Link to original proposal
Hello friends,
Back for another report! First, I’d like to apologise for the delay. It’s been a very busy period with NEARCON, post-near con travel, and a lot of NDC work.
Overview
I’ve been an avid podcast consumer since 2016. I’ve seen he industry grow in ways that were unthinkable just a couple of years ago and I’ve witnessed how some of these independent media brands and individuals are now as influential as huge conglomerates. But is it not an easy journey. When I started, I made the mental note to create at least 100 episodes. Several of the podcasters I’ve consumed over time agree that you have to be determined and consistent, even if you don’t see any initial results. Content can take a long time to build. Even through we are far from the 100 milestone, we can start to see a level of traction that is only possible after 58 released episodes. I am extremely excited for what is to come, specially if we enter into a ‘bull market’. Our content library keeps growing and is there to receive the masses.
Impact
Measuring impact of top of the funnel is always challenging. Some notable metrics since last proposal:
- Brand growth and recognition. I was extremely surprised and pleased to receive so many compliments from other accomplished members of the ecosystem. The podcast now reaches key pockets of activity and influence.
- Noise to signal ratio. We make it fun, but we also want to make it empowering. Alpha packed in a podcast to keep listeners bullish on NEAR, inspire them to think big and take action.
- Ease of getting high quality speakers. We continue to have top tier guests who are excited to come on, and many more inbound requests we are working to accomodate.
- Sustained growth on social media channels
- Organic mentions on social media (both viral sharing and also helping shape the conversation).
Content Produced
The six episodes created as part of this grant are:
- You may have heard of PlayEmber because they are (now) ranked as one of the top 3 web3 consumer applications. I met the team at NEARCON last year and noticed the amount of transactions they were quietly putting through. On this podcast, we uncover what it takes to create a top gaming company. Hint: Jon and Hugo are not playing around. While they may piss off other bs ‘gaming’ communities with their no-nonsense, ruthlessly analytical approach, they are delivering results. High Alpha.
- Another one for the NEAR History Book (The NEARTOPIANS, written by AVB GPT in a few years time). Mike is one of the OG contributors, we go over some history, but most importantly - fundamentals and first principle thinking: what is required for Mass Consumer Applications? what are some of the common web3 pitfalls across many communities? where do great ideas come from and how to optimise for collaboration and creation? Drawing from his experience across NEAR and Cosmos, Mike is able to clearly explain the NEAR value prop. #bringMikeBack
- Two for one! Riqi is another OG that captures NEAR history through his work on Paras, a current Community Treasury Trustee AND is rapidly rising on the ranks of most popular apps on NEAR through yet another product - Arkana. This podcast was recorded in person at the Paras office in Jakarta, Indonesia. We are extremely grateful for Riqi’s hospitality. He and is team embody an incredible working ethos and culture - South East Asia will deliver 10x growth in crypto, tune in to learn more about Riqi’s role.
- The mother of Alphas. Before the flashy nearDA announcements at NEARCON, there was this podcast with Kendall. As head of Proximity, Kendall KNOWS. From the history of NEAR, to Data Availability and BOS, this is probably one of the best technical explanations we’ve heard in a long time. Inspiring, insightful, wow.
- We’ve always been struggling with Marketing. On this pod, we sit down with Erica from KryptoSeoul, partially responsible for there being more than 50% NEAR hackers at her event in ETH Seoul. She shares wisdom from working closely with many ecosystem, casts an insight into the Korean market, and more! Inspiring pathways for non-technical people and actionable insight in a major area of need for NEAR
- Brutally honest, Peter from Nearweek gives us an incredible insider scoop into the origins and operations of NEARWEEK. We discuss many things, including broader marketing strategies, web3 growth, state of community and NDC and more. One of the key takeaways is that, even though we’ve known each other for 2+ years, we REALLY learned a lot from each other and strengthened our relationship in ways that make ecosystem stronger. Excited to be able to Open Source the conversation to foster that sense of trust and belonging across wider community.
Challenges
We have managed to keep up operations despite inconsistent funding. Long gaps between grants really put a strain on how much content we can product (our initial aim is 4 episodes per month), and to be honest, also hurt my personal and ecosystem morale. It is hard to be public facing and promoting an ecosystem when you have not had any income for months and feel under appreciated.
I also engaged two freelancers to help with creating and distributing shorts. This period of time did have a lot more content, but interestingly enough, perhaps unsurprisingly, the ones I create perform A LOT better. So sadly for now, I am still somewhat of a bottleneck here. We are working on ways where I can still have creative input: such as providing more guidance or providing assets around images, etc. and, most importantly, captions, but still enable the team to handle most of grunt work.
Outro
Thank you for supporting the podcast - as a funding DAO, as a listener, as a promoter! We continue to work non-stop to make NEAR relevant: elevate more people into position of thought leadership, strengthen the community to be able to sustain blows, and craft the key narratives to answer the wider world question: why should anyone care?
AVB