Early last year, I received a LinkedIn message with a request that caught my attention. The sender, Chris, was the father of a young and incredibly talented rising Formula 4 star by the name of Hugh Barter. He was looking for support and sponsorship to help fund his son’s passion and talent. Usually I wave these messages on by but, after a bit of googling, I had a gut feel there was something here worth looking a little deeper into. So I caught up with Chris, and then Hugh, and started helping them work through their funding and sponsorship issues.
What struck me from the beginning was the reality that motorsport is a game for the wealthy. So many talented athletes fall to the wayside because they simply can’t fund their journey to the top.
In fact, motorsport is for the wealthy and connected. It’s a pay-to-play game.
As a father of 4 myself, Chris’s situation resonated. Parents will do anything for their kids, and Chris and his wife were the perfect example of this. They had given everything to help their son chase his dream because they truly believe he’s got what it takes, but the question was; did they have what it takes to help him get there?
I’d been tracking the different use cases of NFTs for some time through my son Alex, who had started experimenting in the space early and has since executed several NFT projects in the music and sports industries. One evening we were chatting about how I could help Hugh and wondered if we could create an NFT drop for him. As we tossed the idea around, we imagined it might work like a digital rookie trading card and Hugh could use it to create a special level of engagement with his closest fans. Our conversations quickly turned to increasingly complex drawings on butcher paper and with that, Scoutt was born.
Early this year we started the project without much more ambition than helping Hugh to earn some money to fund his seat for 2022, but as the concept gathered steam we realised we were onto something that could be huge. As we worked through the model and the possibilities we realised this could be a systemic change that puts the athlete and fan back at the heart of sport.
This wasn’t just an opportunity to fund athletes, it was a whole ecosystem opportunity using the best of Web 3.0 technology, philosophy and community.
The ambition for Scoutt grew and we knew we needed a Web 3.0 savvy product and technology team to bring this to life. Sometimes the universe has impeccable timing. A mutual friend from the States connected me to Ben Reid, another Aussie based in Sydney and arguably one of the most talented product managers in the country. Ben is the founder of Digital Creators (DC), an innovation and venture studio with a strong focus on sustainability, social impact and Web 3.0. I was instantly impressed by the DC team, with their commitment to customer research, co-design and building businesses for good; not to mention their vision, hustle and ability to have FUN along the way.
A month later Ben, Alex and I were in business together. With me in Melbourne, Ben, Alex and I worked together for 6 months over Zoom before our first meeting in person! That first whisky we had together never tasted so good.
The learning curve
As I mentioned, Alex had been working in this space for a while by the time we started working on Scoutt. I’d be learning through him, but I could never have anticipated the learning journey I was about to embark on as a founder. My biggest learning curve so far has been in understanding the layers of Web 3.0 technology and how they have developed over time. If you have done any research yourself, you’ll know that different blockchains often present different architectures and value propositions around speed, transaction capacity, decentralisation and security. Building upon this, the various coins, NFTs and protocols that create value at the different layers has required quite a brain stretch to conceptualise and understand how all the pieces fit and how they can be best used.
Web 3.0 is a wild torrent of innovation and sometimes it’s hard to distinguish an idea from a concrete capability. Lots of projects publish lofty roadmaps, promising utilities that are not much more than ideas. It’s taken time for me to gain enough of an understanding to be able to see what’s real.
I often say that my journey ‘down the rabbit hole’ has been like a raging addiction. It occupies most of my available creative headspace.
When I started to unearth the possibilities that Web 3.0 presents it felt like I’d stumbled into a secret library full of spells and potions, and every book I pulled off the shelf revealed incredible secrets as I flicked through the pages. Since my rabbit hole moment, I’ve been consuming information at a rate that’s probably unlike any other time in my career. I’m either listening to podcasts, watching YouTube videos, reading medium posts and whitepapers, or flicking through trails of links and tips in Slack, WhatsApp and Discord.
And hell, it’s exciting. I believe we are witnessing the world undergoing a rewiring. Fundamentally Web 3.0 is a movement driven by the philosophy of interconnectedness, shared value, collaboration, transparency, and a more even distribution of power.
Today’s world is broken. It’s fragmented by ruthless competition and self-interest, opaque power structures, haves and have nots.
Unfortunately, we will need to move through some turbulence to get to the other side, and a great irony is that most of Web 3.0 is only accessible to the privileged few who can understand it.
However, this will change. I’m pumped to watch this go mainstream in the next few years. And I believe that Scoutt will be one of the breakthrough platforms that will unify Web 3.0 sophisticates with the mainstream community.
We have an impact agenda, a strong sense of purpose and ethics, a kick-arse team, and we intend to make it easy for everyone to participate and enjoy the benefits that flow to everyone, and the sporting world as a whole.
But, we’re not there yet and that turbulence is proving to be pretty damn bumpy. We’re still working our way through the regulatory maze. Most governments are still struggling with regulation for Web 2.0 businesses. Web 3.0 is racing ahead with a speed of innovation that is mind boggling. I get the sense that this is an escape velocity issue and we’re heading for some real challenges in reintegrating as the new business models mature. Banking is a good example of this — to what extent will banks jump on board and use their smarts to participate in the Web 3.0 economy rather than oppose it? This is as yet unclear.
My advice to anyone looking to get into this space is to look past the hype and think about long term utility. NFTs are going to change the way we trade in goods and services in a way that’s like moving from analogue to digital. The implications of this are going to be profound on society. Think deeply about the opportunities this will create and play the long game.
We have a chance to use this knowledge to create a new way of living and creating the future global society. Go there.
And so, the experiment begins
We had our first athlete, Hugh Barter, on board straight away. He loved the idea and he and his family were ready to give everything to the project.
From the beginning we wanted the platform to be equally powerful for athletes from all genders, ages, ethnicities and economic backgrounds.
We could see Scoutt being a transformative agent for creating pathways for female talent and increasing engagement, so we knew we wanted to ensure our first drop had a female athlete, too.
Hugh also helped us find our second athlete and rising star in Asia; Bianca Bustamante. Bianca is the perfect fit for Scoutt. She’s incredibly talented; an Asian Champion, awarded Philippines Driver of the Year 3 times by the age of 16. Most importantly, Bianca is highly ambitious, with her sights set on an F4 seat for 2022 and she’s already breaking down barriers, recently becoming the first Asian driver to be admitted to FIA’s Girls on Track.
Both Hugh and Bianca are awesome to work with. They’re bright, generous with their time and progressive in their thinking — as we’d expect any 16 year old to be! They’re co-designing the platform and their offering with us, helping us to create awesome prizes and rewards for their fans and guiding us to design an offer that they can be proud to be a part of.
We also quickly pulled together a strong team, made up of a range of close connections and like-minded designers, engineers, community managers, NFT experts and advisors who are deeply passionate about using technology for good.
The team comes from all over the world; seamlessly work remotely, together, synchronously and asynchronously. It’s effortless, really. And a shitload of fun.
We’ve been testing our ideas, designs and rewards with users along the way and, now that we’re really starting to see progress, we’ll be testing more and more with our community. Like anything in the world of Web 3.0, we’re on an accelerated learning curve. With that in mind, we would love for you to share your feedback and ideas with us and help us create something really special. You can find us on Discord or on Twitter and we’ll always try to get back to you as soon as possible.
This project is magic because it is fuelled by a shared singular belief in the vision.
It inspires everyone who touches it, which has been such a special experience so far. I’m loving the ride and can’t wait to bring it to life for you. Thank you for joining us and being part of the journey.
Until next time,
Hugh
P.s. If you want keep up to date with our latest thinking, join Hugh and Bianca’s waitlist and our community on Twitter and Discord.
A little about me…
I’ve spent the last 20 years doing big business technology projects, learning about how different businesses work across a pretty broad range of industries. I run a technology business operating in the UK, Europe, US and Australia and we tend to do whole of enterprise transformation work. This gives us a special insight into how industries are changing and where technology is going. I founded the business 19 years ago in Melbourne, Australia and it’s been a long and winding road, but very rewarding. I’m also dad to 4 children; each born in a different decade (25, 14 ,8, 7 months — 90’s, 00’s, 10’s, 20’s). I am always trying new things; new sports, travelling to exotic — sometimes fairly wild — locations, playing with new technologies. It’s true what they say, life really does begin at the edge of your comfort zone.
