Yup. It’s all gone. All my ETH. Every token. Every NFT of value. Every satoshi.
When you believe in something so much, you owe it to yourself to take the big risks to make it happen. Be willing to put everything you have into it and do what’s necessary to create the best chance of success.
I was living in the middle of nowhere, South Carolina. There was nothing there. I only moved there because my sister, who is a surgeon in SC, has been kind enough to let me stay with her for free while I figure out this entrepreneurship thing.
By the way, shout out to my surgeon sister! I couldn’t me more proud of what she’s accomplished, and gracious for her support. Without her help, I’d be working at Starbucks infinitely farther from accomplishing my goals.
So… no crypto scene in SC, no car (I shared one with my sister), a bank balance on E, no chance of me successfully building the world I envision. If I want any chance at all to succeed, I need to be where the action is. Where my customers are. So I made the decision to risk everything, cash out all of my crypto to give myself a 1 year runway, and move to LA.
In LA, I’ll be building the next evolution of payments. It’s called Gogh (like Van Gogh). And to everyone who has said I should change the name because it looks like you pronounce it “Gog”…no. Gogh started as a commerce experiment when frames first launched on Farcaster. Merchants could create a frame with no-code and sell their products in the feed. I’ll never forget the first sale one of my frames facilitated. It was a Humankind candle by Sam. It was such an amazing feeling to help someone else make money. I was all-in at that moment. Now Gogh is in it’s metamorphosis stage. Evolving inside its chrysalis waiting to be reborn into a payments company.
My high conviction in crypto stems from its ability to facilitate cheap payments. While that fact is well known and taken advantage of, I’m combining that with my own simple thesis:
Those who can benefit the most from crypto technology are the ones furthest away from it.
It's about the small businesses who grind every day to turn their passions into a business. Because that’s my passion - creating opportunities for others and helping them achieve their goals. So my mission with Gogh to bring crypto technology to those who can take the most advantage of it.
I’ll share more about what all this means in upcoming posts. I’ll also share more about why LA is the best place to start this endeavor, as well as all my progress and learnings. I hope you’ll join me and follow along. Here’s where you can find me:
Farcaster at @manuelmaccou and @gogh
Instagram at @goghpay
X at @goghpay
