In an period the place know-how is driving the evolution of every little thing, together with artwork, at an unprecedented tempo, artists are in quest of platforms the place they cannot solely exist however thrive regardless of ever-changing algorithms.
One such platform, born amidst the tumultuous backdrop of a world pandemic is HUG, which has proven itself to be a beacon for equal illustration and alternative for all – a platform that gives a platform.
To totally perceive the gravity of what HUG is doing for artists in and outdoors of the Web3 area, we caught up with its co-founders, Randi Zuckerberg and Debbie Quickly, and like all story value listening to we thought it greatest to start out initially.
One Message and One Mission
Whereas HUG might have been fashioned in 2022, it actually began a number of years earlier because the world confronted a world pandemic that will convey forth modifications within the lives of almost everybody on Earth, together with Zuckerberg and Quickly.
“Many might not know this… however after Fb and earlier than NFTs, I used to be a Broadway actress, after which producer,” shared Zuckerberg, including “Covid shut down lots of the exhibits that I used to be engaged on, and that resulted in me immersing myself in NFTs as a approach to marry my passions for each arts and know-how.”
She additional defined “Earlier than I knew it, I ended up turning into a mentor to many digital creators. All of them had been fighting the identical factor – feeling challenged by the algorithm, and basically feeling unseen and at instances misplaced on scale their inventive enterprise.”
Wanting to scale the present help she was providing to creators, Zuckerberg set out on a seek for a co-founder with a imaginative and prescient for making a “thriving and sustainable ecosystem that will permit artists and artwork lovers to help one another.”
As destiny would have it, Quickly was additionally on that exact same search. Having fallen in love with Web3 when navigating a mid-pandemic transfer from Singapore to LA, she determined to place her background within the finance and start-up sector to the facet for a second and sought out kickstarting a profession within the NFT area.
“I put a want out within the Meta Angels Discord,” she defined, including “To my shock, Randi discovered and responded to my message there one complete week later! We each are obsessed with leveling the enjoying subject for anybody to achieve arts and know-how, so this actually was a match made in heaven.”
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Sharing her facet of the story, Zuckerberg defined how Quickly was nonetheless going by an anon identification once they first met but when you understand something about early Web3, that was usually seen as a plus! “We received onto a Zoom name a couple of days later, and instantly hit it off,” Zuckerberg shared, including “As I used to be attending to know Debbie, I used to be blown away by all of her thought management items that she was placing out on Twitter, and knew that there couldn’t be a greater particular person to embark on this journey with.”
Embark on a journey they did. Zuckerberg expressed, “In a nutshell, HUG’s mission is to assist all artists turn out to be inventive entrepreneurs, and we’re doing that by way of discovery, alternative, and training.”
What began as two like-minded people with a shared imaginative and prescient finally grew into 200 folks with a shared trigger, and from these 200 passionate people, has emerged a various neighborhood of over 3,000 artists from over 85 totally different international locations.
Quickly defined that “We’ve deliberately flown underneath the radar and averted being surrounded by moments of hype. As a substitute, we’ve been per our mission from day one, and have adopted a extremely intentional and inclusive method to constructing our neighborhood.”
Neighborhood Sources
In an area the place almost every little thing of worth is hidden in secret alpha teams or housed behind a token gated membership, HUG has dared to do one thing radically totally different, offering free assets for each artists and collectors alike.
These assets aren’t fast threads on X that you need to bookmark for later or a halfway-finished hook to get you to purchase into one thing on the finish. As a substitute, HUG has devoted a major period of time and assets to offer full-length guides and paperwork put collectively by its analysis workforce.
Explaining why this was and is vital, Zuckerberg shared that “I’ve at all times been a agency believer that belief needs to be earned, not given. We by no means wish to extract worth earlier than we offer it, and providing these free assets is considered one of our methods of constructing belief inside our artist and collector neighborhood.”
Additional driving the importance of this choice residence, Quickly shared that “Accessible training has at all times been a core perception of ours. Significantly in Web3, the place the know-how is evolving quicker than the common particular person can sustain with, we consider it’s our accountability to demystify these tendencies and make them simple for everybody to know.”
On the time of writing, HUG has seven full-length guides and workbooks up on its website underneath the Sources tab. These vary from “The Final Artist Advertising Handbook Vol 1.” to “The Artwork Collector’s Companion: An Interactive Workbook” – once more, accessible freed from cost, as HUG believes anybody constructing within the area needs to be stewards and never gatekeepers.
To this finish, the platform has lately had the chance to companion with TransientLabs, considered one of its many like-minded companions, and ran a six-week-long Innovation Lab program that launched over 200 artists to dynamic NFTs by way of Transient’s no-code tooling.
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— HUG 🤗 | Apply for an Artist Profile (@thehugxyz) August 22, 2023
Following the discharge, Quickly shared “We noticed a number of artists touchdown their first-ever commissions by way of HUG. The result of that was many glad artists, and even happier collectors, who had been delighted to amass a customized, one-of-a-kind art work” – which incorporates Quickly herself, as she commissioned a hand-painted soccer from artist and Girls and Weapons founder, Sara Baumann.
Energy in Profiles
Whereas discoverability can usually be used as a buzzword within the Web3 artwork realm, HUG has seemingly embraced each facet of the phrase and made it a part of its core mission. This has been executed not in a broad method however slightly by way of a really particular and thought-out method.
“From day one, we got down to construct the inclusiverse.”
-Randi Zuckerberg
“From day one, we got down to construct the inclusiverse, which was actually our approach of describing a universe… or metaverse if you’ll? The place everybody feels included,” shared Zuckerberg, including “I’m proud that on the prime of the HUG homepage, you will notice a banner calling for us to rejoice numerous creators from all walks of life. These communities needs to be celebrated and really feel supported 24/7, one year a 12 months, and never simply in particular months.”
This mission additionally strikes a chord near residence for Quickly, who shared that “As a current transplant to America and a girl of coloration, that is deeply private as nicely.”
She additional expressed “I do know many individuals prefer to say that Web3 doesn’t care about race, gender, and many others., however the actuality is that many unconscious biases nonetheless keep it up from the normal arts and know-how worlds. By acknowledging that from day one, we might be intentional about the best way we design HUG, each from a product and neighborhood standpoint.”
This has been exemplified because the inception of HUG, because it continues to function as a community-curated platform. Quickly defined that this has been achieved by way of a thesis of community-driven and decentralized curation during which the members vote for which artists needs to be onboarded to the platform and which artists needs to be chosen for numerous sourced alternatives.
Early on, HUG acknowledged the necessity for a platform that gives a platform. Because of this, it has developed complete profile instruments that assist artists to get eyes on and likewise profit collectors trying to sustain with their favourite creators.
“We’re biased, however we undoubtedly consider that [artist profiles] are an artist’s greatest instrument to getting seen, shared, and celebrated,” stated Zuckerberg, including “Not solely are you able to acquire essentially the most superb, considerate critiques from appreciators of your work, it’s also possible to showcase your total portfolio of labor, each inside and outdoors Web3. We will’t wait to maintain upgrading these Artist Profiles, and convey further performance and interactivity there.”
Along with this, HUG boasts an “Artist Updates” tab, which Quickly “Permits artists to share vital updates on to the e-mail inboxes of their followers.”
She joked “Whereas we love the gm vibes and neighborhood discourse on X, generally artists and collectors simply need a devoted place to share and uncover artwork on the market. At present, lots of of artists are posting their updates to HUG each day.”
Highlighting one of the important features of the Updates instrument, Quickly referred to as out {that a} majority of NFT marketplaces are likely to showcase creators which are trending primarily based on buying and selling quantity, which in flip unfairly disadvantages rising artists.
“What we now have constructed permits artwork to be appreciated for the way it emotionally resonates, versus merely its financial worth,”
-Debbie Quickly
Past the Digital
With the royalties facet of NFTs being but once more in danger on account of shifts in stance from quite a lot of main marketplaces and loopholes created by aggregators, we requested HUG what they’re doing to arrange their artists for this alteration and to our shock, it’s one thing they’ve nearly anticipated in a way, from inception.
“Artists didn’t get up one morning due to NFTs and determined that they had been artists,” stated Zuckerberg, including “As a substitute, they’ve been artists for years, even many years, earlier than NFTs existed! As such, our view has at all times been that NFTs needs to be considered one of many ways in which artists ought to look to monetize their art work and that it’s utterly okay to shift priorities from one approach to one other relying in the marketplace and even what conjures up and excites them.”
She additional defined, that in help of this, not solely has HUG printed quite a lot of assets on the subject nevertheless it has additionally launched mechanisms like its fee function, the place artists can opt-in to obtain fee requests by way of their HUG profile.
Different initiatives embrace merchandising alternatives in addition to Open Name alternatives for each bodily and digital exhibitions, like its most up-to-date and ongoing name in partnership with the Seattle NFT Museum.
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HUG is partnering with the monumental @seanftmuseum, the world’s first NFT museum, for our debut collaborative exhibition “Cultural Kaleidoscope” ✨
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🔗 Submit beneath ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/erP2TMquiG— HUG 🤗 | Apply for an Artist Profile (@thehugxyz) August 15, 2023
A Brilliant Future
As thrilling as all the expansion detailed above is, Zuckerberg and Quickly have shared that HUG is simply getting began. In reality, because of a $5 million USD seed spherical led by Ohhsiny’s VC fund with participation from OKX and L’Oréal, HUG is now positioned to speed up its development.
“These funds assist us construct out our product additional, and to actually flip HUG from a spot of discovery to considered one of social commerce,” defined Zuckerberg, including, “We already really feel like we’re serving to artists and collectors join on an emotional degree like by no means earlier than, and these funds will assist us lengthen that relationship from considered one of appreciation to considered one of patronage, and assist artists construct sustainable companies out of their work!”
Wanting ahead, Quickly described HUG as “the Fb meets Etsy for a brand new era of creators who’re interested in blockchain and rising know-how,” joking that, how may they not be with Randi of their nook?
Quickly additional defined that as creators shift into an period the place they’re now not promoting their work in a single single medium however slightly in a spread of mediums, on-chain or in any other case, HUG needs to assist them discover these choices and supply a one-stop store.
“Equally, we consider the shoppers of the brand new era will even buy artwork throughout a number of mediums,” shared Zuckerberg, including that “Purchasers of NFTs nonetheless purchase prints for his or her wall, and equally, we hope that by permitting artists to specific themselves by way of a number of mediums, we are able to persuade each single artwork lover to additionally turn out to be artwork collectors and curators on the blockchain.”
Encouraging phrases from the “Mom Hugger”
“First off, I’ll say that bear markets come and go. Once I was on the frontlines of Web2, there was the identical quantity of uncertainty and extremes of euphoria and despair. Being on the earth of rising tech is at all times scary and overwhelming, however additionally it is an unimaginable alternative to be taught. My recommendation is to maintain exploring, continue to learn, hold creating, and extra importantly, keep in mind to have enjoyable.” Zuckerberg continued.
