Empowering the Creator Economy On-Chain: An Interview with Lyvely Co-founder Dave Catudal on the Future of SocialFi

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology and wellness, Dave Catudal stands out as a visionary entrepreneur. As the co-founder of Lyvely, Dave has a rich history of product innovation and e-commerce, particularly in the wellness industry. With multiple successful ventures under his belt, including one of the fastest-growing D2C health supplement brands in the GCC region, and holding a patent for a best-selling fitness machine and online program in the USA, Dave’s entrepreneurial journey is nothing short of impressive.

At Lyvely, Dave is pioneering the future of SocialFi, integrating various aspects of web3 to offer transparent monetization and engagement tools for the creator and freelance economy. In this interview, Dave shares his insights and the revolutionary potential of Lyvely in the SocialFi space.

Q1. Could you share a bit about your journey and what led you to co-found Lyvely? How did your background as a wellness entrepreneur and internet personality influence the development of Lyvely?

I consider myself blessed to be an entrepreneur, creator and digital nomad for almost two decades, building online health programs and e-commerce businesses for nutrition supplements while living in countries such as Bali, Brazil and Dubai. This experience led to meeting my incredible cofounder, Farah Zafar, who shared the same idea for building a social platform to help people monetize their passion and think more entrepreneurial. Having a 20 year history in the health industry, I believe that wellness is not just about your physical wellbeing, but your financial wellbeing as well.

The idea for Lyvely first came to us during the Covid period, when we saw many of our friends and family lose their livelihoods due to the lockdowns. We immediately realized that people without an online presence were suffering, while people with an online brand or business were thriving. 

The biggest issue we saw in the competitive landscape was that everybody was using social media platforms to try and build their online presence, but social media was not designed for monetization and building businesses- it was designed for entertainment and building influencers. People using these platforms only have one definition of growth, which is more followers. 

We created Lyvely to provide a purpose-built platform for anyone to build a profitable digital presence, with a full suite of fintech tools and monetization features- for both content creators and content consumers. Our goal was to create a new type of social platform where anyone can have a profile that pays.

Q2. For those unfamiliar, can you explain what SocialFi is and how Lyvely fits into this emerging sector? What inspired the concept of Lyvely as one of the first licensed SocialFi platforms?

SocialFi in essence combines the core elements of social media (posting and consuming user generated content) with financial tools, namely the diverse monetization avenues offered by tokenization via Decentralized Finance. The exciting proposition that SocialFi offers is that it empowers content creators with greater earning potential, while allowing content consumers to be rewarded financially as well, via their engagement and contribution to the social ecosystem. Our soon-to-be integrated ERC20 token will be built on the Base blockchain.

Lyvely sees a lucrative future for the SocialFi space, but we recognize that current SocialFi platforms are limiting their growth potential by focusing too much on decentralization and blockchain infrastructure, and not focusing enough on what users actually want.

Lyvely is a SocialFi platform for the masses. Our tech is built on cloud infrastructure, not blockchain. However, our fintech tools include blockchain based tokenization, which we’ve seamlessly integrated into our platform for a familiar and intuitive user experience. 

Q3. How does Lyvely differentiate itself from traditional social media platforms and other SocialFi platforms?

Big Tech makes money from every single user by selling their data and tracking their every behaviour, yet as a creator or user, you receive nothing but target ads in return. We’ve built Lyvely as a digital HQ for creators and brands, unbound by the restrictions and biassed algorithms of traditional social media platforms. Our key differentiating factor is in our DNA. It’s the reason we exist, which is to help people make money. 

Big tech aside, there are current SocialFi platforms who are promising to help creators monetize more effectively, but the issue is that these platforms are all targeting crypto-native users. They are promoting the benefits of decentralization and DApp tech features, but they are not catering to the needs of the masses. 

Lyvely is flipping the existing narratives, providing the masses with the features they need, in an ecosystem they are familiar with, while subtly implementing DeFi features that everyone benefits from, without disrupting the user experience that people are comfortable with.

Q4. Could you elaborate on the $LVLY token ecosystem and its role in the Lyvely platform? How do you see the $LVLY token evolving?

$LVLY,  will launch towards the end of this year and will power Lyvely’s ecosystem. We are very excited about the token’s extensive utility, which includes a variety of deflationary and value accruing mechanisms. From engage-to-earn opportunities, quests and gamified rewards, to a reduction in fees by using $LVLY for transactions, and even staking and market buybacks, every aspect of our token has been designed to enhance the user experience and earning potential within the platform.

To ensure optimal real world use and value of $LVLY, we’ve partnered with some of the leading FinTech providers to offer digital wallet creation using a social login, as well as on and off ramping of our token directly from the Lyvely platform. This ensures that our non crypto native users can purchase, store and sell $LVLY straight from their Lyvely profile, without having to deal with the unfamiliar user journey of using exchanges or setting up crypto wallets.

Our goal with $LVLY is to introduce millions of Web2 users that were previously uninterested or too intimidated to venture into the crypto world, and empower them to become confident and proficient with the diverse benefits of tokenization. We know that this is the breakthrough that SocialFi needs, and we have the vision and infrastructure to lead this movement. 

Q5. What unseen opportunities do you see in SocialFi for startups, creators, and brands?

For startups building in SocialFi, the opportunity most are missing is building an ecosystem that can attract mass adoption of non-crypto natives while at the same time appealing to crypto natives. This can only be accomplished with a hybrid platform (such as Lyvely is building) and by adapting the narrative to be more inclusive. Web2 and Web3 don’t have to remain separate worlds. The winners in the SocialFi space will seamlessly merge the two types of users, with a combination of narrative, tech and user experience. Such innovations will enable new opportunities for creators and brands alike.

Q6. How does Lyvely enable superior monetization avenues for creators compared to traditional social media platforms?

Credit where it’s due, traditional social media has built the foundation of the creator economy. However, it was never designed to help creators monetize. Less than 3% of full time digital creators are actually able to make decent revenue from their content and digital presence. The other 97% of creators who are trying to make it are competing for attention in a crowded space that favours those who adhere to their algorithmic preferences and content formats. 

Lyvely on the other hand is built for generating revenue from making your network, your net-worth. We are building the platform as a means for creators and service providers across all categories to build their digital presence with an entrepreneurial mindset. We take it one step further with our tokenized ecosystem, providing supporters or followers of these creators with an opportunity to earn from their engagement and contribution to the Lyvely ecosystem as well. In essence, Lyvely aims to create a two-way social model where every digital interaction is rewarded. 

Q7. Can you discuss the impact of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) on the creator economy and how it integrates with Lyvely’s offerings?

I believe that DeFi, via tokenization, has massive potential and a variety of practical use cases for the creator economy. DeFi features enable new monetization opportunities for creators that aren’t possible with fiat payments, such as micropayments, reduced transaction fees and instant settlements. 

We’ve seamlessly integrated our native utility token and crypto payments into the Lyvely experience, without users having to deal with the complexities of purchasing or storing decentralized on-chain assets. We believe that this is the key to mass adoption of DeFi. We’ve put user experience first, allowing our creators and users to interact with an on-chain asset in a way that inspires confidence and removes the steep learning curve associated with other SocialFi platforms.

Q8. How does Lyvely foster community engagement within the Web3 space? What strategies does Lyvely use to bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3 social media experiences?

We’ve taken great care to launch our brand with relevant narrative, UX and USP’s for both Web2 and Web3 users. We spent 2 years building our loyal creator community on Instagram, and have done the same in a totally separate ecosystem on X, where the Web3 community dominates. 

We truly believe that Web2 users and Web3 users have something valuable to offer each other, but the reality is that the two are operating in completely separate worlds, which is detrimental to the overall potential of the creator economy. 

Lyvely’s vision is to be the platform that becomes the launchpad for hundreds of millions of Web2 creators to adopt DeFi, and coexist with the crypto natives (Web3 users) within a single ecosystem. Since our platform is designed for community building, networking and encourages entrepreneurial mindsets, we envision our platform evolving to become a hub for both Web2 and Web3 users to join forces and collaborate, growing together and collectively building the future of SocialFi and the creator economy.

Q9. How important is community feedback in the development and evolution of Lyvely, and how do you incorporate it?

My cofounder and I have always said that our creators and community will build our platform. We’re committed to building the #1 most effective social monetization platform in the world, period. What that looks like will ultimately be shaped by the feedback we receive from our creators and users. In fact our product roadmap has already been greatly influenced by the feedback of our early creators, and we continue to refine and improve our features based on the needs of our community. 

As a founder-led startup, we have the benefit of being able to adapt to feedback as part of our operating procedure. It’s a lot of work, but we know that long term success comes from testing, iterating, and making sure we’re building the product that people need, and that our users are happy. 

Q10. Can you share any upcoming features or partnerships that Lyvely users can look forward to? What do you believe is the most significant impact Lyvely will have on the creator economy?

We have a lot of really exciting partnerships, both established and soon to be made public. Others are in discussions, which range from offers from Tier 1 VC’s for our Series A raise, to collaborations with some of the largest sporting organizations in the world. 

The impact we want to have on the creator economy is that we want to redefine what creator really means. To us, a creator isn’t a title reserved for social media influencers and vloggers. Digital creators are the doctors, lawyers, pilots and other independent professionals that share insights and education online. It’s the digital nomads and entrepreneurs building online courses, teaching people how to upgrade their skillsets, and anyone publishing valuable insights and education or entertainment online. The creator economy is so much bigger than people realize, and Lyvely wants to be the platform that gives millions of people the opportunity to grow and profit from their digital presence.  

Q11. Any final thoughts or messages you’d like to share with our readers about Lyvely or the future of SocialFi?

To anyone building in the SocialFi space, I would say talk to both Web2 users and Web3 users to validate what you’re planning to roll out. Some ideas that we thought were winners in the early days ended up being scrapped because of the feedback we received. Only build what you know people need, and make sure it’s better than what already exists. 

Dave Catudal’s journey from wellness entrepreneur to SocialFi innovator at Lyvely underscores the transformative potential of integrating financial tools into social platforms. By focusing on user-friendly fintech tools and bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3, Lyvely is poised to redefine the creator economy. Dave’s vision of a platform that prioritizes financial wellbeing alongside physical wellness, and his commitment to leveraging blockchain technology for mass adoption, mark a significant shift in how digital creators can monetize their presence. As Lyvely continues to evolve with community feedback and strategic partnerships, it promises to offer unparalleled opportunities for creators, startups, and brands in the burgeoning SocialFi landscape.