About a year ago I made the hard decision to leave the company I had spent the past two years building and pursue something I was deeply passionate about; helping more artists bring their music onchain.

My love of music runs deep. My father exposed me to a lot of incredible music as a child and I spent a great deal of my twenties sharing music on Tumblr, creating mixes and interviewing artists that inspired me. I’ve always felt that music is criminally undervalued and the fact that most artists struggle to make a sustainable living doesn’t sit right with me. There has to be a better way.

I believe that blockchains have the ability to radically shift the balance of power in favour of artists and give them the tools they need to connect with their fans on a deeper level and capture more of the value. This is especially important in a world that increasingly values access over ownership and forces creators to play zero-sum games for attention on social media.

In August last year I decided to put all my energy (and savings) into creating a platform that could help catalyse this shift towards bringing more music onchain. My thinking was that this shift needs to start at a grassroots level and focus on communities and collectives.

Some of the greatest music ever made was the result of individuals with a shared passion coming together to collaborate and experiment. Some notable examples include the Wu Tang Clan, Odd Future, Brockhampton, Native Tongues, The Soulquarians, A$AP Mob, Gorillaz, Swedish House Mafia and Parliament-Funkadelic. By banding together many of these relatively unknown artists were able to benefit from the visibility of the wider collective and went on to become superstars in their own right (Frank Ocean, Q-Tip, Erykah Badu, A$AP Rocky etc).

Although these early groups are relatively small in scale the internet has enabled cross-border collaboration and the formation of much larger collectives. We are seeing all sorts of interesting communities forming online and with the right tools I believe we can unlock new ways for them to coordinate, monetise and grow.

So far Fam has been a solo journey for me but I have actively been looking for the right person to join me on this adventure. I’ve had a few conversations with potential co-founders but in the end it just didn’t feel right or the timing was off. Building another startup from the ground up is a big committment and I want to make sure I am doing it with somebody who I love spending time with. Someone who challenges me. Someone I can trust. A relationship with your co-founders is like a marriage and it’s important to take the time to get to know one another and make sure you’re compatible.

That being said, I know that Fam will ultimately fail without the right leadership so I am looking for a co-founder who is deeply technical and is passionate about building amazing consumer crypto products. If you also have a deep love for music that’s a big plus but not required.

We’re about 3-4 weeks away from launching the MVP of Fam and getting it into the hands of our first users/communities but there’s a LOT of work to be done still. If we are succesful I believe we can usher in a new era for music and build an ecosystem where millions of niche micro-communities can cross-pollinate and leverage new economic models.

If this sounds interesting or you know someone who might be a good fit please reach out on Twitter, Farcaster or Telegram and let’s have a chat.

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamnickdoteth
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/iamnick.eth
Telegram: @nickcamsmith
Website: https://withfam.xyz/