Transcription by CastingWords
Transcription by CastingWords
Transcription by CastingWords
Transcription by CastingWords
Transcription by CastingWords
Transcription by CastingWords
Transcription by CastingWords
Transcription by CastingWords
Transcription by CastingWords
Transcription by CastingWords
Transcription by CastingWords
Transcription by CastingWords
It's a lot of great stuff.
Icebags, how are you doing today?
We do appreciate you tapping in today as well as your brand.
Guys, we should give the Pandas and Icebags a follow.
They are definitely a team you want to be watching out in the near future
as well as, you know, following on the timeline.
A lot of great stuff coming from his personal account as well as the brand account.
So, we can kick this off.
So, we can kick this off.
So, we can kick this off and get right into it.
So, we can kick this off and get right into it.
So, we can kick this off and get right into it.
Talk a little bit about yourself, your brand, how you found your way into Web3, what you did in the prior, I guess, prior lifestyle within, you know, quote-unquote, web2, the outside of blockchain space.
So, originally, you know, real estate was kind of my passion.
So, you know, buying flipping houses, property management, vacation rentals, kind of got into vacation rentals pretty early, like back in, like, 07, before that whole industry kind of exploded.
So, that was kind of my bread and butter, you know, having some restaurants, just a lot of brick-and-mortar stuff, a lot of online sales stuff, you know, over the past, you know, 15 years.
Was in manufacturing in my early 20s.
So, I've done a little bit of everything.
I've been, like, full-time crypto since 18.
And then, of course, launched Can't Buy Pandas, you know, about a year ago at this point.
Begs, what was your, I guess, your introduction story or your paradigm shift in your life where you kind of thought crypto or blockchain itself could be, would be the future?
Obviously, you said you got into 2018 a lot earlier than most of us here, probably got into, obviously, a lot less known back then.
Obviously, you know, I guess more, quote-unquote, FUD probably existed back then.
What was the initial, I guess, paradigm shift, I guess, mindset pivot that you had made to jump into the blockchain space?
I mean, like, you know, I've been through a lot of bear markets.
I've been through, you know, a lot of fiscal irresponsibility.
You know, I'm a little bit older than most people in the space.
I'm 41, you know, I was around, you know, I was selling real estate back in, you know, 05, 06 and saw that kind of, like, crazy parabolic rise in real estate, especially in the U.S.
And then, of course, what led to the, you know, the financial crash in 08, right?
So I've kind of lived through all of it.
And so, you know, kind of the same thing that brought, you know, Satoshi into it and everybody else was, like, just a fiscal irresponsibility, you know, by our leaders.
And is there an opportunity here, you know, to actually change something, you know, from the overlords, I guess?
And then secondarily, like, once I got into the space, it was very much like, okay, this is innovative, right?
So, I mean, obviously, there's a lot of stuff in the space that's trash and everybody knows that.
But at the core, there's a lot of innovation.
There's a lot of ways to raise money and to get people in at ground level, you know, that necessarily wouldn't have the opportunity to do that, right?
So, I mean, you have, you know, projects that are launching and just about everybody has an opportunity to get in at the ground level versus, you know, companies that are in Web 2 and those spaces.
Like, you don't have that opportunity.
It all goes to the same guys.
It's all like, you know, that Silicon Valley circle.
And kind of Web 3 changes that, right?
And that's what I love about it.
So I like to understand people's kind of thought process and their mindset to doing what they do.
Obviously, me being a marketer, I guess, by trade, I kind of, I guess, try to understand behavior from consumers as well as operators in the space or even at scale.
So, obviously, Bex, there was this time period of when you came into crypto probably just as an investor.
But then you obviously launched the Pandas last year, which was, I think, 2021, 2022, depending on when it was.
What was kind of that, I guess, that moment in your life where like, you know what, let me launch my own brand.
Let me start my own brand.
Like, what was that for you?
What kind of made you do what you did?
Yeah, so my story is a little bit different, I think, than most.
So, you know, the meta back then was like honoraries, right?
Like everybody, you needed to have an honorary in all these influencers' hands.
So, you know, the guys that had this project came to me and I put it in probably like 50 of the biggest influencers' hands.
I remember I flew to one of the local casinos and I was going to be walking the Masters last April.
We're sitting in the high-limits room, you know, having cocktails, me and my buddy with our laptops out, like ready to mint the project and the contract breaks.
And so that was like my first experience in Discord, too.
So, of course, I pop over into Discord and it's like, you know, the FUD started.
I had never experienced Discord.
And at that point, I was like, I don't know if I ever want to again because it was like rug, rug, rug.
And I mean, half the shit that was coming out was rugs anyway.
And I was like, all right.
And, of course, these guys were freaking out.
And, you know, I gave them a few options.
And just I think after a few too many drinks, I was like, you know, fuck it.
I mean, one of the options is I'll take it over, right?
And I took it over and I ended up flying home that night instead of going.
So I skipped the Masters and flew home that night.
And it's, you know, 4 o'clock in the morning probably at this point.
I'm like on Twitter going, all right, I'm going to save this thing.
I'm going to, you know, I'm going to make it my baby, yada, yada, yada.
And who's going to help me?
And so, you know, luckily one of my friends, you know, Primo, that is one of the founders
of Layer Zero, reached out immediately.
And he's like, hey, he's like, why don't we do, you know, this OmniChain?
I think Ghostly Ghost had just kind of like launched maybe four or five days ago at that
And I was like, screw it.
Like, if I can have, you know, somebody like Primo and Layer Zero in my corner, like, let's
And nobody had really done like a true OmniChain mint, not for actual pay.
You know, a lot of the early ones were just free mint, you know, just to kind of like test
And so we were really like the first one that did like a true pay, you know, mint OmniChain.
We minted on seven different chains.
And so, of course, you know, a lot of that, you know, was what's caused issues, right?
Like, it took us seven months to mint out.
You know, as you know, in this space, like, if you can't mint out in seven days, you're
So it took us seven months to mint out.
But I was, you know, my thing is, like, if I put my name on something, I'm going to grind
on it and I'm going to make sure it doesn't fail.
And so we just grinded and grinded and, you know, I put together a team really quickly.
You know, one of the things I did was because it was already, it already had a lot of foot
around the project as far as like, you know, you know, people thinking it was a rug.
You know, I pulled out like 600K out of my own pocket.
We and the first thing we did was we bought a suite at the Raiders Stadium in Las Vegas.
And so we get all the football games, get all the concerts, all that stuff.
And I was like, and that's a 15-year leash, right?
And so I was like, fuck this.
Like, I'm putting my own money up.
I'm saying we're here to stay.
You know, we're here for at least 15 years.
If the project fails, I guess I'm just going to be a huge Raiders fan, you know, and go
to all the football games because, you know, we've got the stadium for 15 years.
So that was like one of the first things we did.
And the team just grinded and we innovated and we threw a lot of events.
I think in our first year, we threw like, you know, like 35 events or something crazy,
whether it was, you know, football games or concerts or UFC suites or individual parties.
And we threw a festival like we did a lot in year one.
Obviously, you know, things have changed since then.
Did you cut off or did you?
Yeah, I was going to let you go, but I'll pop in.
So, you know, since then, it's obviously we've continued to grow.
And, you know, the thing with an NFT project or any business in general, right, is a lot of
times you don't like, like, I think roadmaps.
I think I think I think somebody said, like, if a business founder said, here's my if he
came to me and said, I'm going to raise money and here's my roadmap for the next three years,
I'd be like, you're fucking crazy because you can't lay out a three year roadmap on a
business that's just launching.
And if you're not able to change quickly and change direction and and find other revenue
sources and kind of find your niche, then then I don't really want to be like I'm not
going to be a backer of your project.
So so personally, it was like, all right, we've got this cool Web 2 in real life utility.
Right. We've got all these suites in the stadium and all this stuff, which people love, you
know, and that's kind of our that's kind of our base.
But at the same time, I'm like, you know, it limits our ability to reach out to a lot
of the Web 3 community because, you know, either a they're not they're not in the United
States or maybe they don't like football or UFC or whatever it may be.
So we spent the next like seven months building out our Web 3 product.
And so we built out a very intricate point system.
And so we've got a point system that runs through our marketplace, our raffle section,
And then we've also got a sports book, casino and poker room that we built out and all of
And so I was like, you know, we need to kind of push the boundaries because NFTs are meant
And so I said, why why not, you know, add the ability to customize your panda right
Like so what we did is if you look at it, it's very similar to like the Roblox model.
Right. And my my son, like that's one of the things that made NFTs click with me was I'm
sitting there watching my son like upgrade and get and put on these skins.
Right. And he's like running over every time he gets one, he's coming over and he's
showing me and he's changing it before he goes into another game.
And I'm like, this is huge.
This is going to be the meta going forward, I think.
And so we said, OK, you know, we built this panda builder out.
And so you can essentially buy items, you know, within the store with your panda points
that you accrue for free and then you can make those changes.
And then one of the cool things that we also that we also built in while we were doing
that is a system that we call dynamic rarity.
And so as you add items to your inventory, you know, that you purchase through the store,
you can actually move up and down in the ranks and earn more points on a daily basis.
Um, and I've heard people complain about, you know, uh, taking away rarity.
Uh, and we, and we, we pretty much built in a system that, that doesn't do that.
You know, so we've got it tiered into a hundred different, uh, 102 different tiers.
Uh, so you've got one at ones at the top, they can't be passed.
And then you've got infinities, they can't be passed.
And you've got aliens and zombies and golds and those can't be passed.
So it keeps your rarity intact when it comes to rare body styles, but that still leaves 90%
of your collection to where if people want to grind and do things like there's a lot of
game theory involved, um, and, and you can add items to your inventory.
You can upgrade your, you know, you can personalize your PFP, which I think is huge.
Uh, somebody who's going to be much more willing to, to rock it online as a personal identity
if they have a say so and like what their panda looks like.
Um, so I think the system we built was as just as far as like a standalone web three product
Um, and so we're very proud of that.
We just launched it, uh, March 30th, I believe was the launch date.
Uh, and we had like in the first three weeks, we had like 35% of all the pandas change their
So I'm like, all right, that's, that's acceptance.
Like that's, that's our, our community loves that.
And so, you know, ever since then now it's fun because.
You know, like we just did a, we just did a drop called murdered out.
And that drop went insanely fast.
People were using all their points and, and buying these items and, and we can continue to
do that, you know, for in perpetuity and just, just add more fun stuff that the community
wants to see, whether it's, you know, a, a pimp pack or, you know, whatever you decide
Um, and then of course, you know, one of the bigger things, as far as utility goes outside
of just having access to all these suites and things is, you know, we've got a raffle
So within that raffle system, you can apply points and it's like a, it's like a loyalty
So we've got two tickets to every event and in the suite, um, that are available with, uh,
for purchase with points.
We've got, you know, things like Roy Jones, John Jr.
We've got, uh, you know, rolling loud passes.
I bought 20 loud punks, um, in the treasury because I thought, I thought that was a great
Like you have, you have VIP access to, to rolling loud.
And so what we do is we offer 20 VIP punks, you know, to each thing.
And I mean, they just did Thailand and they're doing Rotterdam and then they're doing Miami
and they've always got something going on.
So that's like, it's just great free stuff that our community can, can acquire, you know,
And I think that's where, you know, like utility and bringing that back to the, to
the, to the holder is, is critical to me.
If you can't bring value back to the holder, then like, what are we doing this for?
A lot of great stuff to unpack there.
I want to thank you for being honest on your origin story.
You know, you'll have most of these founders, operators, first time business owners, not
A lot of them just kind of say, so why'd you kind of get in this space?
And they give you kind of a shitty answer.
And the answer that they don't want to tell you is for, for the money.
And obviously that's kind of what I found.
And I guess most common in the space.
So I appreciate the, the honest answer and how that came about.
Definitely super, super, super, um, unorthodox, but that was awesome here before we kind of
Yeah, that, that too, that too, that too.
Uh, Jess, do you have any questions before I, before we go back to begs and unpack all the
Yeah, I did have a quick question.
I mean, obviously you're targeting a mixed audience, right?
You're focused on IRL events and also web three.
Like what is your target marketing?
Are you trying to bring more people in from web two, or are you focusing on bringing web
three people into the web two events?
Um, and I, and I say this all the time, like if you're not networking and, and especially
in web three, but this is, this is as old as time, right?
Like if you're not networking and making connections, uh, you know, to, to, to potentially enhance
like your future business endeavors, then you're, then you're doing yourself a massive
Um, I always say this, I always say two, two jobs that I think everybody should have.
One is like in the service industry, whether it's waiting tables, because you kind of learn,
um, you know, to, to, to cater to other people, you learn to get shit on, you get, you learn
to take it and kind of makes you like calloused a little bit.
Um, and then second is sales.
I think everybody should have a sales position because if you're good at sales, you can always
And when you get into sales, you start to realize like, all you're doing is networking.
And so telegram is great.
Twitter is great for networking, but there's nothing like sitting with somebody for three
hours in person and talking about, you know, your personal life and, and your ventures and
kind of your background that makes really good connections.
And that's what I did at a very young age was like, you know, I used to hang out with like
my dad's friends a lot, you know, and they were all a lot older and we'd play golf and,
but, but those guys like that becomes your network.
And if I ever needed something, I've got kind of a wide range of, of industrial leaders
that I can go to, you know, with, with questions.
So, so yes, I think, I think providing what we're doing is a, it's a fun outlet, right?
Like people want to get out and do things that are fun.
And especially when you're, when you're doing it, like in such a luxurious way of, you know,
Um, but, but secondly, it's just such a massive networking opportunity.
Um, and, and people need to start that doing that at a young age.
A lot of great stuff there, guys.
Be sure to follow once again, all the speakers, as well as pandas and bags, a lot of great
He just dropped all the stuff that he said.
I almost broke the hundred emoji on my app on the phone.
I gave him too many of them, but I absolutely agree with what he said.
So I have this question now, obviously most of the space is running this narrative that, you know,
people want to, I guess, just make money.
The utility price go up conversation.
We hear that so, so often.
It's almost over exhausted, to be honest.
So how do you guys appeal to that side of investors or I guess collectors or that just
And obviously I assume it wasn't off the get go because, you know, the project, the brand,
the IP didn't mint out for about seven months.
So how do you kind of cater to those people?
And if you do, you don't, I mean, you, you may or may not, I'm not sure, but that's why
And how was that journey for you to mint out in seven months?
So I'll just say this, it was brutal, right?
It was brutal because it was such a grind.
And then, and then of course, you know, if, you know, a seven month, man, like all of a
sudden, all of a sudden the price on open C is dropping below mint price.
And so that's going on and, you know, on and on and on and on for, for months.
And then, you know, we just kept grinding and people that, you know, started to kind of
realize like, Hey, these guys are really here for the longterm.
They're really building something of value.
And then, and then over that period, it's like, okay, people started to understand it.
But to get back to your original question, like I can't cater to people.
I can't cater to the floor price.
Like all I can do as a business owner is say, Hey, this is what we're going to do, execute
on that and move on to the next thing.
And, and then also, you know, from a business standpoint, you know, I've got to build, you
Um, and so that's another thing that we're focused on is, is like building the brand,
building revenue sources so that we can continue to fund this thing, uh, without just doing,
you know, endless mints, because I think that meta is dead as well.
Um, and so that's what we're focused on.
We're, I run it like a business, you know, we have, we have daily meetings, we have weekly
meeting meetings, you know, and, and go over like what our goals are for the next, you
know, week, two weeks, you know, six weeks, six months, year.
Um, and, and, and, and execute.
And I think we've done a great job of like everything that we've said, Hey, we're going
And I think that's critical in the long run.
And we're in this shitty bear market.
I can't, I can't change market conditions, but I can, I am in control of like the way
I conduct myself and, and the way I manage my team and the way we execute.
And I feel like we actually, we executed a very high level.
And I feel like that, that will be rewarded when the bull market comes back again versus,
you know, all these companies that have kind of sat on their ass and, and, you know, throughout
So it is what it is for me.
And, and, and effectively, I know that you guys are definitely pushing the boundaries
in, in the web, in a web two space, we've got to stop calling that too.
It's not great for adoption, I guess, outside of the blockchain space, obviously I'm a huge
And that's kind of how I heard about you guys initially, because I follow on socials.
I know you guys are doing a ton of branding stuff with him.
He, in my opinion, he's probably one of the best fighters of all time, might even, might
even be the best guy, might even be the guy up for debate, obviously.
But, but I think that you guys are definitely creating a different funnel that I think only
the Pudgy Penguins are doing outside of, I think, you guys, in terms of kind of captivating
to a different audience from a lifestyle brand perspective.
Meg, what's kind of your take on that?
Like, how's that funnel being built through social, through Instagram, through other,
you know, mediums of exchange on different social apps, growing that brand through celebrities,
fighters, lifestyle, clothing, product?
Like, how's that been, like, thus far was kind of the, I guess, the end goal for, I guess,
that funnel, so to speak.
And I mean, that's, that's the goal, right?
Like, the goal is to, to, because, because look, I mean, at this time, we're all pissing
in a very small pool, you know, in the NFT community.
So you've got to be able to reach outside people, but you can't reach outside people by
shoving NFTs down their throats, right?
You can't be like, you know, hey, buy this NFT.
If I had John Jones, you know, tweet out, hey, buy the Can Pie Pandas, people would rip his ass
and they'd make fun of him in the comments and everything else, but what you can do is
you can, you can build a brand through, through these people and you can, you can, you know,
build something that's standalone.
That's, that's a streetwear brand.
That's the way I look at it.
Hey, this is a streetwear brand.
And when John and I first met right before his championship fight with Gann in March,
we sat down and talked and he's like, how do you want me to explain this project?
And I was like, John, I don't want you to explain the project.
I just want you to say it's your streetwear brand, because then what we can do as more people
become aware with it and they come to the website, they do this and that.
We, we collect email addresses off of, you know, purchases and things like that.
Like then we start to build our funnel and we, we start over time, we start to find those,
that, that, that 2% of people that, that may have an interest in NFTs.
So, I mean, it's always, it's all, you know, being done for the holders, you know, you,
A, you're, you're building a revenue source so that you can continue to, you know, like
provide this loyalty program for people to cash in on.
But B, you're also just building brand awareness.
And like you said, I think Pudgy Penguins do a great job of that.
I think we do a great job of that.
Um, you know, and, and so we do it, we did it with, you know, clothing was like our first
kind of first product to, to do that with.
And we've had John Jones rocking it and we've got, you know, Ilya Tepuria and, you know,
some of the biggest fighters on the planet.
We've probably had, you know, a hundred athletes rocking our stuff so far.
And, and, and over time, like people just go, okay, you know, they start to equate it to,
you know, to athletes or, or whoever, but that's kind of like where the culture comes
So, so you're, you're just building brand awareness.
People are seeing it on Instagram all the time and, or at the fights or whatever it may
Um, and then, and then you can funnel those people back later.
And it's, it's a similar approach to what we're building.
Uh, you know, we, we, we just announced that we're building out CanPi media.
Uh, and that's a similar approach.
You know, the whole reason we're doing this is I guess twofold on CanPi media.
One is, is to give a central location that we can provide like, like product updates and,
and, and constant updates on, on what we're doing as a company, um, and cut out the noise.
Because Twitter is just so hard nowadays to, to get noticed.
Um, and, and our own people are, you know, don't even get to see half the stuff we're doing
because it's just so noisy on Twitter.
And then, and then a lot of people don't like discord.
I like discord as far as like making updates and things.
Um, but as far as like, people just don't want to use it.
So CanPi media is like twofold.
One is, is a central location where we can, it can be all things Panda, you know?
Um, and then two is creating unique content that drives, you know, viewership outside of,
And so we're working on several podcasts with celebrities and they're going to be, you know,
based around gambling and sports and things like that.
Um, and so we've got like three or four podcasts that are in the works right now.
Um, we're bringing in, you know, heavy hitters to, to kind of run and take over those, that,
Um, but yeah, I think you've got to get outside of the web three space.
Uh, to, to, to really be successful and grow something that's going to be a nine or 10
Do you, do you have any concerns, um, that, that the name of the media brand obviously is,
you know, the same name of the product, the IP, the brand itself.
Do you think that people may have some bias towards it because it is the same name as
the brand, or you think that's not going to play to any factor and people will listen
outside of the space, outside of the industry, outside of the, the holders, I guess, the
collectors, um, despite, you know, obviously having that, that bias when it comes to, uh,
the branding, the branding.
So I don't have a concern with that.
And here's why is because a lot of the, a lot of the target that we're going to, or a
lot of the market that we're going to be reaching doesn't know what can pie pandas
Like they have no idea what it is.
So there's, I don't think there's a really any downside to that.
And then each show that we have, like, for example, one of the shows is, um, it's called
So instead of underdogs, it's called overdogs and it's a UFC betting show.
And it's myself, Sam Alvey, who's an ex UFC fighter and a, and a UFC personality named
And we're going to be bringing on, we're going to do, you know, a show for every event.
We're going to do parlays and, and talk about like the upcoming card and we're going
to be bringing on, you know, big UFC stars to come on as a guest each episode.
And that's so, so that branding is different, right?
So when that's hitting YouTube and kick and all these different locations, like it's
going to be hosted on the can pie media, media site, but it's going to be a standalone, you
know, show, um, same way with, you know, we've got a, we've got a deal put in place with,
uh, with Bob Minery and he's going to be doing a golfing betting show, you know, and it's
going to be, it's not going to be called can pie golfing.
It's going to be called something else.
Uh, putt for dough or whatever you want to call it.
And, you know, all that stuff, it just draws people back to the, to the website so that,
and then, and then all the, all of a sudden they're, they're looking at all this information
like, and what is can pie pandas?
And so it, it makes people curious.
I personally, huge, huge supporter of Bob, great internet personality.
Seems a better guy in person.
I love you guys are talking, I guess the, I guess the consumers, uh, the end consumer, your
target audience from a ton of different funnels.
That's a lot of great stuff.
Uh, Jess, do you have any more questions?
And I just wanted to say, I don't think I've heard you speak before and I love everything
I'm in web three and I hate discord.
So I can't even imagine somebody that, and you know, you said business so many times and
revenue models, just like words that you don't hear a lot on Twitter spaces.
Like you're building a business and I love to hear it.
Um, I guess again, you're, you're talking about, obviously you built this off from the relationship
that you've had in IRL, what pushback or have you received any pushback when you try to put
this in front of people's faces?
You know, that's, that's, that's, I think where 99.9% of NFT projects are going to fail
is because they don't really offer anything that somebody in the web two world that, that
has like a prominent standing is going to want to be involved with.
Um, if you look at my advisory board board and my stakeholders, I'll just give you a
You'll kind of understand like how serious we're taking.
Uh, Steve Espinosa ran digital comms for the Trump and Obama white house has been on
He's probably one of the top digital media guys on the planet.
Uh, Steve Cohen is a general partner at United talent agency, large, largest talent agency
He runs their entire Southeast division manages Kevin Hart, Jessica Alba, a ton of other huge
stars, uh, first round management.
They manage over 170 athletes, including, you know, UFC stars like John Jones, uh, Jonathan
Taylor, the running back for the Colts, uh, David and Joku, the, the Browns tight end.
And like I said, another 170 athletes, uh, we've got, uh, Paul Chianessi from a kick.com.
So kick is, is a stake.com's new, new streaming platform to compete with Twitch because they
banned, uh, gambling on, on Twitch.
So, uh, Paul is one of our advisors as well.
Uh, we've also got a gentleman, um, Jeff Willard that, uh, that ran, he actually built
Zach Brown, uh, the Zach Brown band.
Uh, he's a branding and IP guy.
Uh, he runs, he now runs a Casper mattresses, uh, online division, which is 200 million in
So, you know, if that, like, like if we're looking at it from an outside perspective,
these are guys at the very pinnacle of all of their careers and like very legitimate business
And they believe in what I'm doing.
They believe in what we're doing as a team.
They believe in like the product that we're building.
Um, and so, yeah, I think we're taking pretty seriously.
Uh, bags credit to you and the team as well.
Obviously branding, I think is, is everything.
I think brand equity is also everything.
I think the way you guys have gone about quote unquote selling clothing, which is literally
just merge, but instead of using the word merchant, people, you know, kind of hate that
word over-exhausted once again, and it kind of gives people a little bit of a, uh, I
guess distasteful taste and they complain about the merch.
Oh, this hoodie is not good enough.
Whatever, whatever, man, just stop complaining, get off Twitter.
You guys have made that into a lifestyle brand.
So now they're more susceptible, I guess, susceptible to the actual product, to the clothing,
to the stuff you guys are pushing out.
And honestly, you know, clothing, merch, whatever you want to call it, streetwear brand, lifestyle
brand, whatever you want to call it, clothing.
It is a viable revenue model.
And anyone that from Nelk or Happy Dad can tell you that.
They've done a ton of revenue every year, every month from the clothing that they produce.
And it's a viable revenue model.
I mean, in this space, people want to nitpick and complain about literally every damn thing.
But that model outside of the space, it works if you can execute it properly.
So shout out to you guys for doing that the right way.
And one of the cool things that we're going to be releasing probably, if not tomorrow, probably
early next week is, you know, because our, because our PR, our pandas are customizable,
we're going to be doing like token gated drops, right?
So we're going to be doing token gated apparel drops, but you also receive the NFT.
So now, you know, we'll do, we'll do, let's say, say we do a limited run of like 250 t-shirts.
You can, you can receive, you know, the t-shirt, the NFT that you can apply to your panda.
And you'll also earn points on, you know, for purchasing those items.
So I think there's a major play there as well for token gated, smaller, limited runs on things
We're going to put up, you know, a diamond encrusted pendant as well.
So I think there's a lot of stuff that we, that we can do there in the future by token
gating and adding the NFT with a physical.
I have to ask, because I think this happened actually last week, the week before, what was
the reason of the thought process for you and the team wanting to be listed on blur as
a, as a, I guess a, um, what's it called now?
The, the, uh, blur on the blend, uh, I guess the blend, the, the, the, the blend process
is some, I'm having a problem speaking now.
So, so, I mean, look, here, here's my, here's the way I look at, at, at blur and just markets
Like people are going to do whatever they want to do.
I can't, I can't stand in the way of that.
Um, if, if people want a blend product for, for, for, for lending, then, then give them
I mean, I want people like we're, we're in the decentralized world of cryptocurrency.
Like why are we, you know, why would I want to try to stand in front of like, you know,
a product that the market wants?
So, you know, they hit me up.
Um, we started talking and, you know, they were like, we're all Panda holders.
We love what you're doing.
You know, you're one of the few people that's actually building something in the space.
Like, so we want to add you to blend, but even further, we want to,
add you to the homepage and we want to, to change our logo to have the pandas on it.
And at that point, I'm like, fuck, how could we, how could we not?
I'd be crazy to, to, I'd be doing a disservice to my community if I said no to that.
Um, Jess, I'm sure you got a ton of questions, super, super aggressive with the emoji hits
Oh, no, I, I, I agree with what you're saying.
I, I mean, I've, I've seen you on the timeline.
I followed you for a minute.
I know you've been, you know, critical about things in the NFT community, but looking at
maybe some of the other top projects in this space, things that, that you see that, that
maybe you took a cue from that they did well, or things that maybe you were trying to stay
away from any insights on that.
Have you looked into other projects as to, Hey, I want to take my project this direction
So, I mean, we do, you know, we keep a, we keep tabs on, on what most projects are
I think you're, you're, you're kind of silly if you don't do that.
Um, I wouldn't say there's anything that we, but also with that said, I try not to,
to, to follow so closely that I let it influence like decisions that I'm going to make.
Um, so, so with that said, it's like, I, I, I do, I do watch and see like what's, what's
taken in, you know, well by, by other communities and what's kind of rejected by other communities.
And I, and I take that into account.
Uh, but bigger for me is like, I've got my own community, you know, and, and I, I need
to look out for what like they want, right.
I've got to, I've got to cater to what they want, uh, and deliver products that, that they
find, you know, useful and, and desirable.
So more so than, than, than, you know, looking at other communities and other projects, it's
more looking at your own community and, and delivering what they, what they'd like to
So I think that's much more important in the, in the grand scheme.
And I totally appreciate that.
Not trying to copy the playbook, but make your own playbook.
I would never, like, I would never, I've built too many businesses from the ground up.
Um, and that's, what's fun to me is like building and experimenting.
Um, you know, I didn't, I didn't know exactly how it was going to go over when, when we started
allowing people to, to update their metadata and, and, and added in dynamic rarity.
And like back in February, we redid all the artwork for the project.
Like we, we take risks, right?
I want to, I want to take risks.
I want to have fun with it.
Like this is, this is a brand new kind of, kind of financial instrument.
Um, if you want to call it that, uh, but, but like to me, test, like push the boundaries,
like test things, try things.
Um, and I think we've been super successful, you know, doing that and take that approach.
Baggs, back to the community aspect of things.
I mean, obviously this opinion is completely subjective and I think community is definitely
I think it's once again, overused to you bags and, and I guess your team, what is community
and how do you, I guess, effectively create it?
Mike is not on if you're talking bags.
So to me, the coolest thing about, about web three and, and, and, and having a community
and having holders is like the feedback that you get.
So, so I come from a traditional business world and we don't get instant feedback.
We get, we get negative reviews later.
And that's kind of how you like learn and try to adjust and, and fix holes in your business.
Uh, and web three, you get instant feedback.
You have all these, you have thousands of people that are, that are financially invested, but
more so emotionally invested in what you're building and believe in you.
And so, so you get instant feedback and you're able to test things and, and, and ask for,
you know, ask opinions on, on certain things that they'd like to see.
Like to me, that is the most valuable thing about building and web three for me is because
you've got thousands of opinions.
You've got all these, you know, very intelligent people in most cases, uh, you know, that,
that are willing to offer support and guidance and help that doesn't happen to web two.
Like that's, that's, that's unheard of.
So to me, that's the coolest thing about, about being a web three and, and having a community
involved and having holders involved is, is just the fact that you can sit there and
throw out, you know, ideas.
And some of them they shoot, you know, they shoot, they shoot down and I don't give a
Like, like one of the funniest things I love about my community is they dog me and they
make funny pictures of me and all kinds of shit.
Like it's just part of the fun of it.
It's, it's great to be susceptible to an open to obviously feedback as well as taking,
Some people get really, really emotional super quickly.
And I think that's definitely not the way to go.
Um, Jess, do you have any more questions?
Um, yeah, and I might've missed it cause I was a little bit late, but I'm a little bit
Could you talk a little bit about, um, what layer zero is doing?
I know there, um, a protocol to allow you to bridge from different chains.
So it's Kay, Kay pandas, are they a multi-chain?
So we're not, we're an omni-chain project built on, on layer zero tech.
So we meant it on seven different chains, Phantom, ETH, uh, you know, Optimism, Arbitrum, um,
Is it an omni-chain fungible token?
So, so you can move from chain to chain.
So for example, we minted like say 1200 on different chains and then you can actually,
they can actually, so now most of them reside on ETH just because that's where the liquidity
Now we've only minted out 9,000 of the 10,000, uh, because, you know, all of those chains
are EVM compatible, uh, and, and Solana's not.
And Solana was, Solana was always like the last one we were going to.
Um, and the bridge just isn't built yet because it, you know, they're obviously it's built
in rust and it's just a lot more difficult, but layer zero is working on that now.
So I would, I would imagine we announced very soon, like, uh, like our mint on Solana to
finish out that collection.
Um, and then, yeah, once the bridge is built, if Solana's eating up the, you know, if Solana's
eating up the, um, you know, the, the project.
Then everybody can move from ETH to Solana in two seconds.
Like that's their choice.
My thing is like, why do I want to trap somebody in one ecosystem when I'm not about that?
I'm not about like a cult, cult behavior, whether it's, it's a NFT project or a token
or, or, uh, uh, protocol, like they don't love you back.
So, so why tie yourself down to one thing?
And, and it also, there's like, there's downside or there's, there's downside protection with,
with this model because, you know, everything we saw with like FTX and, and all this stuff
like, you know, you know, crashing and going under, you know, that can happen to a, that
can happen to an L one as well.
Or an L two, like if they run out of funding, like they had no longer operates.
And then whatever your, whatever your project is, your NFT or whatever is stuck, is stuck
So it's downside protection, but also we don't know where, like, we don't know where
the liquidity for NFTs is going to be in three years.
Like there could be a new, a new, a new L one launch or new L two launch.
And that can be where everybody's going to, to buy and sell NFTs.
I want to have my, I want, I want to give my people the power to go over there and enjoy
Yeah, but we, we, we see that pretty often as well.
Like don't be married to one thing.
I think it's the worst thing you could actually do.
Um, and I kind of see these blockchains from a business standpoint, it's just kind of distribution
So you, you would distribute your, your NFT, your products, whatever it may be on different
blockchains, have more access to more consumers, more users, whatever, whatever it may be.
A lot of great stuff there.
Has there been any token conversations within the brand that could be deployed or not the
revenue you guys want to take because of the galley reasons?
Has that conversation been, you know, thought of, I assume it has been and what's kind of
the, I guess, the take on that.
Um, but I'm also, I'm also not a proponent of, of, of launching tokens that don't necessarily
And to me, like it's going to, it's really hard for me to prove to me like that an NFT
It just is some, I'm pretty vocal about that.
Um, but what we built instead was, you know, and I'm also, I'm also a fan of like, not everything
needs to be on chain, especially with an NFT project.
Like, so the point system that we built out is, is off chain.
It's a centralized system and we control it.
So, so if you look at it, I guess, you know, maybe, maybe down the road, um, now we've
got this point system that we've seen in play for a year or two and we know exactly how it
And that would, that would essentially give us the opportunity to build like a beautiful
token because we have, you know, years of history and how it functions within the ecosystem.
Um, so it's, I'm not, I'm not ever going to rule anything off the table, but it's also
not something that we're pursuing.
And then I assume, I mean, you guys can pin this up top as well.
I'm going through all the pins there guys.
Be sure to interact with all the stuff that they've pinned up top.
Um, have you guys like officially launched the, uh, the KP media, like the account wise,
or is it just kind of on Instagram?
Can people follow, follow up right now, interact with it right now, call it action right now
with it, with the current account or if there, if there is one.
Um, no, Kampi media is, is being developed.
Um, we're working on all the shows.
We're getting everything done from, uh, just from a groundwork perspective.
Uh, but that, that's what we're focused on right now.
That's kind of like the next, you know, phase of what we're building out.
Um, so I would venture to say in the next, you know, probably 30 to 60 days, we'll go
Um, but yeah, right now it's, it's just, it's what we're working on.
And you guys, and what's your, what are your thoughts on, I guess, tokenized media, which is kind
of why I brought up the conversation or the question rather, if there's any, I guess,
conversations happening that are, I guess, more in depth of, of launching a token for
the purpose of tokenized media brand.
Um, it's just, it's just not something I'm interested in.
I want to use, I want to use, you know, the media page and the, and the, and the podcast
and things like that just to bring awareness back to the project.
So I'd rather do it on a mass scale so that people can, you know, it gets more visibility
to the project itself, because again, like I said, like everything that we do has to,
has to be for the purpose of, of growing the NFT project.
Like I, I'm not going to sit here and say, Oh yeah, I just want to build businesses now
and not be able to help, you know, the original holders that, that, that provided the funds
Like the, and I think a lot of projects do that, you know, they tend to go in a different
direction and it's like the holders get lost in the shuffle.
And so my thing is like, I'm building revenue sources, I'm building brand awareness, but it's
all being built so that, you know, we can, we can reward the holders with it.
Because I have another question as well, then I'll probably go back to the Jets.
We can get some community questions here as well.
I want to keep this within the next 15 minutes.
I want to take too much of your time as we are very appreciative of it.
So obviously I guess in the web two structures, still using that slogan there, a lot of, I
guess, internet, internet celebrities, real life celebrities, whatever it may be, personalities
that they're talking about products that they endorse, whether it be Kim K and, uh, you
know, her lipstick brand, whatever, what it literally, whatever it may be.
And it's almost more socially acceptable for them to be doing that in that kind of space
Do you feel like we'll get to a point within the blockchain space and all the products
being developed and all the chains and all that great stuff when adoption obviously
Do you think, you know, athletes are celebrities, personalities online or even, you know, in person
or even the average person talking about XYZ product, the way that they do.
And I guess the space out of blockchain, do you think we'll get to a point where that'll
So I think eventually we do right.
When, when, when the space is more legitimized, but with everything that you've had, that you've
seen over the last, you know, two years with, you know, people being sued over board apes
or being sued over FTX or being sued over, you know, a myriad of different products, like
that's going to linger for a while.
That's not something that just gets resolved really quickly.
Um, and that's why, that's why when I was kind of going back earlier and talking about
like the strength of my advisory board, like that legitimizes us outside of web three, right?
Because we can look, I can look at it and say, we've got all these athletes and we've
got all these advisors and they're all heavy hitters.
Like that legitimizes us outside of the space.
So I still don't think it's a, it's a smart approach for us to use those avenues.
I could, but I don't think it's a smart approach for us to use those avenues to be like,
buy my NFT because it's just, it's just not socially acceptable.
And it's, and it's not, it's not a good approach from a marketing perspective.
You're, you're much better off saying, Hey, you know, look at this product or look at
this product or watch this podcast, you know, and use people to, to amplify that.
And then, you know, and then try to try to, you know, push the NFTs or, or, or at least
bring awareness to the NFTs after that.
You guys have a bags back to the fact that you guys have a ton and a ton and a ton of brand
equity, which I'm super, super attracted to, to be honest, I think most people in the
space should be as most founders are just kind of first timers and they don't really
know anybody outside of the, you know, five dozen people act right on Twitter.
Now that's just a problem, but obviously you have experience building businesses and
scaling, which is super sexy.
And back to the media thing, you can definitely create, you know, brand placement or brand
integration with those certain things.
And I definitely look to be seeing that within the next, like, you know, six to 12 months
is kind of being conservative in that approach.
Um, Jess, before we go to community questions, um, do you have anything else for bags?
My question would be silly one Solana, man, but you said it's coming.
So I'm definitely excited for that.
I'm going to be on the lookout for that.
Um, but I guess like, um, I mean, you have a lot of focus around the brand.
So, uh, aside from, um, you know, uh, clothing wear and things like that, how else do you plan
Have you thought of different ways of expanding the IP or what would you say is like your, your
Is it expanding the IP or is it creating a bigger community?
What would you say is like more of a focus for you right now?
So, so I look at it this way.
I think IP, when it comes down to an individual NFT, right.
That that's, that's owned by somebody, I think that was majorly overblown as to what the value
is on individual NFT IPs.
Uh, I think there's, there's a much bigger play on the brand itself.
And so that's why the focus has been on the clothing on the brand itself.
It's not been on individual pandas and things like that.
I think it was just, I think it was a very easy sell for people to be like, oh yeah,
you know, people are going to want your, your, your, your panda in a cartoon and in a movie
like that shit's not going to happen.
Um, and, and I guess I use board apes as an example because they're probably like the
biggest ones out there that did it.
Like, like nobody gives a shit about going to your board, a hot dog stand or your ice cream
Like there's no value there.
Um, so, so when it comes to like creating IP, I think it's natural, I think it's more
of a natural thing that we're allowing to happen as we build the brand up.
And then you can, you can start looking at, at IP plays.
Um, but yeah, I, I don't, I don't think at any point, um, is, is, is in the near future,
at least are, you know, NFT little individual NFT is going to, going to bring in a, you know,
massive dollar value, uh, from, from IP plays, whether it be commercials or comics or
I just, I don't see it happening and I, and I'm very upfront about that.
I completely agree with you.
And I think that's why it's important to have like somebody that's leading the way to,
to present that brand IP.
Cause I thought that somebody's going to pay, like you said, for your board, a, uh, to use
it like that, that just doesn't seem reasonable.
So I love, thank you for that answer.
If you look at it, if you look at it in the grand scheme of things, like web three is
So why does, why does a major brand want to use your individual, you know, NFT?
Like who are they, who are they marketing that to?
A very small group of people that, that, and then most of them wouldn't care unless they
So if you just look at it from a very logical, you know, kind of high view perspective, like
it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
And my thing is like, I'm not a hype guy.
I'm a, I'm a, I'm a shoot you straight guy.
I'm going to tell you exactly what we're fucking doing.
I'm going to execute on that.
And, and, and eventually that plays out like it has with all my businesses.
Like, like maybe the floor is low right now, but eventually the value, people start to
see the value of somebody that that's actually building a product, building, you know, something
that's fun and building a brand around it and building, you know, revenue sources.
Like eventually that, that pays off and, and what people, you know, perceive, perceive the,
the project as from the, from the web three standpoint.
Once again, great takes bags and Jess, the only thing that I see is as the board apes
are a panda or a penguin spending, you know, a decent amount of money on just for a cartoon
The only thing I see it doing is really just, you know, give you the extra edge.
If that for more social capital between like, you know, five, 10,000 people on Twitter, opposed
to that though, there's not much, but obviously if your game is social media and kind of monetize
your audience, that's definitely one play to do that.
But aside from that though, I think we're a little bit.
Further away than we would like to think from, I guess, mass adoption and creating, you
know, I guess, IP at scale.
Banks, before we go to community questions, is there anything else that I, myself, Jess,
the team didn't touch upon that you kind of want to, I guess, shove down the audience's
throats in a very aggressive, great way, the way you are on the timeline, which I do appreciate
once again, or as we can go to community questions, it's up to you.
Honestly, I'll say this, this is one of the better run spaces that I've been in.
The questions were sharp.
They were, you know, to the point.
You allowed me to answer quickly.
Like, I really enjoyed that format.
I go in a lot of spaces and people just don't know how to run them.
So kudos to you guys and we can go to the community.
Jess, thank you for, you know, touching base with us as well.
We appreciate you on the space.
Ayesha, Venice, how are you guys doing today?
I'm curious to know if you have secured all the necessary trademark and copyrights for
Furthermore, your website states that owners possess exclusive intellectual property rights
for the NFT character they own.
Could you please explain the process by which the legal transfer of these IP rights occur
from one owner to a new owner?
Yeah, so, of course, we have all the trademarks and everything for the Pandas.
Now, not individually as far as the 10,000 collection, but all of our branding and stuff
You know, right now, I think we just used the blanket, you know, statement as far as, like,
if you want to use your Panda for any IP, you're welcome to.
It doesn't bother us at all.
But it kind of leads back to that point that I made earlier, where I just don't think there's
a whole lot of value there either way.
But honestly, I don't really care how you use your Panda.
Thank you so much for answering.
Venice, and then we'll go to Captain right after.
Yeah, thank you so much, Andrew.
Okay, I have a concern regarding the website.
While I was surfing the website, canpaypandas.io, and clicked on the menu button on top right
corner of the screen, and strolled down to the bottom, and clicked on Build Your Pandas.
Build Your Pandas redirected me to a page saying, Deceptive Site Ahead.
And Metamask flagged the site you were trying to visit as potentially deceptive.
So can you elaborate, why do I see this, and don't you think it can make the CanPypanda
suspicious to some new crypto or non-crypto users who don't know you well?
So that's actually to go to the ppdex.io.
That's where everybody goes and signs in and accesses their pandas, their points, the sportsbook,
the Panda Builder, et cetera.
Somebody spammed us maliciously as a phishing site just probably four or five days ago.
So my team's been working with Metamask and trying to get that cleared up.
I think it's probably going to be cleared up within the next 48 hours.
And in what ways could CanPypanda utilize its unique position as a social club to address
pressing social and environmental issues, inspiring the members to take collective action and drive
position change on a global scale?
I didn't quite understand that one.
I was saying that in what ways can CanPypanda uses the unique position as a social club because
there will be a social club where mostly everybody will be a part of that.
So will there be any plan to address pressing social and environmental issues so that members
can take collective action and drive position change on a global scale?
I'm not following the question.
Can anybody translate that for me?
Yeah, I'll just repeat that.
I was saying that there will be a lot of members in your social club.
Will you guys be considering any social or environmental issues and taking to your members for a collective decision?
I'm thinking social and environmental issues.
How about the social club?
Regarding the social club?
I don't even know what he means by the social club.
I mean, the membership pass is, you know, the Panda is essentially a membership pass that gets you into, you know,
the suites and access to the events, etc.
I'm not understanding, I'm not following the social environmental stuff.
Thank you so much for answering.
I really love the energetic presentation.
I just wanted asking, I saw you on your website, you guys are aimed, you guys have, you guys are aiming artists,
creators, content creators, influencers, and game changers in the industry.
Anyway, when people usually think of these concepts, especially when people have really bad history with some influencers and content creators,
when they pitch out tokens that end up being rugged,
how are you guys going to spotlight these influencers and creators?
And what requirements would they have to meet to be able to, you know, come and participate in these Kampai Pandas?
And would you guys pay close attention to those who have been, who have broadcasted tokens that ended up rugged and especially, you know,
depriving their funds of their assets?
I mean, I'll just say this.
I'm probably one of the most outspoken people in the space with the platform as far as when it comes to rugs and, you know,
meme coins and people just fucking putting up ETH addresses.
I think people are morons for sending it to them.
So I don't give any of those people a platform.
At the same time, I'm also not the Web3 police.
So it's not my job either to try to track people down.
But I'm very, very outspoken on my feed about, you know, stuff that I see going on on a daily basis.
You guys, back to what Begg said.
I've been following Begg for probably a couple months now, maybe a little bit longer.
And he has been shooting it straight since I've been following him.
You have to kind of admire the ability to do so.
Most people are scared to have their tail talking through their legs because they don't want to overstep or say some things that, you know,
their mom's friend or, you know, their favorite influencer may or may not have been doing.
And obviously, Beggs has a platform to do so, which he can do those things.
You've got to appreciate that from an honest perspective, which is super, super attractive.
And obviously, by him doing that, I believe a lot of people in the space that are obviously a huge fan of that as well.
So that does probably, I guess, scale his brand up from a social perspective while he does that.
And I personally am a huge advocate for stuff like that.
Beggs, once again, we appreciate your time here today.
We are winding down, obviously, in minutes of 4 o'clock.
I don't want to keep these too long.
We went over a bunch of stuff today.
Beggs, you have the floor.
If there's anything else that myself, Jess, the community, you know, I guess, really ask questions for,
things that you want to kind of push out, new rollout, next rollout, things you're looking forward to,
you're excited about, all that great stuff.
I mean, we're constantly, you know, working on new stuff and trying to innovate.
You know, obviously, CanPi Media is going to be the next, you know, the next launch.
And then we've got, you know, probably two more big announcements that will happen after that.
So we've got, you know, we've got quite a bit of stuff packed into the next six months.
I try to move as quickly as I can, but I also try to make sure that, you know, our product is like battle tested and ready before we launch.
I'm not a fan of launching and fucking it up and then, you know, trying it again.
I'm very meticulous on making sure that it's right the first time.
So, yeah, I mean, if you're interested, you know, we've got a very well-rounded project, you know, from the Web3 perspective, from the Web2 perspective, we've got the connections.
We've got the, you know, an amazing team in place.
I mean, I can't give enough kudos to my team, you know, for a year straight that works seven days a week.
And the fun, the crazy thing is, is like, you know, we all have a good time doing it, so it doesn't even feel like work half the time.
But, yeah, kudos to them.
You know, they're super strong.
They love, you know, the team.
And I'm appreciative of them of, you know, being around.
It's been a great conversation, guys.
And, obviously, to what Baggs said, I'm fully supportive of this.
Once again, not a surprise that you're better off kind of, you know, putting a product and a rollout kind of on the side and not kind of, you know, enforcing or kind of rolling it out if you're not confident in the product.
Because you can't re-roll out a product that was rolled out shitty, so you're better off almost, you know, I guess, delaying it a little bit, making sure it's right.
Battlefest, as he said, and then, obviously, having to roll out instead of rolling out something that's shitty because you can't roll it out twice.
That's a little bit, you know, unprofessional.
But, Baggs, Jess, community, we do appreciate you guys' time here today.
Everyone, once again, be sure to follow all the speakers as well as Baggs and the Pandas account.
We do appreciate them stopping by with us and spending an hour of their time today, obviously, on a Friday as well.
So, everyone's going to get to their weekend.
We do appreciate everyone's time here again today.
Guys, as always, we appreciate, you know, you guys and everything you guys do and all the support.
So, be sure to get to follow the speakers and everyone up here to follow.
And, everyone, have a great rest of your Friday and even a better weekend.
Very well-run space, by the way.
Always welcome to have you back for any rollouts, anything you guys want.
Kind of roll out, talk about.
Always welcome to come back online with us.