#27: Tyler Kalinske - starting an NFT collection + making web3 memories

Everyone is so like passionate and they see so much opportunity. It's almost like anything, any like creative endeavor that they had in the past is now like possible.

All right, welcome to another episode of Cyber Patterns. Today we have Tyler Kulinski on. He is one of the co-founders of MEMZ, an NFT collection based around making memories. They've done over 1,200 ETH in trading volume and have fans and collectors from all around the globe. I hope you enjoy this awesome conversation. Dude, let's, uh, let's jump right into this, man. Uh, you want to start with, um, saying a little bit about MEMS and where you guys are at, and then we'll jump into the tweet that you sent over yesterday, actually.

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, so kind of starting things off, um, MEMS, kind of— I'm the co-founder of MEMS alongside Maxi, who's a founder and artist of the project, and kind of his brainchild, came up with a whole premise of MEMS. But we kind of started out earlier this year, was initially pitched the idea, and we kind of came together kind of in the true kind of Web3 fashion. We met, met online on Twitter, really just stemmed out of like kind of a love for his art style and everything. And then he kind of presented me with the project, and we kind of brought a little team together, started a Discord, and really just pushed for a few months with the, the Twitter and building our community on there. We minted, um, in April, so kind of like into this little swing market downturn and everything. Um, but yeah, a little bit, a little bit about MEMS. Um, and it initially started kind of with Max. He had this, had this thought towards the end of the, end of the year last year, thinking just how much the The world has changed like these past years, especially with kind of initially coming out of COVID a lot of us just in this whole new internet realm and kind of wanting to bring things back to earth almost, and kind of bring back kind of some of these nostalgic memories and start a project or start a really truly a brand centered around the promotion of creating new memories. So that's really kind of where the premise started and kind of the foundation was laid to really build like a good-hearted, like we, we earlier when we were initially launching the project, we're like, this is like a human art project, um, really kind of like a living, living, breathing thing. Um, and it was, it was really a great, great process to see everyone kind of just come together around the art. Um, and so we initially like didn't promise any like utility, anything outside of really you're just being part of these people who, who enjoy this art and kind of enjoy living life, kind of through these foundations that we kind of set in stone with the brand. So it's been, yeah, it's been a beautiful thing kind of seeing this blossom and grow even during kind of these times of uncertainty in the market and stuff. I think it's been really cool kind of shifting our attention back internally, kind of refocusing. And we're really excited with some things we have coming up here pretty shortly, but kind of more on the Web3 side of things, what we've been, been up to is we were in NFT NYC a couple, couple weeks back, which was great. Had a little pop-up event there with some kind of little art activations, merchandise, that the typical, typical NFT NYC kind of pop-up. But yeah, we've been kind of getting back into the swing of things after that. I've launched like our own native kind of like vertical marketplace for buying, selling, trading of memes. We just launched our Perk Store, which is kind of like a holder-based thing where depending on the trait your Mem has, you're able to claim a certain perk. And so our first activation around that was a little perk claim from Lollapalooza. A few holders were able to claim some passes and we're excited to kind of build off that in the future. But yeah, no, that was a little brain dump, but kind of all the things we've been having to go on.

No worries, man. No worries. Yeah, I guess when we met you were starting MEMS or in the middle, and then I stopped you. Yeah, you sold out with MEMS and then left Late Checkout, and then I was working there for a bit and then just helping out freelancing. And yeah, so here we are.

Yeah, no, that was great. That was a great meeting. That's how we first connected, I think. I know we were both kind of doing a little freelance work. Check out. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it was pretty fun what we were working on that day, but I am curious about like the more granular aspect of getting a team together. And so, you know, were you meeting people on Twitter or Discord and then actually like settling agreements of, you know, how does this all work? Like, how did you do that?

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. So it was really definitely an interesting process. And I think a lot of it played into Maxine and I both kind of being in the overarching NFT space for quite some time, I'm kind of dabbling in really being a part of the community almost is how we viewed it. Like we were really on the collector's side, like playing, just participating in other NFT communities. And so kind of from there, I think we had a good gauge on like some of the initial pieces needed kind of to bring, or what, what type of team members are kind of needed in these early stages. And it was funny because you really don't need a crazy built-out team, I think, from the very get-go to like get the project off the ground. I think with some of these NFT projects in the early days, I think it's just so, so smart to kind of keep a lean team and things of that nature. So we initially really brought on just kind of, we're really focused on bringing on like community-centric members to the team. So like right now we really have like couple community managers, a few different moderators. And that was like really our, our main goal is like, how do we launch this project and then get our team and community in a position where there's just constantly programmed and engagement engagements, um, kind of around the brand. Um, so yeah, we, we really kind of brought in more so probably around 4 to 5 kind of casual part-time kind of members in the, in our, into our kind of mems Mem's little brand and everything. And yeah, from there, it's been a joy to kind of see that team kind of grow. And we've kind of like really taken the approach of like, it was interesting, kind of both of us having that past experience working at Late Checkout, how they do bring in a lot of just different consultants kind of for smaller side projects. And we've kind of seen that approach almost being the way with the early days for Mem's, because there are so many different directions and little activations, little projects that we want to be working on. So kind kind of with that background, like I said, kind of being in this space, we've kind of been able to just like pick and choose some people we've seen like do well in certain, in their little niches and kind of bring them under the MEMS umbrella and kind of very, very much like an independent contractor kind of position.

Yo, that's really cool. Something that I was thinking about what you said earlier about just like an NFT collection is like an organism and it's so true, man. It's one thing for like a clothing brand to sell stuff and then they just talk to their customers via email and that's about it. And maybe on Twitter and stuff or Instagram, but it's another when you have a Discord and you're building like a community around this, the shared ideology of making memories and so forth. And I was really, I was writing about this yesterday and, or yeah, in response to that tweet, it was just like opportunities for decentralized friendships for the laptop class. Like we spend, I know I spend a lot of my time on the laptop and iPhone or whatever. And it's nice to be able to just meet people in random cities or even in New York where I am now. And then the second thing, talking about independent contractors and that kind of model, I'd think of it like I write a lot of books, I like books and whatever subplots, kind of like sub stories, like in Harry Potter when it would just show Hermione and then it would just show whatever Ron and Harry doing their thing. That's kind of how I think about a business or like an NFT collection. It's kind of interesting, but yeah, I'm also curious, like what was your past experience building brands and it seems like you've had experience with this stuff before, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So definitely not a super deep past experience. I kind of initially was kind of on the more traditional finance side of things. So not really on the creative brand building or any sort of kind of the work that I'm doing on the day-to-day now, but I kind of always always had to draw more towards kind of like brand building and things of that nature. And so kind of early, early 2021 was when I was initially getting introduced into NFTs and the space in general. And I, I'd kind of gone down some different rabbit holes and was really working with a couple different, couple different friends that were— they were building some random like kind of charitable fundraising platform, and I kind of was jumping in with them. Um, we kind of had a more Web3 focus and kind of was working kind of on the brand side of things there. Um, and then really just diving into the NFT space, like as a collector, I ended up kind of working with the Woodies NFT project, kind of more as a moderator on the community side of things. And they just have, I think to this day, like one of the best kind of brands as a launching and starting as an NFT project, but that could like exist without the NFT. They kind of just brought together a community around people who like love the outdoors and are also kind of online and living these kind of remote work lifestyles. And so I think that, like just so many teachings. Like, it's crazy. I think like just this past year alone, like seeing so many like experiments and people just trying like these crazy things that like, I mean, you see it on the day-to-day with some of these different brands that are being built like in real time. It's like that, that taught me more than anything, anything else, like in, in past, like school classes, anything like that. So yeah, it's been like a whirlwind. I feel like.

Yeah, dude. I, uh, so I have access to the editorial inbox for The Defiant. Um, like, uh, people will pitch ideas and you like, I learned so much from the shitty ones as much as the good ones. Like, yeah, no lie. I've gotten pitches for, uh, an ex-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, the voice actor. He was starting a brand, got a pitch this morning for like, uh, porn, a porn brand or adult creators. I've gotten pitches for like, just like photography in Africa, just like the randomest stuff. And it's like, you know, it's just so interesting to see this and see what works and what doesn't. I'm really glad I have this firsthand encounter of seeing this weird stuff. I'm gonna ask a question that it's kind of a big question that was asked to me previously, which is like, if you accomplish everything you wanna accomplish in Web3 and like, Or where do you see yourself? Like if you accomplish everything, what would that be? What would that look like in say like 5, 10 years or even sooner?

Yeah. Yeah. No, definitely, definitely a big question. And I think for me, it's been like interesting. It's like been, I feel like I'm still in the mode of like trying to find like exactly what, what is this like grand idea? What is this kind of end, end goal? Cause it's so, it's honestly for me, like right now, just thinking like I am kind of, kind of younger, do have a lot of, lot of time in front of me. And so right now seeing MEMS as that like vessel for anything that I'm working on in the future. And we do have some other kind of things tied to MEMS as kind of working in tandem with that. But I think at the end of the day, like at least in the near 5 to 10 years, it's like, there's such a need for getting more people, like almost not even onboarded into Web3, but more so the like kind of mindset that comes with like being in this space on the day-to-day. Like it seems like ever since I've been in like around a lot of these people these communities that we're building, everyone is so like passionate and they see so much opportunity. It's almost like anything, any like creative endeavor that they had in the past is now like possible just because of this whole like whirlwind renaissance of art, technology, everything along those lines. You know, it's like this, this, yeah, this like community that we find ourselves in, there is like that, there's that spark that just like, it's hard to replicate and hard to even put a finger on exactly what that is. But I think continuing to kind of bring that to a wider scale and kind of introducing, I know you mentioned it in the past, like these decentralized frameworks of work and being able to kind of just expand. I know we've talked about it a lot, kind of like the, within MEMS is like the intersection of like Web3 and then also kind of our personal grounding and how we want to see kind of the world and kind of bring things, bring things back to kind of some of these nostalgic, like wholesome activities, like people coming together over the love of like these simple past memories and things of that nature. I think finding that balance between using some of those, like, that, that kind of ethos, and then weaving that in with kind of some of these Web3 tools and being able to introduce that to like a larger audience, um, I think in the future. So like, we're, we're definitely working on kind of within MEMS and some subsets of what we're working on is like really pushing out a lot of different content, content, um, kind of pertaining to Web3, but not only close off as like, this is only NFT-centric content. I think Maxi and I and a lot of people on the team do have kind of just a, just an overarching perspective and kind of are able to kind of tie some, some things together. I think maybe reintroduce some concepts around NFTs that might be kind of like holding, holding the space back as a whole from like reaching a, reaching a more mainstream audience. So I think, yeah, it really circles around like getting some of these ideas and these things that we're passionate about building here in this little NFT Web3 space and kind of like replicating that, that feeling we're getting from here on a larger scale.

Yeah, definitely interesting. I, I saw something today where it was like Reddit announced that they had NFT, uh, profile pictures or whatever collectibles, and they actually like didn't use NFT in the headline. And I think that's actually not a bad thing. Like, um, you know, maybe it's because NFTs aren't super popular right now But in the end, like tech really like starts getting bigger when you don't think about the underlying technology. Like you just think about, oh, these are cool profile pictures that I could buy and sell. Like, do I really need to know that they're NFTs? But you know, and then I was also thinking about, it's cool how these projects like NFT projects kind of grow past the founders and grow beyond into this like a forest, this organism that's alive. Like I think about like the Nouns project and so cool, you know, CCO. Or CC0, and then the grants projects that they have, and they're able to like give money for people to build up the community and ecosystem. What other projects are you really interested? Are you involved with any DAOs or other projects?

Yeah, it's funny you bring up Nouns, 'cause that's like a classic example. And just like, I think they're doing so many things right in terms of just like empowering their collectors, but also the kind of community around them at large. I know I mentioned in the past, like the Woodies project, that's definitely one that I find myself more attached to and kind of definitely a deeper part of that community for sure. I will say like it has been kind of since starting MEMS, it has been kind of like that shift from like originally really being just a community member and participating in so many, so many different, mainly like PFP membership pass kind of communities to now kind of, kind of having to shift that focus more internally. I'm also a part of the Quantum NFT like LA pass. And so that's a really cool thing done by a photographer like Justin Aversano. And they actually opened a little gallery and coworking space here in Santa Monica on Third Street, which I'm dying to check out. I actually haven't been over there yet, but that's a, that's another community that I'm really excited about. They're doing some cool things, kind of mixing that in real life, like coworking opportunity for some of the collectors, as well as like they bring in different photographers and artists in the space and kind of do do drops tailored to kind of these membership pass holders. So yeah, those are kind of two projects that I've been really, really more so involved with the past few weeks.

Yeah, that sounds so smart. I actually just bought an NFT for a coffee shop in Brooklyn that it's called Lion's Milk and their project is called Caffeinated Lions. And so they have NFT artwork on the wall and then they give special perks to like NFT holders. So 25% off, plus they host events and all that. but I love that idea of almost turning it into like, uh, like Shopify has a studio in New York where creators can come in and take pictures. Like, turning it into that, I think, is— that's so LA, but it's— yeah, that's great.

Um, yeah.

And then, uh, another one, Atomverse, is, is really interesting as well. It's, uh, Rob McElhenney's project from Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and I would turn it into like a decentralized screenwriting community. Um, but I love this combination of IRL and URL kind of thing. So combining both of those, I think is, that's really what brings people into it as well and keeps people in even more importantly, it's like the connections and that kind of stuff. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, 100%. I think that's almost like what we've been almost missing from a lot of these brands being built, you know, in this space. And like, of course, like there's so many, there's a lot of, there's so many different sectors, like being tapped into with NFT projects, like not everyone is going to have that in person in-person component, but it's interesting that like the majority of these in-person components only happen at like NFT-centric conferences and stuff like that. Like I think we definitely need to see more kind of standalone kind of brand showcases and things like Quantum is doing, open it by opening up that space and kind of opening it up to outside of like the whole NFT crypto communities and stuff.

Yeah. Have you delved into like music NFTs at all? I haven't. Yet, but I think it's interesting.

Yeah, I have, I have. Definitely think it's interesting. Have a few artists that I've been supporting in the past. I think they, like Heno is one artist who kind of launched his own kind of crowdfund using Mirror. And I thought that was really cool. Was able to put out whole intentions behind this new project that he was working on and able to kind of crowdfund the work on that album through that Mirror drop and NFT drop. I think I've followed a lot of artists that are using kind of sound.xyz and everything. I think they're doing some cool stuff. It's interesting, like the music NFT space, I think it still needs to find that thing that almost makes it make sense. I think it's like right now, it's like, does it really make sense to be dropping a song as an NFT that you've already released on Spotify that's already out there? And then maybe now you're just packing in concert tickets and some merch. It's just not that exciting. It almost just doesn't make sense, you know, like that's never gonna really catch on completely. But I think on the other side, like when artists and musicians are really almost using the NFT to kind of refocus the art aspect around music, I think that's really cool. And they're like dropping one-on-one pieces and maybe having a new art piece attached to it, I think. And looking at it from a collector's point of view is cool. But like then on the other side, I think, yeah, there's a, there's a lot of growth to be done for it to make sense, I think, to like the the normal person.

Yeah, I completely agree with that. And I think the one-on-ones is, is really cool to think about. It just has to be like sell for a lot to make it worth it, where it's more than you'd make on Spotify or something, or if you're a big artist. If not, then it's vice versa. But think about just like, uh, building a community of like, say, super fans for, for your whatever, 100 or 1,000 fans that are super into your music. I could see that being like just a good place to talk to people. And it's also something like when I was 16, 17, I was really into Kanye and Kendrick and that kind of stuff. And I had my friends around me to talk about it, but then I could go on Reddit and talk about it, but there's no— I don't know. I could just imagine there being more people, like if there was a Discord group to talk about that stuff that's token-gated where there's different community events and almost like Rap Genius or something. That's always where my head goes when it comes back to that stuff. But I don't know.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. And like, maybe that's all that's needed. Maybe that is the main draw to music NFTs is kind of getting that super fan core group. And that's like, yeah, that's like it. So that is like definitely one of the more exciting kind of use cases.

Yeah. Are there any crypto events you're going to the rest of the year?

I honestly need to definitely on the crypto side of things kind of plot the schedule out a little bit. So nothing, nothing on the radar, probably like Art Basel. I think that would be coming up towards the end of the year is one. I know that's not completely crypto, but kind of they've added kind of their NFT component. But no, really going to be really going to be out here in LA. So I know there are kind of a lot of like random little pop-up events that are going on out here. So try to make as many of those. But yeah, that's nice.

And then I do have a question. When it comes to MEMS, you know, it's all about building memories. What are some of like the memories that you've built in NFT world or in just the life of NFT that you look back and you're like, oh, I'll remember this for a long-ass time, you know?

Yeah, yeah. Honestly, I think it was really kind of one of the main things directly related to MEMS would be kind of those like early stages, like in the trenches of like just like building out the project and community. I think that like initial mint day, like we didn't have a Discord already. We open up this Discord, it's like just tons of people flooding in, just like complete craziness, you know, like just chaos. Like with those, those Discords, like people like saying, saying we're a rug project, like we're gonna like run away, like trying to FUD the pro— like just so, so much craziness going on. And then it's like we have this group of, you know, like 8 to 10 people that just come together randomly over the internet like 3 months ago, and we're really just like holding it down and it kind of just, it was like, okay, like this is like really real. And this is like kind of the, the just first step for this project and this brand. So like really just a lot of things revolving around this, this team coming together. Just so many, so many memories around that. And like all of us like meeting for the first time in person at like NFT NYC was some of the first times a lot of us had met in real life. So yeah, that was really cool. Kind of seeing that, that whole internet thing to, to the real life activation coming, coming play. Oh yeah.

And when it comes to, jumping back to that tweet real quick, identity with NFTs, like using a PFP as your profile picture, you not using it. What were your thoughts on that?

Yeah, I think it's interesting. Cause like, I don't know, like I'm thinking like, cause I think it's so easy for us. Like, I mean, especially for like me, like being very ingrained on really the NFT side of things and getting in those kinds of echo chambers of like all of us, like we're on Twitter, we're using these PFPs, you know, we've built, we have built like identities around these certain PFPs. Like, but I know like for me, like, I guess I'm not set in stone with that single mem identity, you know, like I know, and a lot of people are kind of cycling through those, but at the end of the day, like a lot of people do leave that as a main value proposition around, around some of these NFTs. And you've seen like some mainly like the Punks and Ape communities really even being able to, for the Punks, like build a, build a really truly great brand around even just the number of their punk. And so I do think that's cool, but it's really only going to be appealing to a very small, small number of people. I can't think back to any of my friends in real life that aren't in this space or going to college and just living on the day-to-day. I can't picture any of them ever wanting to change their PFP to that. So it's like, I'm almost thinking, are this younger generation of people that aren't aren't like maybe really involved in the online realms, but will be using NFTs on the backend, maybe not even knowing it. It's like, does a profile picture value proposition even make sense anymore, like past what we've already seen? I feel like it's almost going to be fizzling out a little bit.

Yeah, 100%. I think the ENS names, that's where it's at. And then I haven't used Lens much, but if that really does take over as like decentralized social media, that would probably be the move, I guess.

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah, dude, it's been a pleasure. I gotta go write another article.

Yeah, no, it was great. Great talking. Yeah, 100%.

Awesome, man. Uh, this is going out probably on Saturday, so cool. I'll keep you updated.