NFT Creator – Cointelegraph Magazine

Humpty Penguin was minted in July 2021, but not before its former founder was suspected of carpet project.

A few months later, Luca Schnetzler stepped in. He has had an entrepreneurial spirit since he was a teenager and has a history of building Internet businesses, and in April 2022 purchased the intellectual property rights to the project and its 8,888 adorable dwarfs for $2.5 million.

“It was an instinctive and intuitive decision. I saw this thing that I invested heavily in before I bought it and I thought it had all the potential. I complain and cry to the founders every day about how terrible they are and how they Do better. I don’t just do it, I step up,” Schnetelzer said.

As Schnetzler lays out a vision for a project the community can rally behind, the story quickly shifts from a rug of potential zero to one of hope and optimism.

Schnetzler became one of the outstanding PFP project leaders during the NFT bear market, with the Penguins bucking the trend and lowering the floor price. Since he took over as CEO, Pudgy Penguins’ floor price has increased from around 1 ETH to 6.32 ETH. Holders and the broader NFT community believe Schnetzler has a successful game plan and the ability to execute it.

Chunky Penguin - Brave New World — *Chunky Penguin – Brave New World (X)*

He said the decision to acquire the project was not as risky as it seemed.

“We bought something for $2.5 million that netted close to $10 million in six months. The royalties were making half a million dollars a month. On the surface, it was a pretty good business. . Intuitively, I think it depends on your vision when you close your eyes and imagine a chunky penguin, it’s easy to see where this thing is going.”

Continued momentum and growth have been key to Pudgy’s rise to one of the top PFP projects, with the adorable penguin brand spreading on social media outside of traditional cryptocurrency conduits like X and Discord. Pudgy just passed 1 million Instagram followers, and its GIF strategy has been so effective that it crossed the 10 billion view gap a few days ago.

Chunky Penguin’s GIFs and stickers have been viewed 10B times on GIPHY.

With 10B views and millions of views per day, our GIFs have allowed us to solidify the Chunky Penguin IP in online culture as a brand that people interact with every day. pic.twitter.com/odEIPgD2wc

— Pudgy Penguins (@pudgypenguins) November 27, 2023

Schnetzler thinks it’s a little sad that he gets such praise because it just highlights how little effort other PFP programs put in trying to grow their brands.

“Everyone is saying that their NFT project is a brand, and they have raised hundreds of millions of dollars from the community and venture capital at ridiculous valuations. However, none of them have really built the foundation of the brand,” he said.

“Some people have really heaped praise on me, which is actually sad because I do think we do some things really well, don’t get me wrong, but I mean, this should always be It’s the bar. The fact that we’re doing a lot of things that a lot of projects aren’t doing when they have 10-20 times the resources and 2-3 times the experience is pretty shameful.”

Chunky Penguin #6179 — *Chunky Penguin #6775 (OpenSea)*

Looking for Entrepreneurship

Although only 25 years old, Schnitzler actually began his entrepreneurial journey more than a decade ago. Schnetzler, who grew up poor and bounced around on friends’ couches, said he needed to start making money at an early age.

“I’ve literally been out of school and working for 10 years, which is crazy to say, but it’s true,” he said, noting that most people don’t start working until they’re in their 20s after college.

“Then you’re 10 years out of college and you’re 33, and then people start seeing success in their 30s. That seems to be the time frame. I think my childhood forced me to start very early. I didn’t The luxury of relaxing and not having a childhood where I could go home and play video games without worrying about anything. I was forced to go to work and figure things out.”

Characterization and branding

To date, most PFP projects have been built around a central character with a variety of different characteristics, giving each NFT a slightly different look and feel. Take the OG series CryptoPunks and The Bored Apes as examples, and the same is true for Pudgys. But that’s not the case with Gary Vee’s VeeFriends, which has 270 independent characters.

Schnetzler believes that building a character around a character is the easier of the two options.

Brave New World—Walmart Pallet Plan

In September, Pudgys announced a groundbreaking deal with retail giant Walmart, which will see physical Pudgys Penguin toys prominently sold in more than 2,000 stores nationwide.

“The Pallet Project is one of the most prestigious places you can get because it provides prime real estate for people to walk on the floors. It signifies the confidence Walmart has in the brand and their confidence in NFTs and Web3 becoming their Belief in the retail store vertical,” Schnetzler said.

“If this can become the common norm at the world’s largest retailers, then we have a real chance of success. It’s one thing to be in the cracks of the toy aisle, it’s another thing to be front and center where everyone can see it. This program is not available for brand new brands. This is typically a show for Barbie, Ninja Turtles, or those who have already released movies and TV shows.”