A Discussion about Aeternals with Co-Founders Shaun Khan & Lucia Gallardo

The yWhales team speaks with Shaun Khan and Lucia Gallardo, Co-Founders of Aeternals, one of the first NFT projects to combine digital art, interactive gamification, and metamorphic change, with impact objectives traced through blockchain infrastructure. Shaun and Lucia discuss the philosophy behind Aeternals and what makes them unique. They break down how Aeternal is built and managed and the status of the project today. They also talk about why they focus on protecting and preserving rainforest land rather than buying it and how they engage with the community.

 

About Guests

Shaun Khan is Co-Founder of Aeternals and the Founder of Tapistrii, a personalized recommendation engine for NFT collectors to discover and display their NFT collection. He is also the founder of Digigo, an NFT-as-a-Service Agency focused on the innovating at the cutting edge of NFT design and delivery. In his role as Managing Partner of Glass Capital, he has acted as an investor and advisor to emerging companies and private business groups over the past 3 years; including recent engagements with YPO, EO, TiE and OPM. Shaun formerly launched the first microfinance initiative in the Caribbean in 2012, followed by the first microfranchising company in the Caribbean in 2014, which he successfully exited in 2015. Previously he co-founded first private equity firm focused on family business buyouts in the Caribbean. Shaun also currently serves as VP of TiE London, a non profit organization focused on fostering entrepreneurship globally. He also volunteers his time to help emerging startups in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space around social impact causes. Shaun holds an MBA from Columbia, and is an active participant in Harvard’s OPM program. He is also a member of YPO and the Institute of Directors.

Lucia Gallardo is the Co-Founder of Aeternals and an award-winning Honduran serial entrepreneur that bridges emerging technologies with strategic sustainable development. She is the Founder of Emerge, a socio-technology solutions development lab offering Impact-as-a-ServiceTM. Emerge works with global commercial enterprises, governments, public institutions, organizations, and communities to drive impact-centric digital innovation at scale. She also co-founded Dona un Libro, an educational foundation taking on taboo issues such as undocumented immigration across Central America in youth-friendly ways. She joined the advisory boards of Penta and Metis to help build their impact technology strategies. Lucía also chairs the Innovation Council at WE Global Studios, a full-stack startup innovation studio for female founders. In her spare time, Lucía sits on a few boards for an array of meaningful issues to her such as the Board of Directors of Rainforest Partnership and the Caribbean Blockchain Alliance, as well as on the advisory boards of several early stage ventures founded by women, immigrants, and other under-supported groups. Currently, Lucía is experimenting with Decentralized Autonomous Companies (DACs), metamorphic NFTs, and autonomous IoT-based data collection. Lucía is an MIT Innovator under 35 and her work in digital identification has been nominated for several awards, including the Global SDG Awards.

 

You’ll learn about:

• What is Aeternals, the philosophy behind the company and what makes them unique
• How Aeternal is built and managed
• Why they focus on protecting and preserving rainforest land rather than buying land
• The status of the project today, when they plan to launch the project and where Aeternals is headed
• How they engage with the community

 

Resources: 

Connect with Shaun Khan: LinkedIn

Connect with Lucia Gallardo: LinkedIn

Connect with YWhales: Website | BitClout | Twitter

Aeternals: Website | Twitter | Discord | Medium | Email

 

Timestamps

[01:13] Shaun’s intro to Bitcoin

[03:24] Lucia’s intro and how she joined with Shaun

[07:30] Lucia’s drive for success

[09:17] The philosophy of Aeternals and what makes them unique

[19:50] Tech Stack and how Aeternal is built and managed

[24:48] Focus on engagement and metamorphosis

[28:10] Aeternals launch

[31:03] Environmental and inclusion impact 

[35:43] The community

[42:14] Where Aeternals is headed

[47:18] Built a private blockchain with open APIs

[48:5741] What excites Lucia

[50:44] What is Aorist

[55:45] How to contact Lucia and Shaun

 

DISCLAIMER: yWhales is not affiliated with YPO but at this time only allow for YPO, YPO Gold, and YNG members due to privacy & confidentiality. Support and production for today’s episode was done by Truth Work Media. Nothing in the podcast constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information on the podcast constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto.