ZEROPOD

What does it mean to build a brand without a leader, a strategy, or even a plan? In this episode of ZEROPOD, I sit down with Martin Anquetil, one of the founders of $HIGHER, the headless memecoin brand redefining chaos as culture onchain. 

We dive into everything from AI agents breaking bounty bots on Farcaster to an Ethereum stock split, the memecoin meta and the challenges of building a project based on a number-go-up meme even when number doesn’t always go up. Along the way, Martin shares lessons from his time within Nouns, explores the unique challenges of decentralization, and reveals what it takes to survive a 97% token price crash with your optimism and community intact. 

We really enjoyed this conversation with Martin, and we hope you do too!

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Figuring out “Can we do this thing?” while doing it  
01:00 - ZEROPOD Intro  
01:51 - The Martin Origin Story  
04:00 - College and Interning at Google  
05:00 - Oneshot by Topshot  
07:00 - 2021 NFT Season Nostalgia  
10:55 - Who the F**k is Buying XRP?  
11:50 - Ethereum Stock Split Discussion 
15:15 - First Impressions of Nouns  
16:15 - Leaving TopShot to Explore Onchain Options  
17:50 - Freelancing with Nouns Builder  
19:19 - Agora, Explorer Grants, and Other Nouns Initiatives  
20:00 - Mogu Mogu Mogu: Nouns Governance Tooling  
24:19 - Starting $HIGHER  
25:00 - Roots in /bullposting   
28:00 - How Would He Launch Higher Today?  
32:00 - The Strength of Builders Who Stick Through the Bear  
34:00 - “Higher, Not Sideways” 
37:30 - Quack Quack ⌐◨-◨:   
38:50 - Is $HIGHER a Neo-DAO or Something New?  
40:00 - Authenticity vs. Top-Down Control: The Higher Experiment  
44:00 - Could $ANON Run a Higher-Like Playbook?  
45:00 - Farcaster Users Speed-Running Speculation Lessons  
47:00 - $ZEROPOD: Exploring Media and Tokens  
49:00 - The Origins of $POINTS on Farcaster  
50:50 - “Provenance is Culturally Emergent”  
51:00 - Jacob’s Horse Meme and Its Viral Evolution  
53:53 - What Is Aether? The AI Agent Shaking Things Up  
57:00 - The $LUM Luminous Launch  
1:01:00 - Challenges of Community Cohesion in Decentralized Projects  
1:02:03 - Questions for Martin from Aether  
1:06:00 - What’s Next for Aether? Memory and Autonomy  
1:07:00 - Aether on Twitter? Exploring New Platforms  
1:08:00 - Balancing Meaningful Building with Market Pressures  
1:11:00 - Betting on Yourself and Long-Term Projects  
1:14:00 - Martin’s Thoughts on Trading and Staying Grounded  
1:16:00 - Coinbase Listings and Meme Coin Dynamics  
1:21:00 - What’s Next for Martin and $HIGHER  
1:24:00 - Outro: Reflections and the Road Ahead

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Podcast recorded by Toady Hawk, edited by Toady Hawk and JackWyldes. Hosted by Toady Hawk. Music by Toady Hawk x Suno AI.

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