I've had a profound conversation with Crypto Nick from an Amazing A List Apes NFT Project.
Chris: Hi Nick. Thanks for being here. To begin, how would you describe yourself in terms of a professional career?
Innovative. Results-driven. Leader. Self-made entrepreneur. These are just a few of the titles that I hold. With 18+ years of experience in founding and managing digital marketing and auto sales start-ups, my business acumen has been recognized in several publications for achieving stellar results in highly competitive markets. In 2015, I was named a “40 under 40” entrepreneur in the automotive industry at only 31 years old.
I am utterly committed to improving the bottom line through statistical analysis and participative leadership that welcomes an open dialogue with my team to discuss pros and cons. I believe in arriving and implementing the correct decision the first time around. As a seasoned business leader, I am assertive and leverage a flexible communication style to fit the context and audience.
My key areas of expertise:
Business Analysis | Finance & Blockchain Technologies | Financial Modeling | Forecasting | Digital Marketing Management
A few of my selected career accomplishments:
- Founded a marketing agency catering to small business owners/mid-size corporations (Silicon Valley start-ups, Big Data, lawyers, doctors, auto-dealers, contractors, e-commerce, etc.) seeking business growth and cutting-edge marketing system consultation.
- Built a start-up car dealership into a top 100 USA Volume Independent Dealer.
- Named “40 under 40” in the automotive industry at 31 years old.
- Negotiated large-scale contracts and multi-million dollar investment raises for all personal businesses while procuring millions of dollars in investments from various sources over an 18+ year career.
- Researched 200-300+ altcoins; invested in 50+ altcoins to cultivate holdings.
In my free time, I am an insatiable student and cryptocurrency investor. I study Bitcoin Daily Technical Analysis and Bitcoin Dominance, in addition to consuming 4 hours of video content daily from cryptocurrency experts, to improve my understanding of DeFi, NFTs, Glassnode chain analytics, and market cycles. My expansive entrepreneurship resume and self-starter nature will enable my pivot to contribute to the upcoming crypto financial revolution.
Chris: Impressive. Let's talk NFTs. The ape artwork is vibrant and striking. What factors create the difference in 10000 A-List Apes NFTs?
Nick: The A list Apes NFT project is vibrant and striking because we had the uniqueness of the world in mind. If you stop and look around and observe the people around you, you can see how unique each human being truly is. We wanted to incorporate the inclusivity movement that is happening in the world. The A-List Apes project features a unified community that represents each unique person and makes them feel comfortable with their individuality of character, appearance, and principles. Our main focus was to take our society into consideration with elegance, class, pop culture, modernism. Mix it all up and come up with some really cool and unique-looking characters.
Chris: Do you plan to have a presale? What would be the price for each NFT?
Nick: Yes, our first whitelist has been filled with 1000 VIP whitelisters. Our second 1000 VIP whitelist is open and quickly reaching capacity after a short 48 hours. The first pre-sale is Monday, Dec 20, 2021, at 12 PM EST on our website ONLY and our second pre-sale will be Tuesday, Dec 21, 2021. The public sale will launch on Wednesday, Dec 22, 2021, at 12 PM EST. We have 3 specific days and are trying to minimize the gas wars while giving our early community members a stress-free minting experience. We have minted quite a few projects, and from our experience, the best projects are usually untouchable for most people. We especially chose to focus on making it easily accessible and stress-free compared to some other projects that we have seen.
3. Do rare NFTs have premium pricing? When can we see the rare NFT launch?
Nick: There are over 700 unique hand-drawn traits. When we found our artist, we instantly knew from the first character she was the one. We had over 20 different artists apply and replicate the style to ensure uniqueness, and none of the other artists could match the shading and texturing that our artist was able to deliver. Once this project sells out, we will introduce this artist to the world. She is amazing. She is in the lab already developing female A-Listers.
Chris: Following from the previous question, what are the benefits of joining the A-List Apes community? What premium benefits do the NFT holders get?
Nick: There are a ton of benefits of joining our community. We have a very detailed roadmap with a big vision. We are so early in the NFT space, the crypto space has not gone mainstream. Many of our best friends in the real world only started to get into crypto in this last upward cycle - when we talk NFTs with them they look at us like we are aliens from the Metaverse.
Please reference our roadmap for exact details on the premium benefits.
From a professional perspective, our leadership and the co-founding team have a lot of entrepreneurial experience in building and scaling brick-and-mortar businesses. We are expert digital marketers and manage vast financial portfolios for almost every industry imaginable. We understand what it takes to make a business successful. We have teams of employees, and see this community as a jump start to take crypto and NFTS into the real world and make it mainstream. Educate and deliver utility to our community, keep pushing the limits of innovation like the OG founders of all these life-changing blockchain projects. We want to become a major NFT lab that will make NFTs mainstream for all people, for all utilities. It is only the first inning, and the first pitch has not even been thrown yet.
Chris: The A-List Apes is artwork NFT, right? Then, why is there a song? Are you hinting at transitions into an audio NFT as well?
Nick: Yes without music there would be no dancing, without dancing there would be no love. We love music, we have connections in the music industry. Most people are still trying to wrap their heads around all of this. We invested in a Timbaland project called APEIN - it's a record label with a big roadmap. Royalty is where it is at, cut out the middlemen, cut out the records labels. Decentralize everything we see a very clear technical solution for up and coming artists and established starts to integrate their own NFT record labels and albums. This is going to take some work but we are going to be doing that work for sure.
Chris: Your marketing initiatives are considerable. We are sure the public sale is going to end quickly. What’s next?
Nick: Like I said it is pitch 1 of a long game. We need to unite a community of people. I think every person in the world at one point has felt like they do not belong like they are not cool enough. I am an immigrant from Russia and I came to the United Stated not speaking English and always felt a bit like an outsider in a foreign place. In the Metaverse, it doesn’t matter where you are from or what you look like. You can be anything you want to be if you are a good person who wants to vibe and grow within their community. At the end of the day, it is about making people feel like a part of something. We wanted everyone who looked at this project and at our art to feel and connect with something in each of our characters. So the roadmap is next, we have been in the lab developing this for a while. We have been in crypto for a while. My sister was an original founder of the Celsius Network which is a top 100 crypto project, and they are looking to unbank the world. That project did not get built overnight it took years and now there is no stopping it. We have the same goals, ambitions, and motivation. Make NFTS streamlined, grow a huge brand that simplifies the crypto world, and make it fun. Most of all make everybody feel like an A-Lister like they deserve to be at the cool table. Every table shall be cool in our community.
Chris: Your roadmap has almost everything possible in the NFT world. How prepared are you?
Nick: We have built many successful businesses and have been in crypto for a while. My kids are layering NFTs, they are all under 7 years old. This is going to be a legacy project that our kids will be a part of. 20-hour workdays combined with a clear vision and motivation will execute this project. There will be challenges, but life is about figuring out ways to solve them. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. That is why we are all early adopters and pioneers.
Chris: It is without a doubt that you have a hard-working team. Please share more about the team members. How did you guys come together to share a common dream?
Nick: Crypto obsessed for years, thousands of hours of watching YouTube videos, reading, growing, and evolving. Zach and I have been working together for a few years on different projects and we saw the opportunity to take our skills and bring them from the real-world execution of helping businesses scale and grow, and take it to the newest and most disruptive technology sector since the internet. We are doers and we are doing and loving every single second of it. When you dream in NFTs and interact with your characters and community members you know you are on to something. We sure as heck are on to something. Thanks for reading and please feel free to reach out to us with any questions, we are always here!