Grey Solano and Wiley Aronow, founders of Bored Ape Yacht club, were recently interviewed with Kyle Forgeard, Bob Menery, and Salim Sirur of Full Send Podcast. The founders shared their journey during the podcast and how BAYC was established.
Also, they commented on how American professional basketball player Steph Curry and Justin Drew Bieber, a famous Canadian singer, bought their NFT.
Grey and WIile said that the craziest moment was when they felt like BAYC was worth it when Steph Curry bought Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT for $180,000. It was such a success for the project as Steph was the first Celebrity to purchase BAYC, giving the BAYC NFT collection a triumph for founders.
Bored Ape Yacht Club Founders Discussing BAYC Journey Towards Mainstream Adoption
Both the founders also revealed the recent seed funding Yuga Labs raised. The company raised a massive amount of $450 million at a valuation of $4 billion.
The amount will be used to set up a media empire around NFTs, which will be the initial start with games and its own metaverse project. They called it one of the largest seed funding raised ever in human history.
Discussing the model they intended to build at the initial stages was egalitarian because of the fact that the NFTs at that particular time were being priced on a bonding curve essentially. This contributed to the rise of a situation where it felt like a Ponzi. However, moving further, the token represented the users’ entry into the club.
When asked about the kind of reaction the founders have when celebrities purchase their NFTs, they revealed that Steph Curry jumping in was a really crazy feeling. Justin Bieber, the next in the line after famous basketball player Shaq, bought the NFT for $1.2 million. However, one thing to keep note of is the fact that Justin Bieber faced quite a hard time following the purchase.
People told him he paid a lot for the particular NFT. Well, that didn’t matter much, as Bieber purchased what he wished.
Funding Round and the Eruption of the Bored Ape Yacht Club
The founders did manage to raise money for their project, to which they confirmed that it was not recent, and the raised amount totaled around $4 billion. This led to the simple calculation of the valuation of Yuga Labs to $4 billion at the time of their last valuation.
Well, this marked the largest seed round in human history and certainly equipped the owners with quite a lot up their sleeves. When asked about their future endeavors and what they will do next with this much money, they revealed that a huge passion project is being worked upon that could be the next big thing in the metaverse.
As per the Bored Ape Yacht Club founders, gaming will certainly be a significant contributor to the economy, given that billions of dollars are flowing into these companies for digital assets.
The NFT raised in popularity, the level of which can be determined by the famous luxury brand Gucci accepting BAYC.
