Original author: Realm Hunter Research Consultant roxi

Compile: Odaily

Luca Netz, CEO of the NFT project "Pudgy Penguins" (Pudgy Penguins), has experienced the embarrassment of living on the streets, but now he can not only acquire "Pudgy Penguins" for $2.5 million, but also lead the project to a new peak. I spent 11 hours trying to unravel the secret of his success, and here's what I found.

Luca Netz, whose full name is Luca Schnetzler, spent nine years homeless with his mother and depended on the kindness of strangers every night to find a place to sleep, but Luca refused to let the difficult growing up hinder his growth.

Luca attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, but had to drop out at 16 to help her mother earn a living.

After leaving high school (2015), Luca joined Ring Doorbell, which was also the beginning of his career. Ring Doorbell started as a tech startup with 20 employees, but in just one year, the company has grown to more than 2,000 employees. Since then, the vision of an entrepreneur has been planted in Luca's heart.

While at Ring Doorbell, Luca got into the dropshipping business and learned the tricks of marketing. Then Luca made a move when he decided to promote his product with an Instagram ad, which went viral like wildfire and inspired Luca to go down the entrepreneurial path.

After that, Luca's career quickly progressed from Ring Doorbell to La Gold Cartel (Luca's jewelry store) to Manners Holdings.

In 2019, Luca took on a new challenge when he joined Von Dutch, a struggling apparel company, as chief marketing officer (CMO) to take charge of the company's marketing strategy. It was here that Luca truly realized his potential.

Luca then went on to become Chief Marketing Officer of Gel Blaster and helped bring the product to Target and other major retail stores.

After a year at Gel Blaster, Luca resigned, followed by his fate-changing tweet for the Pudgy Penguins.

On April 2, 2022, Luca acquired Pudgy Penguins and became the project's CEO. Since then, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins has risen from 0.8 ETH to 4.25 ETH, which is in stark contrast to other projects plagued by the conservative NFT bear market during the same period.

• Odaily Note: Regarding the recovery of Pudgy Penguins, we have also reported before, see "When NFT is deep in the bear, "Fat Penguin" comes back to life》。

It’s worth noting that in August 2021, Luca purchased his first “penguin,” which also happened to be one of the first PFP NFTs he bought.

Since the acquisition, Luca's team has been working non-stop, with their every move documented in a YouTube series called Building in Public.

What is their ultimate goal? Dominate the market and create the largest IP in the industry.

Luca and his staff are making this happen with some pretty bold moves. In the past month alone, Pudgy Penguins has rolled out brand guidelines to standardize its visual identity; released "Pudgy Workbench," a workbench with hidden secrets (revealed May 12); and announced a partnership with Hollywood The brokerage company WME signed a contract to reach a cooperation in the fields of film, TV and games...

Yesterday, Pudgy Penguins announced the completion of a new round of financing of $9 million, led by 1kx, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Kronos Research and LayerZero Labs founder Bryan Pellegrino.

What's next? Who knows, but one thing is almost certain - it's going to be huge.