The Autoverse is the first of its kind – a decentralized community to connect people around automobiles.
I launched The Autoverse because I love cars, and I enjoy them most with other people. The problem we’re trying to solve is that the automotive sector has absolutely enormous barriers to access for newcomers – including cost to participate, snobbishness of automotive tribes, and outright sexism. I wanted to figure out how to engage enthusiasts and encourage them in a fun, meaningful, and self-sustaining way.
I was inspired to launch this community after reading Andrew Chen’s The Cold Start Problem – How to Start and Scale Network Effects. I thought long and hard about how to engage and activate people – and this book convinced me that the “hard side” of the problem for us was going to be onboarding creators, not consumers.
But something interesting was also happening then, an absolute explosion of a phenomenon called web3. Like essentially everyone on the outside looking in, I thought it was absolutely ridiculous: Why would someone pay millions of dollars for a cartoon picture of an ape?
That said, I was fascinated — and admittedly a little perturbed — by the phenomenon and sought to understand what could possibly compel so many people to part with so much cash – and to build their own language and identity. So much so that many of them are identified only by their cartoon avatar profile picture.
Then it hit me: IDENTITY. That’s exactly it. Identity, community, and belonging. “I’m an Ape” or a Punk. These profile picture projects seem to have activated massive, deeply rooted human motivations to be part of something, with other people.
And that’s when I decided to launch The Autoverse. Yes, we started with an NFT collection – but that was never the point itself for me – it was always about activating a kind of community that we wanted to be a part of, and that we believe can be a force for good in the world.
I can’t wait to meet you – and to have ridiculous fun in The Autoverse.
Founder