Design, Distribution, and Onchain Media: Insights from Jacob of Zora

New day, new experiment. Originally published on YouTube March 9, 2023, I'm excited to drop an OG episode onchain.

Mint Season 7 Episode 19 welcomed Jacob, Co-Founder of Zora, a platform that enables users to create, discover and collect with ease, all in one place. We discuss his transition from building stable coin projects to spearheading the crypto-native creator economy, as well as his interest in design and experimentation at Zora. We also delve into onchain distribution and virality, the potential of NFTs, and the Nouns ecosystem. Finally, we explore Jacob's creative process and the things he wished he knew when he started building Zora.

I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Intro
• 02:13 - From Stable Coin Projects to Crypto Creator Economy
• 07:58 - Jacob’s Interest in Design
• 14:26 - Insights from Experiment with Zora
• 18:27 - Understanding "Creating Content Worth Collecting"
• 23:40 - Best Examples of On-Chain Distribution and Virality, and What's Missing for TikTok-Level Distribution
• 28:26 - What Web2 Creators Are Missing to Enter Web3
• 32:25 - NFTs as the End-All Be-All Solution
• 34:43 - Ordinal NFTs on Bitcoin and Zora's Direction
• 41:54 - Rationalizing the Nouns Ecosystem
• 48:51 - Relatable Human-Based Values in the Nouns Community
• 51:46 - Unfunded Ideas for the Nouns Ecosystem
• 54:46 - Half-Baked Ideas Being Tinkered with
• 01:02:12 - Creative and Thought Process for Rallying Team Around Statements
• 01:05:57 - Strongly Held Ideas that Differ from Others
• 01:07:35 - Lessons Learned Building Zora
• 01:10:23 - Outro

Additional Resources

• Jacobs Twitter: https://twitter.com/js_horne
• Zora: https://twitter.com/ourzora