250: The World is Yours | Brian Zwerner, W3 Studio & Beyond the Game Network | Investing in Diverse Founders, Sports and Web3
42m
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MoneyNeverSleeps
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Brian Zwerner is the President and Founder of W3 Studio, and a VC and Founder of Beyond the Game Network. As the President and Founder of W3 Studio, a 501c3 non-profit venture studio, Brian and his team help diverse founders in Atlanta build startups in web3. W3 Studio partners with corporations and provides grants to startups to fund the launch of their first products.
With his role as a VC and Founder at Beyond The Game Network, Brian teams up with a venture group of athletes that invest in Seed to Series B consumer startups in sports, media, web3, and fitness.
Brian Zwerner was previously the founder of Sportal, a startup in the sports industry. He managed the growth of Aquina Health through a Series A capital raise. He has invested in or held senior roles with several companies and funds and previously spent 20 years in investment banking roles in the US and overseas.
In this episode, Brian and I riff on what led him to scratch his entrepreneurial itch in the first place, his experiences as a founder, and the symmetry of his leadership across Beyond the Game Network and W3 Studio. We also take a look at the market for sports-themed digital collectibles since the 2020-2021 bull run, how to build a more sustainable business at the intersection of sports and web3 by focusing on fandom rather than speculators, and how his advice to founders has evolved with the comings and goings of bulls and bears.
LINKS:
Episode title inspired by ‘The World is Yours’ by Nas
Learn more about W3 Studio: https://w3studio.us/
Learn more about Beyond the Game Network: https://thebtgnetwork.com/
Connect with Brian Zwerner on social media:
-Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/w3studioatl
-Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-zwerner/
-Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianZwerner
-Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bzwerner/
-TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brianzwerner
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The episode 250: The World is Yours | Brian Zwerner, W3 Studio & Beyond the Game Network | Investing in Diverse Founders, Sports and Web3 from the podcast MoneyNeverSleeps has a duration of
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LINKS:
Follow this week’s guests on X/Twitter:
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-Piotr Saczuk: https://twitter.com/Piotr_Saczuk
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15:57 Reflecting on the Broader Implications of Digital Identity and Personhood
20:34 Exploring Mobile Wallet Security and User Comfort
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30:01 Innovations in Mapping and the Importance of Open Infrastructure
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Worldcoin tightens privacy checks, allows users to unverify World ID (9-Apr-24, Cointelegraph)
TON’s $5M incentive program aims to drive digital ID verification (Cointelegraph, 8-Apr-24)
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SEC issues Robinhood Crypto with Wells Notice, citing alleged securities violations (The Block, 6-May-24)
LINKS:
Follow our guest co-host Mai Santamaria on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mai07/
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Connect with this week’s guests on LinkedIn:
-Andrea Miele: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agriffin717/
-Fabien Arneodo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabien-arneodo/
-Nick Mason: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-mason-762316b/
Follow this week’s guests on X/Twitter:
-Andrea Miele: https://twitter.com/NFTeafor2
-Fabien Arneodo: https://twitter.com/FabienArneodo
-Nick Mason: https://twitter.com/nick__mason
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-SportsyncTech: https://www.sportsynctech.com/ | https://twitter.com/SportSyncTech
-ProofSpace: https://www.proofspace.id/ | https://twitter.com/proof_space
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Gray Webb is an entrepreneur and technology professional specializing in Digital Asset & Equity Capital Markets. With over 20 years of experience, he has expertise in high-frequency trading, risk management, and post-trade systems. He is currently the Co-Founder and CTO of Liquibit Capital, an algorithmic-driven trading and asset management company. Gray is also involved in mentoring, teaching, and startup mentoring in the blockchain and Web3 space, and is one of the fantastic mentors for founders in the Techstars Web3 accelerator program. He has a strong background in product management and technology delivery, having worked with companies like Digital Asset and JPMorgan.
Liquibit Capital is a best-in-class investment management firm focused on producing consistent and uncorrelated returns in the emerging digital asset class.
You can also listen to more of Gray’s backstory and that of his Liquibit co-founder Joseph Chang in episode 138 from 2021.
STORIES COVERED:
BTC as a long-term holding
Hong Kong's six spot bitcoin, ether ETFs see $11 million in volume on first trading day (The Block, 30-Apr-24)
Blockworks’ BTC ETF Tracker
Stablecoins mainstreaming
PV01 Issues First Digital Bond to Blue-Chip Stablecoin Investors (PRNewswire, 16-Apr-24)
Tether, USDC and DAI transaction volume surpasses Visa's 2023 monthly average: Nansen (The Block, 29-Apr-24)
Stripe Brings Back Crypto Payments Via USDC Stablecoin (Yahoo Finance, 25-Apr-24)
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Learn more about Liquibit Capital: https://liquibit.io/
Connect with Gray Webb on socials:
-LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graywebb/
-X(Twitter): https://twitter.com/cryptopacific
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Original ‘Venture with Hesus’ episode page on i13 Ventures YouTube channel
https://www.i13ventures.com/media/v/-venture-with-hesus-pete-townsend-and-the-techstars-web3-story-
Connect with this Hesus Inoma on social media:
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-X(Twitter) - https://twitter.com/hesusci?
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