How Do You Turn A Web3 Startup Into A Billion Dollar Business?

This week luxury global fashion marketplace Farfetch and leading global Web3 accelerator Outlier Ventures announced the first cohort of startups in their 12 week Dream Assembly Base Camp accelerator program.

The eight companies—altr, Curie, iiNDYVERSE, METAV.RS, Mintouge, Reblium, SKNUPS and WearNFT—are focused on defining the future of Web3 luxury commerce.

The program taking in luxury commerce, token design & economics, product roadmap, NFT & community strategy will be supported by leading figures in the gaming, retail, marketing, talent management and venture capital.

Outlier Ventures network includes Snoop Dog, Cathy Hackl, Joel Zimmerman (aka deadmau5) and Shaun Neff. To date it has helped raise $350m in seed funding across its varied accelerator programs for over 200 Web3 startups across DeFi, NFTs luxury fashion, music and gaming.

Here, founder and CEO, Jamie Burke discusses the roadmap for the multi-billion dollar future of Web3.

Is the focus of Dream Assembly Base Camp business or consumer orientated?

Jamie Burke: The projects in the cohort demonstrate a balanced split between brand-facing SaaS products that address the NFT lifecycle and metaverse-native initiatives that are more consumer-facing and driven by aesthetics.

What’s the endgame?

JB: To accelerate their learning and execution from what might have taken years to just several months. For every founder the requirements and needs are different. We have founders from a variety of backgrounds from serial entrepreneurs to alumni of top tech companies. For those with a classic equity based business whose digital product just happens to be NFTs it can be to raise venture capital. For others, it’s building an entirely decentralized network and token economy.

What are Outlier’s most recent success stories?

JB: We have supported the launch and growth of several billion-dollar crypto economies including Boson Protocol, a metaverse ecommerce stack or ‘dCommerce’ (decentralized commerce). We have helped brands such as Tommy Hilfiger to bridge digital to physical commerce in the metaverse, along with Auroboros, the first metaverse fashion house to create NFT digital-only AI infused couture.

In terms of the development of Web3 and the metaverse is the next big milestone?

JM: We are still waiting for our Facebook moment. When you have a native social media which goes mainstream and brings Web3 and its principles and culture to the masses. What does the social graph look like in Web3?

This is the billion dollar question. But more important to us is our goal of multi-billions of users. Over the next decade we forecast to back over 2,000 Web3 founders, who will hire 40,000 staff and raise $20billion in funding over their life-cycles. Between them, we expect that they will onboard the first billion users into Web3 and the Open Metaverse.

This interview has been condensed for clarity.

Meet the first cohort of Dream Assembly Base Camp

altr: Digital fashion platform dedicated to unlocking the value of cultural heritage and archival fashion in the metaverse.

Curie: Creates 3D digital twins at scale using proprietary AI technologies to fully-automate the production of 3D assets using only photos as input.

iiNDYVERSE: Web3 marketing & commerce no-code SaaS platform with gamified shoppable experiences.

METAV.RS: All-in-one metaverse management platform for brands and agencies, providing white-label solutions for NFT commerce and cross-metaverse experiences.

Mintouge: E-Commerce plug-in enabling luxury brands to on-ramp their product catalogues to Web3.

Reblium: Premium avatar experience enabling users to scan their face in seconds to create cross-metaverse avatars.

SKNUPS: Enabling the creation of high-quality digital collectibles that connect into multiple games, experiences and Metaverses.

Wear NFT: One-stop-shop NFT platform for luxury brands and artists from product creation to marketplace.