Startup Success and Web 3.0 Insights with Eric McHugh

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the work at home rock star podcast.

We are talking to the president of ShopX Labs. And also he’s got two businesses. He’s also the chief growth officer at Data Inc. And the two businesses, what he does is he helps people to own their own content, which we’ll probably get more into that in the guest solo, what that means.

And also the other one is, the Data Inc is to help find gloves. So, I’m excited to be rocking out today with Eric McHugh. Hey, Eric, you ready to rock?

Eric McHugh: Yes, sir. Tim, really grateful to be here. So thank you very much.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. So we always start off on a good note. So tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by.

Eric McHugh: So in terms of web three, we’ll talk about the ShopX version. So what ShopX is, it’s a way for e commerce brands to enter the web three space. So the way it works, if you’re on Shopify, you want to launch your own NFT collection, you download the app. You can totally do so. So the early company is going extremely well right now.

We’re live on Shopify and WooCommerce and we have the first ever tokenized software license system. So if you’re a brand, you want to enter the space, you want to use shop [00:01:00] X, you have to acquire the right amount of tokenized software licenses, and then you can enter the space, which leads us to our biggest win so far, which happened during the cryptocurrency bear market

So as a company, we have over 600 brands on the wait list. Hundreds of brands are using us. But our biggest client is Fox’s new show Kropopolis. So they’re leveraging our Web3 technology to create a new relationship between the show and the fans. It’s going really well. But the big win was actually was going through the legal framework with their legal teams.

So Fox Studios actually purchased our tokenized software licenses. Which I think will have ripple effects years down the line, because think about it this way, like crypto is new. You don’t really know what they’re doing, especially in that genre, but if, if Fox Studios was able to purchase our licenses, I think that gives a big green flag to plenty of other brands down the line.

And honestly, dude, that was no small task. It took months and just back and forth, but it finally happened.

Tim Melanson: Wow. That’s awesome. Yeah, that’s a big branch. Well done on that for sure. [00:02:00] So, you know, there’s always some mistakes that happen along the way as well, that we can recover from.

And can you share with me something that didn’t go as planned that we can learn from?

Eric McHugh: Like the wins are great. People love the wins. The community loves the wins, but the mistakes are where you learn from. So in my opinion, well, I’m going to be the mistake. So they’re just, everything is a lesson. So I just knew the best lessons and that reframing has helped my mind.

Yes. But in a previous startup, it was called. Art River, Paul, whatever you want to call that. That was going extremely well. And what that did was I replaced affiliate codes for e commerce brands and it create a community of sellers. So like any user on the platform could sell any product on our platform.

So if I had this Nike shoe, if I like this Nike shoe, this Reebok hat, this Adidas shirt, I can add all three to a singular link, and then I could sell that within Instagram within less than four clicks, increasing the conversions. So think of this as just like TikTok shops before TikTok shops, but on Instagram.

So this was a really big learning experience for me too. It’s first off, Instagram didn’t like that. So they kept shutting us [00:03:00] down, which is annoying, but not the mistake. The big mistake was accepting money from the, An investor that didn’t align with what we believed in.

Cause imagine this, you’re like, you’re a startup. you’re going to fundraising, which is rather annoying. And eventually a lot of startups end up taking money from the first person who offers them,

They accept the money. But if you think of the investor as like a partner, so if they don’t align with what you’re doing, it can create some tension. So for example, in our case, the investors like. Do X, Y, Z, get these type of numbers and we’ll introduce you to the rest of our network. But we’re like, okay, getting these type of numbers doesn’t move the business forward in the direction we want to.

So just kind of fizzle it out that way. And then having that much space on your tab table, eating up, kind of like, they’re great. They’re just weren’t great for us type of thing. But having that much space on your tab table, eating up by dead weight, it makes it harder to raise more money. It makes it hard to get talent because that’s 20%.

You could have like, hypothetically, let’s say 20%. I can get a lot of capital. You can bring in a lot of employees with that equities like, Hey, here’s an equity [00:04:00] bonus, but we can’t do it because it just eating it up like a giant way. So that kind of weighed that down.

Tim Melanson: That’s really good advice. And I mean, really, it’s not even just with raising capital.

It’s even just gathering clients. Like there’s some times where you pick up a client cause they have money. That’s about it. They’re not right for you. So what have you like sort of changed anything from that experience? Like, do you do things differently?

Eric McHugh: A hundred percent. If I don’t want to work with them, we’re not working with them.

We wish them the best, It’s a partnership. And the way I look at it is like, let’s go from the client perspective. if you’re serving this one company, this one client, yes, they may have money. Yes, they may be paying you, but you don’t want to do it.

It doesn’t feel right. Then it becomes a black hole. It’s taking your energy and that’s energy could be dumping into the right client. Cause I’ve had all sorts of clients. Some clients are really easy. They’re a joy to work with. And then that just gets more clients.

They refer you. Everything’s good. Whereas some clients are just like a black hole where it’s like, dude, I wish you the best, but this is not working out.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I mean, this happened to me too, where even just the [00:05:00] speed of the work that you’re doing is just so much slower. Right. And I mean, that could be, you could have done three clients in the time that it took you to do one client.

Eric McHugh: It’s draining too. It’s slower. It’s draining. People can pick up on that too.

Tim Melanson: Right on. So let’s talk a little bit about the band and I mean, maybe that kind of comes into the play here.

So who is it that you surround yourself with and how do you find them?

Eric McHugh: Yeah, so in terms of surrounding ourselves, so the band, the company, more person, I believe, and I think this is a general direction that companies are going on going into. I think the large conglomerate corporation of hundreds of employees, I think that’s obsolete.

I think that’s just a burden of resources. I think it’s much like a band. I think the direction we’re moving into is small work pods, working remotely, working on projects that they want to work with. So right now, for both startups, they’re between 5 and 10 each, and there’s a trust factor too. So just like a band, like, in a band, someone’s on vocals, someone’s on drums, someone’s on guitar.

The vocals guy doesn’t tell the guitarist what to do. But maybe sometimes they do, I hear about [00:06:00] vocals, but the guitar doesn’t tell the drums what to do. So in the startup plan, we have like five employees and each run in their own individual lanes. Like someone does sales someone does tech, someone does marketing and they stay in their lanes and they don’t tell each other what to do, but they’re there to support each other.

It’s like our marketing team, they crush it. Our tech team, they crush it. Our sales team, they crush it. And what’s cool is like, for example, if we work on a larger project, like for shop actually recently launched integration with WooCommerce, that’s a big task. Obviously, one person can’t do that. So we placed our CTO in charge of a third party dev studio, and he ensured that got it done, and that’s because the trust factor is there.

So yeah, now in terms of how you find them, honestly, in this level of company, I think for this type of job, you have to attract them. Like, it’s hard to find someone by putting out applications, because if they come to you, they believe in the mission, they want to work with you, they believe in the band.

And then the early stage startups, when no one’s getting paid that much, when hours along things aren’t going right, having that belief is a key. It’s not even [00:07:00] like a bonus. It’s a necessary. Cause again, if someone doesn’t believe in the company, they bring everyone else down and that’s more like a way to.

Tim Melanson: Wow. That’s such great advice. So quickly. I like the idea of people coming to you and you know, that’s just it. you want to work with people that are super excited to work with you and then how excited are they going to be to come into work, right?

Maybe a paycheck because you offered it to them. But if they’re aligned with the mission, well, then it’s something bigger than just money. Right.

Eric McHugh: 100 percent and I’d imagine this works in music too, where it’s like the band’s focused on the one band. That’s probably when they crush it.

Tim Melanson: that’s right.

Eric McHugh: Yeah,

Tim Melanson: I actually, that’s like a really personal story for me with my current band was one of the turning points was when I was just like, you know what? I don’t want. Anybody, unless they’re super excited to be working with me and you know, everything just kind of flipped right around when that was the motivation rather than just, I just want somebody that can play what I want them to play now.

It’s, I just want somebody that really wants to work with me.

Eric McHugh: And it’s because I believe energy is contagious, like negative energy. If [00:08:00] you’re on something negative, it’s kind of sticky. You’re just like, but if someone’s excited, positive, and they come to work. That’s a multiplier effect for everyone in the room.

And that’s how you win. You get that exponential growth. You’re having fun. You’re laughing. You’re doing cool stuff. You’re playing music. You’re building stuff. It’s truly a win win.

Tim Melanson: Yep. The positivity is contagious and also the negativity is contagious. So depending on who you hire, right?

Eric McHugh: So where are you hanging out with? I think that advice applies to pretty much everything in life. No time for negativity here. Wish you the best, but no, no, no time.

Tim Melanson: Yep. And I think that that’s probably one of the hardest things is to recognize it and push it away as quickly as possible. Cause I don’t know what it is.

Maybe it’s like. Programming from society. I don’t know what it is, but we tend to like, it’s like, well, if this squeaky wheel gets the grease, right? Like somebody who’s complaining and who’s always doing that, getting your attention, right?

Eric McHugh: I think it’s push. So I look in terms of everything to me that energy, frequency, vibration.

So if you’re saying, like, I’m sad, I’m angry, I’m joyous, I’m peaceful, you’re emitting a certain frequency, and just like a radio station, that’s what you attract. So if you’re angry all the time, [00:09:00] that’s why you attract angry people. If you’re sad all the time, that’s why you attract sad people. Loving all the time, that’s why you attract loving people.

But as a collective, the areas of vibration where you’re most easily controlled is like when you’re angry, when you’re prideful, when you’re scared, when you’re sad. So that’s why the powers that be are pushing those levels. So if you log into social media, if you look at the news, you’ll see, that’s why they’re pushing that.

And that’s because that’s when they can control people. So I think that’s why they’re flooding our collective consciousness with, that’s why, like, that’s just always being pushed on people. But who knows?

Tim Melanson: I tend to kind of agree with that. And you know, it’s, I noticed that it comes from like all sides too.

Like it doesn’t matter whether you’re left leaning or right leaning. There’s somebody that’s pushing fear at you,

Eric McHugh: right? He was like, Jesus Christ, I’m just trying to work out. You log on Twitter for like, what is this?

Tim Melanson: It’s all social media platforms now, you know, it’s. But I mean, you know, you’re right. And one thing that I did notice too, is that I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this sometimes, like when you’re talking about like [00:10:00] this one particular person, right, and maybe, you know, they’re having some troubles and someone tells you that they’re having troubles and then like, you didn’t mention me to me.

You got that story and I didn’t it’s interesting how some people like what you just say you would sort of attract what you’re feeling So if you’re feeling joy and positivity and you know excitement about what’s going on when you talk to that person They’ll end up kind of talking about that stuff.

But if you’re like upset or some things aren’t going well Well, then you’ll end up talking about that stuff with that person. It’s the same person

Eric McHugh: and it creates like a sort of spiral effect. And then this goes back to the form of banner company, which is why attracting people to positive mindset is so important.

But I think everyone has the same inner purpose and different outer purposes. Our inner purpose is to raise our own level of consciousness, like the vibrational scale. And if I raise my own, it raises those around me and it raises those around them.

And that’s the upward spiral. And that’s why I love going on podcasts so much. Imagine one of your listeners will come in, they’ll leave this podcast, [00:11:00] hopefully a little better. And they’ll spread that love and joy around creating like a positive force in the world, which I think, despite what’s being pushed on the news and everything, I think everyone’s trying their best.

I think most people are good people at heart, but they’re just highlighting like the 1%.

Tim Melanson: Absolutely. It’s, that’s exactly what it is. I think most people are doing their best. And even in the You know, governments, there are also most people I think are probably doing their best and it’s, we’re pointing out the people that aren’t right.

Eric McHugh: It’s like, can be a systematic thing too. they may be doing the best, but they’re within a wheel system. Or they can’t really do anything, but they need the money to survive. So if you’re in the survival mindset, you’re not in the abundance mindset and you’re not really creating to the best of your ability because you’re focusing on surviving.

Tim Melanson: Which lead to, you know, what you talked about earlier about, I think I agree with you that the world is moving towards smaller companies, smaller pods. And I mean, you know, the first step I thought was letting more people work from home. That’s why this podcast was even created in the first place, right?

Cause I, you know, I thought the office and the [00:12:00] cubicle situation was just, it didn’t serve much of a purpose anymore. And I thought that more people would be working from home. And now I think the next level is more people will be self employed. More people will be working in smaller companies with aligned benefits.

Cause even the way that I work with other contractors that are also doing the best they can in their business, right? It’s like when I was first getting into business, people would say, well, when you hire employees, they’re not going to work as hard for your business as you are. Right. And so you kind of go, okay, well, so employees bad.

But contractors. They have a business too, so they can still work for you, but if they’ve got coaches and mentors and they’re, you know, doing the best they can in their business, well, then it’s going to be in their best interest to do the best job they can in your business, right?

Eric McHugh: Yeah, and, the key thing being as everyone has skin in the game, like you obviously want your business to succeed.

It’s all working towards the same goal. You’re on the same team just, and you both want success, which is why it’ll eventually happen. I agree.

Anik Malenfant: [00:13:00] Hi, my name is Annick Malonfant from Mastering Ascension, and I’ve been working with Tim Melanson and the Creative Crew Agency for a number of years now.

Tim is my go to guy for all things technology and his team have helped me to really create the platform that I need that represents my brand, my message and connects me directly to my ideal clients. What I particularly love about Tim is before he starts to dive into the technology, he always makes sure that he understands what your global view is, what your ultimate goals are.

So then that way you’re not wasting a lot of time back and forth. Switching around technology or platforms. He creates something from the get go that is scalable, which is highly, highly, beneficial for any business. What I’ve experienced from Tim and his team is they’re highly responsive. They are a wealth of information and they’re going to offer you the tools that you need to really make the mark that you want to make in the world.

So. That’s my recommendation for Tim. He’s awesome. You’re going to love every [00:14:00] minute. You won’t regret it.

Tim Melanson: So let’s talk a little bit about mentorship Like, do you hire coaches and mentors? Like, do you participate in masterminds? That’s what’s your level on that?

Eric McHugh: Yeah. So I’ve been very blessed in terms of some of the best mentors in the world, just because I think positioning is very important in lifestyle.

I positioned myself very well. I’m also an avid reader. So I consider like people are like, I think like you can read like a book by some of the greatest people in the world and they gave me their information nuggets. I consider mentors as well, but in terms of why mentors, just because of where I am in terms of AI and web three, I’ve been positioned to where I’ve had access to some of the brightest minds that were, was like the Polly Carver of startup, whatever that failed, but it was run out of an incubator.

So an incubator is basically a startup school, where it’s like our desk startup was next to another desk startup, which was next to another desk startup, and the people next to us were liquid death, like when there are two people. So at that point in time, I was young, so I got dinner, coffee with everyone in that office building, asked them what worked [00:15:00] for you, what didn’t work for you, and just absorbed their best nuggets.

And then like. I’m active on LinkedIn. I just try to have conversations with as many people as possible. And my intention is to try to add value. And people are more than happy to share work for them. So I have a pretty good network of mentors.

I’ve never done a mastermind class, but I heard good things about it. I mean, I’ve listened to Tony Robbins spiritual wise. Went pretty hard down the spiritual mentorship, Eckhart Tolle type thing, so that was fun as well, but it all goes back to your diet isn’t just like what you consume, it’s like, you know, if you consume food A, you’ll feel good, consume food B, you’ll feel bad, your thought is also part of your diet, because you’re always getting programmed, so I think mentors, whether you find them online, in person, Over zoom, if you can find the right people to program your mind for the benefit of you and the collective as a whole, I think that’s incredibly important step and how you do this, you just be friendly and reach out.

Both people are down to chat, and if they’re not down to chat, they’re probably a dickhead or busy.

Tim Melanson: They’ll be busy. Let’s go with that one.

Eric McHugh: If they’re not down, they’re not down to chat. They’re not the right person.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Or they’re not right time. Not the right time for you too. [00:16:00] No, I, I totally agree.

And, you know, it’s, It’s one of those things where I think I’m coming up on 300 people now and it’s so many that’s why it’s one of the questions so many people are, you know, get into spirituality. They get into a lot of personal growth. They read a lot. You know, they’re always learning. They’re hiring coaches, you know, and when you go into the sort of the employee area.

You know, if they have to go to a training course for their job, it’s like a big complaining thing, you know, Oh, I got to go and go do this stupid training thing. Like, really? Like we literally do that out of our own pot all the time. Right?

Eric McHugh: Name of the game is self improvement. It’s just better than you were yesterday.

And that has compounding effects too. And then it spreads. if you’re 1 percent better every day for a year, I forget, I don’t know the exact numbers, but I know you’re just way better. And if you do that, like over the years, you have such a far lead. It’s hard for the competition to catch up.

Tim Melanson: Totally agree.

Eric McHugh: That’s all choices too. And I believe you can jump timelines. You can jump to a positive timeline. You can jump to a negative timeline and that’s directly affected by your [00:17:00] choices. If you’re making good choices, you’re meeting the right people. You’re eating right.

Your mind is right. You’ll just compound and further go up. Like things will go better and better for you. Whereas on the flip side, if you’re making the wrong choices every day, things can go spiral pretty fast. And you attract those negative people, which we talked about earlier.

Tim Melanson: And a lot of that comes down to having a little bit more self awareness, I think, too.

And, you know, maybe even tracing things back a little bit to maybe some decisions that you’re not making, but that weren’t the best decisions, right? We tend to blame a lot of things and go like, Oh, this didn’t go well. It’s because that person, but if you trace it back, it was probably because of the choice you made got you into that situation, right?

Eric McHugh: Oh, a hundred percent. And the practice I use. I believe in constant effect. I think everything has a constant effect, and I take accountability for everything in my life. So everything that bad that’s happened to me is like, well, I could have done something different. I learned if I don’t learn that lesson, it’s just going to repeat itself until I eventually learn.

At the same time, I take credit for like things that are positive too, but I also give credit to the universe. I think the universe just has an [00:18:00] overall grand plan for me, and I think everything’s going to work out according to that plan. And maybe something bad happens. That’s all according to the plan. I just can’t see it yet.

But it’s always, I think it’s working for you, not against you.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, and you can see the evidence of that when you talk like, as I, you know, in this podcast, I talk about the bad note, you know, quite often, and it’s really interesting that so many times, including you, the bad note ends up being the good note, you know, something that’s really bad happening to you right now in maybe 10, 5, 10 years, even less time, who knows, you’re going to realize that that actually is a good thing that happened to you.

Eric McHugh: Dude, 100 percent right, like, I think all events are inherently neutral too, so if everything is a neutral, that means everything is inherently meaningless, which isn’t a bad thing, it just means you get to assign the meaning. So again, why? Does it serve you to assign a negative meaning, or does it serve you to assign a positive meaning?

I think positive works every time. I

Tim Melanson: agree.

Eric McHugh: I just, it’s obviously harder to do that in certain situations but like, you can, like.

Tim Melanson: [00:19:00] Yeah, we do have these emotions that come, but I mean, it is funny that I would say that, like, you know, when something really bad or embarrassing happens, eventually you laugh about it.

Yeah, exactly. So, you know, the goal really is to figure out how to laugh about it much sooner. So it’s not 10 years now you’re laughing about something, you’re laughing right now.

Eric McHugh: And the thing is, too, like, our minds work in a funny way, so let’s say something bad happens to you, like, it happens to you, like, in five minutes, and you’re dwelling on it for the next three months, your body is producing different, you’re, so if you’re thinking about it, Your subconscious or your mind doesn’t know that it’s not actually happening and you’re producing the same chemicals you would be doing if that’s exactly what’s happening.

So if your body’s producing the chemicals you would produce under stress, that’s overall terrible for your health. it’s just not good for you and then you attract more of that same behavior type of thing. So it really doesn’t serve you to hold on to. Grudges or anger. just got to let it go.

Tim Melanson: Totally agree. So, do you have any other practices that you do to stay sharp and hone your craft? [00:20:00]

Eric McHugh: Yeah. So, I think I’m always optimizing my life. I think you get. Like when you said awareness, awareness is key. So I’m aware of pretty much everything I do.

It’s like, I’m aware of how I feel. If I talk to someone, I’m aware of what I eat. I’m aware of the content, how it affects me in the world. But in terms of practices, I probably have a slight ADHD. This is why I can do two companies. Call for this business call for this one, tech call for this one, marketing for this one, random customer service call.

So my calendar during the day is a mess. But what’s really helped me is having a set anchor in the morning and a set anchor at night. So my set anchor in the morning as I wake up at 4 20, because I find that funny and meditate for like 20 to 30 minutes. And then I set the intention for that, like, okay, of course, all my calls are going to go well, everything’s going to go well.

I go to the gym, come back, then I do my work throughout the day, and my anchor at night is Muay Thai. So, that keeps me online, because if I mess around and then, like I say, eat, like, a poor lunch, I’m just gonna get hit.

Which is rather unpleasant, and it helps me keep in the present moment, too, because in Muay Thai, like, if I go in thinking about work, which does happen quite [00:21:00] often, actually, well, then I just get hit. I’m like, well, I should probably stop thinking about that. Otherwise, you just keep getting hit.

And then he was like, okay, I need to focus. And then after that, you feel good.

Tim Melanson: That’s really cool. First time I’ve heard of that however, I did have a few friends that used to do blog time back when I lived in Ottawa and it’s brutal. Oh yeah. You can definitely get hit.

Eric McHugh: But the people that are honestly the group of people there, like it’s a good group of people who are there.

Cause. There’s no egos. It’s just that no one even, like, I don’t even know what they do. I don’t know most of their names to be honest, but we just go, everyone’s trying to be better and no one’s trying to hurt each other too. It’s like, okay, well I hit you, but just block it next time.

Otherwise you’re going to get hit again until you block it. It’s like, Oh, good job, dude. You blocked it.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, it’s a great way to focus and live in the moment as well. Cause I mean, if you’re not in the moment, yeah, like you say, bad things are happening. And so it’s kind of like that immediate feedback that you need, right.

To probably the, that probably is something that does go into your daily life as well, that just working that muscle.

Eric McHugh: yeah, being aware of being present. Cause if you think about the present moment, it’s [00:22:00] all we have. Like there’s no real, I mean, obviously plan for the future, but like the future is always going to be in the future.

The only thing you can do is focus on the present moment, make this moment as good as it can and make decisions in the present moment, which is key in a startup where it’s like things are changing constantly.

You have to adapt. You have to adjust. So being present, it’s necessary to be honest.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, and I think the caveat that I’ll say to that one, you hear a lot of that in the other world, we’ll call it where, you know, live for the now and all that stuff. I don’t think that means steal from your future to live today.

Which is I think what people do, right? They’re like, I’m just living in the now and I’m eating this whole, you know, bag of chips and this ice cream. I’m just gonna enjoy myself right now, but you’re stealing from your future if you do it that way, right? It means, it means live in the now.

Make the choices that are going to be good for your future too, right?

Eric McHugh: Exactly, just go on the right lifelines. And on that point, if you go back to energy, frequency, vibration, what you’re doing is when you’re drinking or [00:23:00] eating poorly, you’re taking an energy deposit out. Think of like energy bank for the future.

So you’re taking energy for the future, and you have to pay that back with interest. And that can have a negative compounding effect. So yeah, living in the now doesn’t mean just like, Oh, I’m going to shirk all my responsibilities. I’m just going to eat five tons of ice cream and drink beer all day. No, it does not mean that.

Tim Melanson: And I think part of the awareness is if you decide to do that, be very aware that that’s what you’re deciding to do. Like, you literally are stealing your time from tomorrow to have fun tonight. Because tomorrow morning you’re gonna wake up and you’re not gonna do anything.

Right. And that’s fine if you’re doing it on purpose, right? If you’re like, no, no, this is what I, I’m choosing to do this. Well then, that’s fine, you’re being aware. But I think that we, like, So many people that just sleepwalk through life and they’re making choices that stealing away from tomorrow, and then they’re just going to blame something else.

Eric McHugh: Yeah. It’s like I do. I know it’s going to happen. It’s worth it. What’s dangerous is when bad choices become a habit. And they’re like, they’re not aware they’re unconscious. They’re sleeping.

It’s like the guy, the hanger is like, why am I drinking every day? I don’t [00:24:00] know. I just drink after work. This is just what I do. And it’s like, yeah, the years of that was just bad for you. that’s what meditation really helps to, it helps you unravel. Your bad habits and habits can be very powerful for us.

So if you set up good habits for yourself, that’s been actually beneficial. But if you set up bad habits for yourself, it’s going to just take away from what you need to do.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, totally agree. All right. Well, we gotta get to your guest solo. Oh

Eric McHugh: yeah.

Tim Melanson: Tell me what’s exciting in your business right now.

Eric McHugh: So let’s go with ShopX first. ShopX is the Apple web3 or a easy way for a web2 brand. To download our Shopify WooCommerce app and enter the web through space. Our goal is to onboard as many people into the web through ecosystem as possible. And what’s really exciting right now is the market sentiment and cryptocurrency just turned around because of the business structure.

It’s like, we’re a B2B to C company, meaning we could sign all the brands in the world, but they can’t sell their customers. The product is dead on the water, but because the markets turn around, we’ve had brands, we’ve had investors, we’ve had VC funds. They just started reaching out again.

So that’s the first ever AI powered matchmaking [00:25:00] service. We’re trying to spread as much love as possible. We do this by auto generating profiles based on your digital footprint and creating matches based on their digital footprint.

And hopefully we put our users in the position to succeed. So for example, I get three matches. It’s like, okay, her LinkedIn says she went to a four university. So did you, she’s the youngest corner Facebook. You’re the oldest, our pattern recognition software says that works well. You follow the same people on YouTube.

Oh, did you know you both follows a random artist on Spotify? Oh, did you know this concert is coming up in a month? Would you like me to suggest a date with Jane? The date goes well, we fall in love and then it can function as a relationship Butler after our weightless lunch, February 14th, because it’s Valentine’s day and honestly people are loving it.

Like it’s a cool concept. I think it’s going to just completely eat dating apps lunch because they suck so badly. So yeah, I’m excited for the product launch of that. And yeah, things are going great.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I think a lot of the dating apps are more for hooking up too. Right. And, it seems like this one sounds like it’s more for actual connection.

Eric McHugh: Yeah. So in terms of dating apps, [00:26:00] I love talking to them. the problem with the dating apps are the top 5 percent of users get access to all users on the app, creating a skewed marketplace. The second issue is it’s all physical based, so there’s no real authentic connection. It’s like hot or not.

Tim Melanson: Yep.

Eric McHugh: And the third is the actual incentive structure behind the app. So if you think about it logically, if Tinder were to match a happy couple, that happy couple leaves the app and Tinder loses a paying customer. And it’s a little known fact that most dating apps are owned by match. com. So everyone’s kind of supporting.

It’s a vicious cycle, which dating kind of cuts off.

So Tinder, the longer you’re on the app, the more likely you’d be on the app. With dotting, the longer you’re on the app, the smarter it gets, the better it gets at matching use. Like I could say no, no, no to three people It’s like, okay, this person doesn’t like the person the same.

Let’s try someone opposite. Then I like that person. It learns that. And then it’s kind of tweaks until it gets it right.

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. That’s really cool. And so how do we find out more about both of these companies?

Eric McHugh: Yeah. So if you want to reach out to me personally, I’m trying to help, or you Instagram [00:27:00] DM at Eric D.

McHugh, and we can do that voice chat thingy. If you’re interested in the Web3 e commerce, Which is, it’s a really good time to get into that right now. Just so where the market is shop X. co. So S H O P X. co. And if you’re interested in dotting, which is the first ever AI power Mac service, we’re live in the United States right now, but we’ll expand to Canada very soon that the next country on board.

But yeah, we’re live in the United States. It’d be D A T A I N G dot IO.

Tim Melanson: Well done. Well, this has been a lot of fun rocking out with you today, Eric. Yeah, it was a blast. Thank you very much. And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe, rate, and comment. We’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar podcast.

Intro: Thanks for listening. To learn how you can become a Work at Home Rockstar or become a better one, head on over to WorkAtHomeRockstar. com today.