In 2021, 10% of early-stage startups worldwide were focused on blockchain. This deep-tech sector, encompassing such technologies, emerged as the fastest-growing segment within the early-stage company ecosystem, according to The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2021. This annual survey is conducted by the policy advisory and research organization, Startup Genome.

Boys Club is no exception. Founded in the fall of that year, what began as a dinner club and group chat quickly morphed into a media company and DAO
DAO
. Boys Club was co-founded by Deana Burke and Natasha Hoskins, who had recently seen their travel company, Allcall, acquired by Fora Travel. At the time of founding, Burke was employed at the Celo Foundation, a decentralized finance project aimed at introducing crypto to underserved communities, while Hoskins remained at Fora. The founders and initial members of the Boys Club dinner club aimed to transition from being observers to active participants in this new economic and cultural movement. They swiftly transformed into a media brand and lifestyle business, offering a “fourth space” for those who align with their unapologetically femme and deeply curious worldview, fostering a sense of belonging within their interests, work, and social lives, as Hoskins revealed in an interview.

Following their graduation from the consumer-crypto focused accelerator Seed Club in April 2022, Boys Club evolved from a community to a Decentralized Autonomous Organization, incorporating several guilds to manage core responsibilities. By June 2022, Boys Club had unveiled two NFT collections: a free drop for existing followers, and a purchasable one to facilitate supporters in funding the DAO’s mission to contribute to web3 culture by acting as a bridge or medium of sorts. Hoskins described this as “a bridge for our normal friends who may not understand crypto, the latest meme, or the peculiar online moments unfolding. We’re exploring it together.”

Later that year, Boys Club inaugurated a consulting arm to assist companies in navigating web3 and formulating their strategies. Today, as noted by Hoskins, Boys Club identifies as “a social collective and lifestyle brand, ushering new voices into the new internet.” They accomplish this through various forms of cultural production, including “podcasts, newsletters, events, a biannual magazine, and apparel, all viewed through the lens of how emerging tech influences culture (and vice versa).”

Last week, following the crypto conference Permissionless II 2022—where Boys Club curated culturally-oriented discussions—they announced a fresh endeavor: a satellite event at the renowned tech conference SXSW
XSW
, named /brandnew. This summit aims to explore consumer crypto, a burgeoning trend in the blockchain arena, and its intersection with culture.

However, Boys Club isn’t the sole media entity dabbling in web3. Poolsuite, an Apple Design Awards 2021 finalist, is an internet radio service that recently initiated an NFT collection to garner support for establishing a DAO, with plans to purchase a villa for hosting events. Since its 2014 launch, Poolsuite has been a beloved presence online, branching out in 2021 with the launch of Vacation, a sunscreen line that earned an endorsement from mega-celebrity Kim Kardashian in August 2023.

In a similar vein, Zora, the NFT protocol and marketplace that recently launched a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum
ETH
, gave birth to a media subsidiary: Zine, previously known as Zora Zine. After operating as an online publication for two years, their inaugural print edition was released in the summer of 2023, with acquisition necessitating the redemption of a Zine NFT for the physical volume.

As Hoskins told me, “Web3 culture is internet culture on steroids. It gathers all your chronically online friends who adore the internet so much that they’ve devised ways to claim their own corner of it.” It appears netizens are gearing up to release products that resonate with their audiences, expanding the web3 community into new sectors of society.

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