Digital Social Hour
Secrets Behind Building a $1B Crypto Brand | Luca Netz DSH #1210
Fri, 28 Feb 2025
🚀 Discover the "Secrets Behind Building a $1B Crypto Brand" with Luca Netz on the Digital Social Hour! 💡 In this captivating episode, Luca shares his incredible journey of transforming Pudgy Penguins into a cultural phenomenon and a billion-dollar crypto brand. From navigating the NFT market to launching revolutionary tokens like $PENYU, this conversation is packed with valuable insights for entrepreneurs, crypto enthusiasts, and anyone looking to make waves in Web3. 🌐 🔥 Get the inside scoop on: - The rise of Pudgy Penguins and its global impact 🌟 - Bold strategies that redefined the NFT and crypto space 🐧 - How Luca overcame challenges and built an unstoppable team 💪 - The role of memes, community, and cultural relevance in crypto success 🎯 Tune in now and join the conversation! Don't miss out on this inspiring and action-packed episode. Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:28 - Crypto Bull Run 01:40 - Pengu Launch 04:06 - Pengu to the Moon 06:57 - Pengu Community 12:05 - Introvert in an Extroverted World 15:02 - Pivotal Decisions for Pudgy Penguins 17:20 - Acquiring Frame 18:34 - The Public Fumble 21:35 - The Chip on Your Shoulder 27:20 - Keys to Success 30:47 - Gifting List Ideas 33:50 - Meme Page Content Strategy 40:40 - Documenting the Journey 45:59 - LeBron vs. MJ Debate 50:00 - What Separates the Greats 51:50 - Getting Involved with Pudgy Penguins APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [email protected] GUEST: Luca Netz https://www.instagram.com/lucanetz/ LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ #crypto #cryptobanter #ethereum #cryptonewstoday #cryptonews
Chapter 1: What factors are influencing the current crypto bull run?
Yeah. You've been up to a lot in the past two years. Just a little. Yeah. And now it's a crypto bull run, they say, right? Yeah. A weird bull run, but a bull run nonetheless.
Yeah. What makes this one weird? It's just... The other ones were a lot more explosive, but this one might, this might be good. It might be a new era for crypto with the ETFs and things like that. So I think with a little less explosiveness, maybe a little less nukage.
Yeah. Well, Bitcoin reclaimed 100K yesterday, right? Yeah. Trump seems to be very pro-crypto. Super. Announcing a crypto reserve, potentially no tax on crypto, which would be nuts. Crazy. You know, right now it's like 40%. So that'd be huge. Yeah. Are you into politics at all?
Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty political, but because of my positioning at Pudgy, I'm not really transparent on my political stance.
That makes sense, man. Ripple's pumping. You got any Ripple? I don't, but kudos to those guys. I didn't see that one coming, to be honest. Me neither. I mean, I always heard it was like the future of banking years ago. I just never took it serious. They did good with that narrative.
Yeah. Apparently they make a ton of money. And I think the institutions, they have huge PMF with the institutions.
Absolutely. You got Pangu that launched. Congrats on the launch. Appreciate it. What's the plan for that?
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Chapter 2: How did the launch of Pengu impact the NFT space?
I think the thesis is like, When you look at these memetic tokens, this idea that memetic tokens should do nothing and be nothing, I think is such a disservice to the category. If you understand the Pudgy Penguin lore and the story, a lot of the memetic culture that you see today very much was originated through that community and through that culture back that they started in 2021.
And then you kind of look at what does Pengu need to be and what does Pudgy Penguins need to be to kind of take it to the next level. It's very much a cultural phenomenon. And so Pengu today is a memetic cultural coin that I think is going to push the boundaries and continue to break barriers within the industry around what I think these type of tokens can ultimately be.
And it's predicated on trying to continue to do things in crypto that I think only we can do. And so it's a really interesting position it's in today. One that I think was really necessary for this ecosystem to kind of take that next leg forward. And I think it's going to follow the same path that the NFTs has followed. over the last couple of years.
Yeah, I thought the launch was excellent. Most NFTs launch coins, and they don't do too well, if we're being honest. Yeah. You know?
Yeah, we gave $1.2 billion to the people. Crazy. You know? PodG has always been for the people, by the people. And so not only did we give, I think, $600, $700 million to our NFT holders, we gave $600, $700 million to a bunch of crypto users, both within the Ethereum and the Solana ecosystem.
And again, I think it just comes down to the story that we're trying to tell, which is like, I want Pudgy Penguins and Pengu to be the face of crypto, the mascot of crypto. I think it's this cycle's cultural phenomenon. And it just seemed like the right way and the right strategy to do it. And so a lot of people are happy. I think we have like 650,000 on-chain holders.
one of the biggest tokens on-chain from a holder base within four weeks. And I'm pretty sure by the time 2025 is over, it'll be the biggest on-chain holder base in crypto.
Incredible. I was watching you on Scott Hill's show. Shout out to Scott. And you were saying how you wanted Pudgy to be the face of penguins overall. Not just like a Pudgy penguin, but the actual penguin animal.
Yeah. There's two facets, right? Because Pudgy also is a very successful web two business, right? And that web two business is capturing a category around the penguin that I think very few companies are capturing. And so on one side of the spectrum, when people think penguins, I want them to think pudgy penguins.
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Chapter 3: What strategies helped Pudgy Penguins become a global phenomenon?
Yeah, it's a family, dude. I can go to any country, any city around the world and have a place to stay.
That's crazy. It's insane. So you're staying at holders' houses?
I'm not staying at holders' houses. What I'm saying, if I wanted to, I could. There isn't a place that I can't go and have dinner and hang out with people. It's a pretty crazy ecosystem, to say the least. And it's one that... I'm super grateful for, you know, that's the beauty of the pudgy.
I say this all the time and most people, you know, I said this years ago, but the pudgy community is so much more different because of the nature of the IP. Right. And, and the reason being is it's less of a demographic and more of a psychographic. And so the psychographic around people who wear the pudgy penguin NFT and participate within the pudgy penguin ecosystem,
It is a very wholesome, kind, funny, wholehearted, advanced, sophisticated. It's just like, you don't have these weird people that I think some of these communities have. Obviously there's always an anomaly and there's always an outlier. But the sum of the Pudgy Penguin community is really everything for everyone, right? You have community for elite traders.
You have women in the community, a vast majority of women. I think probably the highest concentration in an ecosystem of women, I think, in crypto. Wow. And you have 15-year-olds, you have 60-year-olds, you have people in Asia, you have people in America, people from all walks of life and different professions. And that is predicated around the universal nature of the IP.
So one of the things that made me really excited about Pudgy Penguins was that it was so universal, right? Like everyone can identify with it. Anyone can resonate with it. And thus the TAM for demand is boundless, right? There's almost like no handicap in terms of the TAM.
You know, you could argue at one point with Bored Apes, there was a certain demographic and psychographic of people that just didn't resonate with that as amazing of a masterclass that was. You know, there was always a ceiling on the TAM in regards to where I thought that could go. Doge, maybe less so. But yeah, I think it's really fascinating. So to your point, yeah, I'm in Asia.
We're just as big in Asia as we are in America. It's pretty fascinating. I can bring more people out at an event in Singapore than I think I can anywhere else in the world. Damn. For sure. That's impressive. And so it's an amazing... You were around when I was thinking about buying it, when I started to buy it. You couldn't have seen... This was in the upper percentile of what could have happened.
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Chapter 4: How does Luca Netz handle being an introvert in a social industry?
This is my crew. This is my, you know, it's a once in a lifetime crew. Every weakness that one of us has, the other one, it's their strength. Wow. So we're covered on every base, from the technology side, to the creative, to the strategy, to the operations, to the championing and leadership.
Every single weakness that, if I have a weakness, somebody else of those four guys supplements that weakness.
So you've identified your weaknesses? Yeah, totally. A long time ago. That's important, right? For business owners. Yeah.
A lot of people never take time to reflect on what they're good, what they're about at. I mean, dude, I made my whole career. I never owned 100% of anything. I think we talked about this on the last podcast. I never owned 100% of anything because I know what I'm not good at.
And so why I'd rather have a smaller percentage of a bigger pie and a better lifestyle to a degree than try to go and take everything myself because I know what I'm not good at.
Absolutely. You mentioned pivotal decisions earlier. What are some that stand out to you for Pudgy Penguins where it was like a make or break kind of moment?
Licensing the NFT IP from the holders to make the products. So every product that you see on shelf in Walmart, Target, and everywhere else is actually an NFT held from the holder. The symbolism around that I think was really important at that time. because there was really an extractive industry. And here we came, the little guy, And we kind of also reinvented the IP business too.
We didn't really intentionally do that, but this idea that first edition collectors can be participants and not every single person within your brand ecosystem is just a consumer, right?
So in this case, if you're a Pudgy Penguin NFT holder, you have the opportunity to participate in the growth of the brand, whether it's the products or the characters, and we license that from you and we give you a royalty in perpetuity. That was a really big decision. The toy deal and us getting and starting those physical products was big. Doing that at that time was big.
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Chapter 5: What pivotal decisions shaped the success of Pudgy Penguins?
Um, but yeah, the mailing list, that's an underrated marketing tactic. I remember getting stuff from prime when they started feastables and you know, people make videos, they get millions of views and you set, you spent like 20 bucks sending them something, you know, it's such a good method for marketing, especially if you're like a gorilla marketing. Yeah.
Uh, the next one I want to talk about is the meme page content strategy. You guys are getting 40 million views a month, right? Off the videos that pudgy penguins, the male and the female penguin.
Oh, on Instagram. On Instagram. It depends what month. Some month it can be 500 million views. Some months it can be 100 million views. Yeah, that does pretty well. Actually, because I think it's more of an interest, one unbeknownst to most is probably the GIFs and the stickers. Really? I'm clocking 300 million impressions a day.
Holy crap.
On stickers and GIFs. You could pull it up on Giphy on the chart.
Yeah, no, my editors have used those without my discretion on the clips.
It's a complete clinic. And if I, I never said this before, but I'll give you the alpha. I'm probably spending 20 grand a month on gifts and stickers and I'm getting call it 4 billion impressions a month.
Wow.
So you just do the math on that CPM. That's the best CPM I've ever heard. Of all time. Yeah. Now the problem is it's not a direct conversion, so no one does it. Right. Right? But in my business, it's a direct conversion because girlfriend sends pudgy pengu gif to whale. Whale's like, what? Whale puts a million bucks on pengu or a million bucks on pudgy penguin NFTs. There's a huge conversion.
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