Although best known in the present day as one of social media and Web3’s earliest advocates, internet mogul Gary Vaynerchuk’s track record of correctly identifying the next big thing and building a solid foundation reaches back to the dot-com bubble that bridged the 20th century into the new millennium. After successfully bringing his family’s liquor store business online, he leveraged his insight into this emerging media format into building a social media empire in the late 2000s to early 2010s.

Now, he’s one of Web3’s most prominent builders, and has focused much of his attention on building up his VeeFriends IP. In 2022, his efforts culminated in the wildly successful VeeCon. However, despite everything Vaynerchuk has given to the nascent Web3 space, he may be just getting started.

While bullish on Web3 and NFTs, Vaynerchuk has repeatedly stated his belief that most NFT projects you see today will fizzle out and crash sooner or later. “I saw this movie in 1997 to 2001. It was called the internet,” said Vaynerchuk in a panel at The Gateway 2022. However, from there, he has also repeatedly stated that from the ashes of those failed projects, the eventual mainstays of Web3 may emerge soon after.

Vaynerchuk also spoke on the value of humility and how treating the people he works with on projects with kindness and respect is a fundamental part to his approach to business and entrepreneurship. “Business success doesn’t mean shit.” Vaynerchuk said on staying humble. “Humility is very easy when you’re a nice person and happy inside.”

In our latest episode of the nft now podcast, we cover Vaynerchuk likening the NFT and crypto market’s bull run to his experience in the dot-com bubble, staying humble despite his massive success, what’s in store for the next installment of VeeCon, and why the NFT market is just like the after-school television programming of the 1980s.