Big Inc. is hiring!
I applied for a job this week. Was it at a top web3 company like OpenSea, Alchemy, or Consensys? Nope.
It was at Big Inc.
Big Inc. is the brainchild of Truth Labs. This is the team that created Goblintown, one of the most memorable NFT projects of 2022.
Similar to how Goblintown captivated the NFT community at its peak, Big Inc. is building a reputation of its own as well. So what is Big Inc. all about?
Iâll let the Big Inc homepage do the talking.
The page simultaneously celebrates and makes fun of NFT, corporate, and degen culture:
âThis is a lack-of-skill-based mintâ (making fun of Dookey Dashâs skill based mint)
âEmpty bags? Emptier soul? Big Inc is looking for individuals who are sad, down bad and have no choice in life but to accept the only offer available.â
âBig Perk #10: You can leave sometimes!â
In order to âapplyâ to Big Inc., visitors have to connect their wallet. The application consists of 3 questions that poke fun at the traditional job application process, like âWhat does SYNERGY stand for?â
After answering the questions, applicants receive their application badge and rank. The higher your point total, the worse of a NFT trader you are. Negative scores indicate that the wallet has made profitable trades.
The top 1000 worst traders will be able to mint this collection for free, with wash traders (eg: buying/selling NFTs at volume to earn points on secondary marketplaces) being disqualified from the scoreboard.
Fun concept and in tune with the culture, what else?
Leaning into character
In the world of acting, becoming your character helps with delivering a convincing performance. For example Christian Bale gained 40 pounds to play Dick Cheney in Backseat. Margot Robbie trained for 5 months, 5 days a week for her ice skating role in I, Tonya.
Big Inc. is faceless, but is no different in leaning into the dry corporate-leaning humor that makes the project more convincing and engaging than most.
The Big Inc Twitter account encourages prospects to apply with stock videos that remind me of corporate training.
They also have been regularly tweeting out classic motivational work posters. The hashtags are a perfect addition.
I hope they actually sell or gift these posters out to their future holders. Gotta love the hashtags too đ
What really raised my eyebrows was that you could schedule interviews with the team on their Calendly. I unfortunately missed my interview (terrible, I know), but if any of you have 30 minutes to spare on Saturday, it might be worth it just for kicks.
If not, hereâs a recording of one of the group interviews.
What can we learn from Big Inc., even if weâre rejected?
Understanding web3 culture
Surprise, surprise. The best projects in the space need to understand how the space works. Signing up for an allowlist raffle on Premint? Been there. Creating a website with a roadmap? Done that.
Nothing wrong with those tactics, but if you arenât a large brand name entering the space and want to make a splash, you have to do things differently. Truth Labs has done that with Goblintown. Maybe they can make lightning strike twice with Big Inc.
Big brands are coming and will focus on traditional strategies and tactics, but they can still take notes from whatâs happening at Big Inc.
Leveraging Virality
Attention and virality are the name of the game, and Big Inc. incorporates some novel twists to do it:
Ranking system and sharing your rank for an extra 5,000 points: Even if you have negative points, youâd want to share it because that would mean youâre a profitable trader, and youâd want to brag about that.
Getting the community to engage: Because Big Inc. pokes fun at corporate workplace culture, there are more touchpoints for engagement. Itâs not just about web3 and NFTs.
Itâs an experience: There are multiple layers to this. Most people would just connect their wallet and share their score, but some curious applicants sign up for the group job interviews. This creates waves of virality and more opportunities for awareness to be spread.
Also, shoutout to Big Inc. for their memes. Theyâre so good I donât have to make any for todayâs piece đ
The last interesting bit is Truthâs CEO shared some backstory on how Big Inc. was created.
One particular bullet point caught my eyeâŠ
And that leads us toâŠ
An Upepedate on PEPE
If you donât know what PEPE is, check out my overview on the memecoin 2 weeks ago.
Shitcoins and memecoins are not for the faint of heart. As the space has been consumed by this meta over the past several weeks, there have been countless rug pulls, scams, and a lot of money lost (or won if youâre sharp).
However, one coin has stood at the top for the time being: PEPE.
Since two weeks ago:
Note: Holder count is likely undercounted since users on centralized exchanges are not counted here.
Wow, big numbers and growth, but Iâm not here to tell you to buy PEPE. You shouldnât if you donât know whatâs going on.
Rather, the evolution of this memecoin has led to some interesting examples of interoperability and creativity.
Examples of Interopeperability
I swear Iâll stop with the insertion of âpepeâ wherever possible.
2 weeks ago, Manifold incorporated PEPE as a form of payment.
What are some other interesting examples since then?
As mentioned above, Big Inc. is providing a 50% discount on their project if the NFT is minted in PEPE. Thatâs the first Iâve seen, and wonder if more projects will launch with similar pricing mechanics.
KillaBears, a respected NFT project in the space, purchased 100 ETH (~$180-$190k) worth of PEPE several days ago.
Why? Is this a speculative investment from an irresponsible company? Not quite.
Artists are continuing to sell their art in PEPE:
Other Pepe related projects are running PEPE contests:
Holding PEPE as a requirement for giveaways:
This type of interoperability isnât groundbreaking, but it really shows how quickly adoption and integration can be when there is some degree of social consensus.
Weâll see where PEPE goes from here. What took DOGE years has taken PEPE weeks, and itâs been fascinating to watch from a front row seat.
Arkham Intelligence
I have a few invites to Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics platform. As you can tell, Iâm a big fan of visualization and enjoy numbers. If you do too, youâll like Arkham. Shoutout tofor the invite.
Reply to this e-mail or DM if you want access.
See you next week!
