Weekly Roundup — June 7th, 2021
Dear Lympo community,
Last week was filled with prep work for the upcoming Lympo developments, and even though we haven’t announced much news, here’s another weekly roundup for you.
Last week’s recap
Lympo Q&A #3
Thanks to everyone who submitted their questions last week! Lympo CEO @adajonuse did her best to answer them for you in another Q&A video.
You can find the link to the video here.
Animoca Brands partners with The International Olympic Committee
Lympo’s parent company Animoca Brands announced the launch of a new Olympic-themed digital entertainment experience consisting of non-fungible token (NFT) Olympic pins and crossplay multiplayer video games developed by nWay, another subsidiary and member of the Animoca Brands family, as part of a new licensing agreement with the IOC.
Lympo is extremely proud of this achievement, as this introduces new and exciting sports-related IP into Animoca Brands’ portfolio of IP licensing deals.
Behind the scenes
It’s about time that we get to know Lympo’s CEO Ada Jonuse a bit better! For the die-hard Lympo fans who have been with us for many years, Ada has been a familiar face. But for those who’ve joined us only recently, it makes sense to learn a bit more about the person who’s leading Lympo towards new heights. Oh, and don’t forget to send her your birthday wishes tomorrow 😉
Who is Ada?
I am born and raised in Vilnius, Lithuanian, a city that I left about 16 years ago. Since then I went on studying, doing traineeships and living in 8 countries in and outside of Europe. My home now is Berlin, though I am still traveling a lot. Initially, my dream was to become a politician. I have pursued it for a long time and even ran for parliamentary elections in Lithuania some years ago. However, I was disappointed with politics and turned to the exciting world of entrepreneurship 5 years ago.
What does a typical day for you as CEO of Lympo look like?
Typically, I spend a big part of my day connecting to various team members and discussing what they are working on, how can I support them and how it fits into our overall strategy. We are a very decentralized team, so communication is key to make sure everyone is on board. Now that we have joined the Animoca Brands family about half a year ago, we are a part of an even bigger structure and have to align our work with more stakeholders. I also take care of financials, legal and some less exciting administrative tasks. Finally, I contribute a lot to planning and tracking our progress.
What do you find the hardest part about being Lympo’s CEO, and what do you enjoy most about it?
Right now, I feel that we have very smooth processes and a great team in place. A big part of this team has worked together for a long time, and we really trust and understand each other. That makes working very enjoyable. I still find it quite difficult to do HR, I sometimes spend too much time solving minor — yet important — details and not enough to do creative work. I really enjoy a great sense of autonomy and agency. We are a small, agile team in a super exciting business and there is so much to discover.
What are you the proudest of so far, with regard to Lympo?
I am most proud of my team members and my personal growth, of course. We have gone a long way over the last 3.5 years, and our learning curve was incredibly steep. We have survived a few very hard moments and tough decisions, but we keep on rolling with sheer enthusiasm and that makes me proud.
What is it that you’re most excited about when you look towards the future of Lympo?
The various ways of utilizing NFTs. Surely, just holding a digital collectible is great, but to me, the real value comes with delivering ways to deploy that NFT. For example, in games, NFT staking mechanisms, tokenizing NFTs and many more. There are so many concepts that are technologically already feasible and as the space is still quite young, we will be able to offer many unique opportunities for our NFT holders.
If you could dream about a particular athlete that you would love to get onto the platform with his/her NFT, who would it be?
I really like Zinedine Zidane. I’d love to one day release his NFTs!
If there is 1 sneak peek you could give about some of the upcoming Lympo developments, what would that be?
We are doing a lot of work together with the Binance team and hope for some great developments in the future. Also, we’re learning that everything really takes up a lot of time when you’re working in and with huge organizations, so we just have to be patient about it.
What do you outside of Lympo, when you’re not thinking about work?
Oh, many things! I had an opportunity to live in Costa Rica for a while this year where I would surf, do yoga, dance at ecstatic dance parties and generally meet a lot of talented and inspiring people. I meditate and do at least some kind of sports on a daily basis, I love being in nature and I love to read.
Who do you look up to for inspiration or mentorship?
Naval Ravikant is my real hero!
You’ve started this journey as an entrepreneur a few years ago. Looking back, what would you do differently (if anything), and what would you recommend to people who want to start their own businesses or projects?
Off, I don’t know if we have enough space for this one 😉 I would do so many things differently, really. The hiring policy, team management, product management, some fundraising decisions, etc. I don’t think that the way ICOs were run in the past was smart. Mostly, people would raise money with an idea, to then be committed to delivering that idea. But that does not allow for the essential need and flexibility to pivot in every stage of your product development, depending on the progress. I feel that we were rushing a lot in the past and now operate at a very different level. It is better to take more time and think longer than to “just do it”. I also learned that it’s crucial to have very strong trust relationships with investors, as this can affect the company so much.
Generally, I would suggest testing your own ideas in the cheapest way possible to see the market’s reaction and leave your ego out of the picture so you’re able to let go of ideas that do not function. What is special in the crypto space is that there are many things you will not be able to control. Understand that the market moves in cycles, don’t lose your nerves, and stay calm to continue building your business. Wait for the perfect wave to surf it and then just enjoy!
Looking ahead
As you already know, Lympo’s current priority is to move the entire Lympo NFT marketplace to Binance Smart Chain. This will allow our LMT token holders to stake and mint NFTs on both BSC and ERC-20. Technically, we are ready to perform the move to BSC at any time, but we have established certain partnerships with whom we have to synchronize these efforts.
Before we move the platform to Binance Smart Chain, you can still expect more athletes to be introduced to the Lympo family. But we’re purposefully waiting for this move to be completed before we release any new NFTs to the platform.
You can be sure about this though: the sun isn’t the only thing that will contribute to a hot summer this year, as many awesome announcements are in development 😉
Want to know more?
Visit the Lympo NFT minting platform.
Join our Telegram or Discord channels.
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