Kevin Horek: Welcome back to the learner.co show.
Today we have Seree Raju.
She's the co-founder at One Rare Sape.
Great to chat with you
Supreet Raju: again.
Oh, thank you so much for having me, Kevin.
Always a pleasure.
Kevin Horek: Yeah, I, I really think what you guys are doing at one rare is
really, really innovative and cool, and finally gives some really good context
to blockchain and N F T and, and I think could give our listeners some really
good advice and thoughts around that.
But maybe before we get into that, let's get to know you a little bit better
and start off with where you grew up.
Supreet Raju: Uh, I grew up in New Delhi, India.
Uh, I did my schooling, my college there.
I'm actually a design graduate, so very left field for this industry.
Uh, but yes, I love that . I think, I think the industry
needs that, to be honest.
I think every industry needs a bit of everyone to come in.
Totally.
So, yeah, I kind of come from a design background and, uh, just been doing
a lot in that all my life till I landed up in the blockchain industry.
Kevin Horek: Okay.
So what made you passionate about design at an early
Supreet Raju: age?
Uh, I was actually, um, one of those kids who knew exactly what
they wanted to do when she was six.
Uh, and so I decided I wanted to be a fashion designer and that was it.
And, uh, I kind of geared my entire school life to do that.
You know, behind every notebook was a sketch, an illustration.
I was so sure I gave only one entrance, uh, to the best fashion
college there is in India.
I got into that and I thought I was set for life.
Uh, except that my first semester into that course I
realized this is not what I want.
So, yeah, I was, I was one of those kids who knew exactly what they wanted
to do till they didn't know anything about it, . So I, I was the one
struggling much later in life, I guess.
Kevin Horek: So what made you dislike doing it and being in school
Supreet Raju: for it?
I think I just read school and I realize that there are people more creative
and more passionate about it than I am.
And I'm a strong believer that if I, uh, if I would not enjoy what I'm doing
or if I feel I'm inadequate at it, it wouldn't be the best fit for me.
I think we come, uh, we are from a generation where the
opportunities are immense.
There is no clear structure anymore to education, to professions,
to professional streams.
Uh, and I just, I thankfully came from a backing where my parents understood
that it's better for me to find my forte than to fit myself into one.
Uh, and so, yeah, I think, uh, just being in the passion industry told
me that I wouldn't be the best at it, and there would be somewhere else
that my skillset would perform much better, and I would enjoy that journey.
Kevin Horek: Interesting.
Okay.
So walk us through the rest of your university and then let's dive into your
career and coming up with the idea for
one
Supreet Raju: rare.
Okay, perfect.
So, yeah, so I mean the, I did not want to be a fashion designer, but
uh, I am, uh, I was fairly confident I wanted to do well, so I'm actually a
gold medalist from my college as well.
Uh, but I ended up specializing in textile design.
Uh, and I then gradually got into something called exhibition design,
which was to organize events and spaces for companies, uh, created design
experience, which is based on visual interaction and um, also, Be able to,
um, pass the message on, you know, what a company's trying to build to, uh,
help the com, uh, company communicate with the community, with an audience.
So I was doing that for, um, 10 years, uh, up until Covid hit.
And then everything we knew of our lives and our industry, uh, shut down overnight.
You know, being in the exhibition sector, uh, meant that, you know,
there were no more public interactions.
There was nothing happening anymore.
It was a standstill.
Uh, and that's when I started thinking about the next step.
Uh, for me, that was actually a much slower transition into blockchain.
I actually built an EdTech company first, which I ran for about a year.
Uh, and around that time, NFT started heating up as a word.
So I had done a bit of blockchain consulting before and when Crypto
punks came on the horizon towards January, 2021, uh, it felt like.
Something creative is finally coming to this industry.
Uh, and that's kind of how we started even, or at least that's
how I started thinking about how I could be relevant to this industry.
Kevin Horek: Very cool.
So your co-founder, I think.
Is interesting who you chose.
I want to dive a little bit deeper into that because I think there's some
pros and cons and I'm, I'm curious to know the pros and cons of working
Supreet Raju: with your type of co-founder
Yeah.
I, I, I think I, I, I don't know if I chose him as my co-founder first, but
I definitely chose him as my husband before that . Uh, and I think, um, over
the pandemic, it just became easier to actually be working with your own
husband because you're in the same space.
Uh, you don't have to go to work.
Sure.
Uh, and so it does have its own, uh, positives.
The main reason why we partnered up was actually because, uh,
we were consultants, all right?
For 10 years.
He was a consultant and so was I.
We could have, we ran, uh, different startups.
We could have partnered before, but this was the first time when
our skill sets fit in perfectly.
So I think, uh, rather than choosing my husband, what I actually chose for Wonder
is the best fit for me because I strongly believe that if you're trying to run a
company, uh, your co-founder should have a very varying skillset from what you have.
Uh, and in our case, God is an engineer and he has an extensive
background in marketing.
And I come from a design industry and I've worked on experiences.
So, uh, when we fit together, there was a bit of a gin and
yang that worked well for us.
And I think, um, any company, whether it's in web two or web three, um, should
really focus on getting founders that can bring different things to the table.
Because otherwise you'll be very strong at one thing and.
The company will have a major problem in something you both are not good at.
Kevin Horek: No, I, I think that's really good advice.
So how did you come up with the idea for one rare and what exactly
Supreet Raju: is it?
Okay, so with one rare, like I said, we were looking up NFTs, you know,
suddenly January, 2021 was the era of crypto punks and a bit of buzz starting
about, you know, how a 32 pixel piece of art can command a million now.
Uh, and that was fascinating and to me as a designer, it was even more
fascinating because, um, not, that's not something people talk about, but,
uh, crypto punks are actually bap art.
Uh, they're pixel art and it was completely, um, you know, pushed out of.
Popular design history because we were moving towards digital art and
it was changing at another level.
And I think, uh, crypto punks ha it has actually had much more social impact
than we realized because, uh, the idea of pixelated art has now transcended into
our regular fashion clothing accessories as well, which nobody talks about.
But that's how huge the impact of crypto punk has been.
Uh, and I found that very interesting when I saw it.
So this was around Jan and we started thinking about how NFTs can be used to
bring more people onto the blockchain.
Uh, and then when we started talking about.
The industry, we realized that, you know, being such a technical industry doesn't
really encourage a first time user.
You know, as a woman, as a non-tech person, as a a teenager who's
interested, there isn't enough clear information for people to understand.
There aren't enough projects building for the, uh, new user.
Everybody's building for the existing user.
You know, if you go and try out a game today, uh, they auto expect you
to know how to connect your wallet.
They expect you to understand what staking means.
They expect you to, uh, you know, know the whole risks and rewards
of playing a web three game.
Uh, and I thought that was a bit.
Uh, too much because we are a very new industry at the moment.
Uh, and so with One Red, the idea was to bring in food, uh, as a very
simple verbal tool for communication.
You know, with the, when we look at food, all of us have a favorite food.
We have something that, you know, our moms made.
We have a travel memory.
Um, there's just something so special about food that helps
people feel more comfortable.
So we thought, okay, let's, we can do this.
Let's bring out food NFTs, but instead of just putting out NFTs for the heck of
it, um, let's do something a bit more.
And so we came up with a very small game initially about how, uh, we
need to collect ingredient NFTs to actually make the dish nft.
So let's say you want to get the french fry nft, uh, you need to collect cooking
oil, potato, and salt, which is the exact same way we would do in our kitchen.
. And of course in the pandemic everyone was cooking . So everybody was very
well aware about what each thing needs.
So that was kind of the start of one rare where we thought that
here's food, people understand it.
Um, let's do something fun around food that allows people to kind of
just see the basics of blockchain.
Kevin Horek: Okay.
So maybe do you want to give us the difference between an N F
T, how that ties to blockchain?
And then I know you don't really do crypto, but do you want
to talk about that quickly?
Just how, like the three parts of it, because I think some people
understand it and some people don't understand it at all.
And then some people understand itand bits and pieces
Supreet Raju: of it.
Absolutely no worries at all.
Uh, I was actually that person who would not understand any of it.
And so now I started creating, uh, simple life examples to kind of make
things easier for people and for myself.
Uh, so the most simple of terms, uh, blockchain essentially is a
new technology, uh, that allows you to actually document a lot more.
It's type of a ledger.
You know, let's say you have a diary at home where you've been noting down
your groceries of every day you've been noting down each thing that you do.
Uh, it's simply a record.
So with that record, we can now harness more technology because, you
know, you don't have to go storing things, it auto stores them for you.
Um, and so that is blockchain as a te.
, when we talk about blockchains today, we hear the word Solana, polygon, uh, b,
s, C, you know, so these are all chains.
Uh, and so what happens is that let's look at blockchain as a world, you
know, a virtual globe, if I will.
Uh, and then there are different countries, you know, so
there's the polygon country, there's the Solana country.
And so you can choose which city you want to go build your house on,
you know, so you can build it on Polygon or Solana, whichever you like.
And as any city in the world as where we are, uh, we then become inhabitants of
that city where we follow their rules.
We, uh, pay taxes, which we also call gas fees in our world
as that, uh, we basically.
Do our transactions in their particular currency, which
is the crypto that we have.
And tomorrow as we go along, let's say we are trading with each
other or we want to exchange any assets, uh, those will become NFTs.
So, uh, with regards to the world, that's how they connect
at a very, very simple level.
And t can.
Anything digital that can be recorded on your phone.
It could be a photo, it could be a land deed, um, it could be a piece of music.
Anything that we have on our phone, a contact card, as simple as that.
If you simply go punch it into the blockchain, you know, if you go
and note it into that diary that I mentioned, it becomes an N F T.
So the key here is that every time you're going and punching it into the
blockchain, you actually get a token id.
So there's a unique id, uh, which means that tomorrow in the world,
wherever it may go, it'll continue to hold that identification number,
which allows us to always spot it.
So when we talk about crypto, let's say, uh, you and I, Kevin, we put,
uh, one Bitcoin each into a wallet.
Now when we want to take it out, You know, we don't know whose Bitcoin was.
What, when we withdraw one each from the same wallet, so that becomes
fungible because we don't really know who put in which part of it.
Right.
It's kind of going mixed up.
So those are fungible tokens.
NFTs are non fungible tokens.
Uh, the exact opposite, wherein if you and I put in the same, uh,
let's say the same, um, crypto punk, of course they're not the same.
So I'm looking for a better example.
Let's say we put into one red french fries into the wallet.
Uh, even when we take them out, their token ID would hold.
So I would still know whether I have picked out the french fry you
put in or the one that I put in.
So Right, you're giving each particular piece of specific
identity, which makes them an N F T.
Kevin Horek: Got it.
No.
Very cool.
Okay, so how has one rare evolved over the last year to
launching to what it is today?
Supreet Raju: So actually it's been a very, very interesting journey
because, uh, now I can briefly say that we have ridden the bull and we
are now learning to ride the bear.
Uh, and awesome.
Across these one and a half years.
Uh, one red has evolved a lot as a product.
So, uh, like I said, we started as a very small N F T game idea.
Uh, the core focus then became to develop an MVP because, uh, this
industry is a lot more about words and a lot less about deliverables.
Uh, and so we wanted to go to the market with something.
We actually have, you know, not just a white paper that says that we
will build this in 2040, uh, which we wanted to make something now.
Uh, and so we built an MVP out by July and we took it to investors.
We started showing it around to get feedback, uh, and then that's
how one, you know, brick by brick started building and expanding.
As we got more angels and investors, we realized that, uh, you know,
firstly, , the NFTs that we are creating, the french fries or, uh, the pasta.
We need a use case for them.
They need to be useful to people.
Somebody needs to know why they're going to make this particular dish.
And so we came up with the idea of our playground, where you could go
play more games or access membership clubs using those NFTs, uh, get
the user more benefits essentially.
Uh, as we went along, you know, because of our angels and some people
around us, knowing other chefs and restaurants, uh, we started getting
pinged by the food industry about how they could come into this.
And so we started building a program where, let's say in stock french fries,
they could be McDonald's french fries, you know, incorporating brands and
bringing the signature dishes as well.
Uh, so that's how we started collaborating with chefs and restaurants.
Then as we kept building it more and more, we realized the,
um, the immense opportunity of bringing a traditional industry to
something as radical as blockchain.
Uh, and so after all the iterations and all the confusion I have just
created for you, , uh, I can just reword one where as the World's First
Food works, uh, which basically allows people to come into different zones
and interact with the food industry.
So we have our gaming zone, which is the first zone, which is currently already
live, uh, wherein you can come, you can collect NFTs, you can play different kind
of games and interact with other people.
Uh, following that, our other zones would include a celebrity chef zone
where you can basically be part of a.
Copper Chefs Private club, uh, you can attend their virtual cooking
classes, hold their N F T releases.
Uh, thirdly would be the virtual restaurant zone where you can come in
and, uh, experience restaurants, place online orders, check out their new menus,
and which is essentially great for home delivery kitchens and cloud kitchens
and, you know, people who want to, uh, showcase their brandy ethos without
being restricted by a physical space.
Uh, and then of course we would have an event zone, which is for our competitions
and special events that are time-based.
Uh, as well as having a community area where the community can come in, they
can build their own food experiences, they can, uh, contribute recipes and
be a part of one rare as a whole.
So what we are building is essentially all things food in
the blockchain on our planet.
Food works.
Kevin Horek: Very cool.
So can you give us some examples of some of the games on the platform today?
Supreet Raju: Yeah, absolutely.
So we are actually already live, uh, right now.
We have, we are completely audited.
Uh, if, uh, I mean for your audience, just in case audit is a third party,
uh, certification that you get that you basically cannot be hacked or,
you know, you, you worked hard to keep the security of your platform impact.
So we've already gone through that process.
We are audited by cert, which is one of the best nice in our field.
And, uh, so we are actually ready to go to main net and, uh, depending
on, you know, market conditions and depending on, uh, how we can structure
it, we'd like to, you know, have a nice little launch into our main net.
Uh, so what you can go and explore right now are four
different areas on our platform.
One red.io.
You can check out the farm where you can stake your tokens.
So we have.
Pools, uh, based on different themes, you know, the same way we shop, uh, or
you know, the way we get ingredients.
So we have farm fresh, which is fruit and vegetables.
Uh, we have sunshine dairy, which is daily based products and so on.
We have six pools.
You can go and speak the order token in any of these.
Uh, and as your reward, you actually get ingredient NFTs.
So we've actually created the world's first NFT staking contract wherein
basically you can stake the token and instead of a token reward, uh, you know,
just getting more and more tokens, you actually get ingredient NFTs so you can
use those and harvest those in our farm.
And after that you have two options.
You can head to the farmer's market, sell them to other builders, to other
shoppers there, bid the price you want to, you know, earn your money and maybe
go back to the farm to steak more.
Or you can go to the fa uh, the kitchen where you can check out all
our recipes beside what dish you want to build, uh, and build that out.
So once you have your dish, you can head to the playground.
Uh, we are actually just about to go live with our testnet for the food
truck ball game as well, which is our first game in the playground.
So what you need, what, um, need for that is a dish and it's like a
three player game where you need to earn the most for your food truck.
So as we go along, we will just keep adding more layers and more dimensions
to this game as well with booster cards, with more days and more options.
Uh, but the idea right now is to kind of show people an MVP there as.
. Very cool.
Kevin Horek: Can you quickly explain what staking is just for people
that don't know what that means?
Supreet Raju: Yeah, absolutely.
My bad.
I'm really sorry for . No, no, no, no.
It's good.
It's not bad , but, uh, staking in the simplest of terms, if you know
anybody who's not been a part of blockchain, I can say is the same as
getting a fixed deposit at a bank.
You know, uh, we have all these offers and all these schemes that happen at
banks wherein, you know, if you come and lock in an X amount of money, that is
good for the bank, that is good for the economy, and they reward you for that.
So in the same way in our world of web three, if you're staking a token,
that means you're locking it away.
Uh, it does not decrease, it does not increase on its own, but
there is a reward program for it.
So traditionally what we've seen for all these past years is that when you
stake a token, uh, the same as the bank, you just get more of the same currency.
Uh, what we have changed is that instead of, you know, getting more
tokens, you'll actually get NFTs now.
Kevin Horek: Got it.
Okay.
So how long does that staking process take in one rare.
Supreet Raju: So the staking is actually very dynamic and it'll completely
depend on how many other people are staked in the pool, what their stake
proportion is like versus yours.
Uh, so there would be a time calculator that will tell you as to the speed at
which your crop is being harvested.
So you can basically harvest one ingredient at a time.
So there would be a chart that would tell you, uh, whether you are at 40%
or 70%, or you're done, uh, and keep transferring that to your claim section.
So, uh, it could gas fast as 10 minutes.
It could be as slow as a day.
Um, that will completely depend on who else is in the pool with you.
Kevin Horek: Okay.
So it's basically similar to you're trying to, it sounds like you're
trying to recreate kind of things that happen in the real world.
, but just basically all digitally in the food space.
Mm-hmm.
, is that a fair comparison?
Comparison?
Supreet Raju: Absolutely, absolutely.
I think that the biggest lesson or the biggest, um, sort of outcome of,
you know, whatever is happening in the market right now and what we do know of
the blockchain industry is that we need to stop using, uh, heavy-handed words.
We need to stop using, you know, uh, dowsing it with heavy tech words
and making our projects unappealing.
You know, at the end of the day, what we are is a food game.
What we are trying to build is a good experience for people.
Yes, it's built on blockchain technology, but every game, every
software, every website that we access is built on certain technology.
We don't go into the backend of those, you know, we don't go around asking if PUBG or
Call of Duty was built on Unity or unreal.
So I think, uh, the biggest outcome or learning for me, even from the recent
conferences I've been to is to actually.
Focus more on the consumer enjoying the experience rather
than, you know, trying to force blockchain tech heavily onto them.
So I think with us, the idea is to tell people about this one food game that
has come, um, tell them things that they can relate to rather than daunting with
them, with the task that, oh, you know, here's your class eighth exam paper.
Go and study it and otherwise you fail.
Kevin Horek: No, I, I actually think that's really good advice cuz, and
for the crypto one that I always use is, well, it's like, have, do
you have a Starbucks card and have you used it in another country?
Then it was purchased, like, that's been basically a cryptocurrency for years.
I know we don't call it that, but it's like, I've used my Starbucks
card in, you know, Canada America, I, I've used it in Europe.
Like it's the same, right?
It, yep, absolutely it does.
And it absolutely right.
And so when you use things like, oh, go ahead.
Sorry.
Supreet Raju: No, I'm, I'm sorry.
Please, please go on.
No, no, no.
Go.
I was just saying that that is the whole point right now.
You know, if you look at, let's say a first person shooter game, you know, like
let's say we have Call of Duty and players are going and they're building their skins
there, they're buying guns or you know, whatever are the assets in that game?
Uh, all we need to do is we need to give them an option that you can get this
asset out of the game, uh, becomes an nft.
But that detail is not important.
What is important is that you can get this gun out of the game
and sell it and actually earn a profit on that, or, you know, earn
some money from that on the side.
It shouldn't take away from the game experience of the player's
ability to enjoy the game.
, you know, um, this discussion of later round, even play to earn, um, has kind
of now fired back, especially with the downfall of Axi into, uh, you know,
if they're earning, are they really playing, you know, maybe they're just
doing this, maybe the game is horrible, they're not even enjoying it, but
it's, when you're saying something is to earn, that means they are looking
at the monetary motive more than the actual enjoyment of the game.
So it is still work to earn because they're putting in those hours,
even if they don't like the game.
Kevin Horek: No, I, I a hundred percent agree with you and it
well, but you're also coming at it from kind of like a designer user
experience type mindset, right?
Where I think like a lot of people in the blockchain, crypto space, N F
T space, just don't think like that.
Is that fair to say or is that your kind of experience so far?
Supreet Raju: Yeah, I think, uh, the industry is so new, to be honest, that
everybody right, including us, we, everybody's trying what they think
and work and, uh, you know, what they foresee to the best of their abilities.
But at the end of the day, uh, you know, I always laugh when I go to these
conferences and somebody shakes my hand and says, we've been around for 10 years.
And I'm like, that is not possible.
Cause been around for 10 years, . So where were you?
So, yeah, it's so new.
All of us are beginners, to be honest at best.
I mean, uh, anybody who thinks they know it all, I would
love to meet them after Luna.
But, uh, yeah, it's, it's such a new industry.
We think, uh, we are doing a good job at what we are trying to
build and the messaging we have.
Some people have different opinions on, you know, the
approach they're taking for theirs.
Uh, I.
it, it'll take some time, but the focus or the prime motive everybody has right
now is adoption from the real world.
You know, like for example, if I focus on just the gaming aspect, the,
the gaming industry is a billion, trillion dollar industry at large.
And that, I mean, not even 1% of that is the total, uh, crypto industry, you
know, the total blockchain industry.
So, uh, we are so small in comparison that even if we encourage 1% more, uh,
regular gamers to try a blockchain game, you basically disrupted the whole market.
Kevin Horek: Yeah.
Interesting.
No, that's, that's a really good way to put it.
So, I, I'm curious to get your thoughts on, obviously blockchain
and cryptocurrency and everything is kind of getting a bad rap
in, in the news right now.
Like, what is your honest thoughts as somebody in it and
building something in the space?
Supreet Raju: So I think, uh, , a lot of words are used interchangeably,
uh, in news and in general media.
Uh, and that does cause a problem sometimes.
You know, uh, inherently blockchain is a technology.
It's not going up, it's not going down.
It's just, uh, right.
Particular technology to build on.
Uh, people understood the word crypto the fastest out of the blocks, you
know, because they could associate with crypto with quick gains, which made
it sound a bit like the stock market.
Uh, and so then people took to that really fast because they're like, oh, so today
I put $20 and it became 40 tomorrow.
So that means it works like a stock and an advanced stock at that.
So I think people understood that the fastest, and, uh, that's kind
of the reason why Crypto did well and has been doing well for the
last four years as a, as an asset.
I don't know.
I hope it's an asset, but, um, sure.
The second thing people understood fast was NFTs, because again, so
simple a digital piece of art, and so they understood the word NFT first.
So I think people, uh, in the general audience pick and choose
whatever is understandable to them.
Obviously, nobody likes to lose money, and, uh, there are a lot of
people who, you know, will not put money today when it's at its lowest.
But would, you know, when the industry's thriving would really believe in it?
They would invest a bit more than they should have, maybe.
Uh, and that of course leaves us our experience for anyone.
Uh, in terms of crypto or speculation, I, I can't really go deep into.
Someone's personal reasons of investing, but blockchain as a technology is here to
stay, you know, whatever we are accessing today in our lives, something as simple
as medical records or our, like I said, our real estate agreements or, um,
you know, just the virtual, uh, social media, you know, like the metaverse is
essentially nothing more than 3D social media for the next couple of years.
So the technology is definitely gonna be all around us.
Whether the market is up or down, uh, the technology is not escaping us.
And in terms of the bad rep, I think.
. It comes from two things, like I said, the first is the unwillingness or, um,
you know, the closed club that we have created within the industry wherein,
you know, if we would, people here enjoy making somebody else feel like they
don't get it versus helping them get it.
Uh, and that mm-hmm.
does cause a problem, you know, when the market goes down.
Uh, and the second of course is people not really reading the right materials
or understanding the base, the, you know, taking the gravitas from it.
You know, uh, they, they would read in a random article that, you know,
flashed on their sponsored feed that Dodge Coin is doing well, and
they would run after that without really reading about why dodge exist.
Uh, is there a use case?
Is there a purpose?
Uh, . And for some people the money they invest in crypto is money.
They can't spare.
It doesn't matter to them.
Uh, but it would pinch someone where the money does matter to
them and they were just looking.
Um, you know, it's like going to a casino in a way and Right.
Yeah.
You can't sure that you gonna enter with $500 and walk out with a thousand dollars.
You don't do that.
You know, it's an investment tool.
You study your risks and of course, , it's bad on my part to compare it to
a casino, but what I mean is that, you know, if you're not really studying
up an industry, don't expect what, whatever media says or what your
friend told you to always be correct.
Kevin Horek: No, that's fair.
You're right though.
I think everybody, well not everybody, but a lot of people went into crypto
thinking they'll put in $20 and come up with 40 and take that 40 and
make it 80 and it so on and so on.
And it's like, well sure that can happen.
But you can also go to zero too.
Yeah.
Just like you can at the casino.
Right, exactly.
Supreet Raju: Exactly.
Because nobody's studying the tech part of it.
You know, the people who are building have way more faith.
The use cases that are coming out at this point in time.
There is actually so much blockchain technology being developed by governments
all across the world, you know, uh, by B2B systems all across the world.
So the technology actually is getting a bad rep for no reason at all.
No, that's
Kevin Horek: fair.
So I'm curious, you are, obviously, you move around the world, um, quite a bit.
You're in Austin now, I think when we last spoke you were
in Dubai, and I, I'm curious.
Through your travels and just interacting with people in, in the space, do you
see different perspectives on NFTs maybe based on location or culture or,
or any of that kind of stuff, or, or what are your thoughts around that?
Supreet Raju: So I think right now the blockchain industry is
definitely a little segmented.
Okay.
Uh, I think the more collector interest comes in from Europe and North America
wherein there is, uh, a bit more collector mentality as to, okay, this
asset will do well for me tomorrow.
Uh, and towards the, towards Asia and towards Africa, we see
a lot more interest in the games.
So they are generally more interested in the game NFTs because they
believe games would hold more value.
And of course the playto and angle that was created by everyone.
So, uh, I think there is a bit of difference, of course, due
to economic reasons as well.
You know, right now where crypto punk is at, uh, it's not something
all of us can afford, you know?
Uh, when we look at a Bull Day yacht club, Whole set of NFTs, which are like really,
really high in value at the moment.
So I think, uh, finances do matter, but in general we, we see the Asian and
African communities have a lot more time.
Uh, and so they are more active, I would say, within the communities,
within interacting in the gameplay, uh, and you know, AMAs and things.
Whereas with towards the West, we see the mentality of long-term investments more
Kevin Horek: fascinating.
Okay.
No, that, that's interesting.
So you mentioned earlier in the show that you obviously didn't understand.
This stuff and you come at it from kind of a design background
and your husband was an engineer, obviously technical background.
Is there any advice or learning resources that you could recommend to somebody
that's maybe a bit more technical or somebody that came at it less technical
like yourself to help them understand and learn more about the space and
maybe they can start building something, you know, in the N F T blockchain?
Supreet Raju: So, I mean, the, the most controversial thing I
can say here is to never buy a hard copy book on the industry.
Uh, not because the book is not good, but most likely the book has
become irrelevant by the time it's published and received by you.
So I think the industry moves fairly fast.
Uh, and so in this case, newsletters, um, you know, following people online, there's
an excellent newsletter called Bankless, which I highly, highly recommend.
It's a very good Dow as well.
Uh, we, we, I was using that extensively before we built one rare, and there's
generally very good information there.
Uh, and then, yeah, I mean, essentially, uh, looking at people and, uh, you know,
seeing what they're reading there, there's a lot that happens even within medium now.
A lot more crypto influencers are there, uh, but in general, Various kind of DAOs.
Don't believe anyone, blindly, don't, um, follow one person's advice.
I would suggest to study the market, uh, at a more broader level.
Take your own understanding from it.
Uh, and yeah, again, a lot of, if you're in the tech field and looking to get
inside this, a lot of self tutorials and a lot of self-learning as well,
because it, like I said, it's so new.
You're unlikely to find a four year undergrad course on this that would have.
You know, technical expertise in terms of the faculty there or something.
There are a lot more people building courses and structured ways to
study and get inside this field.
Uh, but that would likely happen in another two years or so.
So at the moment I would just stay to stay as aware as possible.
Um, if you feel like attending conferences online, go for that.
Otherwise, follow thought leaders, you know, people who are leading
exchanges, people who are leading, uh, you know, uh, venture capital funds or
creating some kind of grant programs.
Uh, their thoughts and what they talk about will be more time
relevant than, uh, hard copy book that was published last year.
Kevin Horek: No, I think that's really good advice.
So I kind of wanna circle back to one Rare, and can you give us some examples of
how maybe some chefs and brands and maybe like, Restaurants and stuff are actually
gonna leverage the platform because you quickly touched on it, but I think it,
I'm, I'm really fascinated to get your thoughts and maybe generate some listener
interest around things that are possible on one rare and kind of in the space.
Supreet Raju: Absolutely.
I, I, I wish I could show you, but I will, I'll try to be as Yes.
It's hard with audio , , sorry.
So essentially when we look at any chef or restaurant, uh, we are looking at
creating four types of experiences.
Uh, I'll split them up into the four.
The first is Connect experience.
So when Connect, we basically look at, like I said, the Food
works or the Metaverse being a kind of a 3D social media.
You know, right now with any particular brand, you're interacting
with them in different forms and formats across 2D apps.
Uh, and what we can do is we can leverage those, bring those in.
So you can come in and you can check out their social media feeds or
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, uh, you can check out their YouTube videos.
You can catch their live streams and, uh, you know, Uh, a special kitchen video
that they want to do, uh, and also come in and buy their existing cookbooks,
their recipe books, uh, you know, have their cookbooks as NFTs, for example.
Uh, and sort of create that, connect with the brand.
Uh, the second type is the restaurant experience.
So, like I said, you know, we want to be working with cloud kitchens, virtual
restaurants, and existing restaurants as well to help them create an
experience in the metaverse that truly.
Represents their brand.
You know, right now a restaurant, let's say in New York City has to be like five
feet by seven feet because of restrictions of space and where they're placed.
Uh, we want to completely disrupt that by letting people create what they want.
Uh, wherein a user can come in, they can order online, they can check out
the new launches, new menus, uh, check out all the food in 3d, know what
their order is going to carry out for them, uh, in a very simplified manner
and sort of have a better experience.
Maybe book a meal for someone else as well.
Look up table reservations and so on.
. The third section that we have would be the game section, because right
now, of course, gaming and interaction is a large part of any metaverse.
So brands and chefs can come in and create a unique gaming
experience based on their brand.
So for example, we have been working with a UK based chain called a ruler.
Wherein we are creating a burger war for them, wherein two players can come
in and work on creating the most number of burgers in our, uh, and then another
thing we are doing with them is where players can come in and suggest recipes.
And every month one recipe would be selected and incorporated into the
menu, uh, and the winning player can get a portion of the pro, uh,
of the number of burgers sold.
So bringing the community into the kitchens, into the gaming experiences.
Uh, and lastly, of course, as I said, the membership club program.
So with chefs and restaurants right now, they're only able to monetize
at a very local level, and we are changing that to more of a global level.
So creating membership programs for larger chains of brands within themselves,
or helping bespoke restaurants and.
Connect worldwide.
So let's say our burger shop, you know, it's, it's a small burger shop in the
uk, but they can connect with other, um, chains, not other chains, but other burger
shops from all across the world that have the same ethos and come together to
create a membership club program wherein if you're eating at any one of their
member pro uh, locations, you would get a 10% off on your burger, for example.
So with membership clubs, what we are trying to encourage is more patrons,
more, um, you know, uh, event-based, um, interactions with chefs or restaurants,
being able to attend their virtual events, uh, and just having a more sense
of belonging in the space, I guess.
Kevin Horek: No, very cool.
Uh, the other thing too that I think would be really useful is if I'm planning a trip
to the UK or New York or something, and I, and when you're looking at restaurants
you want to go to or try, um, Being able to see kind of some of that stuff
and be almost a part of the restaurant before you even physically visit there,
I think is actually really cool too.
Yeah,
Supreet Raju: absolutely.
And I think, I think the food industry is of course, uh, they're not the
fastest to take to tech, but I think this time, right, uh, the tech will really,
really drive their business forward.
And so it's an excellent opportunity for them to realize, uh, the virtual potential
of uh, not replacing the real experience, but enhancing the real experience.
You know, if I come in, let's say for a simple table reservation and I want to,
like you said, right, you wanna go to New York and you want to sit on a table
that is facing Central Park because that's the experience you want, uh, a
virtual restaurant can actually help you make that table reservation booking
cuz you know where you want to sit.
Kevin Horek: Totally.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Yeah.
And then, well the other thing too is I know so many people have those like
beer wraps that they track all the different beers they've ever tried, right?
Yeah.
And you could do that at a restaurant level or, or whatever, right?
Like you're trying to try every burger in New York City or whatever.
I don't know.
Yep.
Absolutely.
It'd be cool.
It's just cool that you're tying the digital world back
into the physical world, kind of back into the digital world.
Like they almost.
Pass back and forth, right?
Yes,
Supreet Raju: yes.
Absolutely.
Like it's, it's something as simple as, you know how, um, all of us have
that one friend who has been wanting to open a food truck since they were
18, you know, and all of us have friends and family who wanted to own
a restaurant, but it's hard, right?
So with N F T, you can have a community owned restaurant or a food truck wherein
you, you know, you pitch in a bit of an investment and you own a portion of
the food truck that gives you certain benefits as a member and gets, gets
you a part of the profits as well.
So something so simple can actually help a restaurant owner or a food truck
owner raise funds within one or two days versus going through a year long process.
Kevin Horek: No, that, that's, that's very cool.
And yeah, I, I think just that excitement and getting people in more involved is,
is what I really love about what you guys are building with one rare Thank you
Supreet Raju: so much.
Thank you.
. Kevin Horek: So we're kind of coming to the end of the show.
So how about we close with mentioning where people can get
more information about one rare and any other links you wanna mention?
Supreet Raju: Uh, yeah, absolutely.
So we are live on uh, www.one red.io.
That's our website and we are actually very active across our socials as well.
So you can find us on Twitter as one rare, uh, or catch up with our
Telegram or Discord communities.
And if, if I may share the links with you, Kevin Sure.
If you can put there at the bottom of the podcast info, uh, which should
help direct some people more easily.
But yeah, we are pretty much active across our website and
social, so pop in to say hi.
If you don't get it at all, pop into our Telegram community and
we will definitely try our best to explain all this to you as well.
Kevin Horek: Very cool.
Well, Sipri, I really appreciate you taking the time outta your
day to be on the show and I look forward to keeping in touch with you
and have a good rest of your day.
Supreet Raju: Absolutely.
Thank you so much for having me, Kevin.
It's always super fun talking to you.
Kevin Horek: Thank you.
You as well.
Okay, bye bye.