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Art is an asset that has gained more mainstream appreciation. Not too long ago, Jay-Z was referencing the asset as a way to create wealth on his album 4:44. Additionally, fine art such as Basquiat pieces has sold for sums north of 100 million dollars. With that in mind, art is an uncorrelated asset that over time can provide the appreciation that investors need. Recently, there has been more of an emphasis on digital arts and NFTs, and popular collections such as Crypto Punks, Bored Apes, and others have garnered mass appeal. However, these elite NFTs are sold on the same marketplaces as other NFTs without the same reputation. Thus, insert Mueshi, an NFT marketplace specifically designed for fine NFT art.
Mueshi was founded by Ariana Waller, also known as Ariana the Techie. The platform was conceived in 2021 as Ariana was inspired by the aforementioned Jay-Z album and leveraged this inspiration to create the Mueshi marketplace. Mueshi’s founder has extensive technical experience. She studied electrical engineering at Tuskegee University, is a serial founder, and has consulted over 60 founders on scale and business efficiency. Ariana has also been recognized as a top voice in tech as her podcast was named one of the top 10 podcasts for women in tech and entrepreneurship by Medium with an audience spanning over 11 countries. Although Ariana was born and raised in Atlanta, she is currently a resident in Miami which will position Mueshi to take advantage of the growing web3 ecosystem in the city.
Ariana’s startup, Mueshi, is one of the first movers in the fine art NFT space. Mueshi will provide a space where its community can buy, sell, and fractionally invest in fine art NFTs. Additionally, Mueshi onboards artists in the fine arts space and helps them generate their NFT collections as well as metaverse offerings. Mueshi’s product was very intriguing to investors resulting in the company raising a 3.3 million dollar seed round with Harlem Capital as its lead investor. One could say that the investment from Harlem Capital was a dream partnership for both parties. In an AfroTech article, Ariana stated, “I was always inspired by Harlem Capital and their work in the finance industry. I took the owner’s picture and put it on my vision board, saying I wanted to be just like them. So, the fact that they are my investors is insane”. Harlem Capital sourced this deal at Art Basel in 2021 and came away impressed with Ariana’s passion, vision, and technical expertise. Mueshi looks to launch the platform later this year. To gain initial traction, Mueshi will host a 30-day NFT fine art exhibit, which will be featuring top artist Mark “ALT” Delmont.
As an early mover in the NFT fine art space, Mueshi is positioned to educate, push NFT adoption, and drive wealth creation for a new crop of individuals who will be able to access an asset class not available to them before. Education will be a crucial responsibility for Mueshi as NFTs are still a new asset and fine art NFTs need to be further defined and explained. If Mueshi is to gain significant traction, the company’s audience will need to understand what NFTs are and learn why owning art is an asset worth investing in. Additionally, Mueshi will need to show users that being involved with NFTs will drive the transcendent technology into the masses. Moreover, Mueshi is making it possible for a wide range of users, regardless of economic status, to participate in this asset class with its fractional investment offering.
Built on the Solana blockchain, Mueshi is an example of a dApp that is being built on an alt layer one protocol. However, the marketplace will also be available on the Ethereum blockchain. Both of these options have very strong developer communities and Solana is primarily known for its very high transaction speeds. Mueshi’s strategy to build on both blockchains shows a strong technical knowledge and awareness of what is needed to scale the marketplace.
Mueshi is a great idea, but a few challenges come to mind.
First, Mueshi has to create a compelling case for artists to digitize their work. Mueshi received investment from affiliates of the Guggenheim Museum and the Perez Art Museum. With the support of people from these prestigious museums, Mueshi should be able to pitch the long-term implications of creating NFTs to recognized and emerging artists. However, Mueshi may want to start building a brand presence in physical spaces or sponsor events hosted by their partners to start influencing artists to want to place their works on the Mueshi marketplace.
Second, it will be interesting to see how the artist’s art can stay consistent in a digital form rather than a physical one. For example, painting with oil on canvas has a different feel than a piece with pixels on a screen. Mueshi will need to help artists feel comfortable with transferring their art to a digital medium. Mueshi will also need to be able to show artists how their art will produce a similar feeling compared to their physical works.
Third, Mueshi must create a very compelling but intuitive user experience that both educates and attracts customers and artists to the platform. Regarding buyers and sellers in the marketplace, NFTs are very nascent so these users need to get an understanding of the technology and how it can be beneficial and worthwhile to be in this community. For artists, they need to be educated on how NFTs can provide a different stream of income as well as long-term wealth. Additionally, artists will need to be onboarded with an easy-to-use portfolio submission tool to determine if they are ready to be on the Mueshi platform. Another option for Mueshi could be building a strong onboarding team to ensure the artists are the best fits and can use the marketplace to the best of its capabilities.
All things considered, Mueshi has a real chance of being a successful company. We live in a creator economy and web3 is only making it easier for people to monetize their creativity and intellectual property. Moreover, pre-launch, Ariana and the Mueshi team secured a seed round led by well-known venture fund, Harlem Capital, and has supporters who will be strategic assets to the growth of the company. Most importantly, Ariana Waller is a very tenacious woman, who has bet on herself. She has been in crypto since 2017 and moved to Miami with only 250 dollars in her bank account to pursue her dream. Now her dream, Mueshi, is funded by millions of dollars, pre-launch, and it will be fascinating to watch Mueshi’s journey.
Thank you for reading this piece. If you LOVE this article, you can send a tip to Cryptojeter.eth (my ETH address)! Follow me on Twitter @CryptoJeter and retweet this post! Feel free to shoot me a DM as I love meeting new folks!
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