[00:00:00] Donny: Brands are navigating the new Web three world, and with it comes an opportunity for experimentation, innovation, and engaging consumers in entirely new ways. But where do you start and when? In this new season of the Brave Marketer Podcast, we’re talking Web three marketing and how to market in the Metaverse.

[00:00:19] You hear from marketers, from top brands and agencies. Will help us leverage this exciting moment in time and take our brave marketing moments to the next level. Hosted by Brave Software and me, Donnie Devo.

[00:00:32] You are listening to a new episode of The Brave Marketer Podcast, and this one features Ryan Kumar, the founder of Mince Drops, and they’re at decentralized social media platform built to help creators build, grow, and monetize their communities. They have a market cap, actually, of a hundred million dollars, and they’re partnered and backed by the biggest blockchains, including Polygon, Arin, so, and Avalanche.

[00:00:54] I really think you’re gonna like this episode because we cover a lot of grounds. We talk about Mint shops as [00:01:00] a company and how Ryan has reached out to different companies during their pandemic and how email was a great success for him and how he’s building a social media platform that’s being used with Web three and blockchain at its heart and using nft and how it’s gonna be a really great place for creator.

[00:01:17] To market and monetize their goods. And then we go into like mainstream advertisers or mainstream adoption. When is that gonna happen? And I really like how at part of the podcast, Ryan starts interviewing me and asking me questions about Brave. So we trade roles for a minute, which is pretty cool. before we hop into today’s episode, we wanna highlight our brave pick of the week.

[00:01:36] Every episode we choose a brand that has run an ad campaign with Brave, and this week we’re choosing either mail and they’re the first email solution setting the standard for anonymous and encrypted wall to wallet communication. Either mail chose BRAVE because it’s not only a private centered browser, but also a gateway to Web three.

[00:01:52] And either mail is running ads in the us, Europe, and Asia. And our audience has proven to be a great match for them because we have driven exceptionally [00:02:00] effective cts and CPAs for them. now for this week’s episode of The Brave Market.

[00:02:05] Ryan, welcome to the Brave

[00:02:11] Ryan: Marketer Podcast. How you doing today? Good, Donnie. Glad to be here. Thank you for having me. Yeah, we’re excited

[00:02:17] Donny: to have you on. So for those that don’t know mints drops, can you just give a general overview of the company?

[00:02:23] Ryan: Yeah, sure. So Mid Drops is essentially creating the next generation of social media platforms built for creators.

[00:02:29] So like our whole goal is like, how do we help creators not only take their fan base that’s existing today, grow it, scale it, and be able to monetize it? So we’re building tools that creators are gonna be able to take these communities and implement, your content creation, things you could do like on YouTube and create content, but also monetize that content and then find ways that you can infuse crypto elements to it.

[00:02:49] Donny: So it’s. Having your own social token, having your own NFT access gated content, or merch shops just delivering the newest form of the next generation of social [00:03:00] media, Yeah. So are you actually helping them with the technology side, with the ideas? What does your company actually do when a creator wants to, let’s say, mint, an

[00:03:09] Ryan: nf?

[00:03:10] Yeah, good question. We have two platforms right now. One is the NFT Smart Contract Engine. So essentially you can generate your own smart contract by just literally typing in whatever you want on the contract and deploying it with no coding needed. So that’s a major innovation. On the smart contract side, we make it super artist friendly, and then the same goes on the content marketing platform as well.

[00:03:32] And so how did you come up with this idea?

[00:03:34] I mean, really what we started doing was like working with different creators. We wanted to find different ways for them to make money, right? Like it was the middle of the pandemic when we started, and the biggest thing was like a lot of artists didn’t have tour money coming in.

[00:03:47] That was like a big way that they made money. Also, a lot of the creators that were making money on just different streams that we’re in real life weren’t there, so they needed new avenues to turn. That gave me a really good [00:04:00] idea of like, Hey, you know, there’s an emerging technology called NFTs that I think we should look into for creators and get them started with that.

[00:04:06] So it all started with NFTs and then now it’s like this full blown platform where anybody can do like video streaming credit card, gated content, everything in the gamut of just finding ways to monetize like that particular fan base, you know? That’s awesome. And so how many employees do you.

[00:04:22] We’re 34 right now and we’re completely bootstrapped too. Oh wow. Thank you, .

[00:04:27] Donny: That’s amazing. And so you’ve been at this for a couple years, cuz you said during

[00:04:30] Ryan: the pandemic, the first initials phase of the idea came out in 2020 and then we’ve just been writing along with it, iterating it since then, and now we’re gonna go into 2023.

[00:04:39] Super excited about it. That’s awesome.

[00:04:41] Donny: Speaking of exciting, what’s the most exciting thing that you’re working on right now? Person.

[00:04:45] Ryan: Yeah, it’s this new social media platform that we’re putting out with the new phase of what Mid Drops is gonna be. So we’re elevating it into becoming a decentralized social media platform.

[00:04:55] And we think that’s gonna be major. Cause I think that today, right? Don, do you use Discord [00:05:00] or Telegram? Yes, I do. Not often, but I do. Okay. Well, I think that Discord and Telegram are like the first forms of the Metaverse, right? I think that right now, The way that we interact with people. We make friends on Discord or Telegram, we make friends like all across these social media channels and we really feel like we know these people, right?

[00:05:19] So when you see them in real life, they recognize you. They, you know, you’ve been chatting with them for a while, but you’ve met them in this community that’s like this Discord group or telegram group. So I think that the next stage of the Metaverse is really social. And I think that everybody’s going like that 3D Tech, which is awesome, but I don’t really think that’s gonna be the metaverse.

[00:05:36] I think the Metaverse is gonna be completely social, and that’s our direction into the metaverse and kind of how we see things, if that makes sense. Okay.

[00:05:43] Donny: So what does that look like? Then I go onto the platform and then what, let’s just compare it to, let’s say, Facebook, which is, you know, the biggest social media platform.

[00:05:52] How does it.

[00:05:54] Ryan: So phase one, we’re starting off with like closed communities. So that means like each creator has their community. People [00:06:00] have to sign up with either a credit card or buy an NFT to get in. So that’s the number one thing. So it’s closed communities first, so it’s not open to everybody.

[00:06:08] It’s just open to fans for a particular creator first. So that’s how we differ right now. But the main. In the second stage, what we wanna go towards next year is becoming an open platform for everybody to have access to and create content on and, you know, access it on that.

[00:06:22] Donny: Got it. So this podcast is all about brave marketing moments when someone’s exhibited bravery in your role. And you have a couple interesting stories. So why don’t we start with

[00:06:30] Ryan: your brave marketing moment. Yeah, I think, the bravest marketing moment that we ever had was when we first came out with Mid Traps.

[00:06:36] It was insane, man. So like literally we had zero, zero budget left. We had like no money. We were coming outta the pandemic. We were just trying to figure out how we were gonna make things happen. And we just went cold. We went cold email marketing from day one, and everybody would like that. We met was literally just off cold emails.

[00:06:54] Like if we’d follow up so much that people would. You followed up so much that I have to now take this call with you. [00:07:00] So that’s how we got meetings with the Oscars of the world, the h and m’s of the world, like the film studios. It was a very brave moment because what does everybody else do in like web through right?

[00:07:08] They try to grow it on Twitter or social. We went B2B and just, you know, email market it. And that was tough in the beginning, you know, it was definitely tough. No one understood what a NFT was. Just convincing them to even look at the technology was, hard. But look at us now.

[00:07:21] Donny: Yeah. Who in the company, like you said, the Oscars, like who were

[00:07:25] Ryan: you reaching out to at the Oscars, they have a business development arm, right? So we talked to someone like that was leading the entire business development arm. They’re owned by abc, right? So they have like a couple restrictions, but they also have rights.

[00:07:37] They also are non-profit. So they call themselves the academy and they’re a nonprofit. So they think of like different ways that they can actually create the experiences through the non-profit side of things. So when we first talk to. They wanted to learn about how they can help, you know, upcoming filmmakers actually get into the NFT space with the Oscar’s arm.

[00:07:55] it was very interesting to see like companies like them that are like legacy companies that wanna look into, [00:08:00] you know, new technology that’s emerging like NFTs, you know? got

[00:08:03] Donny: it. And what’s come out of that? Have you been able to like secure business from those, cold outreach?

[00:08:08] Ryan: Yeah. we got a lot of amazing creators that were on board. Almost every big creator that we’ve ever worked with has just come from cold outreach. I think that cold outreach is the most underrated aspect of just like marketing today, cuz it sounds,so antiquated, right?

[00:08:21] Like email marketing. No one wants to do email marketing today, but it’s one of the most personal marketing aspects that I think of today. I don’t know. What do you think about? So

[00:08:30] Donny: I think that we’ve done a lot of email marketing, you know, definitely me over my career. Like I’ve hired a lot of BDR and sdr, like business development reps, sales development reps to send out tons and tons of cold emails.

[00:08:41] I think that after time people stopped reading their emails. I’ve talked to a lot of CMOs that are just spending. Most of their time on, you know, Twitter or LinkedIn. And so we’ve had to pivot with that. And so we’ve actually seen our success rate definitely in the crypto world, improving when we reach out cold over Twitter and just [00:09:00] DM them versus the email because they’re just spending more time on Twitter versus their email inbox.

[00:09:06] We’ll never stop emailing, but we’ve definitely had to d.

[00:09:10] Ryan: Yeah, for sure. I think Twitter has just changed the game. Like who do you guys reach out to? Or like what is the customer persona on Twitter for you guys? Yeah, so

[00:09:18] Donny: like at Brave, you know, we’re selling, privacy based advertising. And so the whole idea is that with Google, when you’re running ads, like, you know, Google knows everything about you and that’s why they target you.

[00:09:28] But like, at Brave, we don’t know anything about you. And so that’s. Interesting and intriguing to marketers. Like how they go about reaching out to like this unreachable audience that uses Brave, that doesn’t see traditional advertising. They don’t see YouTube ads because we block YouTube ads. You know, they’re not on Facebook as much.

[00:09:45] They’re a lot of cord cutters, so they’re not seeing, you know, regular television ads. And so marketers are like, well, how do I reach this? You know, 57 million people that are using Brave? And so we send out. The emails mostly to marketing departments. And so we’ll reach out to [00:10:00] the VP of marketing or the CMO or the head of digital marketing, and that’s our contact.

[00:10:05] And you know, someone who basically has authority to buy media, that’s who

[00:10:10] Ryan: we’re reaching out to.

[00:10:11] Donny: So anyway, I love how this, uh, we switched gears. Now you’re interviewing me, , but let’s get back into, me asking you a couple questions. Sure. So, you know, we’re actually both trying to get mainstream adoption. I’m trying to get mainstream advertisers to run on the platform. And then we’re also trying to get, you know, a hundred million users using GRA on a daily basis.

[00:10:30] So what are the strategies that you’re trying to use to increase mainstream adoption of your

[00:10:34] Ryan: products? So right now we are focused super on web two, like web two creators, right? I guess I could break the news here. We’re gonna announce this in some time, probably in a couple weeks.

[00:10:44] I can put this out right now. So we just signed on as a equity owner, Andrew Wiggins from the Warriors. This joining our company as a equity owner, advisor, and a creator that’s gonna be on our platform. So we have like people like him that are essentially gonna be coming onto the platform, introducing their fan base and [00:11:00] people who actually respect, you know what they do, get them engaged with content as well, and essentially give users who sign up for our platform, their first wallet ever.

[00:11:09] Right? So that’s our goal. We wanna. The people that the web two world that are already on social media, those people come onto our platform and feel comfortable. They feel like it’s not really different from the web two tools that they use today. And it’s, infusing web three technology.

[00:11:24] Right? So our goal right now is like, how do we get those major web two creators right? And bring them into the world of web three and make web three the norm, right? So that’s what we are doing right now, I’ve

[00:11:34] Donny: asked this question on other podcasts, so I’m curious to get your opinion.

[00:11:37] So the way that like everybody uses a smartphone, you don’t call it smartphones anymore, you just call ’em the phones. You know, like it’s not like cell phone versus a smartphone. And the way everybody uses Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, when do you think is the day where everybody’s just using Web

[00:11:52] Ryan: three products every.

[00:11:54] I think it’s gonna start, and this is super controversial, what I’m about to say right now, Doug, but I think it’s gonna be the day that the [00:12:00] founders and product managers stop building products for crypto Twitter, and they start building products for everybody in the world. I think that like right now, all the founders, all the people designing products, Are just going for the same people who are on Twitter that use these crypto native products today, and they’re not trying to build anything that’s just usable for the outside world, right?

[00:12:20] It’s like when people are able to, I think that like on the wallet side of things, like there’s gonna be people who are gonna find a way to make, you know, cold storage easy, right? And those are the people who are probably gonna be rewarded by the masses and also get adopted the most. The same goes for products today.

[00:12:36] If you make it easy for regular people to use, that’s when we’re gonna start seeing the most adoption. And if it just becomes invisible that it’s a layer, it’s like essentially, think of a platform or a app that’s just a regular app that everybody uses today. But it, it’s crypto native, but the person who’s using it doesn’t realize that they’re using a crypto native platform.

[00:12:57] That’s when we’re gonna start seeing mass adoption, and I think [00:13:00] that’s when we’re gonna start to see things actually change in the space. Because I think today it’s just two at three, you know? that’s what I think about it.

[00:13:07] Donny: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I definitely think we’re like, web 2.5 right now, where like a lot of the core functionality is still on Web 2.0, but it has like a crypto element to it or an NFT element to it, but it’s not fully decentralized.

[00:13:21] It’s not really a hundred percent running on the blockchain. So I think we’re definitely a few years out. I thought by now in, you know, 2022, moving into 2023, We would’ve been at a place where like, I don’t know, two, three, 5% of what you use on a daily basis is like crypto native, but it’s nowhere near there.

[00:13:40] What Metaverse channels attract you? I mean, is there anything in the Metaverse that

[00:13:46] Ryan: you’re find intriguing?

[00:13:48] Yeah, I think that the metaverse is back to like what I was saying before, that the Metaverse is unexplored today, and I think there’s a couple verticals of the Metaverse. It’s not just a 3D aspect that everybody thinks of it [00:14:00] today.

[00:14:00] I do think social is a component to it. I do think Discord, I do think Twitter and I do. Telegram or a basic version of the Metaverse Today super basic version. But I think it’s important and I think that like if people understand that that’s the first iteration and that’s the first step, we’re in the caveman stage of the metaverse using these channels, that we’re gonna have a amazing progression over time that’s gonna lead into like robust channels that are not only used these messaging technologies, but also be able to implement the VR ar aspects of it as.

[00:14:34] But I don’t see today that people are using the metaverse like decentral land or sandbox in a commercial way. And I think that if we can build tools that make it commercial and accessible and fun to use, That everybody uses naturally, that’s when we’re gonna start to see things change, And I think it comes from a product design aspect,

[00:14:55] It’s like if we start thinking about how product is actually built for people today [00:15:00] in a way that’s usable by the masses, that’s when we’re gonna start to see the best product come about. And that’s when we’re gonna start seeing the metaverse adaption happen. Cause I think the metaverse adaption is a hundred percent gonna happen.

[00:15:10] It’s gonna. And if it’s not today, it’s gonna happen in two, three years from now when the technology is usable by the masses and it infuses things that make it commercially viable for companies to advertise on. Right. I think that brave is actually a source of the metaverse today in a primitive way. And I think that if like we start using like these technologies like AR and VR and implementing into these products, but in a way that people can actually.

[00:15:36] Very easy and seamlessly like that invisible layer concept. I think that’s when we’re gonna start to see the mass adoption of the metaverse.

[00:15:43] Donny: Cool. And what

[00:15:43] do you think about the crypto, market right now? Like, you know, we’re recording this basically the week after all the news about FTX and Yeah.

[00:15:52] sfb sbf and like what’s going on? And now we’re hearing from other crypto exchanges that have had money on [00:16:00] FTX and they’re pausing withdrawals. So what do you think about the whole crypto market right

[00:16:04] Ryan: now? Yeah, the crypto market right now. Wow. what a. I don’t know, Danny, I’m watching Bitcoin very closely.

[00:16:10] I was watching it yesterday on the candles watching, see does it break back into 15,000 and it touched 15,900 for a bit and it bounced back up. This morning when I saw it, it was like 16 700. So I think that right now. We’re seeing extreme volatility, right? You’re seeing like these, you know, 5% like ups and downs within the last couple hours.

[00:16:31] People are very scared about what’s gonna happen with different exchanges, right? You see cz talking about Be safe about all these, different exchanges that are coming about. And we might see a major collapse. And does Bitcoin go now to 10 K, 13 k? I don’t know, but I think the market’s very, I think they’re scared right now.

[00:16:48] I think they’re scared. They don’t know what to do. They don’t feel safe with their money in exchanges. They don’t know if an exchange is gonna implode again And does everything crash again like it did with Solan? Cause that’s sad. Like to see Solana go [00:17:00] from a top 10 market cap to now top 20 kind of sucks cuz I think the Solana ecosystem’s Great.

[00:17:05] What do you think? Yeah. I mean,

[00:17:06] Donny: look, we are, but you know, we were very big fans of Solana just because of the speed and the low cost that thing has just tumbled a ton. And then there are other exchanges that are kind of like, you know, taking their place. there’s others like, you know, whatever Polygon or you know, whoever that are.

[00:17:24] A little bit more interesting right now. Look, the amount of times that somebody have says, you know, Bitcoin is dead or crypto is dead, is like, lost track. you know, the number of articles that have said that. So it seems like it, yeah. Always rebounds. The question is, where’s the bottom?

[00:17:38] I mean, last time the bottom was around $3,500. And so if we’re at 16,000 now, you know, you got some room to go to 3,500. Do I think it’s gonna go that low? Probably not, you know, but maybe 14 or $13,000. You know, maybe. I think that the best advice, well, this isn’t financial advice, this is not a financial advice show at all, but is dollar [00:18:00] cost averaging?

[00:18:00] I mean, if you’re, Yep. Always buying at these levels a little bit every week or a little bit every month, and you have a 5, 10, 20 year horizon or however long that is. You know, the odds are in your favor that you’re, you’re gonna be a winner in the long term. And so if that is your philosophy, when it goes down, you’re like, great.

[00:18:20] I’m buying more at a low rate. When it goes up, it feels great too because it’s like, Hey, it’s going up. So that’s what I love about the dollar cost averaging way about it is, you never have to time the market and you kind of always feel like a winner when it goes down or when

[00:18:35] Ryan: it goes up.

[00:18:36] Exactly. No, a hundred percent. I was talking to one of my friends about this yesterday. I was like, bro, We’re gonna look back at this today or a year or two from now, and we’re gonna be like 15 K Bitcoin. I wish I could buy more 15 K Bitcoin or 16 K Bitcoin, right? Even if it’s three, four years, right? These are moments that we’re always gonna look back on and be like, wow, these are buying opportunities of a lifetime.

[00:18:56] I believe I could be very wrong, but I do think that in [00:19:00] the long term, if our horizon is five 10, Years and these assets appreciate over time. I think it’s great. And I think that the mainstream crypto adoption is gonna be there in institutions leading into Bitcoin and Ethereum only helps the ecosystem because now they’re tried and true.

[00:19:15] It’s been like, what, 10 years since like people have been actually experimenting with Bitcoin and we can see actually the, the real world implications of it. You have countries like El Salvador actually implementing it as their currency. Yes. It fluctuates for sure. Mm-hmm. , right. But I think. I believe that this is a long, of course, is not a financial, advice, right?

[00:19:33] But I think this, these are the best, I mean, within this next downturn, right? It’s gonna be horrible in the next couple of months with the economy, right? The housing collapse is probably gonna be here. And I think that these opportunities within this next year span before 2024 are gonna be a golden opportunity, I believe that we may not get back for who knows how long.

[00:19:52] Donny: Yeah, and, and I think that what’s important to know is that we talk about dollar cost averaging and buying in, and I think that it’s important to [00:20:00] kind of dollar cost average out at the high. Yeah. You know, listening to different podcasts, when Bitcoin was at, you know, 60, $65,000 and everybody was talking like, oh my God, I can’t believe how high it is.

[00:20:13] It got so high, so fast. Like when you hear that type of talk, like nonstop every week, then you. I’m gonna sell 2%. I’m gonna sell another 2%. Like, and you just start, you know, I call it picking fruit off the tree. It’s like, oh, this got really hot. You know, like, let’s take some down.

[00:20:28] You know, I’m not selling the whole thing. You may wanna reduce the exposure by, you know, 20 or 30% and then boom, it falls, and then you kick in the dollar cost averaging buying. And so I think it’s, I like that. I like note to like, do

[00:20:39] Ryan: both. Yeah. No, no, that’s fire. I feel like I’ve never heard anybody say that.

[00:20:42] Donnie. I love.

[00:20:43] Donny: Yeah. Thanks. I did that, with Tesla and, okay. The thing is Tesla just keeps going. It was just keep going up and up and up, but like when it was just like everybody was talking about it every week and it’s like, oh my God, another high, another high, another high. I’d be like, oh, I’m just gonna take some off the table.

[00:20:56] Oh, I’m just gonna take some off

[00:20:57] Ryan: the table. Yeah. That’s super smart. I’m gonna do [00:21:00] that . Yeah, you should.

[00:21:00] Donny: But now you gotta wait. You gotta wait. So you gotta wait until the market’s back up. .

[00:21:05] Ryan: Okay. .

[00:21:06] Donny: I will.

[00:21:07] Ryan: thank you so much, Ryan, for being on the show. It was a great conversation. you were a joy to have on any last words for our listeners, and how can, people find mints drops, and how can they find you

[00:21:17] Yeah, great. If you are a content creator, you know, reach out, check out Mid Drops. Our decentralized social media platform, the betas are open for creators that really wanna take their content exploration and monetization to the next level. They wanna infuse, you know, technologies that are upcoming to actually take their brands to the next level and actually make money with their content.

[00:21:36] which check out mid shops.com. You can find me on all social media at Ryan Kumar nft. Everywhere. Ryan Gamar, nft, you find me on Instagram, Twitter, discord, everything. So guys, thank you guys for having me. Donny. You are dope man. We gotta talk more after this. I appreciate. Nice. Thanks man.

[00:21:54] Donny: Thanks for out coming on the show.

[00:21:55] Talk to you soon. Thank

[00:21:56] Ryan: you.

[00:21:58] Donny: Thanks so much for listening to [00:22:00] another episode of The Brave Marketer Podcast. Four quick things before you go. Number one, if you like what you’ve heard, it’d be really awesome if you’d rate us or write us a review on your podcast player. And if you didn’t like what you’ve heard, then don’t worry about.

[00:22:15] Number two. If you would like to advertise to Brave’s 60 million users and have a budget of $10,000 or more, simply email us@asalesbrave.com. That’s AD S A L e s brave.com, and let us know you’re our podcast listener for a 25% discount. Number three musical credits, go to my brother Ari Devor. And finally number four, go use brave@brave.com.

[00:22:42] See you next time on The Brave Marketer.