We go way back
Andrew Gray is someone I have known since primary school. Or even earlier, actually, as his parents farmed a neighbouring farm to the one I first lived on near South Charlton, Northumberland. Even in primary school Andrew was always a talented artist — if I ever went over to his place and we weren’t playing computer games on his Amstrad 464 then we would be sketching out cartoons or attempting to draw our own Star Wars art. He was always a better artist than I was but it’s largely due to hanging out with Andrew that I ended up drawing and doodling at any given opportunity and how I ended up loving art and so am able to draw pretty well.
For Andrew drawing and his love for art turned into picking up a camera and becoming a photographer. For many years that meant traditional images of Northumberland landscapes like this (my favourite is this one, a copy of which hangs on my office wall). After a few years of this traditional approach, and like any artist worth his salt, Andrew wanted to experiment and push the boundaries of his art. He started doing “Intentional Camera Movement”. Basically (and apologies for the crude description Andrew) this means that when the the shutter is open he waves the camera around in a certain way so that the captured images are blurred. Then, once back in ‘the studio’ in South Charlton, he layers the shots together to produce the final image1.
I’m sure like anyone trying something new he got interesting feedback to say the least… I’m sure people thought he was bonkers — stick to traditional photography, they’d have said, sell more prints! I’d also bet that some thought it wasn’t real work — surely anyone could make those blurry images by waving a camera around and calling it art. But Andrew persevered.
Then he minted an NFT
Starting a startup in 2010 was the wild west. By the end of the 2010s that wasn’t the case as it seemed everyone was doing it. Overall this is great — the more startups the better — but as we went through the last decade I did start to wonder where the next wild west would be. The crypto world was an obvious candidate and in 2016 I bought my first sliver of a BitCoin.
That sliver of a BitCoin did quite well, doubled a couple of times and over the years I took some money out to buy a pair of new trainers, some fancy headphones and to invest in a couple of startups.
What I left as BitCoin has continued to grow and I transferred some to Ethereum, which has also done well. So when Andrew minted some NFTs a couple of weeks ago (thankfully he’d moved on from the Amstrad 464 but was still into tech) it was an easy decision to make to buy one with some of my Ethereum.
I decided on this one. And when I bought it it felt like I was taking a step forward, it felt like getting involved with startups in 2010. Back then I knew I was leaving the crowd behind and this felt the same. Buying this NFT was a bit clunky — I had to put some Ethereum into a Wallet, link it to OpenSea and hope the money all went in the direction I wanted it to. I was nervous. It felt early again, a bit wild west.
What will I do with it?
Rather rashly I’ve bought this NFT without really knowing that much about them. I bought it because, with the increase in my Etherium, it felt a bit like it was free. But I mainly bought it because I like Andrew, his work and my history with him. If the value goes 100x then of course I’ll consider selling it (and, because it’s an NFT, Andrew will get a cut).
But now is the time to learn. My new running regime is five laps of Shenley (like this) on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays while listening to a podcast. So far this week that’s been NFT episodes from A16Z, Invest like the best and The rest is history.
As with any new and significant technology, the implications of NFTs could be pretty immense in art as well as finance, social media, land ownership and many more categories, some of which just don’t exist yet. There’s a lot for me to learn but it seems like crypto and NFTs are doing a lot to solve the problems of networks and trust. Big tick.
What can you learn from this?
Should you buy BitCoin? An NFT? Should you invest in startups? No, it’s not for everyone. But maybe.
Like investing in startups you could begin by supporting people and projects you like or can help — it might become more serious with time but it could start as an experiment and a reason to learn about a significant new technology. A good place to start is with people you already know and trust.
You could invest in fun things and then have stories you can tell. You don’t have to go big. Buy stuff you like or buy into communities that you want to learn about and support.
Don't expect to make money quickly. If you expect to make 100x on your first and only angel investment then you’ll likely be disappointed and it’ll be the same with NFTs. But if you make a couple of dozen investments over the next decade then, as you learn and your thesis is honed, your likelihood of good returns will increase.
My current thinking is that this NFT won’t be the last one I buy. It’s also made me wonder what a 9others NFT might look like, but more importantly it’s making me wonder what the next generation of entrepreneurs might start to build. Maybe they’re people I already know…
Important: None of these posts are investment advice. If you are thinking about investing you should seek the advice of a suitably qualified independent advisor.
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