Richard Zreik is the founder of InnoVationGirls, and Tereze Bogdane is a student and active member of the community. InnoVationGirls is a global community of young Gen Z girls and non-binary individuals working on innovative solutions to global problems, with a current focus on solving fast fashion waste using new technologies.Key Takeaways:
- Origin Story: InnoVationGirls was born from Richard's personal experience as a father, recognizing gender inequity in the workplace.
- Global Community: IVG has evolved into a worldwide network of young innovators, working remotely across many countries.
- Technology Focus: The group utilizes cutting-edge technologies like VR, AR, NFTs, and DAOs in their projects.
- Fast Fashion Solution: IVG is currently working on addressing fast fashion waste through innovative use of technology and creative thinking.
- Award-Winning Work: The team has gained international recognition, including winning best in show at the Augmented World Expo in Vienna.
Richard's journey began when he became a father and noticed the unfair treatment of women in the workplace. This realization led him and his wife to quit their corporate jobs and create a business model that could bring about change. InnoVationGirls evolved from this mission, aiming to tap into the latent innovative energy of young minds.
Tereze, representing the student perspective, describes IVG as a fun and engaging community where learning happens naturally through collaboration and creative problem-solving. She emphasizes the power of storytelling and the excitement of being part of a movement fighting for a better future.
The group's approach combines systematic inventive thinking with new technologies. Their current project on fast fashion waste involves using leftover fabric to create patches with NFC tags, turning them into NFTs that can represent tickets or memories.IVG's success is evident in their collaborations with major companies like Meta, Procter & Gamble, and General Electric. In one project for GE, they developed a solution for recycling K-cups in the workplace, which won first place among 50 competing teams.
Kickstarter Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ivgworld-sesame/sesame-design-with-conscience (live 11/18)
Website: https://ivg.world/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovationgirls
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivg.world/
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Nathan C: Welcome to The Glow Up, fabulous conversations with
00:00:03
innovative minds.
00:00:04
Today I'm talking with the Innovation Girls, a group that I
00:00:09
and just incredibly fond of.
00:00:12
Today we have Richard, one of the founders, and one of the
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students.
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Actually, how do you talk about Innovation Girls.
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Are they girls?
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Are they
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Tereze Bogdane: We are pioneers.
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Nathan C: Okay, take three.
00:00:29
Welcome to the Glow Up! Fabulous Conversations with Innovative
00:00:32
Minds.
00:00:32
Today I'm talking with Richard and Tereze of Innovation Girls.
00:00:37
One of my favorite international groups working in 3D and XR.
00:00:44
Welcome to Richard and Tereze, thank you so much for joining me
00:00:48
today.
00:00:48
I'm so excited to talk with you.
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Richard Zreik (2): Thank you for having us.
00:00:52
This is opportunity for us.
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Thank you.
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We always see you on the world stage in Vienna, on Long Beach,
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California.
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Well, this is a nice opportunity to meet here
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Nathan C: You know, speaking of locations, Richard, where are
00:01:07
you, joining me from today?
00:01:09
Richard Zreik (2): So I'm joining you from Cincinnati,
00:01:11
Ohio.
00:01:12
We are a global community, but we started in Ohio.
00:01:20
And, now we work remotely across many countries, and we can work
00:01:25
from anywhere
00:01:26
Nathan C: I want to say hey to Tereze and, where are you, where
00:01:29
are we talking to you from today?
00:01:31
Tereze Bogdane: So, I am in the Baltics, I'm in Latvia,
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Nathan C: Well, thank you for joining us this evening.
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I really appreciate it.
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So, starting with Tereze, I'm, I'm really interested to hear,
00:01:44
what do you do in innovation and technology, and can you tell me,
00:01:50
a little bit about, what your mission is, in that space?
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Tereze Bogdane: Yeah, so we are a community of young Gen Z girls
00:01:58
and non binary individuals who working towards currently
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solving fast fashion waste, using a lot of New technologies
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such as NFTs and DAOs and crypto and whatever else.
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We're just piling it all together in this large space of
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XR and making it work, apparently.
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And it's so much fun meeting a lot of people who specialize in
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a certain aspect of it.
00:02:29
And then we come together and we learn all of those things.
00:02:33
So we learn all of these new skills and we combine them
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together and use a lot of systematic inventive thinking
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and lot of solutions that kind of seem unreal until you start
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working on them.
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Nathan C: what is your specialty or focus area that you're,
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working on lately?
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Tereze Bogdane: So, me personally.
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I have always loved a good story.
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I love fantasy, I read a lot of books, and this story of a bunch
00:03:03
of young people coming together and fighting for their good
00:03:07
future is really powerful, and I want to tell this story, I want
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to be part of it, I want to be the heroine, you know?
00:03:15
So I really like coming together and telling our story, all our
00:03:19
success that we've had in the past with professionals and like
00:03:23
companies recognizing us.
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Nathan C: So, I know a lot about your story because I met you all
00:03:30
at Augmented World Expo just about a year ago in Vienna,
00:03:34
where the Innovation Girls actually took the best in show,
00:03:41
for the entire event, which is focused, which is the European,
00:03:45
know, continent's one of the largest, AR Vr XR events, on the
00:03:50
continent.
00:03:50
Can you, Richard, maybe can you tell us, a little bit more
00:03:55
about, the mission for innovation girls and how you
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went from, an idea in Ohio to, winning awards on the
00:04:03
international stage?
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Richard Zreik (2): you, Nathan.
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I want to take you a little bit, back to the origin story.
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Tell the world, I'm a husband, father of two young girls also
00:04:16
an engineer.
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and I've worked in the engineering world and the
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innovation space for some, The biggest companies out there from
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Nissan to Unilever.
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I have been blessed with our first child.
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I'm picking up my daughter in the hospital and I'm looking
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into her eyes and something shifted in my brain.
00:04:37
I don't know what happened, but when I went back to work I
00:04:40
started to notice how women are being treated And, everywhere I
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went, that was like glaring at me.
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And I was, I was comparing notes.
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I would come back home to my wife and say, Rita, we've got to
00:04:51
do something about it.
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This is, this is unfair.
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And she would look at me and put her finger right there.
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She's like, I told you so.
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I've been talking to you for years, but you don't listen
00:05:02
until your daughter is born.
00:05:04
And it was a very, stark moment, especially when our second
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daughter was born.
00:05:09
we both decided to quit our corporate jobs and go on this
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journey of finding the right business model that can help us,
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bring this change we want to see in the world.
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so yeah, that's the origin story.
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We have one of the best, storytellers in our community
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that is a great community member.
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She's been with us for what, two and a half years now?
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close.
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Tereze Bogdane: Yeah, pretty
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Richard Zreik (2): Yeah.
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She's been on the world stage in the best, XR expos in the world,
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won awards with her teammates.
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We talk about ourselves as a.
00:05:43
community.
00:05:44
We have gone from innovation girls to, getting the
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experience, proving to the world, that young minds are an
00:05:53
incredible latent energy of innovation.
00:05:56
That energy is not utilized.
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And if we tap into it, We can release so much business value
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for the world, and we can bring in sustainable solutions that no
00:06:06
one imagined.
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we can bring change to society and go from the big problem of
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decades, then decades of investing only 3 percent of all
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funds that going after new businesses.
00:06:22
And 97 percent of all the money that goes into funding startups,
00:06:26
is going to the men, which is a huge problem in our society.
00:06:30
We are going in a direction where we can solve this problem.
00:06:34
and we can do it by bringing in a huge community of young women
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into a new economy.
00:06:41
Nathan C: I'm speechless.
00:06:42
I heard, and I'm gonna have to get some more details on this
00:06:46
but what I just heard was that you noticed this problem with
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essentially gender inequity in the workplace, spawned to, this
00:06:57
idea of sort of transforming Education, kind of building
00:07:02
global communities, exploring new economic models and
00:07:09
creating, right, One of the reasons people love DAO so much
00:07:13
is that there is a lot of, equity and autonomy and
00:07:18
ownership, so kind of even disrupting, you know, what a,
00:07:21
what a business model, might even be.
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Checking off so many of these big boxes, and, you know, as one
00:07:29
of your first projects, I'm hearing using AR, VR, 3D design
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and technology and storytelling to address waste in the fast
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fashion industry.
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There's, like, so many global, Let's see what initiatives
00:07:46
causes ideas here.
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Wow.
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First off, congratulations, Tereze could you, help me like
00:07:53
bring it down from the global, you know, systems change level
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into, What are the, some of the, the nuts and bolts, what are
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some of the details about how you're using the systems
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thinking, this collaboration and XR 3D design, to impact, fast
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fashion?
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Can you tell us more about this project?
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Tereze Bogdane: Yeah, sure.
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I always say that an IVG never feels like you're working.
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You're kind of just having fun and talking with your friends
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and along the way you kind of learn something new.
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Some really good skills and meet some very influential people,
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apparently.
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You go to events and win stuff and I was just like, I'm just
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having fun.
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I'm just using my brain.
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But yeah, for us, it's very simple.
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You come in here, you at first are a bit nervous because you
00:08:44
don't know what you're doing.
00:08:45
You don't know these people.
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But then all of a sudden, You get into a meeting and
00:08:50
everyone's so friendly.
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Everyone's so nice.
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They're like, Oh, where are you from?
00:08:53
Like, what are your hobbies?
00:08:56
And the very first sessions for us is just talking where we
00:09:01
think about ideas, about where we think inside the box,
00:09:05
basically, to make new innovations that no one would
00:09:10
really think about.
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Maybe we can give some examples of what that is later.
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It understands, like, sounds very complicated, but it's
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really not.
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I wish I was like taught it at school, like at kindergarten
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even.
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Most of us do get headsets, like VR headsets.
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that's just incredible.
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That's That's what IVG is.
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We support each other and somehow we get access to all
00:09:33
this tech.
00:09:33
And then.
00:09:35
we put on the headset, We do some, things you would do in
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kindergarten.
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You just think about ideas, and then you make them.
00:09:42
And then, later in meetings, if we have a problem that we're
00:09:46
solving, like fast fashion waste, we really just break it
00:09:51
down into, hey, these people are, like, these companies are
00:09:55
making a lot of clothes that not a lot of people are fully using.
00:09:59
They're throwing away a lot of it.
00:10:01
And then it just ends up unused and useless.
00:10:04
So how do we fix that?
00:10:06
but then we're like, Oh, what if you use the leftover cloth to
00:10:09
make patches and then you put NFC tags in there and now
00:10:13
they're NFTs.
00:10:14
And now Now you can do tickets.
00:10:16
You can do memories on patches and you use this leftover
00:10:20
fabric.
00:10:21
And this was all thought in one or two meetings, And then what
00:10:25
you do, you go into your headset, draw a little circle,
00:10:28
fill it in, and that's your patch.
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So you put it on, because it's a good idea, and it just came
00:10:35
about, a few, people, girls, young people, who are willing to
00:10:40
do this, they're willing to fight for their future, their
00:10:45
world.
00:10:46
It just came together
00:10:47
Nathan C: This idea of just bring talented young women and
00:10:52
non binary people from around the globe together and magic
00:10:58
will happen." a father of, young girls, I'm sure, You can see,
00:11:04
the magic and power, that is in young women, but how did this
00:11:09
idea of, a virtual community building a DAO, how did you land
00:11:14
on this direction?
00:11:15
What about XR?
00:11:18
I'm so curious about how you got about this nexus.
00:11:22
Richard Zreik: It's interesting.
00:11:23
this is an awesome question, because from a company building
00:11:27
standpoint, it's never a linear process, which is fascinating.
00:11:31
Some of us think that it's going to be one trajectory, but, we
00:11:35
start with a purpose and then, stumble on, solutions that give
00:11:40
us the right shortcuts, for example, how do we bring true
00:11:45
design to young people, and we were talking about taking the
00:11:50
CAD system, with a learning curve of about a month, to
00:11:54
become a really good CAD designer to GravitySketch.
00:11:59
So when GravitySketch first launched, we were like, oh my
00:12:03
God, the aha moment was like, we're on this trajectory and it
00:12:08
became the perfect tool to shortcut and shorten that
00:12:14
learning cycle to an hour or two.
00:12:18
where somebody gets into her headset and starts 3D modeling
00:12:23
in virtual reality all around her in a natural way.
00:12:27
And it's such a breakthrough because now, Ford and, GM and
00:12:33
Nissan, all of these companies are now using virtual reality.
00:12:37
to also bring their design, cycle from five years down to
00:12:42
one year kind of thing.
00:12:43
So, it's really creating ripple effects, in big codes.
00:12:48
But we caught on early on and said,"Look, we can equip.
00:12:51
This young generation with the latest tools and XR could be the
00:12:55
game changer for us." That's when we decided we're going to
00:12:59
invest in, XR tech.
00:13:01
We're going to purchase it.
00:13:02
We're going to send it to their homes, wherever they are in the
00:13:04
world.
00:13:05
And we're going to stay up to date.
00:13:07
So, Tereze has now the Oculus 3, the latest one with AR.
00:13:13
and we're looking at the future of the evolution.
00:13:17
of these classes where you and I are going to be wearing a very
00:13:22
light pair of glasses, and we're going to enter worlds like the
00:13:25
Roblox world that we just talked about, or different marketplaces
00:13:29
that we're creating in the metaverse, to display our,
00:13:33
solution for fashion and, promote, a lot of the designs
00:13:38
that we're creating in this world.
00:13:40
So essentially we're getting ready for people to walk into
00:13:44
our worlds in a gamified way, experience what, the teams are
00:13:49
designing.
00:13:50
And I'd love for Tereze to start telling you the story about how
00:13:54
we learned from designing for the biggest companies in the
00:13:57
world, like Meta we worked with Meta we worked with Procter
00:14:01
Gamble in the US, in Poland.
00:14:03
we worked with General Electric, and we went on a journey with
00:14:06
them.
00:14:07
Tereze Bogdane: I wasn't part of the original solution, though.
00:14:10
Richard Zreik: so yeah, we started looking at,
00:14:13
sustainability in the workplace and we focused on K-cups.
00:14:16
How can we solve the problem of K-cups?
00:14:18
And do you want to tell us, Tereze what was the final result
00:14:22
for the GE project?
00:14:23
140, 000 employees, they hired us as part of one of the teams.
00:14:28
It was about 50 teams that set up, could you share the news?
00:14:33
Tereze Bogdane: Yeah, so I believe we got first place,
00:14:37
right?
00:14:38
Okay, yeah, we got first place.
00:14:40
Out of all of those teams, you were the best.
00:14:43
And so we spent a lot of time in meetings like thinking about how
00:14:47
we can make these k cups even more sustainable than they are
00:14:52
and actually Make it beneficial for the employees to do the
00:14:57
recycling.
00:14:58
It's not just like, Oh, it's good for the environment, but
00:15:00
like, Hey, you actually gained something from this because
00:15:03
that's how you motivate people to actually do it.
00:15:05
And so our final solution was that all of these K cups when
00:15:11
they were recycled, they would be turned into tokens or coins
00:15:14
in an app, where an employee could pick a 3D design that they
00:15:19
could then put into a 3D printer, which would use the K
00:15:24
cups and put them through an extruder that would make them
00:15:27
into 3D filament.
00:15:29
So then the K cup that they used and recycled Now becomes some
00:15:34
type of design that they would use.
00:15:36
For example, like pencil holders on their desks, something like
00:15:39
that, where it's actually useful.
00:15:42
They can also do it for their own private stuff.
00:15:45
the possibilities are endless, So they were really motivated to
00:15:49
actually take it seriously because of how much waste was
00:15:53
produced just in the cafeteria as well.
00:15:55
I'm really glad that they accepted and were receptive to
00:15:58
this idea.
00:16:00
maybe Richard has something more to add.
00:16:02
Richard Zreik: Yeah, what I love is how you designed the 3D
00:16:05
worlds for them, to, get them to walk into them.
00:16:09
one of the designs that, her teammates created was, a big
00:16:13
patch in the ocean, which is a realistic.
00:16:16
problem we have of plastics that are floating in the ocean.
00:16:20
And we had them, get into their avatars and walk on the plastics
00:16:23
in the ocean to get to the shore and to look at the problem that
00:16:28
we're facing.
00:16:29
So it was a visceral experience for the employees of GE that, so
00:16:35
we brought them on this journey with us.
00:16:36
And then we went from this room to, Another room where we
00:16:41
ideated together.
00:16:42
So we brought them into the experience and the team used
00:16:46
their inventive thinking methodology, their design
00:16:49
thinking methodology, game thinking, to work together and
00:16:53
innovate with GE employees.
00:16:55
they loved it.
00:16:56
This whole idea of an XR immersive experience to bring
00:17:00
awareness, to, innovate.
00:17:03
And to finally produce a solution that is a web 2, web 3
00:17:08
combination, a mix of the two.
00:17:11
and the company loved it because they thought of it as an income
00:17:14
stream.
00:17:15
Why not?
00:17:16
Why would you just, waste stuff if you can make money off of it?
00:17:19
and the employees loved it because, they were gaining
00:17:23
something and they were saving the environment.
00:17:25
Nathan C: This idea of, recognizing that a K cup is made
00:17:30
out of raw materials and empowering the office mates to
00:17:38
do something more with those raw materials than just throw them
00:17:42
away.
00:17:43
in combination with this idea of making your stakeholders walk
00:17:48
across the trash island in VR, really one of the things that I
00:17:52
hate the most is trying to get around giant worlds because I'm
00:17:58
inpatient ADHD.
00:18:00
And walking across a world is kind of aggravating for me, but
00:18:04
it's the perfect example to give somebody when you're trying to
00:18:09
prove the impact or the importance of something that is
00:18:14
both so gigantic and almost inaccessible to everybody on the
00:18:18
planet.
00:18:18
Like you actually take them there, you put them on it, you
00:18:22
make them trudge across it to see how big it is.
00:18:25
And then.
00:18:26
You're like, hey, but that's resources.
00:18:28
Hey, but that's desk swag.
00:18:30
Hey, but that's like awards and pencil holders that you could be
00:18:33
putting, you know, and it turns, environmental responsibility
00:18:38
into literally stewardship of resources.
00:18:42
It's such a frame shift.
00:18:44
I don't honestly think you get to that level of like outside
00:18:49
the box thinking, if you don't include all of those pieces.
00:18:54
And, I'm usually Advocating the other direction, right?
00:18:58
Like, it doesn't have to be comprehensive for it to have
00:19:02
value.
00:19:03
It doesn't have to be, every single thing, in order to be an
00:19:07
interesting experience, app, or whatever.
00:19:09
But, I think, both the really strong innovation, And, the end
00:19:13
to end vision for how it could be, is really what makes that
00:19:18
such a compelling, winning best out of 50 international
00:19:21
competitors, kind of idea.
00:19:24
So cool, and thank you for going detailed in there.
00:19:27
seeing all of the different technologies, all of the
00:19:30
different innovations, in that cloud to me, really helped me
00:19:34
understand this group that I've been in love with for a couple
00:19:37
years now.
00:19:38
So, now that we've talked a little bit about the journey to
00:19:41
now, I think we should talk about dreams, and where you're
00:19:45
headed.
00:19:46
Richard, maybe starting with you, what's a big goal or a glow
00:19:50
up, a noticeable transformation, that you're working on this year
00:19:55
with the Innovation Girls.
00:19:57
Richard Zreik: So, we started as a for profit LLC, With
00:20:01
Innovation Girls.
00:20:02
We believe that if we are going to leave, a message, a legacy
00:20:08
for these young women, it's to have them think of themselves in
00:20:12
for profit organizations, as for profit businesswomen.
00:20:16
and we have been, compensating them at the rate of an average
00:20:21
of 20 an hour.
00:20:23
plus$30 an hour for that same hour in, IVGU coins, essentially
00:20:30
stock in, the business.
00:20:31
So we were preparing ourselves as an LLC to make that shift
00:20:35
into the Web3 world of the DAOs, the decentralized autonomous
00:20:39
organizations.
00:20:40
Tereze, can speak to the fact that not only are we buying the
00:20:43
technology and sending it to her, but we were also, sending,
00:20:47
cash and supporting her journey as she contributed to every
00:20:50
project.
00:20:51
and now, when we looked at the LLC world, we were sitting down
00:20:56
with lawyers talking about how can we have millions of young
00:21:00
girls around the world as shareholders in the traditional
00:21:03
business model?
00:21:04
And it was literally a nightmare, impossible.
00:21:08
they were constantly putting us down on the, idea of bringing in
00:21:13
shareholders and young girls as partners.
00:21:16
You know, shareholders in a business.
00:21:18
So we looked at the DAO, two years ago when it became popular
00:21:23
or somehow, you know, when 4, 000 companies were established,
00:21:27
and we looked at the failures, which taught us a lot about how
00:21:31
we can avoid these problems.
00:21:33
And now it's about 6, 000 companies that are DAOs and,
00:21:37
still in the infancy stage, but we're jumping.
00:21:39
All in to go into a new entity that we call IVG World.
00:21:44
It's an abbreviation, but we love the IVG World concept.
00:21:48
We named our token IVGU for Unity, for our community.
00:21:54
So we voted for, and Tereze, I will tell you, DAO is all of us
00:22:01
coming together, managing together.
00:22:03
We don't have bosses.
00:22:04
We don't have the one person at the top.
00:22:07
We don't have vice presidents.
00:22:09
We're coming in and voting on the way forward.
00:22:13
We agree on an approach from the beginning, a purpose that's our
00:22:17
guiding principle.
00:22:18
North Star.
00:22:19
then we start executing and what helps us execute is
00:22:23
systemization and having smart contracts that help us manage
00:22:28
the scaling of the company.
00:22:30
So the smart contracts are ticking off the boxes to say,
00:22:32
Oh, Tereze today did this, and she contributed to the business.
00:22:37
Tereze did that, and check, check, check.
00:22:39
and then she automatically gets.
00:22:42
The IVGU coins, deposited in her digital wallet.
00:22:48
So with the help of smart contracts, we're able to be much
00:22:51
more dynamic in the way we compensate people.
00:22:54
They see the result of their, the fruit of their work right
00:22:57
away in their digital wallet.
00:22:59
and then they can keep track of all of their progress because
00:23:03
the digital wallet is going to help us, create a, what we call,
00:23:08
a digital resume.
00:23:10
So, we will have, for example, what we call Soulbound NFTs,
00:23:17
SBTs.
00:23:18
Soulbound NFTs are about us vouching for today's that she
00:23:22
is, a, an AR professional, she is a VR professional, she has
00:23:27
gone through the program with us, she has a lot of knowledge
00:23:30
of systematic inventive thinking, so she gets a
00:23:33
soulbound NFTs for each one of those things, and she has it in
00:23:37
her CV or in her resume.
00:23:39
So when she goes out for employment, We're hoping that we
00:23:43
will hire her full time, but if she decides to go work for a P&
00:23:47
G, she now has a visual representation that verifies
00:23:53
that she's done this, done that, and she's really good at that.
00:23:56
She's a great 3D modeler in virtual reality.
00:23:59
This is a way to help young women to actually build, when we
00:24:04
talk about young women, I just want to remind you, we are very,
00:24:08
very much about inclusivity, non binary, we've got a number of
00:24:11
members who are non binary, and we love them, we respect them,
00:24:15
and when we talk about young women, we're inclusive.
00:24:18
yes, I want to stop right here, and I'd love to open the floor
00:24:23
to Tereze, she's got so much to talk about.
00:24:26
Hi, my name is
00:24:27
Nathan C: I love it.
00:24:28
So, Tereze, what about you?
00:24:30
What's, what's the glow up you're gonna make in the next
00:24:33
six months?
00:24:34
Tereze Bogdane: Well, right now, as Richard said, we kind of
00:24:37
don't have bosses or management teams, really, but we do have,
00:24:43
like, subdivision teams, like, working on different projects.
00:24:47
And right now I am the team lead of our crowdfunding team.
00:24:51
So our team leads are actually voted for.
00:24:54
It's like elections.
00:24:55
It's really fun.
00:24:57
And I was picked for my storytelling ability.
00:25:01
So I'm kicking off our crowdfunding journey.
00:25:05
And right now I actually have a meeting in 20 minutes where we
00:25:09
talk about, our story that we're going to tell.
00:25:13
But Our focus right now is to reach out to more people like
00:25:18
this with a podcast with some more influential people that we
00:25:22
have met before who would be willing to share the good word
00:25:27
and get us some more financial help because the truth is this
00:25:33
is like the economy we live in, the world we live in, it's
00:25:36
controlled by money because money is power.
00:25:40
And, you know, if the world was perfect, we wouldn't really need
00:25:43
it.
00:25:44
But to fund our VR headsets, shipping, like events and all
00:25:49
that also is just like compensation for our members.
00:25:53
we do need that financial help, especially as we're launching a
00:25:58
DAO and we need like to fund it and.
00:26:02
invest in it.
00:26:03
We do need that assistance.
00:26:07
And so we are going to share some more personal details of
00:26:11
our lives, our evolution of how we went from business to
00:26:15
business to customer now, with our own solution for us.
00:26:20
And also a bit more personal about the actual creators who
00:26:24
are giving you these designs, like where we come from, like
00:26:27
how diverse we truly are.
00:26:30
Nathan C: I want you to tell me more about how diverse you
00:26:33
really are.
00:26:34
tell me about your team.
00:26:35
Tell me about this magic.
00:26:37
Tereze Bogdane: Okay.
00:26:37
Well, I joined like almost two years ago now, but I have met a
00:26:43
lot of people.
00:26:45
So we originated.
00:26:47
Our original team was from America, I believe.
00:26:50
So there are American girls.
00:26:53
I don't see them too often, but the one event I went to in
00:26:56
America, I met a few of them and I can't wait to go back and see
00:27:01
them again.
00:27:02
They're like family to me.
00:27:04
And then we have a team in Africa as well.
00:27:08
they have some struggles with internet, with shipping and
00:27:12
customs and all that, but they're getting through it and
00:27:15
they're still active members of our community, which is just
00:27:18
incredible.
00:27:20
And we have, we're all over Europe, we have members in Asia,
00:27:24
I believe, as well.
00:27:25
And recently we had a brand new set of young girls from Poland.
00:27:30
This time around, they weren't as, like, fluent in English, so
00:27:34
we had our already too established Poland members kind
00:27:38
of bridge the gap.
00:27:40
So it was very fun because they're all, like, very bright.
00:27:45
They're younger than me, and I got to be a mentor this time
00:27:48
around.
00:27:49
You know, we had to, talk slowly and, guide them through
00:27:51
everything, but I felt so proud when I saw their final work.
00:27:56
It was like, I couldn't ask for anything better, the stories
00:28:01
they have shared, the things I've seen them done, it's so
00:28:05
incredible.
00:28:07
And, yeah, I just think this community is a dream.
00:28:11
I don't know.
00:28:11
It feels unreal.
00:28:13
Nathan C: I'm so glad I pushed for that a little bit.
00:28:15
Yeah, thank you.
00:28:16
All right.
00:28:17
So, launching a DAO and a Kickstarter sounds, like a lot
00:28:23
of work.
00:28:24
I'm glad, Richard, you've got your best employee, you've got
00:28:27
your best teammates, working on it.
00:28:30
what's the best way that people can learn more or get engaged,
00:28:35
either with IVG or with the Kickstarter?
00:28:39
Richard Zreik: We definitely, you can find us on ivg.
00:28:42
world.
00:28:43
that's our main site and we're on Instagram, we're on Facebook,
00:28:47
we're on TikTok.
00:28:49
we're also on LinkedIn, so you can find us on LinkedIn.
00:28:52
That's it.
00:28:52
we will be sharing the Kickstarter details.
00:28:55
hopefully when you have this podcast ready, in a few weeks.
00:29:00
yeah, we would love to give you all the details.
00:29:04
We very much appreciate the support right here.
00:29:09
Yes.
00:29:09
Nathan C: let's make sure that we get those links and we'll
00:29:11
totally include it in the show notes and we'll put it in all
00:29:15
three of those places.
00:29:17
with all of these things that you're building for and all of
00:29:21
these corporate and consumer projects that you've got going
00:29:25
on.
00:29:26
is there anything that you're looking for this year?
00:29:30
Either network, things to learn, people to connect with, funders,
00:29:36
crowd funders?
00:29:37
Richard Zreik: yes, we are looking for a growing our
00:29:40
community.
00:29:41
So we're targeting families who have young girls between the age
00:29:45
of 12 and 28.
00:29:47
We want to invite them in as DAO members, take them on this
00:29:52
journey with us.
00:29:53
and we want the parents to invest in us as well.
00:29:56
So, we're hoping that the crowdfunding campaign can help
00:29:58
us bridge the gap and, see how families can, Really, see us for
00:30:04
who we are, invest in, not only young women's future in general,
00:30:08
but in their own daughters, and be able to, help us grow and
00:30:13
glow up.
00:30:14
Nathan C: And Tereze as a rising star and young professional, in
00:30:20
the XR space, how about you?
00:30:22
Tereze Bogdane: Well, I'm always in the mood for meeting new
00:30:25
friends.
00:30:26
I feel like with this project and every single next one that
00:30:29
comes around, you always get to see so many different points of
00:30:33
view of the world, because you can travel, you can meet people,
00:30:38
but you will never truly know what it is like until they have
00:30:42
met you in person.
00:30:42
Almost.
00:30:43
And it's just so inspiring as well, because it keeps me coming
00:30:48
back, you know, it's fun, it's nice, and you know, to continue
00:30:53
all these projects and to make sure we have more people
00:30:56
joining, we do need that financial support.
00:31:00
But I would also love for more professional or specialized
00:31:05
people to come and maybe mentor for us, because a while ago at
00:31:11
an event, we also met an incredible 3D designer, and we
00:31:15
like connected on LinkedIn, and he was like, Yeah, I would love
00:31:18
to come mentor for you.
00:31:19
And so we had Like two, like a few weeks where he just shared
00:31:25
some information, some useful tips for working in Blender.
00:31:29
And I improved so much and like, it was incredible.
00:31:35
Like, I wish we had like more people like that who were so
00:31:39
forthcoming and willing to teach us.
00:31:42
Nathan C: Oh my goodness.
00:31:43
so generous.
00:31:44
I love the idea of like, I would like to make more international
00:31:49
friends and see their art in VR.
00:31:52
what an amazing way to get to know someone.
00:31:54
I love that.
00:31:55
it seems like you have this predisposition to, being a
00:31:58
global citizen now.
00:32:00
you sort of see the whole world as your community.
00:32:04
So bravo there, Richard.
00:32:06
Tereze I know that
00:32:06
Richard Zreik: much.
00:32:08
Nathan C: You've got important business meetings coming up, so
00:32:10
I think we have to start working on wrapping up.
00:32:12
One of the things that we talk about on The Glow Up is this
00:32:16
idea of, good ideas in order to make it need to have some sort
00:32:20
of impact.
00:32:20
They need to be delivering value.
00:32:23
And Theresa, I want, I'm very curious, what is it like, when
00:32:27
you're working on a project, when you're learning something,
00:32:31
when you're doing these, you know, when you're building these
00:32:33
new skills, exploring these new Projects and competition.
00:32:37
What is it like, getting paid to learn and build community and
00:32:43
grow, a DAO, to be building an international company, with
00:32:48
your, your peers and advisors?
00:32:50
How does, how does that feel?
00:32:51
Tereze Bogdane: Well, like I said before, it's kind of like
00:32:53
just having fun, and then a day later you check your bank
00:32:58
account, like, oh yeah, I got my, paid for it.
00:33:00
I go to, actual work as well, I do work and I get paid for it.
00:33:05
And you know, it's fine.
00:33:06
I agreed to do this work, and therefore I get paid.
00:33:09
But with IVG, it's like, hanging out with your friends, and then
00:33:13
you get like, free lunch.
00:33:15
You're like, it's on the house or something.
00:33:17
it's such a good concept, and it keeps everyone coming back, even
00:33:21
they are new or, not really connected with the community,
00:33:25
because we have some members who are on a hiatus.
00:33:28
Or they're focusing on studies.
00:33:30
They can't really participate in every single meeting, but when
00:33:34
they come back, they come back and they get paid fairly for it.
00:33:38
So even if on that break they were kind of sad and like maybe
00:33:42
mistreated in work or otherwise, they come back and they see how
00:33:47
great it is to be here.
00:33:49
I feel like it's another motivator to keep us like around
00:33:55
as well, but also to keep it sustainable.
00:33:58
Because the truth is, if We get really busy with school and
00:34:02
work.
00:34:02
We might have to prioritize, you know, getting food on the table
00:34:06
or a roof over our heads and just not have time to get in
00:34:09
meetings and talk about, you know, like fast fashion and
00:34:12
patches and 3D design.
00:34:14
So the fact that we come here and we're doing something that
00:34:18
our parents see worthwhile, that the world sees worthwhile.
00:34:22
And, you know, we also get to say like, yeah, I'm 16 and I
00:34:26
make this amount of money doing the same job as you.
00:34:30
Like it's pretty cool.
00:34:32
Richard Zreik: it is so cool.
00:34:33
I'm so honored to be surrounded by great minds.
00:34:37
I feel young, and they're giving me a new life to hang out and
00:34:42
talk about innovation and innovate together.
00:34:44
this final solution, that we're launching the DAO with is really
00:34:49
our solution to the world.
00:34:51
We are creating an Uber for Seamstresses, concept.
00:34:56
So it's a platform for a world that has seen a decline in
00:35:00
seamstress business.
00:35:02
we are bringing that back in a powerful way and combining it
00:35:05
with the concept that today's just talked about, the patch
00:35:09
designs and bringing in NFC tags, technology that connects
00:35:13
the Web2 world to the Web3 world.
00:35:16
So we're taking the Uber concept and we're bringing it into Web3.
00:35:21
In a whole new way that creates value for your sweatshirt as it
00:35:26
comes into your closet and keeps going up in value instead of
00:35:29
going down in value and going underground when you get rid of
00:35:33
it.
00:35:34
So we want to have a different trajectory for our clothes.
00:35:38
As we reimagine, the way we interact with them, the way we
00:35:41
create value for them, and the way we bring in, fashion
00:35:45
designers, older women who are good as seamstresses, and we
00:35:49
give them opportunities to make money as well as, and hopefully
00:35:53
bring them in as members of our DAO.
00:35:55
So imagine young members and older members coming in and
00:35:59
everyone is working together to bring our community, in this
00:36:04
learn to earn model and to bring in the value of our IVGU stock
00:36:10
ownership.
00:36:10
So everyone will benefit.
00:36:12
Everyone will contribute.
00:36:13
It's the new Uber model.
00:36:15
I don't want to put down the old Uber model, but it's a different
00:36:19
way of bringing community together.
00:36:20
This is us.
00:36:21
we focus on the heroine journey.
00:36:23
It's not the hero's journey.
00:36:25
We're working on the heroine's journey to bring in a whole new
00:36:27
level of business models.
00:36:30
that are Web 3.
00:36:31
0 enabled.
00:36:32
Nathan C: I can't think of a better spot, Richard, to put a
00:36:37
pin in our conversation today.
00:36:39
This idea of empowering, our younger generation of, women and
00:36:46
non binary people to then reach out to other generations and,
00:36:53
help bring them into a tech enabled future.
00:36:58
I hear so much of the world of work has moved into the gig
00:37:05
economy, so whether it's Uber or, deliveries, other sorts of
00:37:09
services, the idea that you might have a number of jobs,
00:37:13
that you might have a number of income streams, And that, you
00:37:17
might have this digital identity that, could move between them
00:37:20
seamlessly, gathering perks and revenue and, nFTs, tokens along
00:37:27
the way for contributing and building and growing the
00:37:30
community.
00:37:30
Such a lovely vision of the impact that technology can have.
00:37:37
And, I am so thankful, that We here on the Glow Up can share
00:37:42
this story, of out of the box and in the box thinking that is
00:37:48
changing the rules and really empowering the next generation
00:37:52
of creatives, of technologists, of business leaders, and that
00:37:58
you're paying them already, I think shows, how powerful and,
00:38:03
Empowering a project like this could be.
00:38:06
I really am so glad to get to learn more about it.
00:38:09
and wish you all the luck with your upcoming launches.
00:38:12
It sounds like a really busy fall.
00:38:15
Richard Zreik: Thank you, Nathan.
00:38:16
It's been a pleasure talking to you,
00:38:18
Tereze Bogdane: Yeah, thank you so much, truly.
00:38:20
it's been like talking to friends.
00:38:22
Richard Zreik: truly.
00:38:23
Nathan C: I think the episode title is going to be when
00:38:26
revolutionary business is as fun as talking to friends.
00:38:30
Tereze Bogdane: It's true though.
00:38:31
Nathan C: Hey, I'm not going to argue.
00:38:33
You're the expert.
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