The increasingly crypto-keen Dallas Mavericks chief Mark Cuban is set to return to the investment pitching arena – in a non-fungible token (NFT)-themed Shark Tank-style contest, along with a galaxy of fellow star judges.
Joining Cuban in the judging panel will be rap star Snoop Dogg (also an NFT-keen artist) and Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher. The Tinseltown star is the co-founder of Sound Ventures, the firm that is organizing the contest. His fellow co-founder Guy Oseary will be a fellow judge.
Also joining will be the EDM producer 3LAU, famous in the crypto for his own pioneering NFT-related activities, and Metakovan, or Vignesh Sundaresan of Portkeys Technology, the USD 69m buyer of Beeple’s record-breaking NFT work Everydays: The First 5000 Days. Fellow crypto art buyer Whale Shark is also on board, as is the co-founder of Scalar Capital, Linda Xie.
Oseary, a former record executive at Madonna’s Maverick Records label, has worked with some of the biggest names in pop, including Madonna herself, The Prodigy, U2, and Paul Oakenfold. He has also helped produce a number of mainstream movie releases and co-founded Sound Ventures with Kutcher in 2015.
The new competition will be named NFT: The Pitch, and appears set to take a distinctly Shark Tank / Dragons’ Den-like feel, with the judges set to pass verdict on a range of NFT-related pitches sent in by the general public. The deadline for applications is April 12, with the pitch session itself to be held on April 21.
In the spirit of Shark Tank and Dragons’ Den, Sound Ventures stated, on an official webpage for the contest, that “those applying should be interested in building a company over the long-term.”
The winning applicant will be given a USD 1m investment budget.
Tantalizingly, however, the firm added that its all-star cast would not be aiming to dazzle viewers around the world, writing:
“Unfortunately this is a closed event and we will not be able to provide a live stream.”
On Twitter, Xie wrote that she was keen to see what “creative uses” of NFTs applicants would come up with and was “super excited to be judging.” Kutcher, meanwhile, asked for applicants to “pitch” their ideas to him, calls that were echoed (almost verbatim) by Cuban and MetaKovan.
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