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Seven Seven Six's Katelin Holloway on Hollywood and web3

Tim Baysinger
Aug 30, 2022
Photo illustration of Katelin Holloway with abstract shapes.

Photo illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios. Photo: courtesy of Seven Seven Six

Web3 will eventually change how Hollywood and the entertainment industry operate, despite no one in the industry being able to describe just what it is, Katelin Holloway, co-founder of investment firm Seven Seven Six, tells Axios.

Why it matters: Content startups that are already building their business in a web3 world are becoming a hot investment for those looking to challenge Hollywood's decades-old model.

Driving the news: One of those companies trying to pioneer the web3-based content model is Invisible Universe, which recently raised $12 million in a Seven Seven Six-led round.

  • Invisible Universe, best known for the social media character Qai Qai, debuted its web series "The R3al Metaverse" on Tuesday, featuring animated versions of popular NFTs like Bored Ape and World of Women "living" in and interacting with the real world in a parody of reality shows like "The Real World" and "Big Brother."
  • "The culture of storytelling and the culture of how we consume content is going through a major shift." Holloway, a former Pixar employee, says. "For me, I very much view Invisible Universe as the Pixar of web3."

The big picture: Holloway says too many people consider web3 a separate investment vehicle, and that's especially true for those in the media business.

  • "It's not a vertical you invest in; it is the future of all of our work," she says. "It is fascinating to watch these major studios or these legacy producers try to very quickly scramble to get on board. And so that tells us something, right? That tells us that this is here to stay."
  • But right now, too many media executives are spending time on earnings calls throwing out words like web3, NFTs and metaverse without having a true understanding of how they work.
  • For Holloway — whose company has been an early adopter in the space with investments in NFT companies like Doodles and Yuga Labs — hearing media executives talk about web3 and the metaverse is akin to "people talking who were both [using a] language that they did not understand."
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