Serial entrepreneurs like Lively founder Michelle Cordeiro Grant know how to cure their own boredom — they simply look for the next green pasture.
That's how Cordeiro Grant — who in November launched her second company, Gorgie, an energy drink for wellness lovers — found herself isolated in her office one day, her hair pinned up with pencils as she scribbled notes about crypto, NFTs and blockchain on a whiteboard.
Prior to her "pencil in the hair" moment, Cordero Grant had been at Art Basel Miami in 2021. That's where she first gained exposure to Web3 technology and things started to click, she recalls.
"People were airdropping stuff and paying for things with bitcoin. Everything was not just about the art. It was all about Web3 and NFTs. And for me, it was the human, in-real-life element. It wasn't just that it was digital. It was the fact that [this new technology] was bringing people together."
Seeing the adoption of new technology play out in real-time, Cordeiro Grant returned home determined to open a crypto wallet and become a leading proponent of the Web3 cultural shift. In less than a year, she started a podcast, Web3 With MCG, to invite women to dip their own toes into what she describes as the new wild world of the internet.
The pivot satisfied her hunger, too. Prior to learning about Web3, the serial entrepreneur stood at a career crossroads: "I was really bored with marketing as it stood in Web2. I felt like we had gotten to this plateau. When you think about 2010 through 2020, it was the rise and plateau of Facebook and Instagram into TikTok into Snapchat and Pinterest. So much happened in that decade. And then I was looking for the next new pasture."
Though her move led to new tech skills, underneath it all Cordeiro Grant sees Web3 as an opportunity to do something she's already quite familiar with: build communities.
"Once I got to the other side of understanding [blockchain], I was like, 'Oh, NFTs are just brands with benefits.' That's exactly what I was looking for. Being someone who's passionate about building brands with community first, it was just a no-brainer," she says.
Cordeiro Grant sold her first company, the bra and apparel brand Lively, in 2019 for an estimated $105 million. She credits the brand's success to her community-first approach. Rather than promote her initial vision of Lively's brand identity, she formed an online community of women to workshop it first. The women became Lively's first brand ambassadors, and voilà — an email list of 250 grew to 133,000 and Cordeiro Grant had a direct line to customers.
Such a strategy may have appeared to a less innovative entrepreneur as backwards, but it was arguably before its time. Now Web3 models like NFT drops and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are popularizing the community-first approach and even providing new tools to stay in close communication with a brand's followers.
Read More: WTF Is... A DAO
Of course, these tools still come with friction, as we all work together to re-wire our brains like Cordeiro Grant did in her office with pencils in her hair. The learning curve is admittedly rocky, and it requires an investment of a person's time to get onboarded and feel empowered using the tech.
"Setting up a wallet took me all day," recalls Cordeiro Grant. "No — I actually think it took me like two weeks because I made the wallet, but then I had to get the currency moved over. And you know how it goes ... It was so friction-filled. It was bananas."
But then came the pride of learning something new: "I was writing down my 16-word key phrase. It was a lot. But I was really proud of myself. And then I even made an NFT because I really wanted to understand it," Cordeiro Grant says. The NFT was a self-portrait created by her daughter in school. "I thought it was so interesting. I was like, 'Wow, children are at this age where they still have this vision of themselves that's so unique and differentiated.' I wanted to keep the moment forever. So I made it an NFT."
This light-hearted approach to learning has been one of Cordeiro's best allies when learning about Web3. It also helps to maintain a big-picture perspective, she says.
"Technology is a journey, right? You don't need to be afraid of it. And I think that's what I learned at my 20s I was always afraid of technology. And I was a late adopter, where now it's like, you can just be a part of it."
It also helps to dump all-or-nothing thinking, she advises. You don't have to transition to an all-crypto lifestyle or feel pressure to spend thousands on the next big NFT. Simply participating in the communities that appeal to you is enough.
"It doesn't have to change your whole life," she says. "You don't have to be all-consuming. You can dabble."
Consider your relationship with technology 10 years ago: Did you always text, send voice memos or use FaceTime on your phone? Chances are, argues Cordeiro Grant, you didn't. These behaviors evolved over time as you grew more comfortable. So let your Web3 journey be a similar evolution.
"The trajectory of how humans interact has changed substantially in the last 10 years. It's mind blowing to think how it will change in the next 10 years."
Her advice? "There is no playbook." Instead of waiting for the world to figure out Web3, jump in and tinker yourself.
"For Lively," she says, "it was tinkering until all of a sudden we hit on this way of creating a community," — and she predicts the same will be true for the successful Web3 brands of tomorrow.
Megan DeMatteo is BFF’s Guest Editor
This article and all the information in it does not constitute financial advice. If you don’t want to invest money or time in Web3, you don’t have to. As always: Do your own research.
