In an period the place know-how is driving the evolution of every little thing, together with artwork, at an unprecedented tempo, artists are seeking platforms the place they can’t 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 every story price listening to we thought it greatest to begin at the start.
One Message and One Mission
Whereas HUG might have been shaped in 2022, it actually began a number of years earlier because the world confronted a world pandemic that will carry 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 most of the exhibits that I used to be engaged on, and that resulted in me immersing myself in NFTs as a solution 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 scuffling with the identical factor – feeling challenged by the algorithm, and generally feeling unseen and at instances misplaced on find out how to scale their inventive enterprise.”
Wanting to scale the prevailing 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 aspect 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 entire week later! We each are captivated with leveling the taking part in subject for anybody to reach arts and know-how, so this actually was a match made in heaven.”
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Sharing her aspect of the story, Zuckerberg defined how Quickly was nonetheless going by an anon identification after they first met but when you understand something about early Web3, that was usually seen as a plus! “We obtained onto a Zoom name a number 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 individual 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 into artistic entrepreneurs, and we’re doing that by way of discovery, alternative, and schooling.”
What began as two like-minded people with a shared imaginative and prescient finally grew into 200 individuals with a shared trigger, and from these 200 passionate people, has emerged a various group of over 3,000 artists from over 85 completely different nations.
Quickly defined that “We’ve deliberately flown underneath the radar and averted being surrounded by moments of hype. As an alternative, we’ve been per our mission from day one, and have adopted a extremely intentional and inclusive strategy to constructing our group.”
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 completely different, offering free sources for each artists and collectors alike.
These sources 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 an alternative, HUG has devoted a major period of time and sources to supply full-length guides and paperwork put collectively by its analysis staff.
Explaining why this was and is necessary, Zuckerberg shared that “I’ve all the time been a agency believer that belief must be earned, not given. We by no means wish to extract worth earlier than we offer it, and providing these free sources is certainly one of our methods of constructing belief inside our artist and collector group.”
Additional driving the importance of this resolution house, Quickly shared that “Accessible schooling has all the time been a core perception of ours. Notably in Web3, the place the know-how is evolving quicker than the typical individual can sustain with, we imagine it’s our accountability to demystify these traits and make them straightforward for everybody to know.”
On the time of writing, HUG has seven full-length guides and workbooks up on its web site underneath the Sources tab. These vary from “The Final Artist Advertising and marketing Handbook Vol 1.” to “The Artwork Collector’s Companion: An Interactive Workbook” – once more, out there freed from cost, as HUG believes anybody constructing within the area must be stewards and never gatekeepers.
To this finish, the platform has lately had the chance to companion with TransientLabs, certainly one of its many like-minded companions, and ran a six-week-long Innovation Lab program that launched over 200 artists to dynamic NFTs through Transient’s no-code tooling.
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Following the discharge, Quickly shared “We noticed a number of artists touchdown their first-ever commissions by way of HUG. The end result of that was many glad artists, and even happier collectors, who had been delighted to accumulate a personalised, 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 side of the phrase and made it a part of its core mission. This has been carried out not in a broad method however somewhat by way of a really particular and thought-out strategy.
“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 method 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 note a banner calling for us to have a good time various creators from all walks of life. These communities must be celebrated and really feel supported 24/7, one year a yr, and never simply in particular months.”
This mission additionally strikes a chord near house for Quickly, who shared that “As a latest transplant to America and a girl of shade, 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 so on., however the actuality is that many unconscious biases nonetheless keep on from the standard arts and know-how worlds. By acknowledging that from day one, we could be intentional about the best way we design HUG, each from a product and group 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 through which the members vote for which artists must be onboarded to the platform and which artists must 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 in addition profit collectors seeking to sustain with their favourite creators.
“We’re biased, however we undoubtedly imagine that [artist profiles] are an artist’s greatest instrument to getting seen, shared, and celebrated,” mentioned Zuckerberg, including “Not solely are you able to acquire essentially the most wonderful, considerate opinions from appreciators of your work, it’s also possible to showcase your whole portfolio of labor, each inside and outdoors Web3. We are able to’t wait to maintain upgrading these Artist Profiles, and produce extra performance and interactivity there.”
Along with this, HUG boasts an “Artist Updates” tab, which Quickly “Permits artists to share necessary updates on to the e-mail inboxes of their followers.”
She joked “Whereas we love the gm vibes and group discourse on X, generally artists and collectors simply need a devoted place to share and uncover artwork on the market. At this time, a whole lot of artists are posting their updates to HUG day by day.”
Highlighting one of the important facets 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’ve got 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 side of NFTs being but once more in danger because of shifts in stance from a wide range of main marketplaces and loopholes created by aggregators, we requested HUG what they’re doing to organize their artists for this transformation and to our shock, it’s one thing they’ve virtually anticipated in a way, from inception.
“Artists didn’t get up one morning due to NFTs and determined that they had been artists,” mentioned Zuckerberg, including “As an alternative, they’ve been artists for years, even many years, earlier than NFTs existed! As such, our view has all the time been that NFTs must be certainly 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 solution 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 revealed a wide range of sources on the subject however it has additionally launched mechanisms like its fee characteristic, the place artists can opt-in to obtain fee requests by way of their HUG profile.
Different initiatives embody 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 🤗 | Apply for an Artist Profile (@thehugxyz) August 15, 2023
A Vivid Future
As thrilling as all the expansion detailed above is, Zuckerberg and Quickly have shared that HUG is simply getting began. Actually, due to 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 progress.
“These funds assist us construct out our product additional, and to actually flip HUG from a spot of discovery to certainly one of social commerce,” defined Zuckerberg, including, “We already really feel like we’re serving to artists and collectors join on an emotional stage like by no means earlier than, and these funds will assist us lengthen that relationship from certainly one of appreciation to certainly one of patronage, and assist artists construct sustainable companies out of their work!”
Trying 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 not promoting their work in a single single medium however somewhat 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 imagine the shoppers of the brand new era may 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 precise themselves by way of a number of mediums, we will persuade each single artwork lover to additionally turn into artwork collectors and curators on the blockchain.”
Encouraging phrases from the “Mom Hugger”
“First off, I’ll say that bear markets come and go. After I was on the frontlines of Web2, there was the identical quantity of uncertainty and extremes of euphoria and despair. Being on this planet of rising tech is all the time scary and overwhelming, however it is usually an unbelievable alternative to study. My recommendation is to maintain exploring, continue to learn, maintain creating, and extra importantly, bear in mind to have enjoyable.” Zuckerberg continued.
