Probably Nothing Connects You to Web3 Culture by Making It Cool
They are to web3 what Supreme is to the skateboard world
For Jeremy Fall and Aaron Ahmadi, co-founding a web3 culture company seemed like a no-brainer. In a crowded space full of techies, “influencers,” curious folks and skeptics, the partners saw an opportunity to make web3 cool.
“I would say the ethos of everything we do is—if you were to compare it—would be how Supreme represented skate culture in the early 90s,” Fall said in a phone interview with DeCential. “Supreme did not create skateboards in the same way that we do not create tech. Supreme adopted skate culture and became a leader in it, just as we’re adopting web3. As skating scaled and became more mainstream, so did the culture, so that even if you didn’t skate, you could be a fan of the culture and buy into what the culture represented. It’s the same thing for us and web3. We’re looking at this like even if you’re not a tech nerd, even if you’re not a blockchain enthusiast, you’re adopting the culture around decentralization and giving ownership back to creators. We’re here to create cool shit using technology that’s more palatable than someone reading a 50 page API document about how to integrate blockchain.”
Ahmadi and Fall created Probably Nothing with the goal of appealing to people through web3’s lifestyle approach as they become more familiar with the future of the Internet—and not just for adoption’s sake, but with extreme intention.
“We’re massive fans of the blockchain, but we don’t believe it needs to figure out everything,” said Fall, who was a guest on Decential’s DeCent People podcast.
The idea is that Probably Nothing will focus on the dominant ways people use blockchain and help amplify those areas, rather than trying to insert blockchain tech as a catch-all solution. An example is Probably Nothing’s record label—Probably A Label. They co-own the label with Warner Records to help create new revenue streams and experiences for musicians by utilizing blockchain to help with ownership, distribution and authentication – all areas where blockchain can help artists build communities.
One example was Probably Nothing’s collaboration on a Jean-Michel Basquiat project around a punk band called The Offs. While Basquiat created the original artwork, the record was never released, and Probably Nothing saw this as an opportunity. “We dropped 550 gold records with the label that allowed people to own this piece of history, and worked with a company called Artbase to create a nonfungible token (NFT) chip on the records that they could redeem for a certificate of authenticity to prove it’s a real product.”
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Music is just one way Probably Nothing is helping to bring people and companies into the web3 space. Their play isn’t for mass adoption at this point, but to convince people and companies that the blockchain revolution is real and will continue to change industries like music, fashion, food and technology.
“Our whole slogan is ‘Believers of the Internet,’” Fall said. “If you didn’t believe in email or social media, we’re here to tell you that what you’re not believing in again is the future. We entered web3 through NFTs, so a lot of our [early] thinking was around them, though as we’ve grown in the space, we now really look at all of it as blockchain technology. Even if we’re not selling an NFT, we’re looking at how we can incorporate blockchain in different ways that help amplify what people want in the web2 world.”
Part of that approach is coming up with unique engagements and integrations that allow people to experience web3.
“For ETH Denver, Jeremy’s culinary background came into play when we situated a food truck near where everything was happening,” Ahmadi said. “We took McDonald’s branding and repurposed it to Probably Nothing and served elevated versions of fast-food—crafted and curated by Jeremy—and gave away mint condition McDonald’s toys from the 90s. We also put a bunch of diamonds in ice cubes and called it ‘Ice Water.’ Our thing was, you don’t have to come into ETH Denver, get a booth or put your sticker on the elevator and hope that 500 people see your brand. You can do something a little more curated on a smaller level but in a way that culturally impacts people far more.”
The outside-the-box integrations are also prominent in their collaborations, which is another reason why companies and individuals seek out Probably Nothing for its ability to help them “bridge the gap to web3” in a culturally relevant way.
Take their recent collaboration with Adidas, where Probably Nothing created a pop-up called Probably Pizza alongside Warner at the Adidas’ NFT NYC event A pizza truck with Adidas branding was set up where people could scan and sign up with their email, receive pizza, and snag a “leftover” NFT slice that was used to earn points for attending the event. “We had Vic Mensa perform and it was really just figuring out a way to mesh food, fashion, music and culture together—kind of what we do in general,” Fall said.
Ahmadi agreed and added that a big reason why companies work with Probably Nothing is because companies tend to view the web3 landscape with skepticism before they enter it. “They kind of view the playing field as something they’re not used to and are looking for culturally relevant and successful brands to work with—and we’re of the most prominent,” he said. “They see what we do, they see what we’re going to do, and that’s probably why we’re attractive to them.”
A large piece of that attraction is Probably Nothing’s ability to help companies reach different audiences by utilizing web3 technology.
“When Louis Vuitton collaborated with Supreme, it was to appeal to counterculture and a certain group of people that they couldn’t hit before,” Fall said. “It was this intersection of street culture and luxury, and I think we’re seeing something similar with web3. There’s this very in-tune, underground element before things hit the mainstream—with the most avid people ever—because it’s the most raw and authentic connection to artists and art in general.”
He continued, “These big companies [look at us] and see we really have this culture but we’re also adults. We can communicate with the big brands and know how it makes sense to collaborate. A lot of people in the web3 space are 16 year old kids who wake up at 3:30pm in the afternoon. We have that edge.”
While it’s anyone’s guess how the future of web3 will play out, Probably Nothing is positioning itself to be ready to take advantage of the direction that makes sense for most people and companies. The same philosophy also applies in their approach to the metaverse and other developing technologies.
“We would never use it unless it made sense for us,” Fall said. “It would make sense for us to create a cool fashion popup for 24 hours where people could wait outside a virtual store. Then they could walk in when it opens and access the experience because they can’t necessarily go to the place we’re holding the physical event. But we’re not going to do an experience in the metaverse just to do it and then expect people to run around and stare at each other. It has to make sense for us.”