*ೃ༄*ೃ༄ Welcome SC07: Consumer Crypto *ೃ༄*ೃ༄ Many still don’t believe that consumer crypto presents big investable opportunities. We obviously disagree. We’ve long held the belief that owning the relationship with and the attention of consumers will be an even greater point of leverage in a world of open data... and protocols than it is in web2. We are surrounded by a growing group of builders who share an unwavering belief in consumer crypto. They are tirelessly navigating through uncertainty and widespread skepticism, pushing towards a vision of a dramatically more interesting internet. After reviewing 300 apps and conducting 50+ interviews, it's clear to us that we’re right at the edge of the inflection point. Today we’re excited to announce SC07: Consumer Crypto, and introduce you to the eight companies building category-defining consumer crypto products.show more

Meet the eight companies building category-defining consumer crypto products...

Let’s start with @BracketHQ They’re building crypto-powered games that give sports fans novel ownership and participation opportunities in fanbases. The strong belief systems and social contexts that exists in fandom are a potent match for crypto assets. From memecoins that capture the attention and cultural value of teams and players to college fans pooling capital to help recruit players to their school, the possibilities are endless. @johnpassafiume and @tldr_nilli are building the defining economic social product for sports fans.

Next @sidequest_xyz is using computer vision to gamify, verify, and reward real world actions. At the surface it’s a fun game that collides the onchain and physical worlds, but a layer deeper it’s a novel token distribution (and potentially creation) mechanism. If every brand, celebrity, sports team, etc has associated memecoins, and they get their value from having broad awareness and distribution, countless real world actions suddenly become tangibly valuable and rewardable. @ConwayAnderson is building the product that will prove it.

A related trend is the growing role brands are playing in our lives. People are looking to them to provide belonging, identity, and community that was once the role of religion. This is a huge opportunity for brands that are able to step into the role of actually being culture and serving their participants in ways beyond just selling products. Crypto has a huge role to play in this evolution, from tokens being used to coordinate and distribute ownership in these scenes to protocols being bundled into cohesive products tailor-made for a specific “type of person”. We’ve been calling these attention networks, and @winnyeth is leveraging NFC-enabled consumer products to build one with @chippedsocial.

Ponder is using new distribution and contextual superpowers to build the customer and market research platform of the future. They enable brands and individuals to run surveys across decentralized social protocols, and seamlessly reward responders with tokens. Not only is the efficiency of these surveys absurdly high by being able to inject them directly in the feed, but because of the global identity that is connected to all participants they’re able to build holistic profiles and reputation. @ColinHJohnson and @benadamsky are multi-time founders and their imagination has been blown open by the opportunities they’re seeing just down the road.

Next, @unofficialrun is a composable social company, using the open social graphs and connected global identities to provide ephemeral social experiences. They think the emergent ways you can bring together previously disconnected or inaccessible data provides the foundations to create novel ways to interact with friends, family, and communities. @christopherwxyz and @heavygweit think these will prove to be more fun and valuable than what’s possible on the monolithic and closed platforms of web2.

... @fora_market is building a decentralized marketplace generator for the hyper niche, sensitive, valuable, or otherwise unusual communities that exist abundantly online. Think vintage fashion forums, music equipment discords, or luxury watch subreddits. @ConnorYMartin has been a deep participant in a number of these communities for decades, and is wildly excited about the social and economic potential that Fora can unlock for them.

...@lisafound_ is building a product that seamlessly facilitates people collectively owning, trading, and socializing around physical art. They’re focused on making the novel experiences of participating in collector DAOs way more accessible and compelling by focusing on consumer experiences instead of governance. @ilyatorgovnikov and @IFolin are art and culture obsessed and are building the product they want to use.

and last but not least, we have @XHIBITAI, a style and self-discovery product. It allows anyone to endlessly explore their identity and style from the safety of their home using immersive try-ons, creator-trained agent stylists, label remixing, and more. @dovheichemer has been exploring these concepts for years, and with the rapid improvements in AI and the economic primitives of crypto, the opportunity to bring the experience to everybody has arrived.

It’s hard to effectively convey the expansive visions of these founders in a post like this, but hopefully you’re intrigued enough to follow along. We’re insanely excited about these teams and the progress we’ll be able to make together over the next 3 months. We’ll frequently share updates from the cohort in our weekly newsletter, and will be bringing a founder onto Internet Explorers every week to go deeper.

@ConnorYMartin @lisafound_ @XHIBITAI @dovheichemer COLLECT SC07 on @ourZORA