# Quirkie Connection with Papii and Sho — "A cowboy always finds a way to leave"

**Host:** Sho (@AgogoKaren) with Papii (@RealPapii) · **Date:** Fri, Oct 23 2026 · **Duration:** 1:02:49 · **4 speakers** (Sho, Papii, Sam, GGHOST)

## TL;DR
- Sho opened with a live cover of Ella Langley's "Choosing Texas" and a custom "Welcome to Quirksville" track, which set the morning's running bit: everything and everyone eventually chooses Texas.
- Papii gave a market-neutral state of the union — Quirkies have held ~1 ETH since February, and he'd honestly rather chop lower so he can collect faster.
- The meatiest stretch was a response to a take from another Space ("founders sweeping their own floors are the ones who'll be gone"): Papii called it a terrible take and put numbers to it — ~407 sales in 30 days, 20 quirkies bought by him in three months.
- Papii told his origin story: renting bootleg Pokémon VHS tapes in second grade, waiting tables in Atlantic City, Thirsty Thursdays and basket pong, $70k of early debt, and the personal-development line that reframed everything.
- Project updates: in-house dev and creative studio, new website, new staking and holder rewards, and a deliberate refusal to chase meme coins or temporary DeFi flywheels.
- Entry points for newcomers were flagged (Quirklanes around 0.03, Inks low), and Sho played the space out with Pip's cancer-awareness track "You're Never Alone."

## Highlights

**[3:52] The Texas cold open.** Sho sang "Choosing Texas" to start, then followed it with a Quirksville anthem — "doesn't matter when you came on the road." Sam immediately requested the sequel where the cowboy crawls back to Tennessee, and Sho shut it down: "Once you're in Texas, you gotta stay in Texas."

**[7:16] Ten cases of Quirk Quenchers, gone.** Papii is down to civilian energy drinks and suffering. The shipment was labeled, dropped at UPS, and then evaporated. Sho's theory was thirsty UPS workers; Sam's theory was that they chose Texas. Papii spent the rest of the hour yawning on-mic as a kind of live advertisement for the missing product.

**[10:31] Sam, newly engaged.** Fresh off a week of handing out quirk-wheel prizes and two hours with two-time Super Bowl champ Leonard Marshall, Sam reported the fiancé life is good: "She didn't choose Texas. She chose Jersey." His future mother-in-law and aunt called him and simply sang into the phone for a full minute before he gave up and said hello.

**[13:53] Market-neutral by design.** Papii said he doesn't base conviction on "a temporary chapter in the book," noted the floor has held one ETH since February, and admitted the 2400 price level makes collecting harder at the pace he wants. His core argument: promise people A, B, C, D and fail to deliver, and you've manufactured both a seller and a hater — so transparency and consistent execution beat hype.

**[17:56] The founder-sweeping take.** Sho brought up a comment from an earlier founders' Space suggesting that founders propping up their own floors are on the way out, and said it stuck in her craw — across the projects she's in, she sees founders buying one or two while the community buys triple. Papii's reply [19:29]: if you won't put money where your mouth is, what are you doing it for? He noted he doesn't buy with treasury money, and that he recently covered part of a sale so someone on his team could get a quirky at a good price.

**[21:34] Receipts.** 407 sales in the last 30 days; 20 quirkies bought by Papii in three months. He also described choosing to take out a floor-undercutting bot instead of buying a grail he actually wanted — laser eyes, a halo with the hockey mask, a zombie — and gave Jed credit for growing his regen bag from 20 to 122.

**[27:07] The Pokémon rental empire.** Asked about his roots, Papii opened with second grade: he taped a rare Pokémon episode and rented it to classmates. Price point: lunch money. Business ended when one kid handed over his lunch money instead of eating — "So I got cut off." From there: busboy, supermarket, pizza delivery, running three pizzerias where the owners never showed up and his friends watched baseball in the back.

**[28:14] The waiter who asked the right question.** The pivot came from a regular at an Atlantic City restaurant — Kobe, the first entrepreneur Papii ever met — who asked him what his actual dream was. The sports-writing plan died when a professor warned about the money and an NYC internship turned into a $30k offer. Kobe handed him a room instead: college party night, basket pong tournaments, a DJ contest with a residency on the line, and within months a Thursday with lines out the door.

**[36:41] The line that stuck.** Mid-story, Papii yawned hard enough that Sho deadpanned she was watching the guest fall asleep mid-sentence — then he landed it: "Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune." He paired it with the unglamorous part, $70k in credit card debt in the early years.

**[39:x–43:00] Build, don't chase.** On updates: a near-complete in-house dev and creative studio, a new website, new staking mechanisms, new holder rewards, and no outside raise since the Inks. Papii explained why he passed on recent flywheel and token opportunities — he keeps asking whether a thing is still relevant in three months, and notes that token holders can dump a whole bag in one click, while NFT collections rarely see more than 5–10% listed because people are buying what they like.

**[44:42] Attraction and deflection.** Papii's framing for team-building: say what you want to be, loudly and for years, and you attract the people aligned with it while deflecting the rest. Some people, he observed, genuinely enjoy sitting in the mud — "it's like inviting a pig to a party, it's covered in mud."

**[49:02] Sam on the deep bear.** Sam thanked PK and Bulldog for keeping the wheel turning, then described the crickets era: in his darkest NFT moments, telling himself "I can't be the only one" who loves the art, the community and the conversations. He came in through the art in '21–'22, reading crypto 101 books while having a blast meeting people.

**[56:50] GGHOST takes the mic.** A listener came up just to tell Papii that the story landed — that it takes real strength to talk about the hard parts, and that it was motivating. Papii's answer [57:29] was the closing thesis of the hour: "if we're gonna be here, it's not gonna be for theater." He pointed out that most people dip into this app for ten minutes at a time, so those micro moments are the whole impression you leave.

## Topic timeline

| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| [0:21]–[6:52] | "Choosing Texas" cover + the Quirksville anthem |
| [6:52]–[8:22] | The case of the ten missing Quirk Quenchers |
| [8:54]–[11:25] | Sam's week: prize fulfillment, Leonard Marshall, engagement |
| [11:25]–[13:01] | Papii's to-do list; Sho's Dallas weekend, phone off |
| [13:10]–[17:56] | Market pulse, conviction, transparency, curating the timeline |
| [17:56]–[24:02] | The "founders sweeping their floors" take, with receipts |
| [25:27]–[38:30] | Papii's origin story: Pokémon tapes → pizzerias → nightclubs → personal development |
| [38:48]–[43:39] | Quirkies updates: studio, website, staking, why no meme coins |
| [43:39]–[48:46] | Team appreciation, attraction/deflection, muted-words tutorial |
| [48:54]–[53:21] | Sam on gratitude, the bear market, why he stayed |
| [53:21]–[56:38] | Entry points (Quirklanes 0.03, Inks), the weekly Spaces lineup |
| [56:50]–[59:42] | GGHOST's thank-you; "not here for theater" |
| [59:50]–[1:02:49] | "You're Never Alone" play-out |

## Notable quotes

- "I don't base my excitement or my conviction off of a temporary chapter in the book." — Papii [13:53]
- "If you promise people ABCD and they don't get it, they're a seller and they become a hater." — Papii [14:25]
- "I don't get up here and read off a script. I don't even come on these spaces and think about what I'm gonna say. I just speak from the heart." — Papii [15:55]
- "She didn't choose Texas. She chose Jersey." — Sam [10:31]
- "Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune." — Papii [36:55]
- "It's like inviting a pig to a party, it's covered in mud." — Papii [44:42]

## Who said what

- **Sho (@AgogoKaren)** — host, singer, and interviewer. Opened with live music, steered the hour, raised the founder-sweeping take, drew out Papii's backstory, and closed with the cancer-awareness song. Headed to Dallas afterward for a women's conference and planning to be off her phone.
- **Papii (@RealPapii)** — the main guest. Market-neutral on prices, specific on numbers, candid about debt, yawns, and the early hustle; laid out where the Quirkies build is heading and why he keeps declining the shortcuts.
- **Sam (@SamAdoption)** — cohost in listening mode, with prize fulfillment, a Super Bowl champion encounter, engagement news, and a genuinely moving riff on staying through the bear because of the art and the people.
- **GGHOST (@Oxgalaxyghost)** — came up near the end to tell Papii the story resonated, which prompted the Space's most direct statement of purpose.

## Worth a full listen

- **[27:07]–[36:55]** — Papii's origin story end to end: Pokémon VHS rentals, the Atlantic City regular who asked what his dream was, the professor who talked him out of sports writing, basket pong, Thirsty Thursdays, and the personal-development turn. Summaries flatten it; the pacing (and the yawns) are half the charm.
- **[17:56]–[24:02]** — The full exchange on founders buying their own floors, including the bot-vs-grail decision and the credit to Jed. It's the most substantive stretch of the hour and the numbers only land in context.
- **[49:02]–[53:21]** — Sam's unscripted answer about the deep bear, "I can't be the only one," and what kept him here. He wasn't sure what the question was; the answer was better for it.