to try to figure out, all of us at the Warriors, to figure out what that really means and what kind of skills we can bring to bear on creating that larger vision so that to make it a reality. And so I thought about like what we do on the marketing side and what we do as a sports team, like we create stories, we create content.[00:03:51] David Kelly: And then I thought about my own personal background in the music front. And I always saw myself as a content creator storyteller. And I started thinking about how can we bridge these two worlds? And so just over time, it's just the idea started becoming more and more apparent that this is something that we can be doing as the Golden State Warriors, and we, you know, there's this ancillary markets that are close, very close to sports, specifically to basketball. and we can create content in that space, whether it's film and/or music, so. [00:04:20] Dan Runcie: And I feel like your background, as well as an artist, Capital D, you had an experience that you understand exactly what it takes and the nuances of the music industry. So I feel like that as well, likely had a, as you mentioned, a pretty big influence on wanting to bring this to life. [00:04:39] David Kelly: It did. I mean, in a lot of ways, it's kind of aligning my passions and my background, my experiences into just bringing it all into even greater alignment and, with the platform of the Golden State Warriors platform that the NBA provides and being able to take who I am and really, really of dig into it and align it.[00:05:00] Dan Runcie: Right. And then for the record label itself, let's talk a little bit about that. What do you see as success for the record label? How will you measure that? Because I'm sure that some people could maybe think that you obviously have a very successful basketball team itself. Is this something more that extends the brand and gets more customers in? Or is it something that, you know, stand alone, does have its own benchmarks for profitability or some of the other things looking at how other record labels may manage themselves? [00:05:34] David Kelly: Yeah, so we want to, it's both. It definitely is an extension of the brand and it's good for the Golden State Warrior brand. It's already paying dividends there, but it's a separate company that has it's, it's not like a division of the Warriors. This is a separate company that we launched.[00:05:48] David Kelly: And it needs to be a profitable company and we're going to run it as such. In addition, we want to make sure that we're having an impact with the art that we put out, with the music they'll be put out and we want it to be relevant. We want it to speak to issues. We want it to inspire people. And so it's nothing new for a record label to be focused on that, but because we are attached to a separate organization, a separate team, it needs to all be consistent with our mission as Golden State Warriors. And so what we do all has to, it's that word alignment again. It all has to be aligned. So, yeah, so we're going to make some money.[00:06:25] David Kelly: We're going to do dope projects. We're going to have an impact. And it's all going to speak to the benefit of the Golden State Warrior brand. [00:06:33] Dan Runcie: I'm envisioning some type of opportunities, just leveraging the platform you already have, whether that's, at halftime artists that assigned to the label coming out and being able to perform their, they have a platform or on the other side, as artists are performing at the Chase Center, being able to feature them as headliners for some of the A-list acts that come through.[00:06:55] Dan Runcie: I feel like you having that, and then you also have the channel as well. Just being able to leverage each of these things to amplify the voice of the platform you have. [00:07:05] David Kelly: Check, check, check. So, yes. So at game two in the series against Memphis, actually it was game four, the second home game in our, in the series against Memphis.[00:07:16] David Kelly: MAYZIN, who's the first artist who got signed, who signed to Golden State Entertainment, he performed at halftime in that game. And so, so yes, what you envision is, already come into pass. And in fact, the very, before we had even announced Golden State Entertainment, we had BamBam, performed at halftime right before we released the song by MAYZIN and BamBam. I mean, that was our last home game of the season against the Lakers. So yes, we definitely want to use that. We already bring talent in, artists in to perform. And so, yeah, we should be using the same sort of, the same homegrown talent that we have at GSE and finding these new ways to get exposure for artists who are affiliated with. [00:07:56] Dan Runcie: And for the artists listening that may be interested, I know where in this era where a lot of artists want to own their masters. They want to be able to have their own flexibility. Well, what does some of that look like for the artists that would be considering GSE? [00:08:11] David Kelly: Well, so I'm not going to get into the finer deal points that we have, but like something like, BamBam. Bambam was with this group called GOT7, obviously, right? And then he went solo. We did a song with BamBam. Bambam is not signed to Golden State Entertainment, right? He has his own career as an independent artist, huge following. So we can align ourselves with any number of artists who are not signed to our label.[00:08:36] David Kelly: And so I think that's something different than your typical record label in that we have this platform that the Golden State Warriors that has his own benefit that we bring to major artists to, to larger artists. And we have something that I think that's already attractive to an artist. So it doesn't have to be a long-term deal necessarily instead of every instance that we, that we're doing a partnership or collaboration with an artist, so. [00:09:00] Dan Runcie: And to that point, the connections and a lot of that is what makes the difference even when people see and understand the brand, or you had Too $hort performing at game one of the Western Conference finals, E-40's courtside at all of these games, like you have the culture that's there so I do think that you have that.[00:09:19] Dan Runcie: Oh, yeah. One of the other things I saw too, is that you all have Rhymefest who, of course, is an established artist himself, long-time collaborator with Kanye West. What did that relationship look like and getting him on board? [00:09:32] David Kelly: Yeah. So Rhymefest is like family. So that, that is a friend of mine going back 30 years. And when I think about, we're trying to build GSE, who do I want to align ourselves with from a brand perspective? When I think about one of the best writers that we have in hip hop over the past several decades, someone who actually has been an activist in his life still very, you know, very wise and very relevant at the same time, people like Rhymefest come to mind. And so that's where that kind of collaboration came from.[00:10:06] David Kelly: And No I.D., the same way, right? Like this is your OGs' OG when it comes to knowledge of the industry, knowledge of executive coaching. Someone who can help me just in terms of, trying to really run and build Golden State Entertainment. So to have him as a strategic advisor, also as a cultural advisor and producer, like there's no better person. And so, yeah, and those are just relationships from, you know, both of those guys are like family, so. [00:10:36] Dan Runcie: Yeah. That's great. That's great. And then are there any partnerships right now on the major record label side, or is it mostly an independent operation? [00:10:46] David Kelly: Independent at the moment, who knows what the future might bring. But I'm independent at the moment. We have a distribution agreement, so we go through a distributor like your typical indie label would what would do, and we go from there. [00:10:58] Dan Runcie: Nice. And something else you mentioned, taking a step back, looking at GSE more broadly, you mentioned the tech side and I always thought a lot about the rise of tech in the bay area, along with the rise of Golden State Warriors, just when they were in that run 2015 on with Steph, Klay, and Draymond, and we had heard so much about the investments that they were getting involved with.[00:11:23] Dan Runcie: I think this is a lot of what attracted KD. I know that Andre Iguodala and Steph had done work with Mastry and Rudy Cline-Thomas, and what he's done there. So, a lot of that at least to be seemed like the area brought them there, but they were each doing their own separate things. So it's interesting to hear what you may have alluded to in terms of the GSE in the Warriors itself, doing a bit more directly on the investment side.[00:11:49] David Kelly: Yeah. And so on the investment side, as it relates to tech, it's less GSE and more just the Golden State Warriors. And we have a separate arm that looks at various different tech investments. So that's separate from GSE. GSE is on the content front, film and music. But when we talk about us being a sports entertainment, media, and technology organization, we are as an, as a larger organization, that Golden State Warriors looking to make various different tech investments. The background of members of our ownership group, specifically, Joe Lacob, a fantastically successful venture capitalist. And so like he knows what he's doing when it comes to looking at those sorts of investments. [00:12:27] Dan Runcie: Let's take a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsor.[00:12:30] Dan Runcie: That makes sense. Especially the past few years, I feel like there's so many teams as well that have either been getting more involved with crypto, where the rights for naming, with a lot of the crypto companies sponsoring arenas as well. And I know that some of that, you're also the Chief Business Officer for the organization too. What does that wave been like at least from your perspective when you're seeing some of the companies that want to, whether it's naming rights or wanting to be able to partner with the team on a more direct basis?[00:13:02] David Kelly: Yeah. I mean, so we're always looking to be at the forefront of new, innovative, whether it's technologies, ways of doing business. And so I see that world for the Golden State Warriors connects to what we'd have done in, in the NFT space. And we actually, we have a partnership ourselves with FTX. And so we were, I think the very first sports team to do an NFT drop around this time last year.[00:13:27] David Kelly: And so I do not, by any means, consider myself to be an expert in that space, but we, as an organization, want to make sure that we're on the cutting edge and innovative, and we have a number of people at the organization who are experts in that space and guide our hand in terms of looking into different companies with which we'll push to partner in ways in which to invest in, in Web 3.0 and NFTs and things of that nature, so.[00:13:49] Dan Runcie: That makes sense. And I guess on this note, thinking about naming rights more broadly, I know that the Chase Center had signed the deal with Kaiser. You, of course, have Thrive City and naming that through them. And then with the Chase Center as well, obviously with Chase too, it feels like every few years we do go through these waves where a lot of the teams do start to change or they do start to re-up their things. And I feel like the past couple of years, we've been in one of those modes now. Does it feel that way from your perspective, or do you feel like these things are constantly changing? [00:14:24] David Kelly: When you say one of one of those modes now, can you elaborate what you mean?[00:14:27] Dan Runcie: Yeah. So I feel like in the past couple of years, especially the NBA, there's been a lot of teams, either, A, changing their naming rights to crypto-related companies that like things that are reflecting the current wave, or maybe the same thing with their outdoor space. And I know a lot of these things may change from time and time again, but I feel like the past, like, two, three years, we saw a wave. It felt like there was a lot more turnover than maybe there was in the three years or four years before that. [00:14:55] David Kelly: Yeah, I think that may be more coincidence. I think those things go cyclical. And so you'll have your naming rights deal, whether it's for an outdoor space or for the arena itself, your 10- year deal or 20- year deal.[00:15:07] David Kelly: And just when those deals come up, they come up. And so I haven't talked to my counterparts at the other teams about it, but I'm pretty sure that those new deals that you're seeing are, they're as, a legacy deal that just happened to expire sometime over the last couple of years. And yes the crypto space is very hot right now.[00:15:25] David Kelly: So you'll see, you know, crypto arena and things of that nature, definitely jumping in and using sports properties, specifically arenas as a way to promote their product. And so you'll see a lot more arenas being named in the crypto space, but I don't think that the number of partnerships that have changed hands over the last couple of years is increased.[00:15:44] David Kelly: I don't think that's the case. You've just probably would see more concentration inside of that particular, with that particular industry. [00:15:50] Dan Runcie: Yeah, that makes sense. And I think maybe the other side of it too, is that because at least from my perspective, we're seeing more of the outdoor spaces as well. Like having those and maybe a bit more valid.[00:16:01] Dan Runcie: I think I recently saw that the box area, they call it Deer District. They're looking for $4 billion for the naming rights for that. And I mean, sure, other teams are seeing that. I mean, you already have yours with Warriors. I'm sure other teams will see that, okay, like how could we get our version of that?[00:16:17] David Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. We named our entire plaza as Thrive City. And so, yeah, so we sold naming rights with respect to the arena as Chase Center. And then, sold naming rights with respect to the entire district as Thrive City. And so, yeah, so similar things happening with other teams. [00:16:31] Dan Runcie: Got it. So shifting gears a bit, I want to talk a bit more about the other multimedia areas of GSE. So outside of music, we talked a bit about movies. You talked about what it could look like. It's just like film and video in general. What does that outlook look like? What are you envisioning for the type of projects you can release? [00:16:52] David Kelly: Yeah, so we want to be involved in projects that are rooted in sports. By no means are they limited by sports, right? And so one of the first projects, and our involvement can be any number of things. We could be a producer. We might come to the table with the script, with the entirety of the idea. There might be a project that's already moving forward and it just kinda needs us to make some connections and, and help to facilitate and so we could be putting money in not putting money in, lending our platform, any number, any number of things. And so, but one of the first projects that we got involved with was a project that was already moving forward, called 38 At the Garden about Jeremy Lin. We came in to help facilitate the production of that project.[00:17:31] David Kelly: And it really is a, it's exactly what it is we want to be doing on the film side at GSE. It's a story that's rooted in sports. It's the 10 year anniversary of Linsanity, but the true relevance of the project and why it speaks to us, and why I think it's going to speak to so many people, it's premiering at Tribeca in a couple of weeks, is because, more recently, the Stop AAPI Hate Movement and the violence against members of the Asian American community makes Jeremy Lin's story that much more relevant. And there's, so there's a social relevance to his story, which is why it really appeals to us. So we want to be telling stories that are rooted in sports, but have a larger social component to them.[00:18:11] David Kelly: And so Lin, Jeremy Lin's story is specifically that. And so, yeah, we're proud to be a part of it.[00:18:15] Dan Runcie: That makes sense, especially given the connection there because I think that some people may hear the association immediately, they may think, okay, well, he's a New York Knick. How did the Golden State Warriors get involved with the project for the New York Knicks?[00:18:28] Dan Runcie: Like, wouldn't the Madison Square Garden, or their, entertainment group be all over this? But what was the process like for that? Because I do assume that that is something that they would want to be heavily involved with, or maybe even potentially protective of.[00:18:43] David Kelly: Well, to be clear, he's from the Bay Area. And his first shot in the NBA was with the Warriors and his last shot in the NBA was with the Warriors.[00:18:51] David Kelly: So, our stories, we do not have to, we're not only going to be involved in stories that are Golden State Warriors stories, but for Jeremy, there are several Golden State Warrior ties, which is why it was something that we were very much focused on him and his story. We don't want to limit ourselves to only doing warrior stories. We're not going to limit ourselves even, you know, only doing basketball stories we want to do. And I don't think we're even going to ultimately limit ourselves to just do sports stories. We want to do stories that are relevant and resonate and have most likely some sort of sports tied to them.[00:19:24] David Kelly: But if it's a story that we think we can facilitate the telling of the story, and there's a place for us at that table, and if not for our participation, the story, maybe doesn't get told then. we'll be involved [00:19:36] Dan Runcie: That makes sense. And I assume this also extends with scripted content as well, whether that is, you know, movies and films and things like that.[00:19:43] David Kelly: Yeah. we are starting off in the unscripted space, but we do not want to limit ourselves, put it that way. I think there's a lot that we can bring to bear whether on those unscripted or scripted side. [00:19:52] Dan Runcie: That makes sense. Thinking about your team though, and thinking about some of the stories you have potential for, a few things come to mind that I think would be amazing to see if there was something about it, that "We Believe" Warriors, that run. We'd love to see something like that. That's one of them, the other one that comes to mind is what would the Warriors' version of a Last Dance look like, right? Like we obviously have to see how this playoff run goes, but what would that look like?[00:20:21] Dan Runcie: I mean, I have to imagine that there's been some type of recording that has footage, that hasn't already been broadcast about everything from a, likely even well before that year you won the championship because this core group had been together for so long. [00:20:35] David Kelly: You have a very vivid imagination.[00:20:40] Dan Runcie: Well played,well played. [00:20:42] David Kelly: Yeah, yeah, I agree. Let's just say that. [00:20:46] Dan Runcie: Well, the one thing that you can comment on, which I saw and you can correct me if I got this right, but I saw something that said that GSE couldn't do a documentary on Steph Curry until he retires because of the League's collective bargaining agreement.[00:21:03] Dan Runcie: And when I first saw this, I had to pause and think about it because I was like, I thought that Steph had had stuff with Facebook, I thing, one of those shows. I think him and Ayesha have that HBO show. What is the aspect that makes it that he could do stuff with them, but you all couldn't do something like this?[00:21:22] David Kelly: Yeah. So, I mean, it seems a little, it doesn't seem intuitive, but when you think about it actually does make sense. So if we're paying, the salary cap is such that we can't pay Steph more than X dollars, so we can pay them X dollars in terms of his contract. But then we can go do a movie with him that's going to make X plus Y or X or 3X dollars.[00:21:43] David Kelly: The League will look at that and the other 29 teams will look at that as a salary cap and salary cap circumvention. And so I get it. It makes, it actually does make sense. It protects us the same way, protects all the teams. And so, yeah, you can't have your separate deals under the table deals with a player where you're driving revenue to that player outside of his player contract.[00:22:03] Dan Runcie: Okay. That makes sense. So, because it's still technically part of the broader organization, that's why versus obviously Facebook is completely independent. Okay. [00:22:13] David Kelly: Yeah. [00:22:13] Dan Runcie: Interesting. [00:22:15] David Kelly: So it's not to say that the player can't go out and make, you know, 5X, his player, his salary, more often times 10, 20X his playing contract. It just can't come from the team.[00:22:24] Dan Runcie: Got it. That makes sense. And maybe one thing that you may be able to comment on that I've been thinking about, especially just given the era that we're in now with how much more is being recorded, every person has their own channel to share things, whether that's Steph or a Draymond or whoever it is. I feel like that may make the filmmaking of a future Warriors-run documentary a little different than something like say The Last Dance when content and media was just less saturated then. So the footage and the concept they were able to have stands out in a unique way.[00:22:59] Dan Runcie: Does that shape overall, at least at this era, how you may approach documentary projects or what the unique angle may be given all of the opportunities for these players and for other outlets to be able to share their voice? [00:23:13] David Kelly: Oh, it does. It does. It changes it. In some ways it makes the player a lot more known and relevant and universal.[00:23:21] David Kelly: I mean, if you think, if you look at a player like Draymond, who has been able to, he's a personality on TNT. He has his own podcast and he's phenomenal inside of all that, all the different venues that he's in, it makes them a lot more. It makes him a lot more marketable. And so that could be a very good thing for when we're trying to do, if we might try to do a, and make our version of The Last Dance documentary, right? Cause I think that, you know, there are still stories to be told. There is still the definitive story to be told. And so I don't think that it necessarily detracts from what it is that we're trying to do. I think one can build upon the other. Maybe we have to look at it differently in some of the stories that we're gonna maybe tell are going to be a little bit different than stories that you may have already heard as a listener. [00:24:06] Dan Runcie: That makes sense. And I think in a lot of ways, the fact that there is more means there's so much more to build upon. I think back to last year. So this would have been 2021 when Draymond and Kevin Durant had had that Bleacher report conversation they had, and it created enough buzz to create a moment, at least for people that follow the NBA.[00:24:25] Dan Runcie: And you got two people that were just sharing their thoughts on one particular aspect of, you know, not one particular aspect, but one of the main things surrounding that discussion was one of the infamous interactions that they had had. So I think that those things do, like you're saying they build upon each other and they create new opportunities to tell and share these stories.[00:24:45] David Kelly: That's right. I agree. [00:24:46] Dan Runcie: Yeah. That makes sense. Well, this has been great. I think it's exciting. You have a lot of stuff that's, we're definitely going to keep an eye on and I guess before we let you go though, are there any future GSE projects that you're excited about or anything that we haven't touched upon? Or as you're thinking about what the future looks like, where the potential is at, where things are going?[00:25:07] David Kelly: I mean, there's a number of film projects that we're working on right now. Not in a position to announce anything yet, but we, there may, there's another one that we're working on with respect to, a retired basketball player, probably gets announced over the next month or so. And when that comes out, you know exactly what I'm, talking about. What we have announced are some of, is the lineup that we have on the music side. And so I'm really excited for people to hear this new J.U.I.C.E. project and a couple of projects that we have with Georgia Anne Muldrow, because those are two legacy artists who I think have not received their just due in their careers.[00:25:41] David Kelly: And I think there's an underground, hardcore support that they have. And we're just looking to see if we can expand upon that because I think Georgia Anne is the Nina Simone of our generation, like she is, her voice and her ability to produce and sing and, and her viewpoint on the world is just something that would just love to be aligned with.[00:26:01] David Kelly: I love listen to and be aligned with. And so I'm really excited about that project. [00:26:04] Dan Runcie: Nice. Any plans in audio, not music-related, podcasting. [00:26:10] David Kelly: We've kicked some things around. Yeah. We've kicked some things around, nothing that's concrete at the moment, but you know, we're, we are aware of all the various different mediums.[00:26:19] David Kelly: And so we're looking to see how it is that we might be able to do storytelling be all on different media. [00:26:25] Dan Runcie: Sounds good. Looking forward to it. Well, David, this is great. Thanks for coming on and chatting. Before we let you go, where can people find you or find the GSE if they want to follow up and keep up to tabs with everything that you have coming?[00:26:39] David Kelly: Yeah, so, we're going to start doing a much better job updating our website. So our website is gsent.com and we're also on Twitter and on Instagram as well. [00:26:49] Dan Runcie: All right, sounds good. Thank you. This was great. [00:26:52] David Kelly: Hey, appreciate it, man. This was great.[00:26:54] Dan Runcie: If you enjoyed this podcast, go ahead and share with a friend, copy the link, text it to a friend posted in your group chat, post it in your slack groups, wherever you and your people talk. Spread the word. That's how Trapital continues to grow and continues to reach the right people. And while you're at it, if you use Apple Podcasts, go ahead, rate the podcast, give it a high rating and leave a review. Tell people why you like the podcast that helps more people discover the show. Thank you in advance. Talk to you next week.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Connie & Alex skim over the week's tech news and then talk to Sam Rosenblum of Haun Ventures, one of the hottest crypto funds out there, about Haun's new $1.5 billion fund and whether we are now entering another crypto winter.

On this episode, we switched things up! Instead of a standard interview, I talked about a few recent topics with the best-selling author, Zack O'Malley Greenburg. He has long had his pulse on the music industry. Between his past time covering the business at Forbes, writing acclaimed books on the likes of Jay-Z and Michael Jackson, or his current Substack blog, Zack has formed both a macro- and micro-view of the entire industry. He's the perfect person to bring onto Trapital to discuss the stories reverberating across the music business today.One of those stories is Spotify's floundering performance as of late. The streaming leader's stock has cratered to all-time lows, partly due to so-so performance, but also as a byproduct of Netflix's own struggles. But if you ask Zack, the commonalities between Netflix and Spotify aren't as close as critics will have you believe. Specifically, Spotify's “unlimited buffet” business model is a massive differentiator. And then there's Apple officially discounting the iPod after 21 years. Whether it gets the credit or not, the innovative product re-shaped the music business into what we see today. As a “legal Napster”, it laid the groundwork for today's streaming-dominated industry — not just for music, but podcasts too. Check out all the topics Zack and I covered in this episode of Trapital:[0:00] Zack's First Experiences with The iPod[6:11] Steve Jobs First iPod Keynote[8:33] iPod As A Gateway Into Apple Ecosystem [12:16] Will iPod Have A Resurgence Like Vinyl? [14:48] U2's Free Album On Apple Backfires [18:55] Spotify's Current Business Struggles[20:09] Why Spotify Shouldn't Be Compared To Netflix[27:23] Do Spotify And Netflix Have Content Problems?[33:00] Examining Bad Bunny's Meteoric Rise In Six Years[38:21] Latin Music Succeeding In US Despite Language Barrier [40:12] Did Jay Z Ruin Robinson Cano's Career?Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | Overcast | Amazon | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | RSSHost: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.coGuests: Zack O'Malley Greenburg, @zogblog This episode was brought to you by Highlight. Build the community of your dreams on the blockchain. The new company is backed by leading investors like Haun Ventures, Thirty Five Ventures (“35V”), and more. Learn more at highlight.xyz  Enjoy this podcast? Rate and review the podcast here! ratethispodcast.com/trapital Trapital is home for the business of hip-hop. Gain the latest insights from hip-hop's biggest players by reading Trapital's free weekly memo. TRANSCRIPTION[00:00:00] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: If you're a startup and you're looking for celebrity investors and, I know that the market is cooled down a bit, but still, you know, you're in a fairly mature startup. And you're trying to get your name out there a little more by getting, you know, music investors, celebrities, et cetera. The kind of reach that he has, especially if you're trying to get into the Spanish language market. It's untoppable and, you know, I just think there's a tremendous opportunity there and in a lot of other places for him too.[00:00:29] Dan Runcie: Hey, welcome to the Trapital podcast. I'm your host and the founder of Trapital, Dan Runcie. This podcast is your place to gain insights from executives in music, media, entertainment, and more who are taking hip-hop culture to the next level.[00:00:49] Dan Runcie: On today's episode, we switched things up a little bit. This is normally an interview-style podcast, but I did a recent survey. And many of you say you wanted to hear more from me. You wanted to hear my insights, my perspective on this space and where things are heading. So it was a great time to invite back Zack O'Malley Greenburg.[00:01:08] Dan Runcie: You may know him from his work at Forbes, where he started a lot of the reporting on how much money hip hop artists were making and the potential for what they could do in the business world. So we covered a bunch of topics in this episode. First, we talked about the iPod. Apple recently announced that they are discontinuing the influential device after almost 21 years in its production. So Zach and I talk about the device's importance and influence. Then we talked about Spotify. The stock is trading at an all-time low. So we talk about what does that mean for streaming? What does that mean for music and, more broadly, how does that compare to video and other types of streaming?[00:01:45] Dan Runcie: Then we talked about the current king of streaming, of the current king of Spotify. Bad Bunny is the biggest artist in the world. So we talk about the impact and importance of what that means for a Latin artist, a Latin artist, who is yet to do a song in English and how cool that is. And then we close things out where we talked about Robinson Canó, who is a baseball player and how his career took a bit of a different turn after he sides with Jay-Z's Roc Nation sports agency.[00:02:12] Dan Runcie: Hope you enjoy this episode. If you do, send a note and let us know, because that's the type of stuff that encourages great content. I hope you enjoy it. Here's our conversation. All right. We got Zack O'Malley Greenburg with us today and we are going to cover a bunch of topics. And the first one that's near and dear to both of us is we got to pour some out for the iPod. After almost 21 years, the device that changed the game, Apple announced it's discontinuing it.[00:02:38] Dan Runcie: And it's a great time to talk about its legacy, its impact. So first let's start here cause I know that you likely owned a bunch of these. I did too. How many iPods did you own and which version was the first one you got? [00:02:50] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Oh man. You know, I think I had originally one of the clunky ones that didn't have sort of like the touch wheel, you know, like the kind of mano, you know, the, what is it like the black and white kind of a janky one.[00:03:02] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: But the one that really sticks in my mind was right around the time that Bono was doing all those commercials. And I remember my godfather was like, I want to get you a nice present for your birthday. He's like, I want to get you like, like a personal DVD player. And I was like, that's very sweet of you. And I really appreciate that. Can I have an iPod instead?[00:03:23] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: He was like, what's this iPod? But yeah. I mean, it was, I think that one that must have been. I don't know, maybe around 2005, that was when they started getting really sexy-looking. And, and you had the touch wheel and you had kind of like the sleek black look on it instead of like, you know, sort of like the white witch, which would get kind of, you know, get kind of grimy, at least mine did.[00:03:47] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: But this was sleek. I think the back was silver. I mean, it was really a work of art and that was when I started thinking it's only a matter of time before they just make one of these as a phone, you know? And I'm sure, you know, having talked to people at Apple over the years, by the time they put out that iPod in the mid-aughts, they already had a design on the iPhone, but there would have been no, you know, no iPhone if there weren't an iPod.[00:04:10] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: You know, in many ways, I think the iPod saved the music industry, right? I mean, when they created that ecosystem, it just became easier to get your music, you know, through the legal means than by downloading them, you know, downloading those MP3s illegally and say what you will about the depth of the album and the issues of like breaking up albums and selling them single by single.[00:04:31] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: But, you know, I think that really provided the bridge that the music industry needed to get to the streaming era. So yeah. Pour one out, indeed. How about you, Dan, what was your first?[00:04:41] Dan Runcie: Ah, yeah. So the first one for me, let's see, I want to say it was 2004, I bought the iPod mini because I didn't have a Mac at home. So I waited until they were compatible on PC.[00:04:54] Dan Runcie: And I added, I think I was working either at Dairy Queen or I was working at our local parks and rec at the time. And one of the first paychecks I had, I was like, no, let me go take this, buy iPod mini. So I had that, but listen, after two months of having that, and I was one of the first people in the school to have one at the time. I left it in my pocket and put it in the washing machine, like a typical teenager would, and that thing gets ruined. Right. So then I was like, okay, fine. Let me get another one. This time I was making CDs at the time, I was burning them and selling them in school. So I said, okay, I need a bigger operation here. Let me get the full-on classic one.[00:05:34] Dan Runcie: Got that, within two months of getting that, so this is around the time of high school graduation. I put the bag into this bleacher area by the school where we had the graduation. I go back after graduation. Someone takes that bag, someone in the class must've seen me put it there, and then that was gone. So then by the time I'm entering in college, I said, you know what?[00:05:55] Dan Runcie: I just need to get another one. So I bought three iPods within an 18-month period. It's one of the most ridiculous things. And obviously for the kid that was making $7 an hour at various jobs, would be at a camp counselor, working at Dairy Queen and other places. That's what I spent my money on. I bought it on iPods.[00:06:11] Dan Runcie: So I had to go into freshman year of college, fresh with of those things, but as I had that, that one I did have for a while though, I kept that one for a number of years. And I think I eventually got a Shuffle later on for running and stuff like that. So I think, so I guess I had four devices total, but I agree with you. Take a step back, thinking about the device overall. I'd actually went back and watched Steve Job's keynote that he initially did.[00:06:35] Dan Runcie: And he had done keynote presentations before for all the other products that he had throughout the years. But I feel like this one is the one that really turned to the pop culture aspect of the Steve Job's keynote with, he was no longer wearing the suits. He's wearing the black turtleneck tucked into the jeans.[00:06:51] Dan Runcie: Takes the iPod out of the pocket, has the “hundred songs in your pocket” quote. And I think, from there, what you mentioned too about the bridge that this was for streaming. It makes a lot of sense, right? I mean, look at the way iTunes is set up. iTunes was essentially a legalized version of Napster, right? Instead of just downloading the songs for free, let's take a similar layout and make it look a lot cleaner than Napster did.[00:07:14] Dan Runcie: And you can download the songs yourself. The thing that's interesting though, if we just think about Apple's influence in this space over the years. This was the company that essentially paved the way for digital music technology, listening, both from companies in the industry. And it did the same for podcasting as well.[00:07:33] Dan Runcie: And for years, Jobs didn't want to get into music streaming. He thought that having an annual or having a monthly subscription for it wasn't the best idea. And obviously, we know that podcasting as well. Although it was something that Apple started, we're looking now, with the way things are, yes, they have presence in both podcasting and of music, but Apple isn't the industry leader in any of these spaces. So we can have a whole podcast episode about what's changed, but even though there's a lot that necessarily maybe hasn't taken off in the same way. You can't knock the influence of what this product did in just its evolution over the years and what it led to. I was looking at some stats earlier. Its sales peaked in 2008, 2009, right? You could still, after the iPhone came out, so you had this whole runway of time where they just kept selling more and more and they just eventually figured it out. And they had a whole system of these things that you're selling 20, 30 billion of them a quarter. It's crazy. [00:08:33] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Oh yeah. And you know, the deeper you get into the Apple ecosystem, right. I mean, and I'm fully embedded. I'm stuck. There's no way out. You know, I remember with that, you know, the U2 era iPod, you could still, you know, when you plugged it into your computer, you would still see that little iPod icon on your desktop and you could open it up as though it were, you know, an external hard drive and you could, you know, move files in and out.[00:08:59] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: And it didn't really, there were no questions asked as to where the files were obtained, you know, and they would show up in your music library and you can put all kinds of different files on there. And it was great. And then, you know, with each successive version, so they eventually eliminated that. And you know, now of course, if you have iTunes, you know, songs that you may have had in there from the, from the Limewire and Kazaa era just suddenly disappeared.[00:09:21] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: And, you know, you can't really get them back unless you have them backed up somewhere on a physical hard drive. So, you know, I think that there was also a level of control that Apple got, but, you know, but to have you be part of that ecosystem, I think that's the most valuable thing for them, right? I mean, if you look at Apple or Spotify, you know, like you were talking sure, Apple is not the leader in the music streaming business. Apple Music is I guess, a distant second, but they, you know, they don't need to win that because the hardware turns out or at least in the case of the iPod. And now that, you know, more recently that the iPhone, that the hardware turns out to be more valuable than the software, you know, looking at Spotify.[00:09:58] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: And I think a lot of it comes down to, you know, intellectual property, right? If the, if you have to pay for the intellectual property or your, you know, or a whole huge chunk of that is coming out of. You know, out of your profits or your revenue before you get to profit, you know, it's a, it's a lot harder to make a ton of money than it is for a company like Apple, where the iPod or the iPhone, you know, that was their intellectual property and they could sell it for whatever they want to. [00:10:22] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Yeah, that's a good point. It makes it even think about AirPods. Now. Now I always see those infographics of AirPod revenue, and comparing that to all of these other tech companies. And how have you just looked at this one product that Apple has and how it does better than so many of the household companies that we have.[00:10:38] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: But for you though, was the iPod the first product that pushed you onto Apple? Or were you in a household that had iMacs and things like that? [00:10:48] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Yeah, no, I was, my first computer was an Apple, I think I only ever owned one or two computers that were not Apples. And that was when my gaming buddies in high school convinced me to get something else. But yeah, no, it's been, you know, from back in the day for me. So, I'm stuck. [00:11:04] Dan Runcie: Yeah, it's, it's interesting because I do think for a lot of people, this product ended up being the game-changer. Yeah. I know it took a few generations for them to eventually put it and make it Windows-compatible. And it's funny. I was looking back, there was a few conversations where Tony Fadell, the guy who had actually invented it, essentially that worked with Apple on it.[00:11:26] Dan Runcie: They had had a whole bunch of conversations about what ends up leading to what. And I think for a while, Jobs was under the impression that if you keep the iPod as Apple iOS exclusive device that it'll encourage more people to buy future iMac or Apple products, but what actually ended up happening, they pushed for the opposite and they saw the opposite where make the device compatible people then see, and they get introduced to the Apple world.[00:11:55] Dan Runcie: And then that makes them want to then buy more iMacs and buy more MacBooks and buy things like that. So it was the opposite push-pull of what they thought happens. And it's one of those things where instead of restricting access to make people think that they want, that they, you're restricting. How do you give people a taste and then have them naturally want to get it on there on their own?[00:12:16] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Absolutely. I mean, I think it almost mirrors being an artist, right? I mean, you don't want to withhold your art, your music from streaming services so that people will go out and buy the vinyl or, or, you know, back in those days, download the MP3. You want people to be out there and getting familiar with your work.[00:12:32] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: And you're not going to cannibalize yourself if people really like you. I mean, just look at Taylor Swift, you know, her fans go out and buy her vinyl, you know, by the hundred thousand and they can certainly have access to it whenever they want on the streaming services. [00:12:44] Dan Runcie: Yeah. Speaking of vinyls, it stuck out to me that there were a bunch of iPod Touch that sold out immediately.[00:12:51] Dan Runcie: So essentially the line is completely gone now and even a few on eBay that were going for crazy prices after this announcement came out and it made me think, is the iPod going to be the way that vinyls are looked at now? Is there going to be this resurgence for this retro thing where people look back and let's say that as millennials or gen Z have, kids, they want to see, okay, what was this generation listening to when they were teenagers and they'd go back and be like, oh, let's check out Zack's iPod, let's check out Dan's iPod or whatever else. Do you think that there is a resurgence in that type of way the same way we're seeing with vinyl? [00:13:26] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: You know, I could see maybe I think the main issue would be a compatibility, right? In the way that you, you know, not even Apple to PC, but you know, old Apple stuff isn't even necessarily compatible with, compatible with new Apple stuff.[00:13:37] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: So if I wanted to plug in my old iPod, if I could dig it up wherever it was. I don't think I even have a freaking USB port on my computer. No, I don't. [00:13:49] Dan Runcie: You need like five dongles. You need like a firewire, USB to USB to C. [00:13:54] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Exactly. And so, and even then it's like what songs will it remove, will my computer remove from my iPod or vice versa?[00:14:04] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: So, I mean, I almost wonder if there's the really old ones where you go and you can see, like you can open it up like that U2 era iPod, and actually just manually move the MP3 tracks around, if those still work somehow, you know, that might be almost the way of safeguarding one's music files from being kinda like yanked up into the ether.[00:14:22] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: You know, I think whereas, vinyl, despite being somewhat cumbersome, it is ultimately plug and play. You plug it into a standard outlet, put the thing on pretty mechanical. So yeah, I do think that might be the only drawback, but yeah, I could totally see it. The next hipster thing, being dongles at all, finding the way to use iPod. So, yeah, just, I guess cassette tapes are making it come back to, so, you know, just like vinyl, even CDs were up, you know, over the past year or so.[00:14:46] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: What's old is new again. [00:14:48] Dan Runcie: I know, right? You never know if someone had told me when the iPod first came out, that vinyls would've made a comeback, I'd never would have thought that, but you mentioned plug and play and you mentioned U2 earlier. We have to talk about the greatest hack of all time with whatever you plug this damn device into any USB thing, U2's album automatically starts playing.[00:15:07] Dan Runcie: How they were able to get that to happen and I know it wasn't a hundred percent intended, but it also kind of was so however they were able to do that, eventually I do think it got on the nerves of many people and we saw from whether it was Apple or even Spotify later on people feeling like these services are pushing certain artists on them.[00:15:27] Dan Runcie: I do think that that is one of the understated hacks that we've seen in both of U2's major deals with Apple. [00:15:36] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I just remember, you know, right. They gave away that album and you woke up one morning and it was on your iTunes and all these people were freaking out, like, get this off my computer.[00:15:45] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: I can't get it off my computer. I don't want this taking up hard drive space. Like first of all, how much hard drive space is taken up? You have a Mac anyway, probably. And it's, you know, it's fine. Is Bono really that offensive to you? Like U2? I mean, I don't know. I think it's sort of, you know, I mean, I don't want to say like easy listening, but it's not like offensive, like who is offended by U2?[00:16:06] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: I was kind of always surprised by that. And Bono had this kind of poignant quote. He said he was like, you know, “I'm just an Irishman trying to give you some beautiful music.” Yeah. If you don't want it, I'm sorry, you know. That kind of thing and can't really feel bad for Bono and he was a good sport about it, but it's kind of funny that the way people's minds work, you know, it's like during the Napster era, it's like, oh, I got to go get all my music for free.[00:16:33] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: You know, I will seek it out to illegally download music. Right. And it'll take me an hour to download a song. And if somebody calls my mom on the landline, you know, it'll get interrupted halfway through, right? And then. Here comes U2 giving everybody a free album and they don't even have to do anything.[00:16:51] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: And all these people are kind of grousing about it. So I thought that was sort of, you know, above all a really interesting commentary on like the human psyche and, you know, wanting what you can't have. Not wanting what you do. So pour one out for that as well. [00:17:05] Dan Runcie: Oh yeah. I mean, it's interesting because I mean, from my perspective, I was never upset about the album actually being there, if anything, it was more so than minor inconvenience of can I plug this device into the USB port for one second, without anything automatically playing, right? Like I also had this era where it was back from doing anything that I'd purchased on iTunes and Lady Gaga's Bad Romance would always play. So like once the U2 thing stopped, like that song always played in.[00:17:35] Dan Runcie: You want to hear about friends making fun of me and dragging me for that all day long. That was always a, a hilarious one, but no, this was good. Let's pour one out for the iPod, one of the most influential products we've seen. And as we both know, I think we talk about how so much innovation starts in music and this device is one of the best examples of that.[00:17:55] Dan Runcie: So salute to it. It had a, had a great run. And on that note, I actually think it's probably better for us to stay on the music topic and the streaming topic. And talk a bit about Spotify because this company, less than a year ago, well, maybe a little bit more than a year ago, they were signing so many of the big exclusive deals.[00:18:18] Dan Runcie: The Rogan deal was still fairly fresh and the stock was at an all-time high. And now this stock is at an all-time low, as of recording this, it's trading under a hundred dollars. Its market cap is under $20 billion. Daniel Ek just purchased 50 million himself to show confidence that he has in the company stock moving forward.[00:18:39] Dan Runcie: But where do you see all of this happening? I think there's a lot that's happening in the market right now that could be aligned with this, but there's a lot that could be separate from this. That could be a bit more specific to where Spotify currently is. What's your take on the current state of Spotify?[00:18:55] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Yeah. I mean, I think, like you say, there are these kinds of macro trends in the market, in the world that are kind of dragging down a lot of stuff. I think with Spotify though, what's going on is that people are freaking out about streaming in particular after that sort of big surprise, bad news from Netflix a little while ago, where they essentially admitted that the cap on, you know, paid streaming for them was 220 million people and that they were going to open up their free, you know, free or lower ad-supported tier. I forget if it was free tier with ads. I think it was just a lower price tier with ads. So yeah know the idea that, well, you know, it's all streaming and Spotify had been trying to emulate Netflix by paying all this money for content and you know, the Joe Rogan's of the world and podcasting and stuff.[00:19:40] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: So I get it on one hand, but, you know, there's a lot of fear right now in the public markets. And there's a lot of, sort of, you know, constellating of things, right. And yes, they're both streaming companies, but to me, you know, I take a step back and I look at it and I see two totally different companies. I mean, obviously one is primarily, you know, video, one's audio, but you know, the reason that Spotify works and the reason that Spotify became the market leader in audio streaming, it is essentially an unlimited buffet.[00:20:09] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Netflix was never an unlimited buffet. And you know, this, if you are somebody who has ever gone on Netflix to find a particular movie or something like I remember many years ago when I first got Netflix, I was like, oh, you know, I want to watch whatever it was. The latest James Bond movie. I'll go on here. It's like $9.99 a month, unlimited everything, right? No, they only have, you know, whatever move they have, all these Adam Sandler movies and they have, you know, just like a random smattering of movies. And of course they have all these shows, but you get Netflix because you want to watch certain shows, you know, or because you are somebody who's just like, I want to just put something on and I trust that they will have, yeah, I don't want to think about it. Like I trust that they will have good stuff and I'll put on one of their shows and you know, it's not cheaper than cable. So, you know, that to me was always a very different model. It is not an unlimited buffet of movies and television, you know, unlike terrestrial cable, where in theory, you know, you get your cable package.[00:21:06] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: You can watch the news or you can watch sports. So you can, there's some crappy movies on, you know, there's like more of a promise of unlimited opportunity. So I think that, like, there was never a video streaming service that had the unlimited buffet kind of nature of Spotify. So, you know, I think that's what ultimately caps Netflix, like around that 220 million number. If there was some way that Netflix could totally replace your cable. And I know Hulu has live TV options, or if Netflix really did have, you know, a complete movie library that you could complete TV library, you can, anything you want. I think that there would be a lot more room to grow, but it's such an ordeal to get all the rights necessary to do that.[00:21:46] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: I don't know how that would ever happen. And you certainly couldn't bankroll like every single thing in the future. That would be needed to have that kind of thing going on in perpetuity. So, yeah, I guess I just, I think that Netflix is dealing with this issue of like, sort of the unbundling and re-bundling and what people are treating Netflix as a sort of like a bundle, right? You want to maybe some other bundles, you probably don't just have Netflix, you have Netflix and Hulu, or maybe you even have terrestrial cable and Netflix or something like that. Whereas the Spotify, you have all of your music. I mean, what do you not get on Spotify? Or if it's Apple Music, what do you not get an Apple Music?[00:22:18] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: So I think it's a little bit of the baby getting thrown out with the bathwater. And I just think that the fundamental thesis is a little bit different when it comes to Spotify than it is with Netflix. So that's my 2 cents. [00:22:29] Dan Runcie: Let's take a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsor. [00:22:30] Dan Runcie: Yeah, I think that's fair. And I think that echoes what Daniel Ek had said himself. Right. He said, even though Spotify and Netflix are both subscription-based revenue companies that serve media on a regular basis to its content, that is where a lot of the similarities do stop. And even though there are points where I feel like Spotify and other streaming services, music streaming services, tried to replicate what Netflix did.[00:22:55] Dan Runcie: It was never going to be that way. And I think what makes the music streaming area a bit more unique is that because 80%, I'll probably even say 90% of the content that each of these services offer is largely the same. You end up inevitably having a price war at some point, once you've reached a certain level of distribution, and once you've reached a certain percentage of audience that you're reshaped, we're starting to see that happen.[00:23:20] Dan Runcie: Now you're starting to see that saturation. And I was recently talking to Will Page, the economist that studies this space. And his analogy was that for a long time, this was a herbivore market. People were capturing the opportunity that's there, we're shifting to a carnivore market, and in a lot of ways that does end up benefiting the companies that are the most willing to cut costs and the most willing to pivot. And if we're bringing things back full circle a bit to what we said about Apple Music earlier, this is not a product that they are necessarily trying to run at a profit. It's very similar to the Amazon Prime mentality of when Jeff Bezos has said, the more Golden Globes that we win, the more sneakers that we're able to sell through Amazon.[00:24:03] Dan Runcie: And I think the same could be said for Apple to some extent. They won best picture, CODA won best picture. That's their product that helps them get more subscribers who then end up purchasing the wide number of different products they have under their Apple TV+ bundle that they're able to offer there.[00:24:19] Dan Runcie: I do think with Spotify though, and this is why I do think they likely have more relative upside right now, I would say than Netflix, it's for two reasons. One, Spotify has had relatively better growth in the most recent quarters, I'd say, and that's even accounting for both services are ceasing their service in Russia.[00:24:37] Dan Runcie: It's also looking at them just being able to already have the free tier penetration, already having a pipeline to acquire more as well. And secondly, I think the podcasting model is ultimately what will help them. This was a model that I was initially skeptical about for years, just in terms of whether or not Spotify would be able to actually make it work and become the dominant player in audio.[00:25:01] Dan Runcie: But the reason that I think they're probably going to be better off is because of the actual data that they could offer both advertisers and listening and podcasters as well. And this is going back to opportunities that Apple didn't necessarily capture at the time, if you think about the fact that most podcasting is essentially just an RSS feed and a lot of people are sharing monthly podcast downloads and things like that.[00:25:25] Dan Runcie: And if you look at some of the podcasts, especially some of the ones that were most popular, 2016 when podcasts would really start to take off. A lot of those listeners may not necessarily be actively listening, like it could be background downloads. That's where Spotify wins, because they can actually have that clear data to show who's listening to what. They acquired two companies, Chartable and Podsights, that are both analyzing and having the better data in this space. So the, we're leading to a future where Spotify eventually is going to be able to, I think, dominate the space because they're able to make the better pitch to advertisers. Come here, get a more direct way to reach your audience.[00:26:03] Dan Runcie: And I think if the numbers do continue to grow, I think they will be better off. So of course this is not investment advice, to be clear for anyone. But I do think that between the two of these, that Spotify is probably the company that's in the better position. And it's funny cause this isn't always a, a thought that I would have had of course, two completely different business models.[00:26:22] Dan Runcie: Netflix is fixed. Spotify is variable, but I do think that over time, relatively speaking, it still has plenty of hurdles to get through, but it feels like that's where the opportunity is. [00:26:34] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Yeah, absolutely. I think I totally agree with you there. [00:26:36] Dan Runcie: Yeah. And I mean, with that, another piece that people have brought up as well as content as well. What are your thoughts on Netflix's content? Because I know that's a piece where people have often said, well, if you're just going to make shows, like, Is It Cake? and stuff like that, then why am I going to pay money for the service and the fact that they haven't necessarily had as many true franchises or any repeatable types of things.[00:27:00] Dan Runcie: In my opinion, a lot of the things that have taken off from Spotify have, or not from Spotify, from Netflix. Sometimes it almost feels like it's like flashes and bottles that catch off a bit unexpectedly, whether it's like a Bird Box or a Squid Game, or Making A Murderer, things like that. Like it doesn't have the same feeling of, okay, you don't, this big HBO show is going to come and dominate like it does.[00:27:23] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Yeah, you know, I mean, I think Netflix has just done such a good job of going out and just acquiring tons and tons of content. Right. And, you know, given their model, they pay out a lot, you know, then people have been talking over the past, however many years, like, oh, Netflix spent X billion dollars on content.[00:27:41] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: How are they going to sustain it? But when you're acquiring that much stuff, it's like, you have all these lotto tickets and when something takes off, you know, I think in most cases you're not having to pay a lot of it back, you know, on the backend like you would with, you know, obviously Spotify ends up paying back, you know, a huge percentage of what comes in back to the labels and to the artists.[00:28:01] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: So I think that the model. Netflix, has there are sort of like a lot higher upside when something works? I mean, I guess with Spotify, they're trying to emulate that on the podcasting side, but you know, it would seem to me that when Netflix has, you know, a TV show that takes off just out of nowhere, I mean, something like Squid Game, the amount of new subscribers they sign up are just, you know, so much more than, than you'd get with a hit podcast. So, I mean, you know, in a way I think what I'm most curious to see is how much will Spotify continue to try to emulate Netflix. Now that Netflix is sort of in a, you know, questionable phase and do they just kind of, you know, try to double down on the music aspect because the other piece of it that we haven't talked about, you know, when you're going out and acquiring content and you were paying for it specifically like to have it named and everything you become, you know, an arbiter of culture and taste also, you know, right and wrong of what is hate speech of what is, you know, all kinds of things. And that's like a huge pain in the ass to figure out, right, as we learned with the whole Spotify, Joe Rogan, Neil young situation.[00:29:06] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: And. Yeah. I never thought that Neil Young being off of Spotify was gonna ruin Spotify. And I don't really think very many people did, but you know, it did go to show that there's a, an amount of energy that has to go into defending some decisions once, once you are acquiring content versus sure, I mean, if you have artists on your platform and you know, they do something terrible, you may have to make a decision to try to pull them off. But, you know, I think generally as a society, we've moved away from pressuring people to sort of deplatform musicians for making, you know, offensive music or something like that, music that some people find offensive.[00:29:42] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: And even for, you know, some of the most controversial musicians, you know, it's super rare that their music is pulled down. So I just think that there's a lot more editorial energy that goes into obviously Netflix, but, you know, Spotify emulating Netflix in the podcasting space, that becomes a whole new headache with like a lot of unknown unknowns.[00:29:58] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: So I do wonder now that it's, you know, perhaps less of a growth area. Will Spotify continue to follow that path? [00:30:04] Dan Runcie: Yeah. That's a great point. We had not touched on this piece of it. And I think that in a lot of ways it does mean it's more workforce, something like a company like Spotify. Netflix can pretty easily, at least I would hope so, identify the movies that have these issues, and we've already seen some of them have disclaimers, but there's a bit of a removedness from it because of just how they go about their deals versus Spotify. You just see the blind spots where someone that literally goes and finds all of the clips of Joe Rogan saying the N-word, putting that together.[00:30:38] Dan Runcie: And then that's what sparks the controversy. You would have hoped that the company themselves would have been looking at the content. And then it makes you think, are people really responding to the issue itself? By people, I mean, the company like Spotify, are they really responding to the issue itself or are they responding to the public outcry over the issue?[00:30:54] Dan Runcie: And that could, you know, be an ongoing conversation, but that's where I do think that there needs to be much more editorial oversight and understanding that if you are going to be, it's one thing to say that you're an open platform that anyone can put music on. Anyone can put, upload their music too, but when you're exclusively paying someone or licensing their content, it changes the dynamic of the relationship.[00:31:18] Dan Runcie: And I know that they try to make the distinction. Yes. we are licensing Joe Rogan's content as opposed to acquiring it. But the example I always bring back to people it's like, okay, well, let's explore that scenario then, let's say that this was Bill Simmons, who now works for Spotify because you acquired his company and we found those clips of him saying those things. Would you then have treated this situation differently? I don't know the answer to that situation, but Spotify is implying that they would, but I don't know. [00:31:47] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Yeah. It's a gray area. And the more you get into, the deeper you get into editorial, the less profitable it is, I say, as a journalist.[00:31:54] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: So I think that, you know, some of these companies are learning that the hard way. [00:31:58] Dan Runcie: Couldn't agree more. And while we're on the note of Spotify, let's switch gears again and let's talk about the current king of Spotify, right? Bad Bunny. It is been really cool, and refreshing to see an artist outside of the US dominate on a platform like this.[00:32:13] Dan Runcie: I think that his success has really shown what's possible now in a way, I think that he's the greatest success story of the streaming era. I really do. I mean, when you think about what he was able to do, where he was six years ago, I've written about it in a recent newsletter about how six years ago, he's bagging groceries at a local grocery store in Puerto Rico.[00:32:36] Dan Runcie: And then now he's a superstar. He was on stage at the Super Bowl. He's going to have this old Marvel movie, tops every chart possible. It's like that Kurt Warner underdog story from him starting off as a grocery bagger and then did his Arena Football. But imagine if Kurt Warner had the career of Peyton Manning and actually went on to, you know, dominate years and years, it's impressive. What do you think about Bad Bunny and what he's been able to do? [00:33:00] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Ah, I think it's incredible. I mean, and I think it also, it shows the democratization that has been brought about by streaming and what's that Jay-Z line? Men lie, women lie, numbers don't. And you know, you can have your charts for whatever publication and you can have all this and that and their formulas and stuff like that.[00:33:18] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: But, you know, it's all very convoluted and, you know, it's, it's usually one way or the other. It's engineered to sort of favor the, those who are already sort of big names, but when you have the numbers, it shows up on Spotify and regardless of where you are on whatever other chart, I mean, the fact is that more people are listening to your music than they're listening to anybody else's music and it's objectively true. You can see it in Spotify and the numbers don't lie. And so Bad Bunny, I think, you know, was able to come up from, you know, in this incredible underdog story, you know, to get there and there's proof, right? I mean, there's proof in a way that there might not have been, you know, before the streaming era.[00:33:56] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: So I think another thing about Bad Bunny that, you know, certainly in my time at Forbes, we would look, we've scoured the world to find and do our list of the top-earning musicians. And I did that list this past year for Rolling Stone, but, you know, it was just all old rockers selling their catalogs basically.[00:34:14] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: And I think, you know, a function of that is that the pandemic has just greatly disrupted touring, which would kind of like traditionally be the thing that would get you up on one of these lists. And, you know, I think now that the pandemic is kind of easing up and tours are really starting to happen again, you know, we're seeing Bad Bunny be able to sell out stadiums, you know, I mean, he is really on that level in terms of, you know, people putting their money where their mouth is. So I think that next step is going to be, as we start to see these totals from his tour in combination, you know, with the streaming dollars and Marvel and all these other things that are going to come along with it, you know, he's going to start to climb up these earnings lists, you know, from a financial perspective as well.[00:34:56] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: So I think that adds a whole other level. You know, sort of like credibility in some cases, when looking at somebody as like a generational superstar, when they sort of have the, you know, the financial success to prove it and to sustain and to, you know, to expand into other fascinating ways. So I'm really curious to see what he does next.[00:35:16] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Like, you know, what's his Jay-Z move? What's his Puffy move? Is there going to be something in the spirits business or the cannabis or who knows what, but, you know, personally, as sort of a music business nerd, I'm especially interested to see, you know, what does he do with all this energy and momentum and you know, what direction does he take it in having created this incredible musical empire.[00:35:36] Dan Runcie: Yeah, it's only a matter of time until he's going to top most of those lists, right? You look at the numbers that this tour will likely do. It's likely going to be over 2 or 3 million, if not more, just given the amount of shows that he has and the size of the arenas that he's performing in. And one of the things that I've always thought about with artists from other countries is that there's always been this stigma or thought that in order for them to monetize, it always had to rely much more on brand deals or things like that because the assumption was that the fan bases in these areas may not be willing to necessarily pay as much, but his tours are disproving that just based on the sales numbers, I would need to dig it a little bit further to see, okay, are the dollar amounts in all of the regions similar, but I think he's proving that that isn't necessarily the case. Yeah. If he does want to continue to take this further, what would it look like if he eventually let's say that he continues to do things with the WWE even further? Is he able to have some type of connection there to make that further extend, right? This Marvel character he's going to have in this upcoming movie is a wrestler. What could that potentially look like? If he ends up selling some type of, as you mentioned, some type of spirits or getting involved with something on the business side, the sky really is the limit.[00:36:52] Dan Runcie: And I think it's one of those unique optionality things where it's up to him and what stuck out to me as well as if we think, just think about his trajectory and what's possible now for a lot of Latin artists, is that he has not done one song in English. Everything that he's done is either been in Spanish or if he did it, then his verses is still in Spanish.[00:37:15] Dan Runcie: But everyone else is still doing their stuff in English. Like this song. Cardi B from a couple of years ago. But I do think that that's different from even the wave of Latin artists that got mainstream popularity. Let's say 20 years ago, you have Enrique Iglesias, your Mark Anthony or even JLo to some extent, they all had to do albums in English before they were ever given a consideration for that mainstream push or appeal.[00:37:41] Dan Runcie: Ricky Martin was the same exact way. And I think the fact that he's been able to do on his terms, he's been able to be an advocate as well for both gender norms and for just LGBTQ as well and how he has been just a lot of the causes and things that he cares about. It's really cool to see artists like this.[00:38:02] Dan Runcie: And I think in some ways the trajectory that Latin artists have been on, especially in the streaming era, kind of reminds me of where hip hop was at a certain point, right? It's like in the early days they wanted those artists to like assimilate to whatever the pop phase was, right? Like the rappers had to do these pop collaborations.[00:38:21] Dan Runcie: The Latin stars had to do the, you know, US pop star collaborations. Then once they prove they no longer have to assimilate in the same way, then those artists set the trends and now everyone else wants to come to them. And now we're seeing Billie Eilish and Drake and all these other artists doing songs in Spanish, even though that's not their main language, we're just going to see more and more of that.[00:38:42] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Yeah, I mean, and I think that one of the things that Bad Bunny has proven, you know, in some other form, is that if given the opportunity, you know, if you're not sort of, you know, forced to go meet the quote unquote US mainstream market, where it's at, the US mainstream market will actually come to you. You know, and people who don't understand Spanish will still love your music.[00:39:02] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: And, you know, I mean, I don't know. I know a lot of songs in English that I don't understand. Whatever genre, if it's, you know, rock and there's a lot of yelling or if it's, you know, rap and it's like so fast or with like a really deep accent. I don't always catch on but, you know, people respond to music. I mean, it doesn't really matter what's being said, I mean, look at Nirvana, right? Like a lot of the lyrics didn't particularly mean anything, but people just responded to the music and the vibe, the whole thing. So even if you can understand the words, people are going to be attracted to the music. And, you know, I think that he's showing that that holds true even on the tip-top superstar level for sure.[00:39:38] Dan Runcie: A hundred percent. Excited to see where his career goes, excited to see where he continues to dominate. [00:39:43] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Amen to that. And, you know, if have his management too, I'm trying to get him in some consumer-facing startups, because if you're a startup and you're looking for celebrity investors and they know that the market is cooled down at it, but still, you know, you're in a really mature startup. And you're trying to get your name out there a little more by getting, you know, music, investors, celebrities, et cetera. The kind of reach that has, especially if you're trying to get into Spanish language market. It's untoppable. And I just think there's a tremendous opportunity there and in a lot of other places for him too, so. [00:40:12] Dan Runcie: Oh, yeah, I'm sure. It should be. All right. Before we wrap this up, we got to talk about this article that you had written very recently about, we're both fellow Yankees fans, and one of the stars we've been most familiar with over the years, Robinson Canó, and you have this idea that you were brought up. I thought it was really interesting and I want for you to talk more. Did Jay-Z ruin Robinson Canó bag? [00:40:40] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so I kind of posed that question on my Substack and, you know, I think going into it and that the background,I'm going to set the background for anybody who maybe isn't a Yankee fan, but I guess it was eight years ago, Robinson Canó, who at the time was the best player in the Yankees.[00:40:57] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Everybody thought he was going to resign. He was a free agent. Everybody thought he would come back, think they he's never lose out on a free agent. Jay-Z comes in, takes over as his agent from Scott Boras, who was like, you know, he is to baseball agency as Jay-Z is to hip hop. Jay-Z comes in, gets Canó to come over to Roc Nation, Roc Nation brings on CAA to help them, you know, kind of become, you know, Scott Boras-level players in the game, let's say, and you know, Robinson Canó gets offered seven years, $161 million by the Yankees and the months drag on, nobody else is offering him more. Everybody thinks Jay-Z is getting greedy.[00:41:34] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: And then just out of nowhere, Canó goes to the Mariners for 240 million over 10 years and great deal financially for him. Obviously, it's, you know, like $80 million more than Yankees we're offering and no state income tax in Washington. However, a much worse team, a much worse ballpark for hitters and, you know, five years into the 10-year deal could no, I mean, I think that was when he got suspended for steroids, then he got traded to the Mets.[00:42:03] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: And then he got suspended again last year, 80 games. And he started out this year with the Mets and just earlier this week got cut. And so here's this guy who, you know, so I guess that's my question. If he'd stayed with the Yankees, would all of, all of these miseries have befallen him and should we blame Jay-Z for the misery?[00:42:22] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: And I think my answer ultimately is, is no, you know, It's going to retire almost a hundred million dollars richer, eventually. From a baseball perspective though, you can argue that things would have been better for him if he'd stayed with the Yankees. And as it turns out, the guy who really kind of led the charge and I reported this in the latest edition of my Jay-Z book, Empire State of Mind, the guy who led the charge for Canó to leave was Brodie Van Wagenen at CAA who then became the GM of the Mets. Traded for Canó, got fired by the new owner of the Mets and is now back working with Jay-Z. And I think working on, on representing Canó again, as he tries to, to latch on with another major league team.[00:43:00] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: So you could kind of blame him, but you know, at the end of the day, I think it really does come down to the player, you know, who makes the decision to take bag, you know, instead of glory, which is, you know, defensible, I think you've got to live and you only have so long to be a professional ballplayer. And, you know, he was the one that took the performance-enhancing drugs, got suspended so, but it is this just sort of like a fascinating winding road, you know, from this decision that happened eight years ago, that's still playing out, that still had all these ramifications. And you look back to that deal. I mean, you know, the fact that Jay-Z, whether it was Jay-Z or CAA, or this guy, Brodie Van Wagenen doing most of the work.[00:43:37] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Jay-Z, Roc Nation did get credit. And after that you saw Roc Nation really become much more of a force as a professional sports agency. So, you know, certainly, Jay-Z did well for himself in those past eight years. He's a billionaire now. Brodie Van Wagenen has this great new job, and Robinson Canó has that much nicer retirement eventually.[00:43:58] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: So maybe he lost a chance at eternal glory, but you know, a hundred million dollars is a lot of money. I don't know. Dan, what do you think? [00:44:04] Dan Runcie: It's interesting because I've always thought that his career was definitely into replay. I felt like it was typical timing of, okay, this guy's turning 30 and that could be hit or miss for a lot of baseball players, depending on how well they're able to take care of themselves and stay out of injury thing.[00:44:18] Dan Runcie: The one thing though, and this is a part that I do think gets overlooked sometimes is the ballpark difference. Yankee Stadium, especially in the new Yankee stadium, literally engineered in some ways to get more home runs and just have more, especially more than the old Yankee stadium compared to T-Mobile Park in Seattle, before it was Safeco park, historically picture friendly ballpark.[00:44:41] Dan Runcie: So if you know what you're getting yourself into, I mean, outside of Griffey and A-Rod in the nineties. I can't necessarily think of people that really like, oh yeah. You know, they cleaned up there. Maybe, you know, you had some early, I'm trying to think of some of the other stars who may have like, done well they're from like a home run hitting perspective, but it's one of those things where you think about the trade-off, right? It's. to some degree, it kind of makes me think about Carmelo Anthony with the Knicks, right? It's like you went to that team, you did get paid and you ended up getting, you know, later on a Supermax. But I think a lot of the decisions that he made show that he was prioritizing more of the money that came through, as opposed to the decisions, why not wait until free agency to then join that team instead of making them all those picks for you. [00:45:30] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Exactly.[00:45:31] Dan Runcie: And in some ways, yeah, I think about the Canó thing, that kinda kind of similarly, right. If you want it to continue to win and you didn't care as much about the money that you would have stayed in New York, but to our point, yeah. You get it a hundred million dollars is a lot, of course, but it's hard to have both, especially with the franchise, in my opinion, that they'll have spurts of having great players here and there, but they haven't necessarily been able to prove that winning this, that Canó was raised in.[00:45:57] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Yeah, and Canó is going to finish up and, you know, even now it looks like he may, he's probably going to catch on with another team, at least for the rest of the year, but he's, I think at 2,600, a little over 2,600 hits for his career, if he had been able to get to 3000, which I think in New York with a better lineup that turned over more, he gets more best, more opportunities to hit.[00:46:16] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: There 's a better ballpark for hitters. So more fly balls turn into home runs. It's pretty likely, he would've gotten to 3000 hits or that he'd be within shouting distance of it. Now with, you know, a little more time to go. There has never been a major league baseball player who got 3000 hits who did not end up in the hall of fame once eligible, except for the steroid guys and Pete Rose, who was thrown out of the game for betting on baseball. So it is like an automatic ticket to the hall of fame. So if he had just stayed at Yankee stadium, not done, you know, not on steroids, I think he would have gotten there. No question. And you know, who knows, I mean, seven years into that deal that he would have been what, 37, maybe. You never know if he was still hitting well, they might've brought him back for another year or two. God knows they kept bringing Brett Gardner back. So I do think he would've gotten a few thousand hits and had a really good shot at the hall of fame. And is that worth a hundred million dollars though?[00:47:16] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Yeah, I don't know. Probably not. Probably not. He did have such a sweet swing though, man. Watching him play in the Yankees stadium. That was always fun. [00:47:25] Dan Runcie: He did it. He was exciting to watch. He had a great career and yeah, I think that's a great note for us to close out with this. Zack, we've covered a bunch in this pod, but basically, we'll have to have another roundup again at some point soon, but thanks for doing this. This is fun.[00:47:38] Zack O'Malley Greenburg: For sure. Thanks as always.[00:47:41] Dan Runcie: If you enjoyed this podcast, go ahead and share it with a friend. Copy the link, text it to a friend, post in your group chat, post in your Slack groups, wherever you and your people talk, spread the word. That's how Trapital continues to grow and continues to reach the right people.[00:47:56] Dan Runcie: And while you're at it, if you use Apple Podcast, go ahead, rate the podcast, give it a high rating and leave a review. Tell people why you like the podcast. That helps more people discover the show. Thank you in advance. Talk to you next week.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

On today's episode, Kallaway and Roman break down:(0:54) Poolsuite announces ManorDao(6:34) Coinbase borrows Goldman Sachs' First Bitcoin-Backed loan(10:18) The Wall Street Journal reports NFT sales down 92%, is this the end?(15:29) Zora (NFT marketplace raises $50M from Haun Ventures) (17:47) Ex-moonbirds COO Ryan Carson receives $40m for his NFT fund(20:33) Yuga Labs Has Refunded All Unsuccessful Otherdeed NFT Minters(21:32) Improbable Otherside Game Engine Development Progress(24:44) Hot takes & PredictionsWatch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/w4WJ4uYB4o8Sunday:Drip is a member-owned lifestyle brand built on web3 rails.Translation: We're using NFTs, blockchains and tokens to enable members, designers and builders of our brand to earn a piece of the upside.Become a Sunday:Drip member - https://sundaydripsociety.comJoin Sunday:Drip Discord - https://discord.gg/Nhm2b5PvpATwitter - https://twitter.com/sundaydripsNewsletter - https://sundaydrips.substack.com/Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/sundaydripFollow Kallaway - https://twitter.com/kallawavyFollow Roman - https://twitter.com/romanlecavalierLegal Disclaimer: No information shared in Cryptoland is financial advice. All content is for entertainment and informational purposes only. Wavy Labs, LLC is not a registered investment, legal, or tax advisor or a broker/dealer.

Two policy experts, Chris Lehane, chief strategy officer at Haun Ventures, and Niki Christoff, the founder of Christoff and Co., discuss how the crypto industry has performed in Washington and how it can better educate more regulators and politicians about the technology. Show highlights:  Niki and Chris' background how Niki and Chris would grade the performance of crypto companies in Washington what parallels Chris can draw between crypto in the 2020s and FAANG in the mid-90s whether having a plethora of crypto policy groups helps or hurts crypto in Washington whether calling politicians and regulators names and making memes of them helps or hurts the crypto industry an effective way crypto companies can prompt lawmakers and regulators to prioritize crypto policy why it can be strategically smarter to try to convince incumbents to adopt pro-crypto policy over supporting challengers why Chris thinks crypto could be a bipartisan topic what Chris and Niki think about the fact that Democratic candidates received more donations from people working in the crypto industry than Republicans did the three types of crypto users that are valuable to political candidates what Niki and Chris would tell Senator Elizabeth Warren about crypto if they were to meet with her today what effect crypto might have on midterms why the terminology native to crypto may have to change   Unchained is hiring!  Find out information on the three openings at Unchained and how to apply here:  part-time remote social media marketing manager: https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-part-time-remote-social-media-and-marketing-manager/ part-time remote editorial assistant: https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-remote-editorial-assistant/ part-time remote video/audio producer: https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-part-time-remote-video-audio-producer/ Announcing The Cryptopians Book Clubs! On April 26th, I will be selling NFT tickets to five 90-minute virtual book clubs in which 22 people can discuss "The Cryptopians" with me and with each other — without worrying about spoilers! Two of the book clubs will also feature special guests.    The sale will go live on Tuesday, April 26, at 1pm ET/10am PT,  and tickets will be $100 each. (The sale will be on Bitski, but the NFTs will not be visible until the sale goes live on the 26th): https://www.bitski.com/@laurashin/created   Here is the schedule:  Monday May 2, at 8pm ET/5pm PT with Laura Shin Tuesday, May 3, at 7pm CET/1pm ET/10am PT with guests Christoph Jentzsch, Lefteris Karapetsas, and Griff Green  Thursday, May 5, at 6pm CET/12pm ET/9am PT with Laura Shin Monday, May 9, at 6pm CET/12pm ET/9am PT with guest Andrey Ternovskiy Tuesday, May 10, at 9pm CET/3pm ET/12pm PT with Laura Shin If you'd like to participate, be sure to mark your calendars for the sale time on April 26th. Hope to see you in one of the book clubs! Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021            Beefy Finance: https://beefy.finance     Cross River Bank: https://crossriver.com/crypto Galaxis: https://galaxis.xyz/   Episode Links   Chris Lehane LinkedIn: ​https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-lehane-2562535/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrislehane  Joining Haun Ventures https://twitter.com/chrislehane/status/1506395461187354624      Niki Christoff LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikichristoff/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/NikiChristoff    Miscellaneous Links Overview of crypto and politics https://www.citizen.org/article/capitol-coin-cryptocurrency-lobbying-revolving-door-report/  Biden's executive order Thread of official statements: https://twitter.com/crypto_council/status/1501606327621197835 Fact sheet: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/03/09/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-sign-executive-order-on-ensuring-responsible-innovation-in-digital-assets/  Overview: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/09/heres-whats-in-bidens-executive-order-on-crypto.html  New bill from Senator Warren to crack down on sanctions evasion: https://www.coincenter.org/new-crypto-sanctions-bill-targets-publishing-code-facilitating-transactions/ DeFi Education Fund  https://medium.com/@defieducationfund Blockchain Association https://theblockchainassociation.org/news/  Crypto Council for Innovation https://twitter.com/crypto_council/

Two policy experts, Chris Lehane, chief strategy officer at Haun Ventures, and Niki Christoff, the founder of Christoff and Co., discuss how the crypto industry has performed in Washington and how it can better educate more regulators and politicians about the technology. Show highlights:  Niki and Chris' background how Niki and Chris would grade the performance of crypto companies in Washington what parallels Chris can draw between crypto in the 2020s and FAANG in the mid-90s whether having a plethora of crypto policy groups helps or hurts crypto in Washington whether calling politicians and regulators names and making memes of them helps or hurts the crypto industry an effective way crypto companies can prompt lawmakers and regulators to prioritize crypto policy why it can be strategically smarter to try to convince incumbents to adopt pro-crypto policy over supporting challengers why Chris thinks crypto could be a bipartisan topic what Chris and Niki think about the fact that Democratic candidates received more donations from people working in the crypto industry than Republicans did the three types of crypto users that are valuable to political candidates what Niki and Chris would tell Senator Elizabeth Warren about crypto if they were to meet with her today what effect crypto might have on midterms why the terminology native to crypto may have to change   Unchained is hiring!  Find out information on the three openings at Unchained and how to apply here:  part-time remote social media marketing manager: https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-part-time-remote-social-media-and-marketing-manager/ part-time remote editorial assistant: https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-remote-editorial-assistant/ part-time remote video/audio producer: https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-part-time-remote-video-audio-producer/ Announcing The Cryptopians Book Clubs! On April 26th, I will be selling NFT tickets to five 90-minute virtual book clubs in which 22 people can discuss "The Cryptopians" with me and with each other — without worrying about spoilers! Two of the book clubs will also feature special guests.    The sale will go live on Tuesday, April 26, at 1pm ET/10am PT,  and tickets will be $100 each. (The sale will be on Bitski, but the NFTs will not be visible until the sale goes live on the 26th): https://www.bitski.com/@laurashin/created   Here is the schedule:  Monday May 2, at 8pm ET/5pm PT with Laura Shin Tuesday, May 3, at 7pm CET/1pm ET/10am PT with guests Christoph Jentzsch, Lefteris Karapetsas, and Griff Green  Thursday, May 5, at 6pm CET/12pm ET/9am PT with Laura Shin Monday, May 9, at 6pm CET/12pm ET/9am PT with guest Andrey Ternovskiy Tuesday, May 10, at 9pm CET/3pm ET/12pm PT with Laura Shin If you'd like to participate, be sure to mark your calendars for the sale time on April 26th. Hope to see you in one of the book clubs! Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021            Beefy Finance: https://beefy.finance     Cross River Bank: https://crossriver.com/crypto Galaxis: https://galaxis.xyz/   Episode Links   Chris Lehane LinkedIn: ​https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-lehane-2562535/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrislehane  Joining Haun Ventures https://twitter.com/chrislehane/status/1506395461187354624      Niki Christoff LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikichristoff/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/NikiChristoff    Miscellaneous Links Overview of crypto and politics https://www.citizen.org/article/capitol-coin-cryptocurrency-lobbying-revolving-door-report/  Biden's executive order Thread of official statements: https://twitter.com/crypto_council/status/1501606327621197835 Fact sheet: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/03/09/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-sign-executive-order-on-ensuring-responsible-innovation-in-digital-assets/  Overview: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/09/heres-whats-in-bidens-executive-order-on-crypto.html  New bill from Senator Warren to crack down on sanctions evasion: https://www.coincenter.org/new-crypto-sanctions-bill-targets-publishing-code-facilitating-transactions/ DeFi Education Fund  https://medium.com/@defieducationfund Blockchain Association https://theblockchainassociation.org/news/  Crypto Council for Innovation https://twitter.com/crypto_council/

Welcome to our first Chai Chat! Our Chai Chat concept is going to be a short form episode focusing on one or more news stories or current events taking place in tech that caught our eye and we think would be interesting for you our listeners! In today's Chai Chat, we will be discussing Katie Haun, former Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Partner, raises $1.5B for 2 New Crypto Venture Funds. This is one of the biggest duet funds by a solo GP! We hope you enjoy this Chai Chat and please leave our Tech and Chai Podcast a review if you're enjoying the content thus far! Thank you for listening! Sources: https://mirror.xyz/haunventures.eth/XHOD9o8ZjALuf7QnJz-oydihpROmt0txDFYIMOUoUzY https://www.axios.com/katie-haun-crypto-funds-billion-fe0f5afd-8b4d-438b-b68f-68d6ab1d5678.html

Coffee Break topics: - Intro to Haun Ventures - Crypto - Different forms of Crypto - Is Andreessen a part of this fund? - Any potential future investments? - Biggest misconception about crytpo and web free? Follow us on twitter @PRWeekUS

This week's list of top stories include: Apple Acquires Credit Kudos One source said the deal valued Credit Kudos at about $150 million, a significant uplift on its last funding round. startup offers insights and scores on loan applicants drawn from bank data Tink and Aiia bought by Visa and Mastercard previously Unknown what Apple has planned FTX Invests $100M in Banking App Dave, Forms Partnership for Crypto Payments FTX US will serve as the exclusive partner for any crypto offerings offered by Dave. $100 million investment from FTX Ventures was through a convertible note, a type of short-term debt. currently exploring how to introduce digital asset payments onto Dave's platform. Katie Haun debuts Haun Ventures with $1.5B in capital to back crypto startups Haun Ventures $1.5 billion in capital across two funds — a $500 million early-stage fund and a $1 billion “acceleration” fund. “We believe the next generation of the internet deserves a new generation of investors,” Haun wrote in a blog post announcing the fund. Haun Ventures will aim to lean into regulatory expertise as one of the firm's defining advantages Ramp confirms new $8.1B valuation after ‘a nearly 10x' YoY increase in revenue secured $550 million in debt and $200 million in equity in a new financing that doubles its valuation to $8.1 billion. “Ramp is an example where we invested early then continued to double down as we saw the rapid velocity of execution and unprecedented customer adoption,” Founders Fund's Keith Rabois said. “close to a 10x” bump in revenue year-over-year in 2021. the company started out focused on small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs), it now works with “businesses of all sizes” Robinhood's new debit card will automatica

Crypto Vibes Podcast by Fort Brox is a weekly podcast recapping the news in the world of crypto. Host: Neil Alonzo Week 12, Year 2022, Episode 02. News Links Mentioned In The Show Former DOJ and A16Z partner in the crypto space Katie Haun officially launches Haun Ventures. Largest solo fund, largest launch fund, and largest by a women, ever. CNBC Interview with Katie Haun EU's MiCA Bill Moves Forward Without Bitcoin Limiting Provision. The European Union's (EU) proposed Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulatory package is moving forward to the next phase of discussions without a controversial provision seeking to restrict the use of cryptos like bitcoin (BTC) that are based on proof-of-work. RUSSIA IS OPEN TO SELLING NATURAL GAS FOR BITCOIN Russia can trade with ‘friendly' countries in national currencies or bitcoin, the chairman of the State Duma committee on energy said. Dogecoin Rises 14% as Bitcoin ATM Operator Adds DOGE to Kiosks Malaysia May Be the Next Country to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender Binance.US Inches Closer to Approval in All 50 States Savings app unicorn Acorns is adding Bitcoin exposure to portfolios. Here's the catch by Jessica Mathews Fortune Terms Sheet Crypto.com Adds FIFA World Cup Sponsorship to Sports Marketing Strategy Coinbase launching USD Coin (USDC) fiat-to-crypto trading in new countries. Residents can now buy USDC with USD, EUR or GBP Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Back Worldcoin in Deal Valuing Tokens at $3 Billion The essential web3 toolkit for sharing and funding anything. From writing about your latest idea, to building a home for the next big DAO. Report: Number of African Cryptocurrency Users up by Nearly 2,500% The remaining links are available at www.cryptopodcast.xyz Credits

This episode is brought to you by Gate.io and Solice (Airdrop). SEC punts on WisdomTree and One River spot Bitcoin ETF proposals just like it always does. Following a16z departure, Katie Haun debuts Haun Ventures with $1.5B in capital to back Web3 while Abu Dhabi free zone seeks comments on NFT rules. Followed by a Deep-Dive on exploring the biggest recipients of Bored Ape's new ApeCoin.—----------------------------Timestamps00:06 | Headline Overview01:27 | El Salvador Postpones Bitcoin Bond Due to Unfavorable Crypto Market| 1 | 2 | 03:21 | Bored Ape and CryptoPunk NFTs Owner Yuga Labs Raises $450M at $4B Valuation | 1 | 2 |05:20 | A16z Alum Katie Haun Raises $1.5B for 2 New Crypto Venture Funds | 1 | 2 |07:52 | SEC Delays Spot Bitcoin ETF Offerings From WisdomTree and One River | 1 | 2 |09:53 | U.K. Watchdog Ramps Up ‘Red Alert' Over Crypto Advertising, Followed By Ireland | 1 | 2 |12:24 | Abu Dhabi Rolls Out Draft Recommendations For NFT Trading | 1 | 2 |14:56 | Solice ($SLC AIRDROP)15:58 | Deep Dive: Bored Ape's New ApeCoin Puts NFTs' Power Problem on Display| 1 | 2 | 3 |—----------------------------Music: Envato—----------------------------Disclaimer: Not financial advice. Please learn to do your research.—----------------------------

In crypto news today Florida governor confirms the state is working on a plan to let businesses pay taxes in bitcoin and crypto. Draper University, a training center for entrepreneurs founded by billionaire venture capitalist and early crypto adopter Tim Draper, has partnered with blockchain application platform VeChain to launch new programs for those interested in starting and scaling Web 3 businesses. Japan to simplify the listing of Bitcoin, Ethereum and 14 other cryptos in Japanese crypto exchanges. Katie Haun, a former partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), has raised $1.5 billion for two new crypto-focused funds for her new firm, Haun Ventures.Congressman Byron Donalds Interview https://youtu.be/73AeD9KWEGQhttps://itrust.capital/thinkingcryptohttps://taxbit.com/invite/thinkingcrypto/?fpr=thinkingcrypto