Speaker 1:

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast by the host and guests may or may not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Miami University.

Speaker 2:

I am going into my last semester of chemical engineering.

Speaker 3:

I'm a senior journalism major.

Speaker 4:

And I'm minoring in supply chain and operations management.

Speaker 5:

I'm a biochemistry major.

Speaker 6:

Classes are going great, extracurriculars are going great.

Speaker 7:

I'm an RA on campus.

Speaker 6:

I'm thriving.

Jason Meggyesy:

Hi, I'm Jason Meggyesy and this is Major Insight. This is the podcast where we talk college life with amazing students about how to find your place and purpose on campus. Startup entrepreneurship is an area that Blake Faulkner knows very well. As a junior, Blake is already working on scaling up his own venture backed startup called Bloxsmith. Now Bloxsmith is a Web3 company that provides an innovative marketplace for metaverse game developers and it just won top honors at Launch It: Cincy, a new pitch competition for regional universities. Blake is also really involved in RedHawk Ventures, which is a Miami student-led venture capital fund. And as an anthropology minor, he's interested in gaining a deeper human perspective to build new business technologies for the future. Well, today we have a very accomplished and impressive person in the room. I'm very excited to get to know him a little bit. Just tell me, who are you, where you from and anything else you'd like to add off of that?

Blake Faulkner:

Sure. So I'm Blake Faulkner, current junior here at Miami, finance, entrepreneurship, anthropology. From Camden Ohio, so about 20 minutes outside of Oxford. And a little bit kind of about me, so I've spent some time in the venture capital industry, currently have a startup operating in Web3 and really excited to kind of dive into talking with you today.

Jason Meggyesy:

So I mean, we talked a little bit before we started recording, just all the amazing things that you're involved with, but before we get into that, I want to kind of know who you are as a person and just kind of talk to me about your upbringing in this area and how some of the things that you experienced when you were younger might have led you to the point you are right now.

Blake Faulkner:

Sure. Yeah. So in regards to entrepreneurship, I like to say that I'm a lemonade stand kid. So really my entrepreneurial journey started selling like lemonade and like easy bake cookies when I was younger, just like on the street corner, outside my grandma's house. So that's really where it all began. And from there, like got more involved on the technology end, went into building games. That's really of kind of what got me to where I am today. I would consider myself to be a very curious person and also somebody that really wants to progress technology and progress humanity through the usage of technology in a way that's really positive.

Jason Meggyesy:

Were there any like inspirations that you had or influences that you had growing up that made you want to go out there and sell that lemonade or want to get into the gaming space?

Blake Faulkner:

Sure. So in terms of wanting to sell the lemonade, it was more so like something that my parents, I feel, like really kind of pushed me to do. So my parents are both in real estate and it was always kind of, I was always around business in one way or another and it kind of put me in the atmosphere of, okay, cool, I should sell stuff, I should get involved in business at an early age. And also it was just like this fundamental idea of I'm providing value to somebody else, even if it's just lemonade. Like lemonade on a street corner, hot day, it's refreshing, it's awesome, everybody loves it, it's a classic American treat. And it's really an opportunity for me to start to understand business and start to understand how to interact properly with customers. And I think my parents saw that.

Jason Meggyesy:

Got you. Was it a lucrative industry at the time?

Blake Faulkner:

It was, yeah. It was enough money to buy bubble gum, but that's about it.

Jason Meggyesy:

Got you, got you. So you touched on it at the beginning, entrepreneurship, finance and anthropology. How do all of those three mix into what you're doing currently?

Blake Faulkner:

Yeah, so it's interesting, I always say finance, entrepreneurship and then anthropology. And there's a visual like expression that people have when I say anthropology, because it's this curve ball really on the other two. So anthropology ties a lot into entrepreneurship, but I'll get to that in a minute and start off with finance. So I've never really wanted to be like a financial analyst or somebody that works at like a bank. I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur, really since that whole lemonade stand thing and since I started building games a while back, but finance for me is really a way for me to get the right foundation under me for when I do like go to start a business, which I'm doing now. But at the time when I was coming to college and I was kind of looking at which majors really fit what I want to do, my senior year, I really started to dive heavily into Stanford GSB.

Blake Faulkner:

So Stanford Graduate School of Business talks online and there were so many VCs, go figure, because it's Stanford. And I remember been super captivated by this idea that you could, as a finance major, as somebody involved in finance, still push technology, even if you aren't building it. So that's what I've kind of like lived finance through, here at Miami in RedHawk Ventures, did VCIC through RedHawk Ventures, which is like the most profound experience I feel like you could have with VC, with finance at Miami, ask someone, that's looking to support entrepreneurs and ask somebody that's looking to participate meaningfully in the VC kind of industry.

Jason Meggyesy:

And before you continue, real quick, just so we have like a precursor, you're using all these terms like VC IC. Could you just define those real quick for me?

Blake Faulkner:

Sure, yeah. So when I say VC, that means venture capitalists or just like the VC industry as a whole and VCIC is the venture capital investment competition. You can learn more at vcic.org. It's a really cool competition. It's the only like college competition for venture capital and it's global too.

Jason Meggyesy:

Kind of take me to that senior year experience and what was your college search experience like and why Miami ultimately was the place for you?

Blake Faulkner:

Yeah, I mean, it isn't great, but I kind of like fell into Miami in some ways. I applied, I think to like 11 or 12 schools and then originally I got denied I think to maybe nine or 10 of those. So it ended up kind of just falling on Miami. But you know, and this is something kind of just for other freshmen that might be in this position and there's a lot more of us than we would probably like to admit. But if you're at a university, you're at a college where you feel kind of disheartened that you didn't get into another university, like you'll learn to make the most of it. And you'll still be able to find friendships and find opportunities wherever you are, as long as you're ambitious and willing to really go for it. But that's the difference, you have to go for it.

Jason Meggyesy:

So, what was that feeling like when, I don't want to take you back to like a negative thought experience, but when each one of those was taken off, like okay, not this one, not this one, not this one. What was that like for you?

Blake Faulkner:

I think it was humbling in a lot of ways. I didn't go to like some amazing high school. I didn't have like a ton of preparatory programs, kind of that a lot of people have available that go to the schools I applied to, but really it's more so just like a humbling experience and an opportunity to kind of understand that nothing's given and that everything is earned and it kind of set my expectations straight.

Jason Meggyesy:

So now coming into freshman year, for you, what were the biggest challenges or surprises that you saw when you came onto campus? Because I mean, 20 minutes away, that's not that far at all, but still being here on campus, it's a different lifestyle, right?

Blake Faulkner:

Yeah. It was really, really interesting for me because I live, like I mentioned, like close to 20 minutes away from here, but I had never come to Miami before actually coming here as a student. So it's this really interesting kind of new journey where it's like you're 20 minutes away, but in a whole different world. And I love it. I think it's great. It's really awesome because when I was in high school, I was getting into VC, I was getting of entrepreneurship in some ways and there weren't a lot of people at my high school that really were into that in the same way that I was. But coming here to college, like quickly found my community and quickly found clubs and organizations that were fitting to my interest and really allowed me to be around other people that are like-minded, forward thinking, building technology, kind of working to innovate in really interesting ways.

Blake Faulkner:

And that wasn't available in my high school. So it was cool to really come here and get involved in that community quick. I also got very overwhelmed with clubs very quickly. I think I had interviews like for two weeks straight for clubs. So I came in and I was very ambitious right off the bat. And then over time I kind of like closed that list in some ways. And you know, I feel like when you're a freshman, you kind of come in with the mentality of, I'm going to do whatever I can, as fast as possible, I'm going to join as many organizations, I'm going to go to as many events, but you get burnt out pretty quick if you do that.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. So what was that vetting process like for you when you applied? So you have all these clubs, you're like, oh, maybe I can do this, maybe I can do this, but then that vetting process to kind of hone it in on these two or three things, right?

Blake Faulkner:

Yeah. So when you find your passion, the vetting just happens naturally because you can tell when you lose interest in something, or you can tell when you're in an organization that isn't moving fast enough or isn't doing something that's actually like genuinely interesting to you.

Jason Meggyesy:

So VC is the hot term for this podcast. So now talk to me about that first semester whenever you first joined RedHawk Ventures and you really started to get your hands dirty with the actual content of interacting with venture capital.

Blake Faulkner:

Yeah. So I came in with a little bit of experience having like watched probably a hundred hours worth of content, like on YouTube, about VC, but VC fundamentally is a very gated industry. I think until like recently it was like 90% plus, of the people that are in the VC industry either went to Harvard or Stanford.

Jason Meggyesy:

Oh man.

Blake Faulkner:

So in terms of how you can actually get involved in that industry, there're starting to be ways that are emerging. But it was awesome that RedHawk Ventures was here. I remember when I got accepted into Miami, one of the really big kind of like pulls for me between, I think it was between like Miami, OSU and Cincinnati. One of the really big pulls for me to Miami was RedHawk Ventures. I don't believe that... I think UC just got their VC Club like in the past two years, but RedHawk Ventures has been established since the 90s.

Blake Faulkner:

There's a legacy of performance and a legacy of education kind of in the space with that club. So I was really excited to dive into that and it was awesome. Our new member education process is phenomenal. You get to like learn about companies, you get to use technologies like PitchBook and you actually get to have a very professional experience that isn't offered at most other colleges. RedHawk Ventures is one of nine undergraduate funds across the nation. So having that ability to join into that and like work with student-led companies and kind of share in their vision too, is something that I've always found super interesting and really enjoyed over the past few years.

Jason Meggyesy:

So tell me, you're a junior, correct?

Blake Faulkner:

Yep.

Jason Meggyesy:

So you start freshman year, get into this venture capitalist club RedHawk Ventures. Now we're here at junior year and you have your own venture backed startup company, Bloxsmith, that's going into Web3 or the metaverse, as most people know it. How do we go from there to, here we are now?

Blake Faulkner:

Yeah. So a lot of hard work and a lot of like sleepless nights, but it goes really back to 2012. So I joined the Roblox platform in 2012, just to play video games with friends. There was this really old video game called Lego Universe and it closed around 2012. And then Roblox had a massive surge of millions of players come from Lego Universe to Roblox. It was really this kind of like kickstart for the platform, but I joined just to kind of play with friends from middle school and then stayed to participate in what was happening on the platform. A lot of people don't know this, but Roblox is massive, like 200 million monthly users, 50 million plus virtual worlds. And those 50 million plus virtual worlds are created by over 10 million and independent indie game developers, most of which are under the age of 20. So it's a really interesting environment and the atmosphere is electric, the amount of like passion and just creativity and innovation happening on the platform is huge.

Blake Faulkner:

And it's all being driven by young people. So that's really why I stayed, started building games around like 2013, 2014, started building communities. I probably worked on over a hundred games between 2012 and now, specifically like for the Roblox platform, scaled up those games to over half a million plays and then like quickly realized how hard it is to like make money as a game developer. And then with Roblox, like you only make 25% of the earnings on anything you earn for your game. So performance is like out of the question when it comes to compensation for that platform. So like what a lot of people do is they create these really cool 3D models that you can use in virtual worlds and then they buy and sell them to other players over at Discord. So I got involved in that pretty early on and kind of used as way to like compensate myself because game performance is so poorly compensated on Roblox.

Blake Faulkner:

So I moved to buying and selling the 3D models over at Discord, quickly found how inefficient it is. The way the system is now and the way kind of like the secondary economy functions now is the same as if like every seller and buyer on eBay was in a single iMessage group chat. It's completely chaotic, super hectic. A lot of people getting scammed, kind of just not the best environment, but the only option. So what's interesting is like around that 2017, 2018 timeline, started to really dive in more on like what it takes to run a business, started watching the VC stuff on YouTube from like Stanford it Y Combinator. And from there moved on to kind of this greater vision of, okay, so I have an issue with how decentralized this place is or this secondary economy is, I have an issue with the way that these buyers and sellers are being treated in these Discord marketplaces.

Blake Faulkner:

I want to centralize it and give people a safe place to actually do business and having the VC background, having the experience from like the videos that I was watching online from Y Combinator and different programs and accelerators like that, kind of fell into this ideology that, I can actually build technology now. Like I have no technical background, but I can find somebody and I can motivate a team to actually build something around this. So that's where college really starts to tie into this, came with that mindset. And after building a small brand around myself as a 3D model seller, came here freshman year, met another student, actually through RedHawk Ventures that was technical and had experience building some of the software that I needed. And we actually spent, I think it was like the COVID summer of 2020 when people were losing their internships and it was just kind of a mess for everybody, spent time with this friend building out our beta platform.

Blake Faulkner:

So we built this really cool, like fully automated platform and I took all my stuff that I built throughout the years and put it on this beta platform and built payment technology around it. And this was in between my freshman and sophomore year, I believe. And then what was really interesting is like I never intended to make a marketplace. I kind of started that mentality last May, but until then, I just wanted to build technology to make my life easier and to build my like small 3D model brand into something that was actually a meaningful stream of revenue for myself. And then what was interesting is that we found out pretty quick after releasing beta platform, that there's a lot of other people that need this technology, because I had like hundreds of developers that were reaching out to me over at Discord, like hey, can I sell in your store?

Blake Faulkner:

And I was like, whoa, why do you want to sell in my store? Like, I'm getting an influx of hundreds of messages online of people trying to sell on my storefront that was built really like off symbolism that was directed towards me. So it was based on my username, based on like my brand. So I was like, why do you want to sell in my store? It's kind of weird. Like, why is that? But then like it kind of clicked and there was a light bulb moment of, oh, we accidentally just built the best marketplace technology possible for this niche and for this market. And this was at a time when nobody was talking about the metaverse and nobody was talking about Web3.

Blake Faulkner:

So we started building that technology, closed the beta last May, and then everything has kind of just exploded since then. So we saw what happened with Facebook becoming meta, Roblox is IPO and both of those have happened over the past, like year and a half or so. That is just pumped a ridiculous amount of attention and capital towards this space. So now we're building a Web3 business. Now we're building a metaverse startup. Our goal at the end of the day is to go cross-metaverse, create a marketplace that really kind of facilitates these transactions for 3D models and really is a facilitator for innovation and creativity through 3D models for building virtual worlds online.

Jason Meggyesy:

And that was a lot of information all at once, but all valuable and very relevant to the times right now. So did you kind of always know that this is where it was going to be, like to this point? Or was it kind of just something that you were going with, you were enjoying doing the work or you saw that it was benefiting you in some way and then it just kind of evolved into this thing, if that makes sense?

Blake Faulkner:

Yeah. So I mean, what's interesting is, I never knew that this would get to where it was or where it was and where it is now. It really just started as this thing that I was... I mean, if you look at my first storefront, it was a Google Doc. Like that shows how far from like Google Doc to a venture backed startup that has hundreds of thousands of dollars of interest, pretty high valuation. We're in this really interesting space now where it's like, okay, this thing just got rocket fuel poured on it, now it's shooting up. Never would've anticipated it when I was in high school, never would've known that I would be building a business around Roblox, but always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur of a venture backed company, always idolized people like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs and like idolizing VCs at the same time, really kind of helped with strategy.

Blake Faulkner:

But yeah, I never could have told you that we'd be where we're at now. Never could have told you that I would have people that like have stopped doing other businesses to work on mine. Like that's so crazy. Having people actually commit to what you're doing and for like years and commit for half a decade to working on your business is just something I never would've thought of. But it's awesome. Like being able to offer opportunities for people in hiring and being able to offer opportunities for people to really kind of get involved with a vision that you have, is like incredibly profound.

Jason Meggyesy:

The craziest thing to me man, is that you just have so many levels of knowledge of what this new thing is, this new hot thing that everyone's talking about, right? Web3, metaverse, those are the hot terms and you just have so many levels of knowledge, but then there's somebody down the street who their only introduction to the metaverse, NFTs or like that, you know what I mean? So just to see how long it's been going on and how deep it really goes is so interesting. So ff of that, I'm just curious, if there is a difference, what makes an entrepreneur in Web3 different than that of someone in, "The real world"?

Blake Faulkner:

With Web3, there's definitely a different attitude and a different atmosphere towards building a business than what exists for Web2 companies.

Jason Meggyesy:

And just to explain the difference, Web2, Web3, kind of walk us through that.

Blake Faulkner:

Yeah. So with Web2, I think there's a few good examples. So the way we look at Web2 now is like static websites, companies that sell data. So think like Google, think Facebook, those are some classic examples of Web2 companies. Web3 kind of totally flips all the business models of Web2. I'd say one of the biggest differences between like Web2 and Web3 companies, especially as it pertains to metaverse, there's a lot of decentralization that's starting to happen and there's a lot of like corrections that are happening on existing, Web2 experiences and the norms of Web2 are being adjusted for Web3. One of the big ways is like you're seeing a lot of companies start to actually pay people for the data they collect. That is huge, that wasn't happening in Web2.

Blake Faulkner:

That was something that... I mean, look at like Cambridge Analytica, look at like some of these massive information data scenarios that have happened over the past few years, some of the scandals that surround the data collection, I think WEb3 is going to be a lot better for that. And correcting Web2 platforms too, like Facebook, Instagram, Web2 social media, there's a lot of correction happening around that space as it pertains to Web3, because you have a greater focus being placed on organic social interaction than you did in Web2. One of the examples I love to give is you can walk around in the metaverse, you can walk around on Roblox and run into somebody completely by accident that you haven't talked to for like seven years, right? That is entirely organic. That is the same as if you go uptown and run into somebody at Starbucks or whatever, that you haven't talked to for a few years, and you can have very genuine and authentic conversations in Web3. WEb2, all communication is forced.

Blake Faulkner:

If you want to interact with other people on Instagram or Facebook, you have to message them. You have to do a post and hope they interact or whatever you do. And it creates a very like toxic and unhealthy environment. We've seen that with the rise of like depression rates surrounding teens and how Web2 has kind of been just a general bad thing, I feel like, for young people. I think Web3 corrects a lot of that. So I think that's one of the really big differences that doesn't get covered enough in the media, is that there's a lot of focus and effort being placed by the entrepreneurs and founders of WEb3 companies to correct the issues that arose and kind of like tormented society throughout the past few years.

Blake Faulkner:

Web3 three companies are focused on being decentralized. They're focused on putting consumer first, they're focused on generating organic social interaction between users. They're focused on creating opportunities for users to build wealth and opportunities. You're seeing a lot of like fractionalized real estate platforms in Web3, you're seeing digital real estate, which is a brand new thing. You're seeing NFT projects. A lot of these are focused on building wealth for the user and then over time building wealth for the owner versus building wealth for the owner right away.

Jason Meggyesy:

So to tie this all back into your school experience, tell me how have you benefited from being here at the school with your business? Are there any professors that have kind of guided you along the way? How has the school kind of backed you and promoted this project that you're doing?

Blake Faulkner:

There're a few different ways. This is actually my second year in the accelerator. Normally people only do it for one year, but we had kind of a pivot and rebrand that we did a while back, which was like we mentioned before, the marketplace. So the marketplace kind of changed our business model in a big way. So we came back in the accelerator again. But really Mark Lacker, Glenn Platt, Tim Holcomb, there's a lot of people that have kind of contributed, either that they're aware of or unaware of, to the success of Bloxsmith and where we are today. Actually, we just closed an investment last week and Mark was someone that got on the phone with the investor and actually vouched for us as an advisor and was huge and pivotal to us actually closing that deal from that venture capitalist firm, which is awesome for us. So it just goes to show how professors at Miami will actually like go above and beyond just teaching in the classroom to actually like being a conduit for you in the real world.

Jason Meggyesy:

The most important part is you putting in the work, right? Because if you put in the work, then they'll see that and then they'll back you from there. It all just takes that effort, it can't just be one way effort, correct?

Blake Faulkner:

Yeah, totally. And what's cool too is like even alumni, like we've had an alumni that has been incredibly valuable to Bloxsmith. Has been not only a mentor and advisor, but somebody that, like Mark, has actually vouched for us to investors and put investors in front of us at some firms that like we might have been overlooked at before.

Jason Meggyesy:

So what's been the most difficult part of this whole process for you and how have you kind of worked through that? Because I mean, this is the whole new space we've continued to say and even for you, who's been involved with it for so long, there's got to be road blocks in the way, right?

Blake Faulkner:

Yeah. So there's a lot of obstacles that come with starting a new business, especially if you want to scale it up to something that's venture backable, a venture backable company is not always the right move. There's nothing wrong with a lifestyle business or a small business, there's people that make way more money than most of the people that do venture backed companies ever will, just having a lifestyle business or a small business. But when it comes to a venture backed business, there's a lot and there's a lot that you have to learn yourself that isn't immediately obvious. Like, how do I contact a lawyer? How do I get a lawyer to create me a C-corp in Delaware? Like there's this whole process that you have to go through if you actually ever want to receive investment, they can be very daunting, especially I feel like for students, because you really have to be proactive and you really have to push the envelope at every angle to get your business off the ground, to get people focused, to get people interested.

Blake Faulkner:

And at the same time you have to build this media flywheel that allows you to stay relevant as well. Even if your business is in like Web3 or the metaverse, you'd think that would deem it relevant right off the bat. It doesn't, there's a lot of people in the space building stuff. So how do you like get an article in a magazine? How do you get on podcasts? How do you talk with people about your business that are kind of outside of your personal internal community? How do you make your community work for you in ways? Like how do you have professors that want to actually vouch for you? How do you create an image that allows you to kind of scale up your own personal brand at the same time as a CEO, as a leader, as somebody that people want to actually work for? Like that's huge. How do you attract talent? There's a lot of stuff that I've kind of had to learn along the way and a lot of stuff that there's like obstacles definitely embedded within.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. Yeah. But that's all part of the process, right?

Blake Faulkner:

It's all part of the process.

Jason Meggyesy:

So what kind of classes or projects have you been involved with that have kind of helped facilitate this growth in this other area of life that you're looking to expand?

Blake Faulkner:

There's two classes that I think have had the most kind of like profound effect on my education. One of those being the accelerator, the other one being VCIC. Both of those have progressed my career, not only my experience, but they've actually progressed my career in a meaningful way. And that has been something I didn't expect to ever have from a class. Coming from high school, I was always like, you go in, you sit down for an hour or for a block, we had blocks in high school, sit down for a block, sit and watch a teacher talk, take some notes, take an exam, do a project, stuff like that. I kind of expected that when I came to college and there are definitely classes here that I've had that are like that, but there's also ones that are super impactful on my view of the world and my view of my own business, which is like an interesting thing, right? Like you'd think going into it that you'd have the best understanding of your business and then you meet with a mentor that the school connects you to...

Jason Meggyesy:

And they just pick, they it apart, right?

Blake Faulkner:

Exactly. They pick it apart, they put it back together in an interesting way and it just like moves you forward as a person and as a business owner. The accelerator has definitely done that for me on multiple occasions.

Jason Meggyesy:

And then the RedHawk Accelerator, I mean, you kind of touched on it. Could you give like a concise definition of what it is and what it does?

Blake Faulkner:

Sure. So the RedHawk Launch Accelerator is a program where if you have a startup business or any business in general, doesn't have to be a tech company. I feel like whenever you say startup business, people think it's a tech company. It can be anything. It can be an agency. It can be a clothing line. It can be a tech company. It can be whatever it is. As long as you have the passion to scale it, you can apply for the RedHawk Launch Accelerator. You talk to Mark Lacker in the entrepreneurship department, the class is three credit hours. And basically the way that it functions is you get a whole semester to work on your business and you actually go away from Miami. You go to Cincinnati, you go to two or three different co-working spaces up in Cincinnati that are full of VCs, full of other entrepreneurs, like ready and excited to actually help you with your business.

Blake Faulkner:

And the whole thing is like non dilutive. So it's just a class, you don't have to worry about... There's a traditional system in VC and in the entrepreneurial world where a lot of the people that want to help you with your business, like they want a piece of your business. They want some equity, they want some sort of a structure for compensation. What's so nice is with the accelerator, it's entirely non dilutive. You're not going to get any of your equity diluted or taken from you or anything like that. It's just entirely this really fascinating learning process where you get to take your business, you work on your business model, you work on your business pitch. And then the whole thing ends in what's called a demo day, which is where you get to pitch with the other people in your cohort for the accelerator for actual real money from Miami.

Jason Meggyesy:

All this work, you can't work all the time, right? What other stuff do you do when you're not focused on Web3 and Roblox and all this other stuff?

Blake Faulkner:

Yeah. So I'm definitely a little bit of a workaholic, mostly in the good ways, but I'm also like a lover of video games, that's kind of obvious I feel like, with my business and my future career, but love just hanging out with friends, love playing tennis, doing things outside of just my business. Love clubs and stuff too. Like RedHawk Ventures is business, but it's also social. So I do a lot outside of just Bloxsmith, but I love doing Bloxsmith most.

Jason Meggyesy:

Most definitely. And how has those experiences been transformative for your time here at college? Because I mean, so many people, I feel like they get it confused that it's like, okay, it either has to be one or the other. It has to be social or it has to be like school and I have to go all in on one or the other. And how have you kind of tried to blend those together?

Blake Faulkner:

Social goes hand in hand with school. I wouldn't separate them at all. And a big part of that is because the relationships you make with people can have very profound effects on your career, which is something that you probably wouldn't think immediately like, oh, this guy, I met at the bar or this guy that I ran into at a bagel and deli or whatever, or a friend that I sit next to in class. Working to build meaningful relationships with those people is incredibly important because it will have an effect on your career in the long term. I've met people here at Miami that have connected me to investors, connected me to other entrepreneurs that have been mentors and guides for me. And those just come out of the friendships that I've nourished with people in clubs and people that I've kind of like met along the way.

Jason Meggyesy:

Most definitely. Now I always tell everybody, I like to transition the end of the podcast to like my philosophical questions and whatnot. To you, if you had to describe what does an entrepreneur look like, what qualities do they have that make up someone who's really about this entrepreneurship stuff?

Blake Faulkner:

I think you have to be curious. I think that's the biggest thing. And you also have to have a healthy distaste for authority. I think that curious, because you need to be able to actually like lean in and actually look at different business models and look at different situations that you're going through in your life and think, huh, how could this be different. And healthy distaste for authority, you have to be ready to buck the system. That is just a part of it. You have to be ready, with Web3 and the metaverse it's like, okay, we're going to decentralize everything and we are all going to make it. Like it's this mentality that this old system is broken and I'm actually confident and capable of fixing it. It's having that sort of a mindset and whether you're building technology or whether you're creating something else, I think that's really important.

Jason Meggyesy:

Man. Like I said from the beginning, all this stuff you're doing is amazing. And it just wows me that you're what only 21, 20?

Blake Faulkner:

Yeah.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. So in 21 years you've already accomplished all this stuff. And to some people listening to this or seeing you and following your journey may be like, oh, it's amazing what he's doing, but that could never be me, right? So what advice would you have for somebody who may be following you and they want to break into this space, but they're hesitant to take that jumper or they don't know where to go first. What would you say to them?

Blake Faulkner:

You miss every shot you don't take.

Jason Meggyesy:

That's a true fact.

Blake Faulkner:

It's a very common saying, but it's a big part of it. And like, it's okay to kind of be a little weary and a little kind of afraid of what the future's going to look like. I definitely had that multiple times, but as long as you're working towards creating something, I think that just starting is probably the biggest hurdle. Like when I was looking at hiring my first developer to build out my company and really take it from a Google Doc to like a website, I kind of sat there and thought, does this business deserve to even be a website? It's like, is this just some side hustle? But you have to have trust in yourself. You have to have vision. You have to have a way to enable your passion to provide for you in the future. And you have to push that. You have to make progress. And just starting, take the chance. I think that's probably the most important thing.

Jason Meggyesy:

Most definitely. I think that's wise words. It's only cliche because it's true, that's what I always say.

Blake Faulkner:

It's cliche because it's true. That's perfect.

Jason Meggyesy:

Well, man, I wish we could talk longer, but I think this is a good ending point. I just want to thank you for taking the time to talk with me and I wish you all the best my friend.

Blake Faulkner:

Thank you.

Jason Meggyesy:

Blake Faulkner studies, entrepreneurship, finance, and anthropology at Miami University. And after graduation, he plans to continue scaling up Bloxsmith, his venture backed Web3 startup company. And thank you for listening to Major Insight. If you enjoyed this podcast, share with your friends or anyone interested in navigating college life, many more episodes are now available wherever you get your podcast.