Highlights
Jersey, journalism, and the professor who talked him out of it.
Papii's origin story: humble beginnings, two working parents, a kid who filled notebooks with invented worlds (including an entire theme park). He wanted to be a Yankees beat writer — until a comms teacher told the class the internet was taking over and the profession didn't pay. "I drove home and thought, oh geez, maybe I shouldn't do this."
"Kobe, what the hell? VP."
A mentor he met waiting tables at a reservation-only, cash-only Atlantic City Italian spot taught him to network — get a suit, get business cards, I'm picking you up Monday — then handed him a nightclub VP job at 21 with zero nightclub experience and zero clients, besides college friends who only wanted free bottles.
The Greyhound buses and ten people.
The best story of the Space: Thirsty Thursdays, four rented Greyhounds, free bottles for the sororities, rain, and ten attendees. Kobe walked in and said great job. That taught him failure isn't automatically punishable 19:34. Four weeks later they'd swapped Greyhounds for cheap drunk buses and built the biggest Thursday night in Atlantic City — until the alcohol board raided it and made 300-plus people stand outside in the cold to re-check IDs 21:02.
Why he walked past the watches.
Other hosts chased the flashy money at the door. Papii talked to the four guys standing at the back of the bar, comped a table and a bottle, and turned them into clients spending three to five grand a weekend. The same instinct is what he applies to holder DMs — "one by one goes a long way" — and Jed picked it straight up 24:58: Web3 is the hospitality industry, which is why he answered a 3:45 a.m. phone call the night before.
0.007 Bitcoin, sent to a stubborn friend.
Papii was 70k in debt, back in his parents' house, cold-messaging health-product prospects in Lagos via Facebook graph search when his friend Roland — who held 107 BTC in one wallet — started sending him Bitcoin videos. Papii ignored them until Roland just told him to download Coinbase. The gift was worth about two dollars. He started DCA'ing in 2016 and didn't stop 30:24.
The ugly mutant and the diamond-handed punks.
His first NFT sighting was a guy at work flexing a Mutant while everyone laughed at him — "the joke was definitely on us." He later skipped CryptoPunks entirely on the world's most honest misreading of OpenSea 39:01, before riding Proof into a 500-600 ETH Yuga portfolio and then, as he put it, charging a lot of it back to the game.
Blur, royalties, and the mid-rare extinction event.
Papii's view: when selling became one click into a bid pool, collecting changed character — things should be liquid, but holders shouldn't be incentivized to liquidate. Jed noted mid-rares died overnight. At 47:17 Papii made the case for Quirkies as a royalties case study: no farmer overhang, no 20-quirk dumps, and the collection's one notorious "flipper," Milkman, now owns about seventy of them.
The fireside that walked through a metal detector.
Papii answered Jed's Quirk Kids question while clipping a traffic cone, paying for parking, greeting a Twins-hat-wearing fan, and finally getting his son through the gate. The Quirkies IP pitch arrived mid-walk 51:18: extreme sports, streetwear, and characters that aren't "an animal that rhymes." Quirk Kids wasn't in the acquisition plan at all — it came out of one phone call that felt right, with Molly knocking the art out of the park 54:24, which at a baseball game is at least thematically correct.
The 3:45 a.m. caller came up to say thanks.
The holder who'd phoned Jed in the middle of the night arrived hoarse, in sunglasses, in a dark room, with a clear message for founders who don't pick up. He then explained his new PFP: he doesn't wear flags in real life, he wanted a snapback, and Jed found him the one. "This is like my actual forever joint" 1:04:54.
Macro interlude, then tequila logistics.
Burby flagged inflation data and Iran for a "pretty spicy weekend," saying he's long gold and silver and short everything else — which Jed classified as absolutely financial advice while disclaiming it anyway. That led into self-driving cars as Jed's personal safety plan 1:11:03 and Sam's immediate follow-up question about the DUI implications of tequila in a sippy tube 1:11:12.
The weight of a 5.7 ETH buy.
Jed on founder responsibility: seeing someone drop 5.7 ETH on a Regen "totally changed my senses" — if you can sleep easy while people are down big on something you built, you shouldn't be in the seat. Moments later Astro announced a different kind of mint: his baby is due Tuesday 1:23:36, and Jed was too shaky to drive himself to the hospital for his own first 1:24:23.
Topic timeline
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 1:05–7:35 | Intro music + motivational video |
| 8:20–9:20 | Lyss' housekeeping; format of the daily space |
| 9:20–16:05 | Papii's childhood, college, PR internship, nightclub VP |
| 16:05–24:58 | Networking masterclass: Thirsty Thursdays, clients, treating people like people |
| 24:58–33:25 | Getting into crypto: Nigeria, Roland, DCA from 2016, pandemic pivot |
| 33:25–40:29 | First NFTs, the Papii name, the token rug, Proof → Yuga |
| 40:29–49:21 | Conviction, Blur, royalties, mid-rares, Quirkies as case study |
| 49:21–55:14 | Quirkies IP vision, Quirk Kids origin; Papii exits for first baseball game |
| 55:14–1:08:00 | Open floor: India banter, Eco, Jazzy, MainNetThanos, the 3:45 a.m. caller, CEELOS |
| 1:08:00–1:13:01 | Markets, self-driving cars, Sam's Quirkies history |
| 1:13:01–1:25:00 | Quirk Kids art process, market maturity, founder responsibility, Astro's news |
| 1:25:00–1:32:30 | Shoutouts, Regen floor swap offer, Lyss' scam warning |
| 1:32:39–1:35:28 | Regen Queen outro track |
Notable quotes
Just because something isn't great when it starts, doesn't mean that it's a failure.
We treated everybody like a person, not a number.
Usually broke is not a money thing, it's a mindset thing.
I thought there were zero crypto punks for sale. I thought it was the most diamond ended community because when I looked them up on OpenSea, there was never any listed.
We're not an animal that rhymes or a character that exists anywhere else.
Papii makes legendary moves… but there are no legends in Web3 yet. It's five years old.
Who said what
- Jed (@jed_131) — host; ran the interview, pulled the networking and royalties threads, announced weekly community-building workshops, and spent the back half pulling quiet holders onto the stage.
- Papii (@RealPapii) — the guest; full career arc from Atlantic City nightclubs to Quirkies ownership, plus his read on royalties, farmers, and why Quirk Kids came together in a weekend-fast sprint. Also the only guest to clear stadium security mid-answer.
- Lyss (@Lysss302) — cohost; framing and housekeeping at the top, closing scam-safety PSA about fake community manager DMs and bad Zoom/Teams links 1:31:22, plus a report from ETHDenver where she was handing out Regen shirts and coffee.
- Sam (@SamAdoption) — longest open-floor contribution: bought Quirkies at 0.06-0.07, fumbled several, spent three years buying one specific one back, and made the case for leading with the Kids on the website 1:13:01.
- Astro (@astroquirk_) — clipper-in-chief; on why clips capture the live moments people miss, and announced his baby is due Tuesday 1:23:36.
- Burby — the macro voice; inflation data, Iran, long gold and silver 1:08:32.
- India (@Indiaxweb3) — ongoing mug-for-dog trade negotiations with Jed, and a cheerfully offered "Americanized version" of himself 59:22.
- Suburban Crypto (@suburbancrypto) — asked the question everyone else was too polite to ask about India's accent 59:02.
- CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG) — account under review since changing his PFP, now possibly stuck with the one-of-one Papii drew of him 1:06:33.
- Eco (@lordeco) — stopped by, signed up for Jed's upcoming workshops, and regretted not getting to ask Papii whether the traffic cone was okay 57:20.
- Jazzy — on Papii's calm-under-everything delivery and the more intimate fireside format 59:50.
- MainNetThanos.eth (@Maximill15), Code.E (@CodeeNCX), Jroc3D (@JusCrypto88), Arson (@JoshK589) — open-floor regulars checking in; Code.E is bringing his dad to tomorrow's "Who's Behind the PFP."
Worth a full listen
- 16:40–24:58 the Thirsty Thursdays-to-nightclub arc in one unbroken run. The buses, the ten people, the ABC raid, the guys at the back of the bar. It's the whole community-building philosophy as story rather than advice, and summarizing it flattens it.
- 37:13–40:29 the rug, the pivot to NFTs, and the Proof/Yuga run, interrupted by a traffic cone, a police officer, and parking. Papii barely changes tone throughout, which is most of the comedy.
- 1:03:29–1:08:00 the open floor at its best: the 3:45 a.m. caller's thank-you, the forever-PFP story, and CEELOS trapped behind an account review. Warm and funny in a way bullet points can't carry.
