Team behind Futourist

Ziga Luksa
Futourist
Published in
5 min readNov 9, 2017

This is the story about us — People behind Futourist.

I believe everything in life happens for a reason.

This is the story about how our team got together with one greater vision. To solve the problem for content creators and bring balance to an unbalanced world of content industry. It was just another afternoon in March 2017, when Nino, Tim and I were having a random “beer” conversation about blockchain and all the benefits that it brings to the world. I remember like it was yesterday, when the spark ignited and light an idea. In that fraction of a moment, a project that would change the value of content creators (and our lives) was born.

The beginning

But first thing first, let’s start at the beginning, five years ago. I was 21 years old back then and have just made my first steps into the world of content. My life were books, podcasts and everything related with content marketing. The field was so wide and I wanted to know everything about it. It fascinated me how content industry works and changes so fast. Everything was a novelty, everything was interesting. It was something I wanted to do in my life.

Two years later I founded my first company and brand called Sailbrace. Working with content creators (bloggers, influencers, photographers, writers) on a daily basis I developed a deep understanding of the content field. Soon after, the first big problem crystallized — the worlds of content creators and social platforms have never been more out of balance. Back then, I was already thinking how any system could change this, but it seemed like I had no answer at the time. In the same year I was introduced to blockchain, by no other than Tim M. Zagar, a good friend of mine, and a whole new world opened to me. I started learning everything related to Bitcoin, Ethereum and the system behind cryptocurrencies — blockchain. All of this led up to the “click” moment of inspiration and the random beer conversation that gave birth to Futourist.

But this was just the beginning.

Friends and Business can mix — co founders Nino and Arne

I met Nino a long time ago, even before Sailbrace was founded. At the time, he was working for Microsoft with my brother and studying graphical design. Me, a high school student and him already studying, working and freelancing on weekends as a web developer. Devoted to the study of interaction design, UX, UI he spent literally hundreds of hours on self-taught development.But our common point was the entrepreneurial spirit. We had both established our own companies and because of his devotion to web design we met again in 2015, when I asked him to help me with our brand’s page. Our collaboration made it immediately clear that there’s abundant potential in our work. The combination of our skills and wide knowledge soon reflected in our brand’s insane growth and recognition in just one season. This was when I realised we will someday create something much greater together.

Friends and business can mix

As for Arne, our friendship goes back as far as I can remember — and from the day I first met him, he was the guy who knew a lot of stuff. Before Futourist, Arne was in real estate and investment and also did a nootropics project. Currently putting together a master thesis on ICO’s he’s always displayed an unstoppable desire to learn about new things. And that was the reason why our friendship became successful and endured. We are always spending days talking about new things, technologies and changes in general. Because of all that it was inevitable that we will someday cross paths in business.

On the left with Arne and my girlfriend Izabela;on the right -Arne, Nino and me pretending to be rockstars
Arne, Nino and me — working in my apartment, Amsterdam Blockchain Summit, late night office work

The birth of Futourist

After sharing an idea with Nino and Arne, Futourist was born. Little did we know, this project will bring us together as business partners.And with a help of our amazing advisors — Tim M. Zagar, Alexander Vasylchenko, Zenel Batagelj, Michael Amy, Primoz Kordez and many more, we upgraded our project to the next level. Each advisor left a huge impact and even more knowledge.

Working weekend with help of Iconomi developers, countless written whiteboards and talks with advisors

What makes a good team great team

But what makes our team so special? It is not because we think we have special skills or some brilliant talents. It’s because we tapped into our ability to see. Not as ourselves, but as others. We see the small details and trends others don’t see. And not just on the computer screen, books or in everyday life. But in — and through — the eyes, hearts and minds of people.

We translate those observation into something greater, something previously impossible. Something nobody ever thought of before. Amazing effort and and countless workshops, brainstormings, thousands of written papers, diagrams and sleepless night were the key that brought us where we are now.

Our Advisors — Tim, Zenel, Alexander and co-founder of Cofound.it Daniel

I am more than happy to work with such an amazing team. And at this point, I would like to thank other team members — Simon, Gorazd, Anja, Maja, Ram, Sean, the whole Cofound.it team, Musiconomi members, especially Brian, all content creators and everyone who is somehow involved in our project!

We are all a big Futourist team — or as I would call it — a Family!

Always positive Cofound.it team; Gorazd, our developer with me

You can follow our work below:

Website

Telegram

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Medium

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Ziga Luksa
Futourist

CEO & Co-founder of Futourist. Inspired by unusual details and how things intersect.