VaynerNFT is one of the biggest NFT consultancy companies in the world. The brainchild of esteemed businessman Gary Vaynerchuk, VaynerNFT has gone from strength to strength over the last year, helping brands create their own NFTs. We interviewed Avery Akkineni, the president of VaynerNFT, about the platform, her background, and the future of NFTs.
Avery, is a highly accomplished businesswoman, having worked at Google, Youtube, and Double Click, before working at VaynerMedia. Intrigued about her transition to VaynerMedia and subsequently VaynerNFT, I asked Avery about why and how she joined the company:
“I spent seven years at Google working in their San Francisco and New York offices, doing everything from bringing products to market and helping with our double click channel partners.”
“I had the opportunity to meet Gary Vaynerchuk and Jack Nicholson, who at the time was the chief media officer. And I was very impressed with their building and decided to join the VaynerMedia team. Shortly thereafter, I joined VaynerMedia in 2018.”
“I’ve been very happy here ever since, working on everything from the New York media team to opening an Asia Pacific Office to most recently launching VaynerNFT.”
Consequently, launching VaynerNFT is no easy feat, and as one of the world’s most successful web3 consultancies, Avery has to manage its operations:
“On a day-to-day basis, we advise traditional companies on the web3 space. We’re a web3-specific consultancy focused on bringing the biggest IP owners into this new world. Everything from setting up their own crypto wallets to creating their own blockchains and launching their own NFT marketplaces and NFT programs/metaverses.”
Such an impressive workload also comes with an equally enterprising set of KPIs:
“So I think in year one, we were really focused on getting it off the ground.”
“And in year two, we’re focused on deepening our impact in the web3 space and broadening our impact in terms of helping to get individuals and consumers into the world of NFTs and more IP owners as creators.”
“I think the most important thing to do is bring more consumers into this space via education. And there’s a real education gap right now.”
“What we’re really focused on right now at VaynerNFT is actually helping consumers understand some of the things that are interesting about the world of NFTs and creating experiences that are delightful, interesting, and engaging.”
Alongside education, the utility of NFTs will also become important, aside from commercialization, something Avery believes will be the future of NFTs:
“The commercialization aspect of NFTs is a really big right now, I don’t think it will necessarily be that in the future. I think in the future, we’ll see NFTs as much more utility-driven and focused on things that have value outside of just commercial worth.”
VaynerNFT wants to create this utility through intense strategic initiatives that transition brands into the web3 space:
“The first thing that we do is start by educating teams on the landscape and understanding of the web3 market.“Then we go into contracting regarding what’s happening in the space and how can they uniquely add value.”
“And that’s different for a drinks company for, a beer company and a shoe company! How can they add value to the space? And how can they build their brands? “Then, our playbook move is to begin integrating those folks with the existing community and finding opportunities for them to bridge into web3.”
You can check out VaynerNFT here. Likewise, you can find Avery here. We would like to thank Avery and the entire VaynerNFT team for the interview.
