By Alli and Regan

About Fem3 Voices

Earlier this year, Newstand published Alli's article, "Fem3." The piece outlined the importance of including women and nonbinary (NB) individuals in building the foundations of Web3. "Fem3'' argued that we all can, and should, commit to onboarding and retaining more diverse talent and voices into this space. That commitment includes uplifting successful women and NB-led projects, work, and perspectives. This series, "Fem3 Voices," aims to do just that.

This interview series highlights the voices of powerful women and NB players in the web3 ecosystem. Each interview will be recorded on Twitter Spaces and accompanied by a subsequent article on Alli and Regan's mirror pages.

This week we spoke with Gaby Goldberg. Gaby is a writer and an investor at TCG crypto. She is also a Twitter influencer and perhaps most well known in the space for her web3 reading list– an excellent curation of information for newbies to crypto.

Journey to Web3

Gaby's infatuation with digital life and the Internet began at a young age. While she grew up with the Internet, like all of her Gen-Z peers, she developed an early relationship and presence in online communities because she was selectively mute until the age of 5. As a result, Gaby found refuge online in games like Minecraft, Runescape, and their respective communities. By the time she was a teenager, she had built connections and brands through her viral Tumblr blog. When COVID-19 lockdowns began in spring of 2020, and many of us struggled to sustain our social relationships and interactions from "real life" in a more digitized world, Gaby was transported to her interconnected life of the past: "in a lot of ways, I had had this experience of truly living a, like, digital life before COVID. And so in large part I was able to sort of thrive during COVID because I was so used to spending my time online."

Like many others, Gaby lost her job in the pandemic. Luckily, she quickly found her footing with Chapter One. In her time there, Gaby was introduced to the concept of the "creator economy," but quickly perceived that the existing tools and projects surrounding said economy were only "bringing us halfway there," so she began to dig in and research a bit deeper.

There were two pivotal moments for Gaby that transitioned her fully into the world of Web3. In her early research on the creator economy, Gaby learned that Apple takes 30% of the revenue from creators who place their apps on the Apple Store. This astounded her: “maybe for a big business 30% is just a line on the balance sheet but for creators and for all of these companies who preach about people being their own business online 30% is a lot of money.”

Her second “aha” moment occurred when Facebook and its host of apps, including Whatsapp and Instagram, went down for a few hours last year. She realized, “like holy shit, these companies go down tomorrow and if they take away our platform tomorrow – especially for creators and influencers who make a living online – they would have nothing.”

These moments struck something in Gaby. She wondered what it would mean for creators to own their data: "what would it mean to have ownership in these platforms that we already build and operate every day?" Motivated by this question, Gaby jumped headfirst into Web3 and found a home at TCG, where she currently works as an investor focused on the intersection of consumer and crypto.

Gaby’s Mission

Before her journey in Web3, Gaby, like many other people, initially struggled to find her purpose. She comes from a family of doctors and saw how fulfilled her family members were in their work during the pandemic– she quickly realized she didn't have that same fulfillment in what she was doing. When she started engaging with the Web3 ecosystem, Gaby began to derive joy and purpose through exploring the core values of the Internet: decentralization, community ownership, and other dynamic aspects of the Internet.

Venture capital empowered Gaby to connect to those core values while helping people tell their stories and build toward their purpose. As a writer, Gaby enjoys developing and sharing narratives. As an investor, she recognizes capital is one of the most efficient ways to help someone tell their story: "I feel really lucky to be in this position where you have like all of these resources behind you, this gas in the tank, like equity to support the narratives you care about."

Gender-Identity

When she first started in venture, Gaby quickly noticed that she was often the only woman on her daily Zoom calls. In the beginning, she thought about her gender often, and at times she saw her gender identity as a factor making it difficult for her to find a voice. Ultimately, she decided to champion her voice through long-form writing and storytelling that she could share with others. She was, and is, dedicated to using her voice and work in the ecosystem to ensure that "no other young woman entering this space is again like the only girl in the Zoom call."

When asked her advice for other young women or non-binary individuals entering the Web3 space, she stressed the importance of finding and using your voice. She said she sees her writing as “the highest ROI thing” she has ever done for her career, particularly in web3, where she perceives things like her gender and lack of college degree as being “less visible.” There is inherent power, she believes, in sharing your thoughts and voice with the web3 ecosystem: “the only thing [you can] be judged for is what [you have] to say.”

In addition to working toward using her voice to encourage and elevate other women in the ecosystem, Gaby additionally hopes to support women in her work as an investor. One of Gaby’s role models in investing is Talia Goldberg (not her sister, despite the frequent confusion given the same last name). Part of Talia’s portfolio investment strategy includes a commitment to 50% of her portfolio consisting of women-founded or women-led companies. As a woman, established voice, and investor in Web3, Gaby is dedicated to doing the same– we could not be more excited to watch and support her in that journey.

If you’d like to listen to the twitter recording of Gaby’s interview, you can find that here.

Alli is the Director of Education of Events at Variant Fund, a first-check crypto fund investing in the ownership economy.

Regan is a senior at USC and working part time with Opyn as Associate of Education and Community.

By Alli and Regan

About Fem3 Voices

Earlier this year, Newstand published Alli's article, "Fem3." The piece outlined the importance of including women and nonbinary (NB) individuals in building the foundations of Web3. "Fem3'' argued that we all can, and should, commit to onboarding and retaining more diverse talent and voices into this space. That commitment includes uplifting successful women and NB-led projects, work, and perspectives. This series, "Fem3 Voices," aims to do just that.

This interview series highlights the voices of powerful women and NB players in the web3 ecosystem. Each interview will be recorded on Twitter Spaces and accompanied by a subsequent article on Alli and Regan's mirror pages.

This week we spoke with Gaby Goldberg. Gaby is a writer and an investor at TCG crypto. She is also a Twitter influencer and perhaps most well known in the space for her web3 reading list– an excellent curation of information for newbies to crypto.

Journey to Web3

Gaby's infatuation with digital life and the Internet began at a young age. While she grew up with the Internet, like all of her Gen-Z peers, she developed an early relationship and presence in online communities because she was selectively mute until the age of 5. As a result, Gaby found refuge online in games like Minecraft, Runescape, and their respective communities. By the time she was a teenager, she had built connections and brands through her viral Tumblr blog. When COVID-19 lockdowns began in spring of 2020, and many of us struggled to sustain our social relationships and interactions from "real life" in a more digitized world, Gaby was transported to her interconnected life of the past: "in a lot of ways, I had had this experience of truly living a, like, digital life before COVID. And so in large part I was able to sort of thrive during COVID because I was so used to spending my time online."

Like many others, Gaby lost her job in the pandemic. Luckily, she quickly found her footing with Chapter One. In her time there, Gaby was introduced to the concept of the "creator economy," but quickly perceived that the existing tools and projects surrounding said economy were only "bringing us halfway there," so she began to dig in and research a bit deeper.

There were two pivotal moments for Gaby that transitioned her fully into the world of Web3. In her early research on the creator economy, Gaby learned that Apple takes 30% of the revenue from creators who place their apps on the Apple Store. This astounded her: “maybe for a big business 30% is just a line on the balance sheet but for creators and for all of these companies who preach about people being their own business online 30% is a lot of money.”

Her second “aha” moment occurred when Facebook and its host of apps, including Whatsapp and Instagram, went down for a few hours last year. She realized, “like holy shit, these companies go down tomorrow and if they take away our platform tomorrow – especially for creators and influencers who make a living online – they would have nothing.”

These moments struck something in Gaby. She wondered what it would mean for creators to own their data: "what would it mean to have ownership in these platforms that we already build and operate every day?" Motivated by this question, Gaby jumped headfirst into Web3 and found a home at TCG, where she currently works as an investor focused on the intersection of consumer and crypto.

Gaby’s Mission

Before her journey in Web3, Gaby, like many other people, initially struggled to find her purpose. She comes from a family of doctors and saw how fulfilled her family members were in their work during the pandemic– she quickly realized she didn't have that same fulfillment in what she was doing. When she started engaging with the Web3 ecosystem, Gaby began to derive joy and purpose through exploring the core values of the Internet: decentralization, community ownership, and other dynamic aspects of the Internet.

Venture capital empowered Gaby to connect to those core values while helping people tell their stories and build toward their purpose. As a writer, Gaby enjoys developing and sharing narratives. As an investor, she recognizes capital is one of the most efficient ways to help someone tell their story: "I feel really lucky to be in this position where you have like all of these resources behind you, this gas in the tank, like equity to support the narratives you care about."

Gender-Identity

When she first started in venture, Gaby quickly noticed that she was often the only woman on her daily Zoom calls. In the beginning, she thought about her gender often, and at times she saw her gender identity as a factor making it difficult for her to find a voice. Ultimately, she decided to champion her voice through long-form writing and storytelling that she could share with others. She was, and is, dedicated to using her voice and work in the ecosystem to ensure that "no other young woman entering this space is again like the only girl in the Zoom call."

When asked her advice for other young women or non-binary individuals entering the Web3 space, she stressed the importance of finding and using your voice. She said she sees her writing as “the highest ROI thing” she has ever done for her career, particularly in web3, where she perceives things like her gender and lack of college degree as being “less visible.” There is inherent power, she believes, in sharing your thoughts and voice with the web3 ecosystem: “the only thing [you can] be judged for is what [you have] to say.”

In addition to working toward using her voice to encourage and elevate other women in the ecosystem, Gaby additionally hopes to support women in her work as an investor. One of Gaby’s role models in investing is Talia Goldberg (not her sister, despite the frequent confusion given the same last name). Part of Talia’s portfolio investment strategy includes a commitment to 50% of her portfolio consisting of women-founded or women-led companies. As a woman, established voice, and investor in Web3, Gaby is dedicated to doing the same– we could not be more excited to watch and support her in that journey.

If you’d like to listen to the twitter recording of Gaby’s interview, you can find that here.

Alli is the Director of Education of Events at Variant Fund, a first-check crypto fund investing in the ownership economy.

Regan is a senior at USC and working part time with Opyn as Associate of Education and Community.