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Founder Monday - Special Edition | w/ ApeChain CEO @HeadofApe
Recorded: June 23, 2025 Duration: 0:57:19Space Recording
Short Summary
In a recent discussion, Cam, the CEO of ApeChain, outlined the strategic direction for the platform, emphasizing partnerships, community engagement, and innovative funding models. With a focus on expanding the ecosystem and enhancing user participation, ApeChain aims to solidify its position in the rapidly evolving crypto landscape.
Full Transcription
Thank you. Thank you. you you
you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you
you you you you you you you you you you you you you
you you you
you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you hey cam how's it going let's uh maybe get a minute or so let people uh start jumping in
and uh we can get going on this how are you good how you doing good man it's monday just uh making
sure you can hear me all good i got headphones in so it's always a little always a little funny
no no you're good you're good amazing good amazing yeah I appreciate I
was just first start off by saying I appreciate you uh being able to spend the time with us and
I know you got a busy week ahead of you and I'm sure it's uh I don't know if you're going to NYC
or or not but um I'm sure we can get into that a bit but yeah yeah I won't I won't be there much
um uh just because I still have the newborn at home.
And so I will also apologize if you hear sort of background noises or if I have to, you know, go on mute for a hot minute there.
You know, baby comes first, obviously.
Yeah, for sure. I've been through it.
It's funny, you know, once you sort of have your, you know, this is my first, you know, once I sort of, you know, had a kid, all of a sudden you start to, you know, really sort of hear who's already been through it and their experience.
And it's just, you know, it's honestly one of the pieces about Web3 I love.
Like, you know, people I think always, you know, they're always watching the P&Ls or they're watching the charts or, you know, who's done what.
But it's like why I got into this and I think why so many others got into this.
I'm sure we'll talk about this later.
It's the community. Like Like I just like the people. And so I've, you know, I appreciate, uh, you know, the people, and I'm going to give a big shout out to
one person. I just saw a jump on Jinx, my old friend. Uh, she's in the audience. I haven't
had a chance to catch up with her in a bit, but Jinx, I miss you. Nice. Nice. Yeah, I mean, it'll be good to catch up.
And obviously, you know, it's been a few weeks since you've taken the helm,
but we'll definitely get into that.
But yeah, going back to that dad moment real quick while we build up this room.
You know when you have your kid, right?
Right before you have your kid, you're like, well, you know, it's going to be easy.
Things will happen.
And then as soon as that baby ends up in your arms,
it's weird.
You just switch.
Your brain just switches.
And so, like, this idea of, like, staying up,
doing everything for that child,
like, it just switches in your brain automatically.
It's a weird feeling.
It's a weird feeling.
A hundred percent.
It's, you just sort of, you know,
you're all of a sudden a little less important in your own life. You know,
the story is no longer about you. So, uh, yeah, it's, uh,
it's been an incredible journey. You know,
we're only about seven and a half weeks in, so we're still,
we're definitely still in the meat of it, you know, still learning. Uh,
so anyone is always welcome to send, uh, tips or prayers into my DMS.
I certainly appreciate it.
Well, my, mine's 15. So you got, so you got a long road ahead of you.
All I can say is just enjoy it while you can,
because once it gets to those teen years, it's game over.
And I have heard it goes fast, as sad as that is to say.
Yeah, it does, unfortunately.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I mean, you want them to grow up to be responsible,
but at the same time, you want them to stay like three forever so but yeah like i said i appreciate
you being here guys thanks for showing up to the room um if you guys can re repost the room um my
format and uh cam you're you're our second guest so i appreciate you um like i said when i when i
ventured out to do this i used to do this on on ETH a lot back in the day with, uh, with other founders and, you know, obviously you being the head
of Ape Chain is not technically a founder, but still, you know, let's be honest and you're
very important to the ecosystem, but, um, you know, I've always wanted to do these formats
where it's, it's one-on-one.
It allows the community to dive a little deeper into, you know, who you are as a person or that, that founder is a person. And then,
you know, just kind of almost, I wouldn't say Ted talk style,
but just really just to get to know the, the,
the background of that person get to know a little bit more about what
they're building in the space. And then, you know,
if there's opportunities definitely open up to, to some questions.
So you'll have some time at the end.
We're going to keep it to an hour guys,
but you'll have some time at the end cam for a going to keep it to an hour, guys. But you'll have some time at the end, Cam, for a couple questions, right?
Absolutely.
Yeah, happy to.
Well, guys, like I said, I appreciate you.
Like I said, Cam's my second guest.
We're going to be doing a lot more space like this.
Like I said, there was a flood of interest,
and I also reached out to a few people like Cam.
I know that we got Don Diablo in the room.
He's going to be coming up on wednesday with typical tigers and then on friday we're gonna have um mm
which i know you're familiar with cam because you were rocking that pfp but we'll have uh mm up on
friday talking a little bit about uh foxy fam and uh donna the duck so looking forward to um spending
some time with some of these founders in in web3 and especially on apechain and getting to know
them their project.
And hopefully what I do here, when I, when I have these spaces, like I said,
it's, it's one hours, one hour only,
and really just to give everybody a dive into what they got going on in their,
their ecosystem. So, so again, I appreciate you and yeah, let's,
let's kick it off. So again, for those that don't know Cam,
he took over as the ApeChain CEO.
It's almost six weeks now, isn't it?
It's probably close to six weeks.
Yeah, I think I'm maybe 10 weeks in.
I think I kicked off in April.
So, you know, I had a couple months with the team now, which has been good because, you know, anyone who's been through this, you know, can attest that, you know, it takes a little time to get the talent bring them you know bring people in that you want to work with um so yeah almost 10. yeah
that's awesome so um but yeah no like i was gonna say let's let's let's kick it off like way back
way back to like where you first started let's let's go to your origin story let's let's go back
to cam pre-web 3 and then your journey into Web3? For sure.
Well, my Twitter bio probably betrays it a little bit,
but I like to say I am from Philadelphia.
My wife is in the room with me.
And so if you hear her screaming that I'm not actually from Philly,
don't listen to her.
I am from New Jersey,
but I'm closer to my favorite cheesesteak place in Philly
than most Philadelphia suburban kids were.
So Philly, you know, Philly's home to me, you know, and I sort of took a very typical path.
I was a, you know, sort of athlete when I was a kid, had dreams of, you know, stardom,
only to realize I wasn't going to get bigger than six feet.
And I certainly wasn't fast enough to do most anything.
And so I was lucky enough, though, that I got to sort of play out that passion by going to Penn State and sort of living through the big sports community.
Undergrad, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I actually majored in hospitality management, thought I'd go into restaurants and hotels. And then when I saw,
you know, candidly, what, you know, the average starting salary was going to be, I had quickly
pivoted and realized that wasn't for me and was lucky enough to go to a great law school. You know,
I took the LSATs and, you know, ended up getting to go to University great law school. I took the LSATs and ended up getting to go to University of
Pennsylvania. And that really just set me on a different trajectory. It led me to New York,
where I was an associate at one of the largest international law firms in the world, Latham
Lockins. I did that very typical Wall Street type journey. I was doing capital markets deals,
big billion dollar bond deals. I was doing capital markets deals, you know, big billion dollar
bond deals. I was doing, you know, M&A deals, international cross-border M&A deals. And all
that was like exciting and cool. And, you know, it's amazing to like see the work you do on the
front page of New York, you know, New York Times or Wall Street Journal or, you know, F&T or
whatever. But it kind of felt like I wasn't actually part of it. You know, you, you were doing these deals
and you thought, you know, in your head, you're like, Oh, I'm going to be part of the team. I'm
going to see how they make decisions. And it's like, you realize as a lawyer, like for the most
part, you're actually not, your client is a bit separate from you, at least at that level.
But then at the end of my first year, you know, I had an opportunity to do this deal.
It was a joint venture between Credit Suisse and Palantir.
And it was this big data analytics play.
They were trying to sort of use investment banking know-how and Palantir's big data engines
to identify road trading.
And to me, that was just like this unlocked moment.
It was this fascinating exploration of like corporate law. You know, what does it look like to take two global behemoths and put, you know, create a new business out of the two of them? Sort of this technology layer of like, what does it mean to actually build new technology? How do you deal with the IP of each party?
IP of each party. And then at the end of the day, it's like the regulatory layer. I mean,
even though this was 2015, like data was still a hot button topic, you know, GDPR had just,
you know, happened. You know, the internet was sort of exploding and there's all these big data
questions. But then also when you're a financial institution like Credit Suisse, like you have
a lot of extra layers of regulatory hurdles. You know, what are you allowed to do? Why are you
allowed to do it? Can you, you know, Do you have to use the same businesses that you do your merchant banking out of or your
investment banking out of or your private equity work or your investment works?
And so that sort of stack to me was just this enthralling area of law. And people were like,
well, that's what we call FinTech. And so for me, 2015 was sort of this idea of like, well, that's what we call fintech. And so for me, 2015 was sort of this idea of like, wow,
fintech is an area of law that I want to be in. And of course, that was sort of this perfect time
where 2016 rolls around. And, you know, I'm one of the only young associates looking to do that
work. And all of a sudden, a partner calls me and say, hey, have you ever heard of this thing
called crypto? And this was at a time when like living in New York, like you had to literally
drive to New Jersey, you know, to get a different IP get a different IP address to be able to use Coinbase.
You couldn't even VPN in.
And so I was familiar with it.
And they were like, we're going to do this thing called an ICO.
And at the time, of course, we weren't actually doing unregulated ICOs.
We were doing them as regulated investment deals.
But I was just hooked.
I was like, this was the future to me. And,
you know, to sort of cut, you know, with a long answer short, I then spent, you know,
the next seven or eight years at a couple of different law firms trying to get closer and
closer and closer to the fire. And at the end of the day, I ended up at Fenwick and West,
you know, one of the best law firms in the world for this, you know, and shout out to Andy Albertson
and Ryan Strauss and all the guys over there, you know, who built this incredible practice. And I spent probably the wildest year of crypto that
2020, 2021 into 2022 era, you know, at Femmick representing every major company, whether it's
an exchange, you know, one, you know, even early L2s where we were doing DeFi projects, we were
doing NFTs, you know, and I was lucky enough to be able to represent Yuga and Magic Eden,
you know, and Axelar and all be able to represent Yuga and Magic Eden, you know, and
Axelar and all these companies that were sort of having these massive moments, Risk Harbor,
in that early 2022. And that ultimately led me to just say, maybe I, this is my chance to jump and actually be part of a team. And, you know, Greg and Wiley, Karem and Zashan, like these guys
unlocked something for me by bringing me on, you know, more than three years ago at Yuga. And I really got to ride the ride all the way through. And
obviously that ride led, you know, to the creation of, you know, Vape Chain, the establishment of
Banana Bill, and then ultimately the governance revamp that led to my position, switching sort
of from the legal focus to more of a business focus. So that is me in as much of a nutshell
as I can probably think of off the top of my head.
Yeah, it's an amazing journey.
I mean, like I said, you know, from where you come from, I mean, most people don't probably know that you came from that background.
I mean, to be honest, I mean, from sports to law to Web3, right?
I mean, typically lawyers shun away from Web's interesting there's been a lot more people background
and for you specifically
for sure
on Yuga so you know you're
for you into Yuga you know
tell us a little bit about that journey because I think a lot of people
know that you were part of Yuga
and the team but I guess specifically what, what was your role in the Save Chain?
Yeah.
I mean, so when I joined Yuga, I was originally the chief legal officer.
And starting in May of 2022, this was just on the back of the acquisition of CryptoPunks.
acquisition of CryptoPunks. This was right after the other Deed Mint. Obviously, Yuga had done
This was right after the other Dave Mint.
its very large series financing. And I think the world was really as big as you can imagine for a
company. And it was really a question of which directions did we want to tackle? And I was
lucky to be in the room with the founders and Nicole and Patrick and Guy and sort of this vaunted
group who had made Yuga everything it was. And I got to play a small part of helping
think through the legal considerations of all the actions we were doing, but also
try and take a pass at sort of how does that overlay with our strategy. And I think that
there's a lot of hindsight sort of bias where
people would say, oh, did you do the right thing here? Or you did do the right thing there.
But I can say like, the thing that that experience taught me, particularly from the early days was
just like, just how hard the team worked, how much, you know, they gave a shit about the community,
about doing things the right way, about trying to do something different, you know, they gave a shit about the community, about doing things the right way, about trying to
do something different, you know, not just make another dollar. And I think taking that, you know,
being a part of that, you know, helped me grow in my role. So it was, you know, an evolution from
CLO, you know, with Nicole at the helm to Daniel at the helm, you know, and to Gargo coming back
and continuing to try and be, you know, a strategic thought partner.
And ultimately, you know, I was, I evolved in my role to chief business officer, you
know, while continuing to support the legal function.
And I think that's really where the path to the CEO sort of began because I, you know,
had a much greater hand in the establishment of Ape Chain.
You know, I worked with the special counsel back in the day.
I was the one that introduced Horizon and Arbitrum, you know,
because I thought they'd be great partners and had great technology to work together.
You know, and I got, you know, that's where I started to meet Wabam and Captain Trippy
and, you know, all these great partners who, you know,
haven't gotten their due for all that they put into the DAO
and what they did for the community.
But it, you know, helped sort of set this path.
And then ultimately, when this governance revamp went through, you know, and the idea that we'd have a CEO search happened,
you know, Garg, I think, was very candid on Coffee with Captain that first day when I, you know, spoke publicly about the role,
you know, taking the role was that, you know, this role is one that requires, you know, both a deep role you know taking the role was that you know this role is one
that requires you know both a deep insight into what's the purpose why why do we care about this
you know a deep insight to who the community is and ultimately somebody that like has a passion
to actually make this ecosystem successful uh there's plenty of people who you know want titles
there's plenty of people who want money um but this is you know we talk a lot about internally we talk a lot about internally, like this is a missionary project. This isn't about a mercenary
thing. This isn't about a dollar to me. You know, I want to win. I, you always hear me say this. I
just want to win so fucking badly here. Yeah. And I, I kind of want to get into that for a sec
because I know obviously, as we all know, I mean, being in web three for, for a very long time,
and I'm sure most people in the room know this. I mean, you know, you guys, all know, being in Web3 for a very long time, and I'm sure most people in the room know this,
Yuga is basically a board API club, Mutant Apes, other DEGs, COTAs, etc.
I think with the rise of ApeChain and you coming into the role,
the question I have for you is, I'm sure there's a lot of alignment with your previous role and experience,
but now that you're at the you know at the helm of ape chain what are some of the things you're looking to do different from from yuga
specifically when it comes to those assets versus what you know a chain is which is obviously a lot
of different communities um and and what are some of the things that you want to do a little
different from what you've learned in the past yeah Yeah, it's a good question.
You know, I think sort of to start, like I don't know if there's anything
that needs to be specifically done different.
I think that, you know,
the interests here are drawing concentric circles.
You know, BYC or NAYC or the CODA community,
those are small communities or smaller communities. They have, you know, extremely high price points. They have, you know, exclusivity. There's deep
passion that runs both between the storyline and the attitude, you know, and with that comes
a lot of really interesting opportunities for what Yuga is building, you know, and creating
for those communities. I think when you look at something like Apechain,
in large part, it's an expansion of that ethos.
It's just, it's for more communities.
How do you continue to create infrastructure
and frameworks and opportunities for communities
and sub communities and people that want
to find themselves the way that so many of us
have found ourselves in Web3?
How do you give them a home to do that?
You know, they need tools to explore.
They need opportunities for funding if they have a really viable, you know, business.
They need access to, you know, to community.
They need access to in real life and digital community.
And like, that's really the mission for Ape Chain.
It is an expansion.
We can keep holding up and lifting up BAYC as the example,
and they will continue, Greg and Figgy and everyone over there,
they're going to continue to accelerate the things that BAYC can do.
And then that just lets us show all these other communities
that are growing what's possible. And then the truth is, the hope, of course, is that one all these other communities that are growing what's possible.
And then the truth is, the hope, of course, is that one of these other communities takes off in their own unique way,
whether that's through gaming ambitions, whether that's through in real life opportunities,
whether that's through social media, whatever the case might be, that's success in and of itself.
And that's really what Ape Chain is trying to help find.
Yeah, that's great.
So let's talk about that for a sec.
You mentioned, you know, obviously funding and whatnot,
and you just talked about, you know, special counsel and whatnot.
And I'm sure for most spaces you've been in,
I think that's a question that's been posed a few times before the AIP went up.
And obviously the AIP is, I think the vote is about to be almost done here,
if not fairly soon.
And, you know, we'll see where that goes
in terms of I think the votes are in favor of sunsetting.
But the question I really want to ask you around that
is not really about, you know,
your thoughts of the Dow and whatnot.
What I want to ask you is, you know,
if there is the APECO to come and to exist,
where do you think the alignment will be between APECO to come and to exist, where do you think, where do you
think the alignment will be between the APECO, APEChain, those that are still seeking funding,
et cetera, et cetera?
Yeah.
I mean, I think the, you know, the AIP lays out, you know, what that core mission of APECO
would be, you know, which is really to center around the pillars of what makes the, you
know, the APE ecosystem successful or potentially successful, you know, and that's the, you know, which is really to center around the pillars of what makes the, you know, the AP ecosystem successful, or potentially successful, you know, and that's the, you know,
this sort of the BAYC club, which is always going to be, you know, or likely always going to be the,
you know, the leader within our ecosystem and showing, you know, what's possible when you
have access and opportunity, you know, it's going to be other side, which is, you know,
one of the most ambitious projects that web three has ever seen, you know, it's going to be other side, which is, you know, one of the most ambitious projects that Web3 has ever seen, you know, it is both technologically ambitious, you know, and ambitious
from a community and development perspective, you know, and essentially is the open world that
we've all hoped Web3 would create. And this might be the place to do it. And the last is,
is ApeChain, you know, and how do you continue to create a platform that allows for that sort of growth?
So I think if you focus around, you know, each of those pillars, there's, of course, going to be sub pillars to it.
You know, but Greg has been very clear, you know, and I think the communities responded.
And this is something the community, I talk about the trajectory of the community, you know, community's view.
the community, you know, community's view, it's like the bar for, you know, funding and support
needs to keep getting higher, you know, when the stakes are growing, you know, when the markets are
tougher. And I think that Web3 had a, you know, there's a few years there where we sort of lost
sight of fundamentals and like the principle of what is likely to make a good business. You know, you look at, you know, Web3 consumer product brands that are doing low seven figures
in revenue and have nine figure, you know, valuations if you add equity plus token.
And I've got a, you know, a partner who, you know, does eight figures in sales a year and
has barely eight figure valuation.
I mean, they put,
they can put more on chain from sales and community development than almost any
web three consumer product company.
And yet their valuation is one 20th of it.
And I think like that's the challenge we're trying to figure out is like,
how do you realign who we're investing in,
what we're investing in with like a real sense of what's the viability
of this product and what's the magnitude of its success looking like. That's a formula that we
have to really hone in on. That doesn't mean we can't continue to support, you know, small
opportunities, you know, wherever they're present. That doesn't mean we can't continue to take
moonshots, you know, at the right price point, you know, or for the right, for the right vision. But like,
the expectation that financial support is the only method of support, and is the only
acceptable method, I think needs to change here. And that's what I think Greg was saying. And I
think the community is really responding and saying, yes, we should hold each other to a high
standard. Yeah, I totally agree with that sentiment. I think, you know, I come from a business background, you know, IRL.
And I think when you have a proposal as a business, I think, you know, you have to put
milestones and metrics in place.
And I think that is something that I'm looking forward to with this.
I think the opportunity to present where a brand can go, where a project can go based on certain criteria, I think is a positive way to go.
Again, I'm part of the ecosystem, very new to it.
Especially, I was never really familiar with the DAO, specifically in the previous AIP and whatnot.
And I think this is giving opportunities and doors to open up for,
for many, many people in the space, especially on a chain.
And I think a lot of projects that have desires and aspirations to do more.
And if they have that, that funding or that accelerated to help them,
them grow,
I think it's going to be a great opportunity to continue to build on a chain.
I want to ask you real quick about right now with,
with a chain,
obviously we see in the,
in the last two weeks,
you know,
we just had the gliders mint.
A lot of people came through and onboarded through,
through another ecosystem,
like,
especially on the moon bird side,
we had Betty,
you know,
with her 50,000 mints with,
you know,
that a lot of onboarding,
obviously within the ecosystem and from other, other chains. How do you envision more of these types of mints with, you know, a lot of onboarding, obviously within the ecosystem and from other
chains. How do you envision more of these type of mints in terms of like onboarding opportunities?
Like, do you foresee these continually as a meta? Do you find other ways that you see that
Apechain can support and onboard other ecosystems and other blockchains? Like, what are your thoughts?
blockchains? Like, what are your thoughts? Definitely. I think the, you know, the short
answer is, you know, when we look at what a mint is, I think oftentimes the conversation feels a
little flat, right? A mint isn't just the idea of selling a JPEG online, right? It is the
participation, you know, it is the experience. It's what, you know, what does it offer you on a continuing basis?
And so I think, you know, Ape Chain has always been from the day it started, right, the home
of NFTs and people hear that and like, oh, man, that's so 2022.
It's like, no, you're missing the point.
The point is NFTs are an unlocking mechanism.
They're an infrastructure for sort of this idea of what the internet of the future
is. I mean, at least that we all believe in. And so, you know, we're constantly looking for the
right types of mints, whether they're free or paid, right? The Alpine mint, you know, did,
I don't even know how many off the top of my head, you know, it's a couple of races now,
but I think we've done seven figures in mints. You know, we, the CoolKix mint, like same thing,
tens of thousands of people have minted and are onboarding
into crypto and Web3 in ways they never even understood or believe or they may not even know
of right now, but they're self-identifying as part of a community. So now we have art-loving
communities. We have hypebeast-loving communities. We have sports-loving communities. We have
communities that are about gaming and continuing to find people who see that the same way that NFT is just a building block.
And that really what comes next, how do you productize that? How do you really build community
around that? Those are the people that we're going to continue to try and work with. And like,
I give, you know, the Night Glider team, I give Betty and the Devos team like a ton,
ton of, ton of credit
because like they went out and did the groundwork, both of them. They met the community where they're
at. They met their own communities and said, come trust us. This is the place to be. And like, you
can see the success written there. And I think there's a lot of people who got used to Web3
just being like, well, I put up a mint, I can sell out. Like, but again, once you see saturation, that's no longer going to happen and so it takes the work and so again kudos to to both those teams
because i think they just like showed the power yeah i totally agree i think it was it was great
i think it's you know um for me at least i want to celebrate those those those moments the last
couple weeks i think it was great to gain more exposure.
I think there's a lot of new activations on ApeChain because of it,
and I think it'll continue.
I know that there's obviously some stuff going on this week with NFT NYC,
and obviously ApeFest is coming up in October,
and maybe we'll dive into that in a minute here. But like you just mentioned, for those that are just joining the room,
thank you for being here.
We have cam until 1 o'clock Pacific, four o'clock Eastern.
We'll set aside some time at the end for anybody that wants to come up for any questions.
But now that you're in the role, so you've been here 10 weeks, what's kind of the next
steps for you?
I mean, there's obviously some plans in place.
You have some milestones and some, some roadmaps or plans in place.
What do you envision the next, you know, six months, a year?
What's your, what's your vision goal for the, for, your vision goal for Ape Chain as the leader of the helm?
Yeah, it's the, you know, it's the key question that, you know, I've always sort of shared.
Like, there's a lot that I'll say publicly, and then there's a lot that I'll hold back
because at the end of the day, you know, one of the reasons the community, I think,
supported Banana Bill, even though there's been frustration about it,
one of the reasons I think it's more
supported Governance Revamp is,
we as a community,
and even you as a leader in the community,
have probably been more transparent on some levels
than almost any other business out there.
And I think it's come back to hurt us.
There are so many times where things we talk about, things that we say is going to happen,
you then see other communities copying, maybe even trying to beat us to it. And maybe they were
already going to beat us to it and give them credit for coming up with the same idea at the
same time. I'm not here to kick rocks at anyone. But I think for us, we have to be able to sort of
build a strategy and execute against
it without sort of sharing too much publicly. But what I can say about it is there's a few pieces
to what I think success really means. One is we have to constantly keep sort of watering what
we've already been growing. And it's how do we help those communities that are already here,
that have invested going on almost a year now in ApeChain, right? We launched in October,
but communities started building before that knowing what was coming.
How do we continue to support them? And it can't, again, it can't just be on a one-off funding
basis. How do we create the structural support? How do you create sort of an incubation model so
that you can actually get people
launched and out there and you start to see successes.
And the number of those successes is a key metric that we like to think about.
Second piece is onboarding.
How do you grow the community to be bigger, either to join the communities that you already
have or to create their own communities?
And of course, there's always wonky metrics within Web3 about wallets, active wallets, transacting wallets. Everyone sort of has their favorite because they
want to identify who's a human, who's a bot. But whatever number that you're looking at,
as long as you're comparing apples to apples, you want to see the number of people that are
participating, IRL, participating on the timeline and participating on the chain, you want to see that keep growing. And I think that, you know, for us, we want to
center that around things that feel really authentic to the brand, you know, of the AAP
ecosystem. And I think that's centered around, you know, the core of music and sports and
entertainment media, which is where we really came from. You know, that's why we were
part of the, you know, sort of the fashion world before other ones. That's why celebrities and
musicians felt represented, you know, by their ape. That's why, you know, we had so many opportunities,
you know, to create, you know, in real life experiences like we have. And that needs to
trickle down, you know, into anyone who's in our community. How do we help propel them to have access to opportunities and people like that?
What's the network effect?
And I think the last thing is, look, you can't hide from it.
The token has to go up.
My goal, Greg said it the other day, it's not $2.
It's not $3.
It's not $4.
We want to see multiple X's from here because otherwise like,
what's the point of all this? We all believed in this. We want the value to go up and like,
we got to hold ourselves accountable. Now, plenty of things can get in the way, you know,
geopolitics, right? Like I can't control what the world and the global economy is going to do,
but I can control, you know, through success, how much conviction people have in our ecosystem and conviction converts to token price.
And so end of the day, ApeCoin can't be at 57 cents or whatever it is.
It's got to be multiple times from where we're at.
Yeah, I agree.
I mean, as you mentioned, you know, that geopolitics, you can't control. I mean, we see on the timeline all the time, the price of think you're right we we as a group as community as as leaders of projects and community founders and
whatnot need to to really look at opportunities to to build and i know there's a lot of great
projects building in in in and on ape chain uh we all see that across the timeline with a few
um and some in this room i see a few founders in this room that are building really cool stuff.
And so, yeah, I agree. Like we just, we gotta,
we gotta find ways to come together and move it up or what's the point?
What is the point? Um,
and I want to say there, like part of it is like,
what are people building? Right? Like when I got into web three,
I've talked about when I got into web three,
the early projects
that i was representing were talking about changing the music industry and how we pay royalties
changing movie financing they were talking about you know how to grow decentralized intellectual
property and fashion how do you sell houses on the blockchain like it felt like the ideas were
big but creative they were really trying to like evolve what we do and
how we participate. And that's not to say that in the intervening, you know, seven years or whatever
it's been, eight years that I've been in crypto, you know, we haven't seen some of those come and
go. We haven't seen other things pop up, you know, but it does feel like sometimes, you know,
the vision has gotten smaller or more narrow.
And like, I just, I feel like for crypto and blockchain to really break through, it has to be creative and inventive.
And so when I talk to founders, like, I get it, we're all trying to pay our bills, we
got to have lives, like you want to, you want to be successful, and not every, you know,
business can be the biggest version of an idea.
But I do want to feel like the big version
is just out there and they're working towards there to get there. Right. You know, when I talk
to the projects and like, you know, they're looking for funding and like their vision is
something small that's right in front of your face. Like, it's like, yeah, that that's great.
But if that's the end of the stop, I just don't know. I don't know. I don't know why you're going to chase for that.
Yeah, I agree.
A good friend once told me, like, you never want the story to end, right?
You always want to continue.
I think you got to start.
I know a lot of people say don't dream big.
You got to dream big, right?
And you got to find ways to make that dream happen.
And I think there's opportunity.
There's tons of opportunities on Ape Chain.
Like I said, there's, as you mentioned,
like I go back a few years too,
and there's all these, these grand ideas.
And some of them have been executed to some degree.
And I think they can still be exploring.
I think they can, they can grow.
But I think that we gotta,
we gotta be less narrow-minded and we gotta look at opportunities.
And again, one thing that I love about Ape Chain,
and this is one of the reasons I came to Ape Chain,
was the collaborative efforts.
Like there's a lot of people in the space that have a lot of skill sets and tools and opportunities to support.
And I think, you know, whether it's your idea and somebody has the tool, I think once you mess those type of people together, there's great things that can happen.
There's a ton of great things that can happen.
And I've already seen it, like I said, on the timeline and on a change specifically so um let's get a little bit into some some things before you know
we get to some questions and i want to kind of focus around you know spotlight uh obviously
season one ended a few months ago uh unfortunately i wasn't a part of it but i i did catch the tail
end of it in terms of the excitement um i know that there's been some sharing of potentially Spotlight Season 2 coming up and what that
may look like.
I don't know if you want to maybe share that a bit for those that are either new or have
been part of Spotlight Season 1.
Did I lose you Cam?
I think I might have just lost Cam.
I brought up, I'm seeing if Lost or NGB can come up as well.
Oh, there we go.
Yeah, you're back.
I don't know what happened.
Yeah.
I don't know what happened.
I was talking into the mic and just stop.
Um, what I was saying, you know, I don't want to give away too much alpha, but I think season one of spotlight proved the strength of the community at its core.
You know, what is it?
You know, what is it? You know, who is it?
And, you know, I feel like that's what you want from your first go around in trying to really
spotlight, you know, what happens on chain. The things that we did here, and we take all the
feedback openly is like, hey, like, if I didn't have hundreds or thousands of ApeCoin to spend,
you know, it was really hard to win when there was all these multipliers and, you know, and things like that.
So I think for Spotlight Season 2, a big thing we focused on, and there's definitely things coming out, you know, soon about it, is really like how can you win by demonstrating that you're deep in the community, that you're active, that you know
what's going on, that you're part of the conversation. And I think that's just a different
type of season. I'm excited to sort of see the juxtaposition of like a very sort of
transaction oriented season to one that is much more about participation.
Yeah, I agree. I mean, definitely, like I said, i caught the tail end of season one i know there
was a lot of obviously engagement a lot of action activation through transaction and not you know
as you mentioned not everybody can afford to transact um or buy nfts to be blunt on the on
on on a chain right at the level of some of the buys but i think definitely there's a lot of people
in the space there's a lot of great great the space. There's a lot of great, great hosts of spaces,
a lot of great community that champion the brand and really just advocate for Ape Chain.
And I think there's a great opportunity for people like that
to have their piece of the pie when it comes to,
you know, the rewards of Spotlight, right?
And I think as much as the rewards are great,
I'll be honest, everybody loves to be rewarded with something.
I think it's more just about highlighting
and giving maximum exposure.
And I think, you know, I'm excited for spotlight season two.
I mean, I think, you know, I've been,
I've been kind of guessing myself personally when it's going to happen.
Probably going to be wrong,
but I'm sure that everybody's just in anticipation of season two coming and
enjoying that. And I think it's going to reinvigorate,
I think the community that's here, but also again,
continually onboard new people into the ecosystem.
No, definitely.
And, you know, like I said, we know the calls for season two are allowed.
But we also want to make sure we get it right.
We want it to feel new.
And one thing I'll just say about Spotlight is that it was never intended to be that every season is going to be eight weeks long and this sort of
long journey of grinding day in and day out and watching a leaderboard. Like we also want the
community to be excited, you know, by each twist and turn. And, you know, if you're, if you're
traveling for one week, you're not, you know, totally out of luck because you don't want to
bring your private keys that week. So, you know, next season, you know, probably going to be a bit shorter, you know, and it's probably going to be a little more sort of electric and energized in that way.
And then season three, you know, might switch back to be something different.
And, you know, part of that is just about continuing to find new ways to bring the community together to get everyone, you know, hype and also show off the things you can do on a chain.
Well,
I don't know if that's alpha.
It might be a little small,
but at least there's,
we know there's a season three coming.
We just alluded to that.
We know there's season two,
but we know there's season three.
So I can promise you there's a,
there's a hell of a lot more seasons than that.
You know,
this is you know,
this is a core part of what we want the community to really be involved
with. And yes, the prizes are sick and we will continue to try. And Greg used to use it, Yuga
used to use the phrase surprise and delight. And yeah, I mean, that is a big piece of what we want
to do. If the only thing you got by participating on Ape Chain was an airdrop or, you know, some, you know, more ApeCoin, that's great.
And that will get a lot of people to participate.
But does that really demonstrate like what the hell we're good for?
Like why we are Ape Chain?
Like why we have a unique culture and access?
So we want to, you know, we want to show off our strength.
And that's why you got to see backstage you know at coachella
that's why rita got to hang you know in miami on a boat with you know apes hanging out with garga
right we've got you know other things planned uh you know sort of similarly uh not to those
exactly but like similarly where it's like it's gonna have to be something that feels
you know real to an ape not just here's some ape coin go yeah no that's awesome we have nft nyc coming up this week and i know there's a
few activations that are coming up which uh unfortunately i'm not gonna be able to make it
but i'm excited for those who can um you know obviously with with pog um that's a that's that's
a great that's a great opportunity with with them for activation and I've been doing a lot of the pod quest,
which has been cool because you're adding a lot of projects
on the timeline and interacting with them on the pod quest.
So I think for those that haven't really ventured into that,
definitely get into that.
I believe there's still time to try to get one of those packs
to maybe win a Macy or MAYC.
So if you guys haven't been part of the POG ecosystem
and what they've been doing on EAPChain recently, I think you should definitely get involved uh i don't want to limit my chances
but i'm opening up the chances even more for those that want to get involved and and what's
really cool and i think one of the highlights which i again i'm going to miss which is unfortunate
is is staple and jeff staple i've been a fan of his brand and what he's been for many years. Like I go back to some of my archive,
archive items in my merchant.
I'm just like,
man,
but I think what I want to say is that you guys have done some strategic moves that have made sense to the culture.
And I think,
you know,
those are two of the biggest cultural standpoints when it comes to,
you know,
onboarding and starting to get,
you know,
new active users in the ecosystem.
And so I'm looking for,
for those that do go,
but is there any other highlights you want to mention about New York that you can mention at
all or? No, I mean, I think you touched on it, you know, and we've obviously got some surprises.
We've got, you know, some activations at those events. You know, it's not just,
you know, you don't, you know, you don't get to work with a legend, you know, like staple,
if all you're going to do is, you know, come hang out at the store and, you know, hawk some t-shirts. You got to always be
willing to, you know, have some, you know, some ways to, you know, really spin it and give the,
you know, the, the attendees, you know, the fans, you know, people were part of it,
like yourself, right? Someone who's like been following Staple's career, you got to be able to
do something a little different. And so we were deeply appreciative of him and his team, you know, gracing us with the opportunity to be,
you know, at that address, at that store, which has been home to just so many cultural moments,
you know, in sort of, you know, the streetwear game over the last, you know, 20 years.
And I think for the Pogs team, like, you know, it's a reflection of us honing in on who our community is, you know, and some of the demographic layers of it.
Right. And what IP do they resonate with?
And, you know, I think that Pog, like that whole team, like I think they've got such a wickedly good vision on what it means to sort of reinvigorate IP for a new generation.
But in a way that excites the
generation that first loved that IP. I mean, Pogs to me are like one of the core memories I have
from the early and mid 90s. You know, I was going to post it on the timeline, but I have like this
really crystal clear memory of an OJ Simpson slammer. One said he's guilty, one said he's not guilty.
And like, to me, that was like my way of making sense of like, a pivotal moment in my life in
the early 90s with like this, you know, massive news, never ending newsreel of like, you know,
talking about the socio economic policies and, you know, criminal justice and fairness and equality.
And like my way of understanding that was through, you know, through pox. Like, I know that sounds a
little like sort of crazy on some level, but like for a seven-year-old, that was my way of actually
interacting and really starting to like learn and think about what did I feel? And I think if you
go back to the early Disney days and you go back to early 90s IP, like
that was a core part of what all those IPs were always trying to sort of push.
It was this sort of ability to think and reason and what is good and what is bad and how do
we want to treat people?
And that's why we all gave a shit.
And I think if you look at sort of the outgrowth of that ideal, it's why we all are so tied to certain IPs. It's why we're so tied,
you know, to certain sub communities, because it's how we've learned to identify who is like
me out there. Who do I want to be around? So Pogs team, I don't know if they've ever heard me sort
of give that waxing poetic, you know, but like, that's how I feel.
You know, it's funny you say that because i was actually
it's re-inspired me to look up some some pogs on on marketplaces and it's funny enough you were
talking about that that og simpson when i found a i found a slab around facebook marketplace for 10
bucks locally so i mean there's a lot of pogs out there you can you can buy it i mean it's yeah like
you said it's reinvigorated my childhood a bit i was i was kind of looking for some pogs you get
them on a cheap.
I mean, honestly, there's some cool ones.
And I know you guys should have some cool ones at NFT NYC at the Pogmobile.
So for those, again, that are out there, I'm going to say for the third time, for those that are out there, definitely go enjoy it.
It's definitely going to be historical. It's going to be something like we have physical assets, you know, a piece of product that you could have that most people won't have. Right.
So I think that's, that's going to be cool. And again, I think, you know,
as it translates to, you know, as we get closer to fall, I'm, I'm,
I'm assuming I'm hoping this is where I'm squeezing it out of you, but
hopefully there's an ape chain centric, you know,
event in Vegas for a fest and love to see some of those typical or same
style activations i mean there is a cool kicks in in vegas right just just hinting but um definitely
i think definitely cool kicks the biggest sneaker store i think on the west coast
yep yep and they have their their new flagship store in vegas so uh you know calling it now guys
i'm just calling it there's probably going to be a cool kicks activation in. I'm probably over speaking, but I'm just trying to squeeze that juice.
But yeah, like I said, I was going to ask you the question.
So obviously with New York and then, you know, A-Fest in October,
like there's obviously some thoughts in mind for a Ape Chain,
Ape Coin-centric all community event, something of that nature in Vegas,
for those that want to attend?
There's definitely more than just thoughts, you know, keep, keep an eye. You've seen things on
the timeline of people put two and two together, you know there's, there's plenty going on that
weekend in Vegas. And I think there's a lot that the ape chain community, you know, would, would,
would not want to miss. You know, and this has been just a part of like why BAYC has
had such lasting power, right? I mean, A-Fest has gone from New York twice to Hong Kong to Lisbon,
thousands of people traversing the globe in COVID and after COVID. Now, you know, coming back to the
U.S. like if there's one, you know, you asked to the U.S., like, if there's one, you know,
you asked to start this call, like, if there's one thing, you know, that I could take away that,
like, I know the Yuga team has always done right, it's that, like, it has spent the time,
it's put in the effort to actually bring people together. And I think Ape Chain has the power to
do that, you know, and it's not just going to be, you know, tied to what BAYC
does. Of course, that's a, you know, one great way to do it since there's such great overlap.
And it's not just gonna be one place, you know, huge focus of what we need to be doing
is looking at geographically, where can Ape Chain grow? Where does it have the strongest network?
You know, Ape Chain Africa, I just want to like give these guys a shout out, like what they are doing to onboard, you know, how they're thinking about it, you know,
and actually executing, like it does not go unnoticed. You know, when you think about,
you know, some of our partners who are just going to, you know, events themselves and onboarding,
like Certenticate, like that's the type of energy
that we need to keep, you know, keep applying, but it needs to be globally, you know? And so,
uh, a big focus of ours is, you know, how do we grow and, and deepen our, you know,
sort of our ties in Asia and, you know, Amia, you know, and then ultimately Ape Chain Africa,
like I just got such big respect for them. We want to make sure that, you know,
as they're growing, that we're supportive.
Yeah, no, for sure.
I mean, like I said, they've, they're definitely one of the first I saw in the timeline when
I, when I started looking at ApeChain.
So yeah, they've done amazing things and I want to give them a shout out too and all
the things they've done to support, you know, ApeChain.
So, well, Cam, we got about
11 minutes left, so I don't know if there's
anybody that wants to come on up, but definitely,
like I said, you know, we're going to keep it to
a tight one hour, just to
respect your time. I know you got stuff going on and
probably getting ready to venture
out. I know you got stuff going on this week with
NFT NYC and your little one at home and whatnot.
So, but yeah,
if there's anybody that wants to come on up,
like I said,
I'm going to open up to the floor.
there's a few guys down there.
I'm sure have had a chance to listen to cam.
And if you have any questions,
definitely feel free.
If not,
we'll just,
keep shooting the shit until one o'clock,
which is 11 minutes or we'll cut it early.
But,
either way,
cam,
I want to thank you first and foremost,
for being here.
Like I said, I appreciate you, um, and support you've you've given this chain and support you've given obviously to
all of us people that are asking for your time to be able to come up and speak uh definitely
appreciate that as well and and you know like i said i'm looking forward to what you're building
on ape chain and with the team you have around you um obviously want to give a shout out to loss
and ngb specifically because you know they're they're always championing this brand and Ape Chain
and all the communities out there.
So you definitely have two guys working with you that are really solid dudes
that I know they live and breathe, Ape Chain,
and they're definitely two guys that live and breathe communities.
Absolutely. I'd echo that.
Those guys, and Neff, I know is not here, but another one who's just, you know, day in, day out in the community, always being, you know, the best representative, you know, the best sort of, you know, linchpin for us.
probably be a little long winded here.
So apologies to everyone who's had to listen to,
you know, some of those thoughts, but yeah,
I appreciate always having the opportunity
to speak directly with the community.
And particularly I'm looking at like,
who's in the audience, like, you know,
and this is like, you know,
this is a good reflection of people
that are actually building, you know,
I see Ryan's in the audience, right?
I see Buddha's in the audience.
I see Alos in the audience, like, you know,
Gene, geez, legend, right? Like, you know, there's so many people here who have committed over a long time, who have
gone through the painting points with us, the times where they're frustrated that, you know,
we agree or don't agree with the path they're taking or the opportunities, you know, to work
together, but they keep, you know, powering on. And so, you know, even in this sort of smaller
room, getting to see all them like
it's just a good reminder of like what we're all here for
yeah 100 i saw not in the room as well with other page oh for sure yeah definitely a lot of great
builders i see um board gazettes in the room yeah there's you know that's one thing right is is on
h and i found that this amalgamation of people coming together and again, I'm not
knocking ETH at all because that's
where I come from. There was definitely a different
sense of ideas around
PvP, where it's here, like I said,
it's this amalgamation of support in
rooms and spaces and projects
and tech and whatnot
and I think that's been the big difference
and I think most people don't know
that, but when they get here, they definitely won't leave. I can promise
you that because this is definitely, it's like a family, right? It's a family of degenerates,
great minds, a mixed mash family. But I think, you know, you hit the nail on the head. I think
there's a lot of great people that come together. And as we move the space forward, I think, you
know, the next six months
to a year or two years,
whatever the case may be,
I think you're going to see a lot of,
a lot of the great leaders of the space
rise to the occasion
and continually build on ape change.
So yeah, Buddha, I see Buddha in the room.
Yeah, you're right.
Buddha's, I remember Buddha was one of the first,
I'll be honest,
one of the first Bored Apes to follow me
and we had a conversation.
So it's good to see Buddha.
I haven't talked to Buddha in like two years,
but it's good to see the homie from New York.
And I'm sure he's going to be out at,
at the 18 events.
but yeah,
if anybody wants to come up,
like I said,
you know,
we got seven minutes left.
Cam's here.
Cam definitely has opportunities to answer some questions.
If not,
NGB loss lost if there's
anything else you want to touch on for for this week's nft nyc activities um feel free if not
it's all good um but yeah like i said you guys i'll be doing this space you know monday wednesday
fridays the times might change monday wednesdays but for the most part um you know fridays will
stay the same uh i want to make sure that you know, Dutchie has a space as well on Mondays and Wednesdays.
So I want to respect his time.
Uh, this is definitely not a competition.
Um, I just know that Cam was available this time.
So we, we got together.
So, but, um, yeah, like I said, I appreciate you, Cam, coming through.
And, uh, if anybody, again, was coming up, uh, with the last couple of minutes, definitely
feel free.
And if not, um, any closing words, Cam?
Uh, just, you know, um, I'm looking forward to seeing who, you know,
who makes it out to New York gets to hang out the team in real life, you know,
sort of gets to sprinkle some of that magic on it. Um, one thing I always say is,
um, you know, my team, uh, we certainly, you know,
had some egg on our face about not being responsive or, you know,
dropping the ball, but, you know, we have to keep rising up, you know, making sure the offer is out there. If anyone ever needs anything, you know, had some egg on our face about not being responsive or, you know, dropping the ball, but, you know, we have to keep rising up, you know, making sure the offer is out there.
If anyone ever needs anything, you know, DMs are always open. You know, mine, lost, spend,
won, well, bam, the whole team. So we are reachable. We are real people. We want to talk to you. We
want to figure out how everyone can win together. So if you never, if you ever need anything, we're
here. Yeah. I want to echo your sentiment guys. I mean,
Cam is definitely very approachable. Don't be, don't be afraid to DM him.
Don't, don't be afraid. I'm not saying go flood him,
but definitely don't be afraid to DM him. Like I said, you know he's more than
willing to support and that's what a great leader does is, is supports. Right.
And so, yeah, no, like I said, I appreciate you taking the time.
I'm assuming
you'll be at ape fest uh by then because for sure yeah sure would have missed it so looking forward
to seeing you you know at ape fest it'll be fun um and then for everybody else like i said you know
if you are new to ape chain definitely start getting into some of these spaces there's some
great spaces that happen daily there's a lot of great great spaces. Gucci only, if you guys don't know, posts out a weekly,
if not monthly calendar.
I mean,
you know,
we got,
obviously I just mentioned Dutchie.
We got,
you know,
showbiz and cool chick with,
with their space.
We got Baca that runs like 40 hour spaces.
But yeah,
definitely,
you know,
you guys come through and listen in.
If you're,
if you're not on a chain already,
if you're a part of the ecosystem,
you already know what's know where it's at.
And yeah, I just want to thank you
again for being here and being
guest number two. Like I said, I look forward to
more conversations with you, Cam.
Go enjoy that baby of yours because I know, like I said,
you know, priority is your family
looking forward to seeing what else
has to come this summer because I heard
it's supposed to be a hot summer on Ape Chain. the plan well i appreciate it again uh it's good to good
to connect uh and chat with everyone here uh and like i said if anyone needs anything dms are open
so thanks so much guys 100 and guys if you guys haven't joined um join the ape coin discord um
great opportunity to meet people builders um other community members um i know they they
have obviously a lot of people in there doing spaces and whatnot in terms of voice chats and
and i know that uh my my dead friends and and uh tiger does trivia nights once in a while so if you
guys want to get in get in um and i appreciate all of you guys so i'm gonna wrap up the space
thank you for being here go enjoy the rest of your day if not um go hit up dutchy space i know he's
got a space right now with uh ashino kaza And I appreciate you all. Have a great day. Be safe. Bye for now.
