Iris Nevins, Co-Founder and CEO of Umba Daima on

Hi, my name is Antito. This is CryptoKid Podcast. I'm going to be talking to you guys about blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. One, welcome to CryptoKid Podcast. I'm so glad to have Iris. Is that how you pronounce your name? Yes, you got it. Iris and she is a co-founder and CEO of Amba. Right? Is that right? Um, Umba? Yeah. Umba, Daima. Umba, Daima. And so tell me

a little bit how you got into the Web 3 space. Yeah, so you know, it kind of goes a little bit further back. My, um, my company was originally born out of some trips that I took overseas. I went to some countries in the Caribbean and in Africa. And I was really surprised at how low the, um, the artwork. Uh, was selling for at these like

local marketplaces or like street artists who I would go and buy artwork from. And so initially when we launched in Badaima, it was just an online store, um, helping artists in these locations sell their art and like tap into the Western market. Um, shortly after we launched that store, I reconnected with some college classmates who were into NFTs. One of them worked at Visa. In, in

the crypto department and, um, and so they were just, they just started kind of teaching me about NFTs and we're like, you should probably consider. Like having the artists that you're working with that you're working with, um, learn about NFTs and figure out how to use NFTs. So we spent a couple of months like investigating at that time. It was November 2020. So people had, I

think literally just done his first drop. And it was like he made like two million, like 48 hours. It was like a big deal. And I remember going through the articles about his drop and being like, okay, I think I get it. Um, and then we decided to spend a couple of months like studying and learning. And then we launched. Um, we, we started like teaching

the artists that we were working with on how to sell their art is in a field. So our company has really evolved over time. Our first project that we launched was, you know, after the marketplace, we launched a community called Black and FTR. And our goal with that was to help Black creators. Um, in the NFT. So we started like, uh, Black creators, um, in the

NFT space or who want to sell NFTs, essentially find community. Cause there weren't really many Black people in the space at that time. Um, most Black people who wanted to get into NFTs didn't know anyone else that was in NFTs. Like they didn't have access to that network to support them. So, um, so we just literally were just, you know, posting their art, sharing their art.

It kind of took off and we started growing really quickly. But we realized that there was a, essentially like a glass ceiling because Black and NFT and art is very, very, very niche, like a very small number of people in the world that care about this specific topic. So, um, we were essentially limiting ourselves and our, our growth capacity by focusing on such a niche audience.

So we have decided to expand into eventually. The venture studio is just a company that, um, incubates multiple different like business ventures. And, um, you know, so now we have additional projects that we're launching all around the mission of increasing technology adoption around the world. And I can share more about those projects as well. But yeah, that's what we do. That'll lose to my next question.

So you do a lot of events and a lot of community gathering. So what, what are the projects? So you're working on that you could share. Is there anything like that's about to drop that it could be exclusive information. You only heard it here on crypto kid podcast or, um, you know, keep it secret and download for for now. Yeah. No, I definitely have stuff I

can share. Um, so we're launching a second community. It's called tech misfits and it's a, it's a social networking and education app for tech for STEM and art professionals. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. So STEM and art professionals who are passionate about technology and technological advancement. We want to provide a platform where they can collaborate, where they can organize and where they can

get tech and business education. Um, so the app is launching in the summer. And the first 20,000 memberships are going to be released as NFTs. And so these are going to be unique avatars, um, super diverse, you know, representatives. And a positive of many different types of people and cultures and, um, those avatars will serve as lifetime, um, membership, uh, subscriptions to the app. And then

from there, once those sell out will, um, will potentially switch to, um, having additional memberships, followed, like a traditional subscription model. We're not exactly sure. Yeah, it really just depends on how. Um, the first collection goes. Because, you know, STEM is a field that is like real, STEM is, uh, sector that is growing, I think, especially in, uh, the United States, where STEM education has actually

been neglected for the last probably 30 or 40 years. And a lot of people are realizing that it's leading us to be behind in a lot of ways and from other countries. So there's a lot of investment going into developing. Um, professionals, technical skills, engineering skills, um, science skills, et cetera. And so we're really excited to build a community that's going to be really on the

forefront of growth in, um, in many countries around the world. Um, so that's our first, that's our second community. Uh, and then we also have an app called assemble now that we're seeing an assemble now is a event logistics and staffing apps. And staffing app. So this is, this app is designed for community driven brands, um, for them to be able to manage all of their

event logistics in one place and all of their staffing needs. So if you're hosting Twitter spaces and you need hosts, you need guest speakers, you need workshop facilitators, maybe you're hosting live events, you need DJs and, you know, um, you know, event marketers, et cetera. You can build that team all within the app and host all of your event programming. So as you can grow, like,

uh, really thriving engaged community. Wow. You're a work. You're a busy lady having two apps. Make sure you download the app and those things will be in the, um, description down below for whoever's listening and watching. And I salute you a lot because right now cryptocurrency and NFTs. It's a male dominant industry. And so I'm really admire what you're doing and pushing it further the boss

ladies. And so, with the NFT collection, how do you explain that to somebody and, and tell them like, this is authentic. And it would be worth a lot of money later on down, down the road. Yeah. Yeah, I think, um, I think what a lot of people struggle with is understanding that NFTs as a technology are really just a certificate of ownership. Think of like, think

of a deed to a house. The deed and the house are two separate things. But the deed is what indicates ownership of the actual house. Right. So whoever owns the deed owns the house. So NFTs are very similar. They dictate ownership of an asset. It could be a physical asset. It could be a digital asset. But it's able to indicate that ownership and you and it

uses blockchain technology, which was, which allows for a level of transparency. And organize like data tracking that is really difficult in the physical world. Right. So, so that's really what NFTs are. And art, you know, using NFTs to indicate ownership of art is really just one use case. There's so much more that you can use NFTs for. Excellent. So what, what brings NFTs and cryptocurrency together?

And how come you can't buy it with USD or any other currency? Well, that's actually changing. So, um, what was the first question? We'll bring them together. We'll bring NFTs and cryptocurrency together. Like I know when NFTs first started, you can only could use Bitcoin to buy to my knowledge. You might have been able to use ether on more than the other. But since Bitcoin is

king now, we'll just go with with you can only use that. But, currency to buy it. But how is it changing? Yeah. So NFTs are a type of cryptocurrency basically. Um, the underlying technology is cryptocurrency technology. Um, the main difference is that NFTs are fun, are sorry NFTs are non fungible. So every NFTs unique. Whereas currency like Bitcoin or, or ETH, for example, every, um, every

time. So, token is the same, right? Every Bitcoin has the same value, et cetera. So that's really the main difference. Otherwise, it's really the same technology. Um, and so I think that what's interesting is that is that NFTs were able to create like a really powerful use case for, um, fungible cryptocurrencies like ETH and Bitcoin, et cetera. Because now you had some, um, that are, because

now you had something that you could buy in the digital world using your cryptocurrency. And so, um, I think that's where they're really connected is that NFTs have really kind of traded that use case on that has incentivized people to start collecting or start acquiring more cryptocurrency than they were before. Um, but the market is evolving. And so there are a lot of platforms that are

not. Now, allowing you to buy NFTs using US dollars and regular currency as well. What, what platforms? So I believe OpenC has, uh, for example, has added, uh, Fiat on ramp. So it purchases with a credit or debit card. Um, and I believe other platforms are doing the same. Is that where you sell your, uh, NFTs collection? You use Opacy. Uh, so we have one collection

in the past that we launched there. Um, uh, our tech misfits collection is going to be sold on our own market blades. Okay. Cool deal. Cool deal. So get the, get some more NFTs on on their platform. So what, how do you validate the authenticity of and crypto, of an NFT? Like, so we had like, um, broad apes, I believe was really popular and went mainstream

on, on every social media and news network. So what, what brings up the value so much? And, and how do you, how do you keep the value up there? Yeah. So, you know, it's interesting. You know, to answer the first question, how do you validate an NFT? Um, you really have to look at who created the NFT. Um, you have to be able to trace the,

the NFT to the creator. In the process of tracing that, you can verify, you know, who the creator was. Um, a lot of, a lot of people have, like, publicly identifiable wallets, a lot of celebrities, for example, have public wallets. Um, you, uh, also can go to the persons, like website and make sure that the link to the NFT on their site is, you know, it

is, matches the link that you're looking at. If it doesn't match, then you may have some sort of scam or like impersonator project, which happens a lot. So you always want to try and track down the original creator and make sure that you're getting the, the link to the NFT directly from the creator of the project. In terms of the value of NFTs, you know, there's

a lot of different ways that NFT can accumulate value. Some of it is speculative, just like, excuse me, I'm sorry, I'm not sure. And you just like stocks or, you know, real estate where the value is based on what people think it's valued at, right. Uh, the same applies to art. Right. If you look at, there's art that's worth $5, $10, and you have art that's

worth tens of millions of dollars. Right. Who decides whether or not the art is worth tens of millions of dollars versus $5. It's really about the market of, um, the market that is. The art, right. So the market is demanding the NFTs determined how much it's valued at. And that market might use different benchmarks. So maybe they look at the creator of the NFT as a

benchmark. Maybe they look at trading volume as a benchmark. Maybe they look at how good the art is as a benchmark. Maybe there's some sort of product or service like for us, we have an app. So maybe they look at the product or service that's behind the, the end NFT to determine how valuable the NFT is, but it's really up to the buyers in the market.

the bear market and everything's basically going to shit. Um, people are just saying that I've been getting a lot of hate about my friends and family. Like you said it was going to go up. I was like, it will, it will just be patient. But like, yeah, what's the future of NFTs and the collection. Um, yeah, that's a really good question. I mean, I think that

honestly, I don't really know. Right. Like no one actually knows. But I think that there's my personal opinion is that there's two sides to this. You have, um, you have the, the, the side of NFTs that represents, um, that represents digital or physical assets that are high end or, um, you know, I mean, I think that's a really good question. We have a lot of value.

So like, you know, art, that's highly art, for example, or jewelry or, you know, maybe luxury cars, right. Like, I think that we're going to continue to see NFTs used to indicate ownership of these types of assets. But we're going to see that. Um, we're going to see more and more. Uh, use cases that involve existing assets that already have value versus brand new assets. Like

a brand new art collection is not going to do nearly as well as, you know, a Picasso artwork being sold as an NFT. Right. I think we're going to see more kind of just repurposing of stuff that already exists that society has already decided is valuable. There's a lot less risk in that. Um, and then I think for everyone else who's trying to create new projects,

I think it's going to be very difficult to launch a new project or new art collection that is actually successful. Um, then I think on the flip side, you're going to see a lot more use cases of NFTs that have nothing to do with art or luxury or high end expensive assets. I think you're going to see NFTs used for a subscriber. There are a lot

more options to apps NFTs as subscriptions to communities and services. We're going to see NFTs used to hold data. Right. So like you, you know, people can hold their medical data or their, you know, professional certificates or, you know, maybe they're like personal, um, their personal data like their social security and, you know, different identifiers. So I think we're going to be able to hold them

within NFTs and control them and manage who has access to them. I think we're going to see NFTs used a lot more for like very kind of. Very practical use cases that really have nothing to do with, with making a lot of money. So are you applying that, that NFTs can be a long term investment. Um, I think that NFTs can be a long term investment,

you know, if you're, if you're investing on the luxury side, right? Like, luxury art and assets, etc. Um, but I think that on the, I think that it's just very risky. If you're trying to invest, if you're trying to invest in NFTs to build wealth, it's very risky. And you really have to spend the time to study and understand what you're doing. Um, but I think

that. There's going to be a lot of people buying NFTs that are not necessarily worth a lot of money, but provide value, provide utility. That's, that's valuable to them. Great. Great. So that's encouraging to hear. Now what's next for you. Is there going to be any events that you're going to be appearing that people should keep a lookout for. So they can meet you. Or are

you going to be, I'm going to be at Miami all traveling. If you're into the minibers, but I know that they're going to be doing a minibers concert. So. I probably won't be because I'm, I'm leaving Miami to move back to Atlanta, but. In terms of upcoming events, we do have a. We do have an event called free startup coaching. Very basic name. But we're offering

free coaching to startup founders. Through a partner of ours for tech misfits is named Axel Tillman. And she. He is a amazing like super experience. High level executive. He's worked at a number of Fortune 500 companies. He managed a $1 billion fund at one point as a CEO. Um, he's consulted over 120 different startups. He's been. He's been a board member for multiple companies that were

acquired or went public. And. So he promised to provide eight hours of coaching to people in our community that have a business and need help. So the first four hour session is going to be at the end of this month on March 23rd. So if you go to. If you go to the tech misfits website tech misfits app.com and you join the newsletter or join the

wait list. You'll get the emails announcing the event. You can also find the post on our social media as well. And sign up. Yeah. So that link will also be in the description down below is. Make sure you get involved and start your own NFT and cryptocurrency collection. And keep the ball rolling. I can't emphasize this enough. We need more people to jump on board and

the join this. This movement this world movement already. It's already changed the world in so many ways. We just need to make. The massive impact for sure. And is there anything you feel like we didn't go over that you want to just touch on base real quick or you feeling pretty good right now. Um, I'm feeling pretty good. I would say my question is, what is

the typical kind of makeup of your audience. My typical makeup is. They're mostly men between 25 and 44. The age. Mm hmm. Are they are they people that are active in in crypto web three. Are they mostly learning. So they are active. So most of them are in the KYC. Are you familiar with that. One of my. My name. My name cryptocurrency on their mobile apps

on their phone. God it got it got it. Okay. Okay. The KYC stand to me that stands to know your customers. Okay. Yeah, I would say, you know, for those of you that are listening, if you are, if you work in tech or if you work in science engineering art, math as a professional. Definitely check out our new communities tech misfits. Especially if you're passionate about

technology and if you're passionate about spreading the word about technology and helping more and more people get into tech, not just as consumers, but also as innovators. And I think that's really important for for people to understand is that the before a community of people can figure out how to innovate tech. They have to have tech literacy. Right. They have to know how to navigate and

use technology to solve their own problems. And then they can start to think, okay, how can I create new technology. How can I innovate. Um, and then that innovation benefits the world. So, uh, if you're passionate about tech, tech innovation. If you're passionate about tech, tech innovation. If you're passionate about spreading access to tech, definitely check out tech misfits because I think this is the place

to be. I come across people all the time who are passionate about this, along with myself. And I've never been able to find one place where we can all hang out. Um, no matter what organization we have, no matter what conference we're doing, no matter what, you know, uh, organization or nonprofit we have. Right. We all have state the similar interests. And sometimes we're like, can

we get a lot of information about that? We're competing against each other. And I think it's really important that we have a place where we're not competing, but where we're collaborating and learning from each other. So that's what we're planning to build. Um, I really sincerely apologize for the last, the last, um, appointment that we had. And, you know, it shows your character, it shows your

character. And I really appreciate you working with me and taking the time. Cause I know you're a busy woman. And you're dealing with, with blockchain technology and NFTs. And it's just, there's just so much work yet to be done. And we, we're barely at the tip of the iceberg. And there's just, uh, I salute you for sure. And I'm, um, I wish you the best with

your endeavors. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. All right. Take care. And, um, hopefully I'll see you around at events sometime. We'll keep in touch. Yeah. We'll do a follow up and see how you're doing. Sounds good. Sounds perfect. Take it easy. By Iris. Bye. Did you know that podcasts are a great way to grow your personal and business brand

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