It’s safe to say that Steven Bartlett’s profile has surfaced this year. The 29-year-old entrepreneur became the youngest dragon on Dragons’ Den, has interviewed everyone from Matt Hancock to Love Island star Molly-Mae Hague on his podcast, and he recently wrapped up his tour. performed throughout the UK.
Meanwhile, he has dipped his feet into various businesses. Late last year, he launched Flight Story to capitalize on a growing number of DIY investors.
At the same time, he launched the third web, a platform that provides tools for developers and creators to build and manage Web3 projects.
Steven Bartlett launched the third Web3 Web platform last year
It was a natural move for the entrepreneur who has made millions from social media.
Now, Third Web has raised $24 million in a funding round led by Haun Ventures and Coinbase Ventures and others, giving the company a $160 million valuation.
Is Web3 the latest fad in the crypto world or could it be the future of the Internet?
Why Web3?
By now you may have heard of the metaverse; Last October, Mark Zuckerberg outlined his vision for the company’s future with a bizarre avatar.
It is part of a broader movement towards what tech junkies call Web3.
In a word, it is the third generation of the Internet that combines concepts like decentralization and blockchain.
It’s essentially the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies and NFTs, and Bartlett wants a piece of the action.
‘The reason I started the Third Web and the reason why I decided to get into Web3 after leaving what people call Web2 is the same reason I joined the social network…
‘I’ve found a technology that I feel will make life better in some way. I was convinced before people showed up that this was a better way to do something. ‘
There are some similarities between what Bartlett is doing with the Third Web and what he did with his first company, The Social Chain.
He founded a social media content and marketing company at the age of 21 after realizing the influence of brands through Facebook and Twitter.
His critics might say he was merely in the right place at the right time, but he capitalized on it and built a multimillion-dollar publicly listed company.
Whether he can replicate the same success in Web3 remains to be seen.
But the appetite for the Third Web is already there – it now has about 80,000 developers using its tools to build Web3 applications and has deployed more than 150,000 smart contracts.
It has generated more than $1.5 million in revenue this year.
The Third Web seems to reflect the level of maturity Bartlett has achieved as a major part of how we and brands use social media today.
Instead of diving headfirst into Web3 with a NFT platform or flashy crypto, Bartlett, along with co-founder Furqan Rydhan, is building tools that developers can use in Web3.
‘We decided to build the infrastructure layer of Web3. We could have built one app ourselves, we could have built Coinbase, another app, but we wanted to build the layer underneath that would allow the world’s Web3 developers and builders to Web3 creates that future to build Web3. ‘
Mark Zuckerberg is a big supporter of Web3 and Metaverse
What will Web3 be like?
It’s still very early for Web3. The concept has caught the attention of some in the institutional world, and Randi Zuckerberg has described it as ‘chaos’.
Since it is based on decentralization, it is difficult to build a unified picture of what it might look like.
Bartlett realized that it was still early in the process. Could it be too early for him to have moved into this space?
‘It may be too early…the reason you may come so early is because your success depends on some kind of macro factor.
‘You can build something that relies on everyone having a mobile phone in hand and 5G internet for it to really work.
‘You could have built something similar in 2000 but since we don’t have mobile Internet streaming…
‘This is exactly why the third web exists because there’s an infrastructure piece to do to be successful. Those were the picks and shovels of the gold rush.
‘You can be in the river sifting gold or you can be the one selling stingers and shovels.
‘That’s why we’re focusing on the foundation layer to enable builders to build the next version of the internet.’
Is the move to Web3 driven by FOMO?
Bartlett is an enthusiastic proponent of Web3. He owns an NFT Bored Ape Yacht Club and has several other NFT artworks. Maybe he got caught up in the excitement of Web3 before thinking about what it would actually look like?
He doesn’t seem to think so.
‘When I left Social Chain, I looked at what was going on in the world and it was clear that there was a tectonic shift happening and that’s what we call Web3… the shift. decentralization, blockchain technology and all possibilities.
‘I want to build in space… Whenever you see a shared wave, you just know which surfboard you want to be on? Which team would you like to collaborate with? ‘
Any suggestions he got into Web3 through FOMO (fear of missing out) were quickly turned off.
‘One thing we know for sure is change is coming… Pandemic is change. When these tectonic changes happen, you have a choice – stay the same and be a Blockbuster or change and hope you can become Netflix.
‘Don’t allow your conventional wisdom to keep you behind in a changing world when the prospect of a new technology emerges.’
Flicking the metaphors aside, Bartlett seemed to drop her ear to the ground. A new kind of internet is definitely emerging, and while it may not be what Zuckerberg envisioned, the way we use the internet will be changed.
‘You go back to the dotcom boom… there’s a lot of optimism in some areas…
‘Companies have raised a lot of capital and there is a huge amount of optimism.
‘There was a lot of fear.
‘But when the dust settles, you have some places of over-optimism. In some places you had a lot of pessimism, but then you had great companies that changed the world.
‘Amazon emerged from the dotcom boom, so many other big companies we use today. So I imagine it will follow the same path.
‘We can be optimistic and pessimistic in different areas, depending on who you talk to.’
It remains to be seen how successful the third web will be but if Bartlett’s achievement is anything to go by, then Web3 will be the future of the internet. Hopefully no silly avatars.
