An Exploration of Emerging Trends in Tech - Jarrod Barnes

As an investor, one of the most exciting and challenging aspects of the role is to “get smart” on a vertical or industry outside of your expertise.

How quickly can you learn about (insert emerging trend here)? 😅

Ten pages deep is an exploration of emerging trends in tech and culture - asking macro questions to understand new spaces and unpack the process of going ten pages deep in google search, literally.

My job is to move at the speed of consumer behavior, learn from diverse perspectives, and organize information to form an opinion on emerging startups. Sometimes I’m trending in the right direction, other times, I’m not. Regardless, my hope is that you embrace the process of going ten pages deep.

One of the most valuable things I've found as an early-stage investor is to immerse yourself in sectors you know little to nothing about and see how quickly you can gain understanding. This can refine your learning methodologies, challenge your mental models/frameworks, and lead you towards insightful questions.

Please note, these are not “how-to” guides, rather tactical research from the lens of an investor to understand what may be the best questions to ask.

Ten Pages Deep: V.1 - Web3, Crypto, NFT’s, and DAOs

https://twitter.com/distorcean/status/1465053544386482176?s=20

A couple of resources now that I’ve gone 10+ pages deep in google this morning….

Some quick terminology, we’re all still learning this right?

Web3 = decentralized apps that run on the blockchain.

Apps that allow anyone to participate without monetizing their personal data.

Cryptocurrency = digital currency that can be used to buy goods and services, but uses an online ledger with strong cryptography to secure online transactions.

Note: there are nearly 15,000 different cryptocurrencies traded publicly

Social Token = fractionalized share in the intrinsic value of a community, brand, or human.

Social tokens are a representation of the trust, social capital, reputation, and intangible brand value of a community.

NFT = Non-Fungible Token

a special kind of crypto asset in which each token is unique — as opposed to “fungible” assets like Bitcoin and dollar bills, which are all worth exactly the same amount. Because every NFT is unique, it can be used to authenticate ownership of digital assets.

DAO = an online community with a shared crypto wallet.

Decentralized = Online, global, uncensorable.
Autonomous = Self-governing.
Organization = Coordination & collaboration around shared objectives.
- For a full breakdown > read this: What is a DAO?

A few things that have jumped out at me about Web3:

Where do I go to start? Building community and Learn2Earn Platforms:

JuiceBox - Build a community around a project, fund it, and program its spending. Light enough for a group of friends, powerful enough for a global network of anons. Powered by public smart contracts on Ethereum.
RabbitHole - Earn crypto by using the latest decentralized apps. Become an early adopter of new projects, and earn crypto as a reward.
Continuum - The new place for creators and students in the creative space to learn, share, and earn rewards.

https://twitter.com/rabbithole_gg/status/1462969752222060548?s=20

What if I want to build a DAO? Infrastructure to power future organizations":

Lobby – operational infrastructure for DAO’s, starting as the go-to wiki for all things Web3.
Aragon – open source infrastructure with governance plug-ins.
Utopia Labs - the modern system for managing payment requests, payroll, and reporting for your DAO

https://aragon.org/dao

How do I leverage my expertise/likeness in a targeted way? Marketplaces:

BrainTrust - Global talent marketplace connects tech talent with large companies looking to hire them. Their marketplace transacts in USD but uses an Ethereum-based token as its core incentive and governance system to distribute value to contributors.
Royal - a platform where you can buy ownership in songs directly from your favorite artists and earn royalties with them.
Foundation Consumer marketplace building off of the Kickstarter model by allowing creators to tokenize their projects in a marketplace where tokens can be bought, sold or redeemed for goods or services.
Bird and Dumpling allow suppliers in their marketplaces to run independent franchises, which they own and operate.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/braintrust-publicly-launches-btrst-token-to-power-the-worlds-first-decentralized-talent-network-301366732.html

A couple of questions I’ve thought about (from the lens of an investor):

(Web3) What actually leads to defensibility in this space? Do we really know? How do we separate signal from noise?
(Crypto) How does one successfully capture value here? Given the nature of decentralization, what specifically should we think about investing in? (ie. Should we think about the underlying protocol or what’s being built on top of it?)
(DAO’s) Where have we seen early signs of network effects of creators/builders to begin thinking about frameworks here?
- ConstitutionDAO is a signal on consumer behavior – Breaking Down the Tech Stack Behind the ConstitutionDAO
(NFTs) Collections vs. Curations vs. Creations in NFTs - where is the value?
- A small percentage of NFTs retain a vast majority of the value. NFTs increase their value by creating a diverse network of curators that share in that collection. (Read Li Jin’s 100 true fans theory)
- Community is motivated by intrinsic values like social status and extrinsic values like the future upside. The curator’s job is to create an ecosystem for these motivations to grow over time.
- When you think about it, the primary sale of an NFT is not enough to give it long-term value. True value comes from the traction and continued interest around the longevity of specific collections.

Who am I?

I’m Jarrod, I operate with natural optimism and curiosity, wondering less about how things could fail and more about how they might succeed.

I’ve transitioned throughout my career, beginning as a college football coach and working in professional sports to launching a series of startups and landing in venture capital.

I’m an educator by training, and currently writing my doctoral dissertation on the intersections of productive struggle and technology. My perspective has been shaped by my time as an athlete, coach, founder, professor, and now investor. I lead from a place of continuous learning and treat life as a non-zero-sum game.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. Building something interesting that leverages web3? Hit me up! I would love to continue the conversation.