Fat Penguin founder talks about his entrepreneurial journey: from dropping out of school to becoming a top NFT brand builder

Written by: Luca Netz, Founder of Pudgy Penguins

Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

On October 7, Twitter user Horlomite Research tweeted allegations that Luca Netz, the founder of the NFT project Pudgy Penguins, funded the acquisition of Pudgy Penguins entirely from four different Rug projects.

Shortly thereafter, Luca Netz shared his eight-year entrepreneurial journey on social media after graduating from high school, seemingly in response to the doubts raised by Horlomite Research.

Deep Tide TechFlow has compiled and organized the above content.

Dropped out of high school and forged his own path

Luca was initially very disappointed with his studies, and his family environment was quite difficult. During high school, he decided to drop out and start making a living, which became the starting point of his entrepreneurial journey. He organized underground rap shows in Los Angeles and achieved some initial success. However, he also realized that running a show had too many risks, and it was better to find a stable job.

First job: Packing worker at Ring

Luca sent out resumes everywhere and finally got his first job packing boxes at the smart doorbell company Ring. This simple physical work opened the door for him to make a living and start a business.

After working at Ring for a few months, Luca was promoted to the QA (Quality Assurance) and RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) departments, which focused on ensuring product quality and providing satisfactory after-sales service to customers. At that time, Ring was rapidly expanding, but Luca also realized that his personal advancement opportunities were limited. This prompted him to start thinking about a transition.

Venturing into e-commerce

Luca began purchasing various online courses and ultimately chose cross-border e-commerce. He quickly found product-market fit in the jewelry sector, achieving explosive growth.

Luca adjusted his business model to stock products in the U.S., achieving 90% domestic shipping, with 10% of orders still being drop-shipped. He then successfully sold this e-commerce business to his biggest competitor at the time. This first successful exit marked the beginning of his investment career.

Creating a viral IP

Using the knowledge he gained there, Luca began to monetize social influence, becoming the driving force behind many influencer-owned brands.

He collaborated with influencers to build direct-to-consumer brands around their personas. He was responsible for product management, order processing, customer service, and website development, while the influencers decided on the products they wanted to sell and the related positioning and marketing strategies.

This business was very successful, inspiring him to establish Netz Capital for venture capital, as he believed it would have the greatest impact.

Invested in multiple startups but hit hard by COVID-19

In 2019, he invested $3 million in 15 different companies across various fields, including sneaker retailers (CNK), SaaS products (SSB), and other direct-to-consumer brands (unhappy).

However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many of these companies faced significant challenges, including CNK, which had physical stores. To provide support, he offered CNK a loan to help them through the tough times.

When the CNK team decided to launch an NFT project, the loan was repaid.

Inspired by NFTs, decided to focus on brand building

This became the opportunity for Luca to engage with NFTs. He also realized that the influencer economy lacked sustainable business value and decided to shift his focus to brand building.

His first attempt was to revitalize the Von Dutch brand in early 2020. However, after the second deal with Von Dutch failed to materialize during the COVID-19 crisis, Luca decided to create an online course about what he had learned so far.

He realized that online courses could change lives, so he decided to provide others with the same opportunities he had received from others. Today, he can confidently say that hundreds of lives have been changed as a result.

Subsequently, Luca Netz became the largest investor and Chief Marketing Officer of Gel Blaster, embarking on the journey of developing one of the fastest-growing toy companies in North America. During his time at Gel Blaster, he became passionate about collecting and learning about NFTs, starting to collect his first batch of 1/1 NFTs and PFPs.

Spooky Boys and the disputes

During the NFT boom, a friend of Luca contacted him, hoping he could help operate the NFT project Spooky Boys, as he had tried for a month without finding a solution.

Luca agreed to help and told him that if successful, he would need to pay Luca's costs plus a percentage fee. The project succeeded, and Luca fell in love with the industry. After weeks of back-and-forth communication, he saw the potential of the project and wanted to become a partner. Despite many disputes and an inability to reach an agreement, this ultimately led to his proposal to purchase the project, resulting in more arguments and eventually straining their friendship, with the project remaining with his friend. The community eventually took over the project, and Luca Netz rejoined as an advisor (a role he still holds today).

Luca stated that the best part of this experience was meeting the project's developer, Lomel, for whom he will always be grateful.

Seizing the NFT media advertising boom, successfully arbitraging

From what he learned here, Luca saw an opportunity to arbitrage by posting on Instagram. At that time, the prices of posts on Instagram were rising daily, with course sellers, information product experts, and emerging NFT projects driving up advertising prices.

Luca saw this as an opportunity to buy as many advertising spots on Instagram pages as possible and resell them as prices increased. He became a gatekeeper for these platforms, allowing buyers to negotiate with page owners on creative and posts once sold. This business was run by two people from Luca's alpha group, and he essentially automated the entire operation, earning millions of dollars within a few months. More information can be found in the posts he published. (Related link)

Acquiring Pudgy Penguins, aiming to create the first mass-market Web3 brand

A few months later, Luca Netz saw the opportunity to purchase Pudgy, stating that Pudgy was his first truly high-return transaction as an NFT trader, and he had always known and seen its potential. It was clear that Pudgy had all the elements to become an NFT ambassador.

Three months later, he embarked on the journey to create the first mass-market brand in the Web3 space. After a year of hard work, he successfully raised funds.

He firmly believes in building a company the right way and has personally experienced the impact of neglect and exploitation on the community. Therefore, they came here with the vision of building Web3 IP, setting the North Star as a benchmark for establishing Web3 IP to ensure that the company's development does not harm the community but instead has a positive impact on it.