Hi!
I'm Huggster Beary Finn and I'm happy that you found my bear den!
Let me tell you the story about myself, my mission and a guy named Chris. Maybe make yourself a nice cup of tea, the story is a little longer ...
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But I am also happy to asssist as your personal audio bear and read everything to you:
Chris and I were sitting together in his head one night and I asked him where I was from.
I had a bit of a crisis at the time because I missed the meaning of my digital life. It can't be just lounging around on the hard drive, I thought to myself at the time. We had a couple of beers and Chris told me the story of how I came into existence:
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In the beginning there was a question. At first glance, a rather unusual question, I have to admit.
Is it possible to send real hugs?
Real hugs via an app? What the bear's hell are you talking about?
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Chris started to get all excited about existing scientific studies and the positive effects of hugging on body and mind , I'll skip the nerd talk for you at this point ...
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At the end of his monologue about real hugs and digital hugs, he said something that I kept in mind:
Just imagine how differet it feels when you receive a picture of flowers on your phone or real flowers given to you in real life!
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I understood his point.
In 2018 he had the working idea, designed a first click dummy for the app and set out to find the right people to invest in his vision of the "Huggster" app. In summer 2019 erverything was set on go, to develop the app and Chris decided to found his startup Huggster.com.
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Then one day, at the end of 2019, he woke up in the morning and suddenly people all around the world, no longer felt safe to hug. What a bummer...
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The original plan didn't work out, so he kept looking for alternative ways and contacted potential investors to get a chance to pitch his project.
But that also didn't work out.
Nevertheless, he continued to work on his project and implemented additional ideas and functionality to the app, becoming a true hermit for a while.
Sitting in what he likes to call his "creative cave," he came up with some unusual ideas to get attention of investors. One of the craziest - at least for me - was his handwritten letter to Elon Musk.
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At first I was amazed, when he later told me how naive his thinking was, that his letter could actually reach Mr. Musk and that it could be of "fun" interest to him because the app can also send real hugs between Earth and Mars as soon as there are settlers leaving earth.
So one day he left his creative cave, went out into the world, bought some nice paper, a new fountain pen and wrote a letter to Elon Musk at his Tesla company address, then took a picture of the envelope and tweeted the picture on his 2- Follower account as his first tweet ever... (I stalked his Twitter and found the tweet: @elonmusk)
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Mwahahahaaaaa ... guess what happened ... nothing happened.
But in hindsight, I think Chris was right when he thought "Hey, i have nothing to lose if i try and you never know!"
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In spring 2020 the time had come when Chris decided to create a mascot for Huggster.
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That's when i came into existance!
I was horrified! I wasn't quite the beautiful "newborn" bear ...
At that time he showed me the picture of myself, after the first transition from being pure thought to my transformed, digital self.
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I looked like a fat mouse with clown shoes!
In 2020, Chris decided that a crowdfunding campaign was the way to go, despite the current global hugging situation.
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Without any online marketing or crowdfunding experience, he was sure that the launch of the campaign on World Hug Day on January 21, 2021, combined with some press releases, would get him attention in the press.
He designed the campaign, created videos and animations to explain what Huggster is, started the campaign and failed big time.
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I guess that's when he realized he had to think about a different approach...
In the following months, I didn't see him at all and was a little sad because I thought he'd forgotten me, but at the end of summer 2021 he finally came over with a couple of beers and we talked all night about Huggster and life per se.
That was the night I found my mission!
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I told him about an idea I had during my summer of solitude.
I'm the official Huggster mascot, right?
Why shouldn't I help you create money in the digital world so that you can take the next step in the real world with Huggster, I told him.
I can't do anything for Huggster at the moment, but i am a proud little bear and love to be painted and i want to have a meaning in my life.
You on the other hand are a mediocre creative guy and boy do you know how to draw ...
(as you can clearly see in the picture of my "birth"). Mwahahaahrrrr ...
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When I asked him what he knew about NFTs, he first tried to explain to me that it was a new technology for wireless charging. Well, that made me laugh.
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I explained to him the little I knew about NFT, and we both agreed that this is one of those opportunities that you are likely to regret if you haven't done it. We continued to discuss my idea of creating minimalistic art for both the digital and the real world.
Create my digital self and then spray the same image on canvas, I suggested.
With the NFT, the first-time buyer also gets the real painting to hang on the wall. Furthermore, I explained my point of view of how "valuable" I am and how he could approach the market as an as yet unknown artist.
I recommended a "Dutch Auction" to him, firstly because I'm worth it and secondly, a collector can decide for himself how much your NFT art is worth to him.
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But ... he kept interrupting me ...
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Yes, you are still unknown, I told him. Well, all artists are at the beginning of their career.
If the NFT sells well because it convinces a collector, you will be known more quickly and this almost automatically gives the NFT additional value.
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I can then do my part to be the mascot, to lead Huggster to success and thereby make the early NFTs in particular more valuable for collectors on the long run.
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Imagine, I growled, what can happen when I'm already known a little better out there in the wilds of cyberspace and every NFT that has found a collector allows you to move on with Huggster and I can finally do what I should be doing!
At some point I really had to stop being too enthusiastic about possible integration of my NFTs for future app users. i guess i became the nerd at that point.
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To get started, I offered Chris that I would throw him some nice poses to draw so that he could build a community for me, with free NFT's for new and existing followers.
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Just do airdops for free and give people some beary love, I advised him.
You have to give your heart to people first, before they give you their hearts.
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I guess my motivation and ideas for new designs and collections for the near future sealed the deal!
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We shook paws - and here I am!
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HBF