Top Podcasts
Steve Aoki & Sohrob Farudi Talk FCF Ballerz Collective, All Things NFT, And More...
FCF Ballerz Collective is a fan-controlled football league that allows the audience all-access, from selecting plays and players to bragging rights for having tangible contributions to wins. Today’s guests are CEO and co-founder Sohrob Farudi and world-renowned award-winning DJ building a resume of collaborations on some of the most impactful NFT projects in the space, Steve Aoki. Listen in as they chat with Jeff Kelley, Eathan Janney, & Josh Kriger about all things NFT and the exponential growing value of NFT in gaming and collecting. Sohrob and Steve underscore how the space is evolving with user-generated content and decentralized creations. Tune in as they also hint at exciting projects, collaborations, and possibilities to look forward to in the space.
—
Listen to the podcast here
Steve Aoki & Sohrob Farudi Talk FCF Ballerz Collective, All Things NFT, And More…
This episode features guests Steve Aoki and Sohrob Farudi who are collaborating on FCF Ballerz Collective, the first and only NFT project that puts holders in control of IRL professional sports teams. A little bit about each of them. Sohrob is the Founder and CEO of Fan Controlled Football, a real-world professional sports league where the fans call the shots, creating a hybrid of eSports and traditional sports for the digital age. FCF launched their hugely successful inaugural season in 2021 and are ready to take their league size to double for spring of ’22.
Prior to the FCF, Sohrob founded FANchise in 2015, which built a real-time play-calling and fan engagement application for the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles. It led to the creation of FCF. Sohrob is an accomplished international C-level executive and venture-backed entrepreneur. He’s been CEO for multiple startups and raised over $20 million in Angel and venture financing. He’s been an investor and advisor to numerous companies for over a decade.
**Here’s a little bit about Steve. He’s a two-time Grammy-nominated producer and DJ, and is one of the most successful American cross-genre artists with 2.8 billion collective music streams on Spotify. In 1996, as the Founder of the trendsetting record label events, lifestyle company, and apparel line Dim Mak Records, Steve has helped launch the careers of numerous global acts. They include The Chainsmokers, Bloc Party, The Bloody Beetroots, Gossip, and Kills, among many others. **
Forbes recognizes him as in the top five world’s highest-paid DJs and the world’s hardest working DJ counting more than 250 tour dates per year. In 2012, Steve founded the Aoki Foundation, which primarily supports research in brain science, regenerative medicine, and brain preservation. Steve released his critically acclaimed memoir entitled Blue: The Color of Noise, published by St. Martin’s Press. Guys, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having both of us.
It is awesome to have you guys here. I want to jump right in here and start at the beginning of your respective NFT journeys. I want to know from each of you, what was your intro to the NFT space? When and why did it stick for you? How about we start with Steve?
I heard about NFTs previous to the summer of 2020. That is when I was like, “I can become a creator in the space.” I’m lucky because, for some reason, DJs and NFT culture have a strong magnetism. If you look at the landscape of DJs now that are active, a lot of them are already into NFT space. Back then, there were two DJs underneath the management that managed me. One is 3LAU. If you are in NFTs, you already know who he is, and the other is RAC. He has been doing a lot. They were already doing small stuff.
I remember when Justin was telling me before I got involved, “We made $75,000 or $50,000 on a collection.” I remember I made a tape. It is basically my album, but we sell it as an NFT before the album comes out in six months. It ended up becoming the most expensive cassette tape because that cassette tape sold for $4,500. The most expensive cassette tape ever sold was Prince or something like that and that was $4,000. RAC was the most expensive cassette tape ever sold because it was attached to an NFT. That is so cool. This is all happening at that time. We were all in a little tight-knit community because we were under the same management. They are like, “If we could do this, Steve, you could do this. With your reach, you could probably do it bigger.” I’m like, “This is interesting.”
Just being A&R in general, this is what I do. As a DJ, I’m trying to find records people have not heard yet so I could play them and wow my peers. Before you play vinyl, you would hide the label on the vinyl so no one would see what you are playing because you have a special record. You’ve got to dig and find these records. On the label side, I have to go out and find artists before another major label or big label finds them. I develop them and build them up. I’m always trying to discover and find new things early. I have a joy of that discovery.
If this were years ago, I would be on the ships sailing the seas trying to find undiscovered land. That was where I would probably be. I would be risking my life because I love that art of discovery. It is part of the nature of my DNA or my brain chemistry. Anytime I’m in a position to be early in something exciting and new, I am a big techy, futurist, optimist as far as technology and the future go. That is why we were raising all this money for the brain.
This right here, if we could advance it further, as long as it is in our lifetime, we could become Androids in our lifetime. We were definitely going to be there and go there, but imagine if we could do it in our lifetime. We had to put money here on how we could do that and also, what are we talking about with NFTs?
I’m totally not wed to my iPhone. I would love to be an Android in my lifetime. That sounds pretty awesome.
FCF Ballerz Collective: NFT is the tool of the future.
We were already augmented. By having a phone, you are in level A of Android because you have to use this to get around like GPS or whatever you use it for. When we think about NFTs, this is a tool of the future. It is technology and art is front-facing. That is what people are saying, “This art is beautiful.” There is the technology behind it.
When you go behind the cover of it or behind the curtain, it is like the new exchange of how it works in the future. It will be the same way that the internet was before the internet was a boom. It was like, “What is going on? No IRL time?” It is the way it is going to be. It is a mixture of both, and whoever does it best is going to win.
To make it quick, in the summer of 2020, I got in. It is the same time that I got into physical trading cards. COVID was the breeding ground. You have to spend time on it. I got into day trading and all kinds of fun stuff because I was just home. I would never have had time for this if I was touring. I would have been like, “This is cool,” but I got LinkedIn with certain groups. One of which is with Gary Vee and some other friends.
Once you get into some of these group chats and influential people who are making moves like me, it is the idea of you have an interest in what is happening. There are people who are like, “That is cool. I’m curious. It is interesting,” and there is another group of people who are like, “This is cool, curious, and interesting. Now, I’m going to execute on them and take risks.” Those are the two different groups of people.
I feel like a lot more people are here in the curious, cool, interesting but are too scared to take the risk. The risk is quite scary. The next day, everything drops off a cliff, and you are like, “Why did I do that? I should not have done my FOMO.” NFT is such a FOMO culture. It is so FOMO that I have never felt so much FOMO in my life. It is scary and you are like, “You need to do it. You need to act on impulse but you will lose, but at the same time, you can win.” It is crazy.
**You win and then you go to sleep, and you lose. **
My biggest problem is I like to jump in but because I’m so busy, I don’t jump out too much. I’m the perfect collector.
We need to create a jump-out DAO. That is the solution. I’m totally fine with jumping in. There is plenty of alpha floating around, but we need a DAO that helps us jump out of the water.
What you said is what will help me create the most gains because if I go in, I’m very immersive. In whatever I do, I’m 100% in. When I do shows, I’m doing 200-plus shows a year. When I’m in the studio, I work 12 to 16 hours in the studio. When I’m working on a project, I’m fully in. Now, this is my favorite passion. I’m not saying now. I’m just saying that the way I see NFTs, I saw the rest of my life. In a few years, there’ll be something else that will be an evolved adaptation of what NFTs are. I will be part of that and the next thing. This step, as immersive as it is, is full-on.
We know that we have got one of the leaders and doers, which is an important step that you mentioned, Steve. It is executing. I know that Sohrob has been getting after it for several years now. We met him a few years ago and he was out there making it happen with FCF. We would love to hear your story as well, Sohrob.
It is similar to Steve. It is interesting because we both share some passion for sports cards. I have been collecting sports cards since 2009 and 2010. I got in before the pandemic. I was collecting when it was nerdy to collect cards and now it is cool to collect cards. I evolved from a nerd to being super cool collecting cards, which felt pretty good. For me, with NFTs, I went down the blockchain rabbit hole back in 2017. I always looked at applications, specifically around digital collectibles on a nerd passion.
I have got my Dak Prescott cards on my desk here with me. I’m a big collector, so I always looked at how blockchain can be integrated into what we were doing at Fan Controlled Football. It is more on the collectible side of things. That is where I looked at that first integration. If you think about what we were building as a real-life video game integrating some digital currency or digital item economy, that will bring this into a video game-like experience for fans. It was my first thought.
You need to act on impulse. You will lose but at the same time you can win. Click To Tweet
Fast forward a few months ago, I went down the NFT rabbit hole. I was interested in Top Shot. I don’t own a single Top Shot, which is crazy because I’m a huge sports card collector, but I never liked how they were doing it. I guess there is too much supply, and I don’t want to own a layup from a game in the middle of the season that is meaningless. It is not what I like to collect or how I like to collect.
Bored Ape Yacht Club brought me in. I got interested in the community that was forming around BAYC. It was the first that got me in. As I started diving in and getting close to projects, what struck me was a couple of words, passion, family, and belonging. When I started getting involved in a project, it didn’t matter if there were 100 people on a project that wasn’t doing well or 10,000-plus people like Bored Apes. Everybody uses those words again and again. I feel like I’m a part of a family, I belong, and I have made more friends in the last twelve months in this space than I have in the last twelve years in my real life.
As I was looking at how Fan Controlled Football continues to innovate and continue to build a digital community, which is what we were all about. It is this real-world experience, but the entire experience for fans is digital. This opportunity to bring NFTs and digital collectibles and bring the community into the fold was something that I thought was powerful. That is why we were here.
When people ask me about what are some of the most innovative projects in the space, Sohrob, you don’t know this, but I talked about you a lot. It’s not only because Jeff and I were early investors. I’m excited to say that we got in before Animoca Brands, so it is fun. It’s mainly because the concept is so innovative, so if you could, please break it down for our readers.
Fan Controlled Football, at a high level, we could call it a real-life version of Madden. This is real professional football on the field. We had Johnny Manziel and Josh Gordon play in our first season with two guys. Their first professional experience was in Fan Controlled Football who is now playing in the NFL. It is that high-quality football on the field, but the fan engagement model is all about fans making the decision, everything from designing the team memes and logos to drafting the players out of the player pool that we bring. Fans draft all the players onto the team. In real-time, as you watch the games, fans are selecting the play and the players on the field are executing every play that the fans want to see.
It is the ultimate fantasy gaming experience for fans in sports. We can dive into everything we were doing on the NFT, blockchain, or Web3 side. As we look at expanding this world that we were building into multiple sports, we want to do fan-controlled baseball, basketball, and cricket. It is the power of Web3 and the power of community building. Honestly, the beauty of Web3 being international, our goal out of the gate with Fan Controlled Football, even though it is American Football, was to be international out of the gate.
One of the reasons I was attracted to Steve and having him be part of this was he has got this massive international audience because what we created was a league with no geographic barrier. There are no city-based teams. These are influencer-led teams, and the idea is the influencers are part of the experience. They were creating content. They were at the games, participating in the broadcast, and the fans got to experience winning a championship with the people they love to follow, and that they love to see create and see innovation. It is a community-led league open source as it gets in terms of sports. I’m excited about what we can leverage with Web3 to build into the experience.
**It is amazing to think about how symbolic what you are building is with our times, where we are able to converge across the globe in a much more efficient way and build community. Are you still playing the games in Vegas? Is that how it is working? **
We were in Atlanta now. We’re building out a purpose-built venue for season two, which is coming up in April 2022. We are going to unveil what that venue looks like soon, but it is going to be a magical and personal experience. As much as this is for the digital fan, there are going to be 2,500 or 3,000 people every game who are going to have an unbelievable in-person experience to come watch and participate in Atlanta. We were excited to make that announcement.
That is not too far from Jeff in Sarasota and I’m sure my girlfriend’s mother would be excited that we have another reason to get to Atlanta. I’m down.
It will be on April 16th, 2022.
We have all been traveling in Miami and New York. Josh is in Puerto Rico. There are so many cool things that are happening. The space has been evolving so quickly. I wanted to take a moment, Steve, and talk a little bit about the things you have been doing in the NFT space. You have been lowkey building a resume of collaborations on some of the most impactful NFT projects in the space. One day, it may even rival your music accomplishments, but I know that is a tall order. We were that long NFTs and we think that is possible. Talk us through the journey of NFT projects that you have helped bring to life so far and how that led you to the Ballerz Collective.
FCF Ballerz Collective: This opportunity to bring NFTs and digital collectibles and really bring community into the fold was something really powerful.
One of the most exciting things about this whole landscape is that if you have an idea, you can build on it. Whereas in other industries, especially in the IRL, you can’t just go, “I have a great idea. It is going to happen.” It doesn’t happen like that. Everyone has got brilliant ideas. There is a brilliant idea popping up every second on the planet and people have a hard time executing on them because it costs a lot of money. It requires a team and a lot of time commitment. All that makes it difficult.
In this digital landscape, the metaverse, NFTs, and all of the above, if you have a brilliant idea, you don’t have to have a large team to execute it. There are a lot of stories of people who are anonymous who have this idea. They don’t have to have any clout, influence, or fame in the game. If you are about exactly what Sohrob is saying, which is community and building with the people that believe in your vision, and having this real-time conversation to do something great of service to what that vision is all about, you will be able to create something that is impactful.
At the end of the day, you have to think about it like this. Before I go into the resumé, I feel like this is the ethos you have to have. It is not about money. You can’t put money in the front view. Money will come. If you create a great service in whatever you do in the world like IRL, digital or whatever it is, money will happen. I remember the first few years of me DJing. I was DJing hundreds of shows for free just to get my face out there. To get to where we are, all of us did so much work to show that we have value in what we were doing. You have to show that value. That is what’s important and eventually, you will make money.
During that journey, if you are having a great time, you shouldn’t even worry about money. I go back to when I was a DJ. Before I was a DJ, I was in bands. I would tour across the US fourteen times. We would play in front of 8 to 30 people, maybe 35 people a show. We’re getting paid anywhere between $18 to $40 to $50 a show, driving ten hours between gigs and sleeping in the van.
After 30 days of touring, we go back and we were like, “I can’t wait to do it again.” If you love the journey, it doesn’t matter about money. You will go back and you work your jobs. All my bandmates had 2 or 3 jobs but we were excited to get back on the road. Passion is incredibly important in developing a community. You want a community to be about the culture of it.
Of course, you have to make money in what you are doing, but you want to find passionate people in your community. When you find real people that want to build instead of bots, you are going to have something that is going to be sustainable, have longevity, and have that same impact. You don’t want a bunch of flippers in there. We want people to win. That’s another thing that is important about NFTs that I have learned through this journey. It is how important taking care of the secondary market is, the collectors, and investors that believe in the vision and the idea that you put out there.
Going to all the different projects I have done, my brain is always moving. I’m always trying to think of something that can evolve what I’m working on. At this point in time, with the number of people that I have met and the great relationships that I have built on, this is where I’m acting on it. Todd McFarlane, we have a great relationship. Whenever I go to Arizona, we get dinner. We talk about what we do and what is going on in the world. We always think about collaborating. This is a perfect way to collaborate much more than doing a SPAWN t-shirt with Dim Mak.
This is something that we can have a real major impact on not just what we were doing personally but on both of our industries. It is combining the force and building a marketplace. That is why we created OddKey. It is a similar thing with my passion for TCG, sports cards, and cards in general, card collectors. I love the actual trading card game aspect as well, although I’m not a gamer in that way. I don’t play cards but I do respect that whole world. I became a partner in an incredible IP, a trading card game called MetaZoo. This is a great foray to develop the digital trading card aspect that is still on the front lines. It is still very early in the space and builds that out because that will become normal for people to do that.
**You never know. **
We had her on the show. She talked about that.
Sohrob, is there anything that you aped into?
Let’s do it.
Ice cream from the ice cream truck.
That is a solid go-to. Steve, how about you?
I know every word of that song.
Let’s roll.
**You can reach the hats now. **
This guy totally did a one-over on me.
A Dak Prescott rookie card.
Are you ready for this?
**What did you pick up? **
**Jeff and I are diehard UFC fans, Steve. **
It was a Lamar Jackson rookie card.
How much?
It was $2,000.
**We will spin that off and get you set up. **
What grade is it?
What’s an 8 worth, do you think?
I turned down $4 million for it.
He’s got a $4.5 million card.
That is NFT to the moon value.
I got to get into card collecting.
**It’s like NFT projects. It is the 0.1% **
It is the same thing. It goes across the board.
**Steve, what is your most prized possession? **
He’s got a $1 billion card.
Steve, how about you?
Let’s up that number.
Steve, how about you?
That is coming down the pipeline.
We do ice baths on a regular.
No. Tell me about that. I’ve heard that name.
Steve, how about you?
Steve, how about you?
Important Links:
-
Spotify – Steve Aoki
-
Dual-Species, Measurement Of Epidemic Genetic Age With A Single Clock Reversing Age
-
Article – $100 CONTEST!
-
@SohrobF – Twitter
-
@FCFLio – Twitter
-
@SteveAoki – Twitter
-
Discord – Steve Aoki
-
iTunes – Edge of NFT Podcast
About Steve Aoki
Steve Aoki was born on November 30, 1977 in Miami, Florida. He’s an American electro house musician, record producer, D.J. & music executive. He’s the 3rd child of Chizuru Kobayashi & Rocky Aoki. His father was a former wrestler who also founded the restaurant chain Benihana.
About Sohrob Farudi
Co-founder & CEO at Fan Controlled Football (FCF)