Happy 2023! Hope your new year is off to a great start.
Before I get to the Arkive reveal, I want to just thank all of you for being a part of this journey. I’ve really enjoyed putting this mini-series together and to share some half-baked thoughts with you all.
I don’t know when exactly I’ll be back with Season 3, but it will be in this year. Things might look a bit different, but hopefully a good different.
This week, I’ll give you the reveal of the final episode of the year, along with some thoughts on the season overall.
Arkive reveal
Concluding thoughts
Arkive Reveal
In case you missed it, here’s last week’s pitch 👇🏾:
Arkive was a pitch for a decentralized museum owned and operated by its global membership. If I were to pat myself on the back, I think this was one of my most disguised pitches. And, in truth, Arkive is…a startup!
Arkive is a DAO, one of those “decentralized autonomous organizations” that was all the rage before crypto fell out of favor. While Jokedao (from Episode 3) will always hold a special place in my heart for its lack of reverence, Arkive is a close second in terms of my favorite organizations in the world of Web3.
Why is it so interesting to me?
Well, like most of my interest in crypto, it has little to do with money. I have no idea how Arkive will make venture capital returns. But, I love the idea of a museum existing in this way, where the collection is curated by a diverse membership. It just seems so obviously superior to me than the status quo, where the world of fine art is shrouded in secrecy and elitism.
I joined the Arkive membership back in July, which really just meant joining a Discord channel. The Arkive discord is filled with art history majors and art lovers. If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I have never been confused for someone with fine taste. So, upon joining the DAO, I quickly felt out of my depth as people discussed and debated fine art and what should become a part of the Arkive collection.
But embracing the “builder” ethos of Web3, I tried to take my responsibility as a member seriously. I voted on each art acquisition, evaluating the artwork and reading the discourse online by members before placing my vote. It was an awesome example of community, with active debate about the art and people taking their roles as voting members curating our collection seriously.
Since I was pretty useless from an art point of view, I volunteered to start and run a book club for the DAO. We read a few books about the art world, and the idea of disrupting the traditional art world became even more appealing as I learned about the insider trading and ugliness rampant in the art world.
What’s impressed me the most about Arkive thus far is two things:
They clearly have taste. Not just because I was accepted as a member, but because of the quality of everything they’ve released. Their website, their promo videos, even just their videos introducing the artwork that we vote on…it’s all just super high-quality. Just check out their website. Almost the opposite of a lot of the janky shit you see in web3, where nothing works as it’s supposed to. There’s a refined taste within the builders in Arkive and it shows.
They have done a fantastic job of cultivating real community. Trying to rally a global community around less than 10 pieces of art through primarily a Discord channel is a nearly impossible task, but somehow they’ve managed. Of the many Web3 groups I’ve dabbled in, this community seems by far the most active and engaged. Even in our book club meetups, I’ve learned a lot about how the art world does and doesn’t represent us and how that could change.
Whether these strengths are enough to create a successful museum is an open question, and I have my reservations. They raised a $9.7 million seed round before the crypto bubble burst, but they are spending that money acquiring art and on a reasonably large team. Fine taste doesn’t come cheap.
And despite acquiring some great pieces of art, there are still many questions to answer about how they can store and display their collection and how to monetize it in any meaningful way. And in the current macro world, active Discords are no longer enough to justify further VC funding.
We’ll see. I’m rooting for Arkive. Because I really do believe they have the power to restore the magic of museums.
Concluding Thoughts
If you haven’t had the chance to catch up on any of the episodes, they all are on this playlist. Each of the videos is less than 4 minutes, so if you haven’t had the chance and want to hear some cool startup ideas (which may or may not be startups), check it out.
I thought I’d hand out a few awards for my own work, because I don’t think any external awards are coming.
Story that seemed ahead of its time but really isn’t - Episode 1. Bethoyos. AI is coming and is going to be a major theme in 2023, especially whenever Open AI releases GPT-4. It’s a subject I can’t get enough of and what people are going to be able to do with AI is going to blow your mind in 2023.
Startup that generated the most feedback - Episode 2. Eleven VR. People really found my thesis interesting - namely, that VR shouldn’t be focused on replacing internet-native activities, but rather trying to replace IRL activities to make them better than reality.
Startup that’s the biggest joke - Episode 3. Jokedao. Enough said.
Story most likely to become a startup - Episode 4. Create-stars. I feel so much energy for this concept. Force-feeding education isn’t the answer. Providing incredible learning experiences in areas kids want to learn is.
Most recognizable startup - Episode 5. Major League Pickleball. I wasn’t
Most revealing episode - Episode 6. Bonher. If you’ve seen it, you’ll get the joke.
Least revealing episode - Episode 7. WIBAI. It’s already gone.
Startup most likely to fail - Episode 8. Arkive. I love the concept of Arkive, but these are tough macro conditions for a highly speculative idea like this. How the company will actually generate revenue from its small collection is the question they will need to answer, sooner than they may be ready to.
(It’s 2023. As you can see, everyone gets an award.)
Wouldn’t It Be Awesome If…? is the beginning of many questions I ask myself about the future. WIBAI has become my place to attempt to make sense of the world we live in and imagine ways to make it better.