Founder Mauricio Morales on the journey of Starcatchers and the importance of diversifying Web3
In light of NFT.NYC this week, we’re sharing an exclusive interview with Mauricio Morales: entrepreneur, creator and founder of Starcatchers. Morales’ perspective on the evolving world of NFTs, Web3 and artist discovery is unique. Through his story as a Latino founder looking to expand diverse voices in the space, as well as the challenges and triumphs that come with entrepreneurship in Web3 – Mauricio takes the audience on the captivating journey of Starcatchers, where the future is only bright from here.
ONE37: Mauricio, it’s so great to have you here with us! Let’s start from the top: tell us about your background in technology and how it influenced your desire to found Starcatchers.
Mauricio Morales: Through the launch of Starcatchers I have worked in a data distribution agency. The world has become so distributed and data has become such a commodity that the systems we are familiar with, which used to run the world, are becoming obsolete. Just like blockchain, the company I work for offers a database solution built to run the way the world’s largest applications need to run today.
ONE37pm: How did that inspire you to get involved in the NFT space?
MM: At first I didn’t pay much attention to it to be honest! But after working with these companies and seeing how many of the big players from Web2 started jumping in, I was fascinated. After researching, I was immediately hooked on crypto; it was this new technology that had the potential to break down great boundaries across the world and across income classes. From the perspective of a kid growing up in the hood, I had a ton of friends who had so much potential but just didn’t have the ability to get exposure to these types of financial instruments.
Seeing what crypto could do in terms of embracing an open source culture, providing ultimate transparency, borderless payments, synthetic derivatives, etc. got my mind set on what could really be done with it and how much the world could change with blockchain. It wasn’t until a year later that I became invested in the NFT area.
ONE37: And then you founded Starcatchers – the heavenly bridge between iconic art and cutting-edge Web3 experiences. What projects were you involved with at the time, and do you credit them with your inspiration for the project?
MM: To this day I’m still in love with Doodles, Cool Cats, Letter by Vinnie Hager, Merge by Pak, etc. When I get a little deeper into it, I have a lot of respect for the work Jeff Staples has done as well. Much of what these early project founders have done actually serves as inspiration for what we have going on for Starcatchers.
ONE37pm: Take us through the step-by-step process. There was a hiatus in the news about due diligence around Starcatchers’ practices beforehand, which has since been resolved through the exit of your co-founder. Can you dive into that a bit?
MM: Starcatchers started from an idea that one of my co-founders had. Originally we met through an alpha channel where we were some of the best callers. Eventually we became close friends, and I caught myself. He told me more about his background and we agreed that we should try to start a project together one day. A few weeks later he told me about this idea he had about these celestial characters with star and planet shaped heads.
The idea was to create these whimsical characters that had a familiar feel to the audience. We wanted to take inspiration from things like street wear, comics, anime and other pop culture references, and you’ll see that across some of the properties.
Once we got the general vibe down, we started discussing the brand and values. During that time there were a lot of brands pulling rugs and there was just no accountability for their actions. Knowing all this, we wanted to differentiate ourselves by creating what we call a timelock vault. Essentially, this draws from the idea of how share/share grants within web2 work. We took a portion of the coin revenue and we had it set to release over a period of four years. To show that we were serious, we created a smart contract that made it impossible for us to unlock the money before that time period expired.
We have also grafted what is called an annual clip. This means that if a founder were to quit within a year, they would receive nothing. After one year expires, month by month, a small amount of ETH will be released that can be claimed over the next three years.
We felt this was the ultimate way to prove that as a team we were in it for the long haul and that we will be held accountable through the brand’s ups and downs.
ONE37pm: Just like any business venture, starting an NFT project is an entrepreneurial feat. What are some challenges you have faced and how did you overcome them?
MM: One of the biggest challenges we faced was in our first team. We put a lot of trust in our original artist, and gave him a founder title. Unfortunately, that power was abused through his access to the metadata, and although we didn’t know it at the time, we found out about this scam soon after and of course parted ways. This was difficult, as a team we were also responsible. It set the brand back quite a bit and it taught me a lot about safety and making sure that despite all your best intentions and trust, accountability systems have to be in place at all times in this business.
Fortunately, the systems we put in place in relation to the time lock contract worked exactly as expected. Once released, our artist is no longer able to claim their locked ETH. Looking back, I think doing this was one of the best decisions our team made because it proved to our community that we will hold people accountable – including ourselves – and will ensure that those who are rewarded also have the best the intentions for the project.
On top of that, we’ve also redone the entire collection, launched new merchandise, created two successful events for NFT LA and NFT NYC, partnered with American Eagle, and are now working on the next launch for our community. We must still continue to create and push to grow the brand bigger than it has ever been.
ONE37pm: It has been noted in the room that there is a limited number of Hispanic voices in Web3; why do you think that is, and what actions should the community take to encourage a diverse range of voices among founders, artists, and community members?
MM: The space has a limited number of Hispanic voices due to the level of exposure that Hispanic communities have to these opportunities. Not just in web3, but technology in general.
It is a challenge to increase these numbers, and I think it is a systemic problem that extends far beyond Web3’s area. Statistically, the number of Hispanics in tech is decreasing, but not increasing. From a more defined standpoint, there is a general lack of resources across communities that have larger minority populations.
One of the most eye-opening experiences I had recently was at my niece’s Science Olympiad competition. She didn’t have the luxury of growing up in a privileged neighborhood, but she worked hard to compete against the more affluent schools. It brought me back to the reality I was living in. People I knew in high school were shot when I was growing up. I was one of the lucky ones who came out of the hood, but for a large part of my life growing up, I wasn’t asked to go to college or take these electives to get ahead in life. My school literally had seminars on how to talk to the police and not join gangs to protect our lives.
In my opinion, part of the solution to this problem is for us as founders to feel more responsible and become the role models we always needed growing up. Hispanics need to see more representation from who is already there.
As a society, I think we should talk more about our differences and celebrate those differences. Being different is what makes web3 so special. The PFPs that we put up are an extension of who we are, but we should also celebrate the people behind those PFPs. I’m excited to pursue this message through Starcatchers and what we have in the pipeline.
ONE37pm: Such an incredible point of view, and it sounds like you’re proactively being the change you want to see in the space, which is beautiful. What’s the next drop you’re excited for?
MM: Our capsule collection! We partnered with a top clothing supplier who works with some incredibly prominent American streetwear brands to create our first capsule collection. It was featured in Vogue Business alongside the likes of Gmoney and RTFKT. We believe in bringing in the best in class to build out all aspects of the brand, and that includes all of our web2 initiatives.
RAPID FIRE 37 SECONDS:
Favorite NFT artists at the moment?
Clone, Vinnier Hager, Gremplin is the GOAT for turning me into a cryptoad starcatcher
Favorite Web3 projects?
What are you excited about and hope to see more of in Web3 in 2023?
I’m really excited to see all the decentralized tech stacks like time and space, armada, alchemy, etc.
Where can we find you? Twitter, Discord, etc. Link yourself out!
Twitter = @ethmaurice
Discord = maurice#4264
