network effects but with wolves
Oh, hi.
Is this thing still on?
To recap, I am back from a couple months of time “off of work.”
To be clear, my version of “off of work” was a vague, sometimes-vacationing, sometimes-taking-calls, but-always-still-around-enough-to-remain-sufficiently-anxious-about-email-response-time (!) type of deal, which proved to be a truly awful idea and something my former, better self certainly never recommended in my award-winning book about productivity! (Sara Blakely read it thrice.)
What do you call the opposite of a restorative sabbatical? THAT.
Along the way, the general overwhelming duties of keeping all the assorted humans and animals in my house alive kept up their barrage against my senses. Speaking of which, I found out I’m an empath (I read some books on it here and here), which has been an eye-opening journey to understand a lifetime of weird sensory overload, sleeping a lot, and unnatural obsession with alone time!
Let’s begin.
Dumpster Fires
First of all, this.
And, not to be ignored.
In conclusion.
Reading, etc.
I’m still alive but shit is getting wild: Inside the Siege of the Amarula
Cold-plunging with Maine’s ‘Ice Mermaids’
How a 27-year-old consultant eats on $225K a year in Washington D.C. (If I only read very slight variations on this insane article for the rest of my life I will die happy.)
In a follow-up to this past newsletter, I STILL want to read The News from Paraguay after an unconfirmed report my husband is related to its star protagonist. (Again, unconfirmed. Again, no action taken in direction of reading said book.)
The trade in adulterated olive oil!
New internet → IRL friend Ashley Mayer offers her advice for the next generation of women leaders here.
“I guess we’ll know we’ve made it when a woman can get away with behaving like Elon Musk.”
How to Open a US Bank Account and Credit Card as a Foreign Citizen (good luck with that)
Why crypto? Why Argentina?
And then there’s Xavier, who got his whole body scanned, made me jealous, but then also made me realize I don’t think I would never WANT to do such a thing. Now you can read about it! (I know him, be kind.)
Have I ever said anything else?
Startups, etc.
In 2020, ex-WeWork CEO Adam Neumann invested in a women-led startup called Alfred. Less than two years later, his new company Flow – backed by $350 million – sounds strikingly similar. Yikes indeed, by Alex Konrad.
Network effects aren’t enough! (Alt: How to Measure Network Effects!)
In conclusion, network effects with wolves!
We launched a thing! It’s called VC3 and it’s all about decentralized venture capital as a way to improve deal flow, decision making, diversity and returns.
Smiles
This month I had the honor of my year to sit around like the lazy ass I am on behalf of VC3 DAO while a group of change-makers pulled off the INCREDIBLE 4,000 in-person (!!!) ETH LATAM event in a decentralized, volunteer-only, all-DAO-all-the-time kind of way. 🎉 🎉 🎉
Someday there will be a Harvard Business Review case study on ETH LATAM and if I have anything to do with it I will 100% call it, “ETH LATAM: DAO Marketing Drives Crazy Network Effects.”
Here’s what can be learned from these insane people who did this big thing:
1. Organization via DAO does NOT have to be CHAOS marketing, although some chaos can instigate innovation;) As Master of Ceremonies Evan Van Ness said, "There's no city in the world other than Buenos Aires who can do a 5,000 person Ethereum conference with primarily locals as speakers *and* attendees!" Why? Well…
2. Network effects are real, and are supercharged by engaged DAOs. The incredible engagement of the Ethereum community in Argentina, in combination with women leaders from the Mujeres en Crypto DAO led to not only a great ETH LATAM event with huge numbers in general, but also huge numbers of WOMEN. Evan Van Ness said, "more females than I'd ever seen at a crypto conference!"
Let’s recap ETH LATAM (thanks Paula Doy for stats):
🗓 6 days (someone said 4 but that wasn’t my experience! 😂)
🙈+ 4000 attendees in person (5000 signups!)
🍸 30 side events
🎤+ 83 speakers
🙋🏻♀️🙋+ 50 volunteers like Fiorella Scantamburlo Paula Doy Pilar Rodríguez Lola Rodríguez, Candu, Martin, Lorena Fabris Hanna Schiuma
Romina Ayelén Sejas Benjamin Reymundo Roberts Federico Arancibia Pablo Vitucci Diego Fernández
🌟+ 30 sponsors y partners
😱 1 crypto cocktail party in one of the most famous opera houses in the world
💃🏻1 brunch of crypto women sponsored by VC3 DAO with guest of honor Aya Miyaguchi of Ethereum Foundation
🎉 1 Vitalik Buterin speaking Spanish, drinking mate
👑 1 martini by myself, taking notes, wondering what this group of badasses will be able to pull off next;) 😍😍😍
Onward!
Claire
P.S. 😍 I was honored to receive the sweetest note from Paula Doy thanking me for a random dinner I hosted in my house 9 months ago where a couple of the badasses first met + started talking ETH LATAM. I was 100% sitting around lazily doing nothing that time ALSO but I did procure the PIZZA.