Leading the Best Business-Development Team in Web3

If you’ve spent any time on Crypto Twitter this year, it’s likely you’ve seen tweets and memes raving about Polygon Studio’s business-development (BD) team, and rightfully so.

Under the leadership of CEO Ryan Wyatt, Polygon’s BD team has managed to land partnerships with seemingly every major brand that is entering the Web3 space, including Nike, Starbucks, Reddit, Meta and Robinhood. Prior to joining Polygon in February earlier this year, Ryan served as Youtube’s head of gaming where he built the division from the ground up over seven years. At Polygon Studios, Ryan quickly assembled an experienced business development team that have held senior level roles at some of the world’s biggest companies including Amazon, Oracle, Apple and Electronic Arts.

Given all of their partnerships with top retail brands, Polygon’s BD team is starting to drive mainstream adoption of Web3, something that many Web3 protocols have aimed to do but have so far failed to achieve.

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As of this week Polygon has 196 million unique wallet addresses compared to Ethereum’s 214 million. Since Oct. 4, when CoinDesk reported that Polygon briefly overtook Ethereum in terms of daily active wallet addresses, Polygon has been able to grow their number of unique wallet addresses at a much faster rate than Ethereum, with Polygon adding 24 million wallet addresses in that time compared to the 8 million addresses added to Ethereum. And that is post-Merge.

This growth could be attributed to numerous key partnerships getting announced in the past few months, including Reddit launching NFTs on Polygon and Robinhood selecting Polygon as the network of choice for launching a beta version of their Web3 wallet. Polygon has also recently announced significant partnerships with Nike and Starbucks that, once launched, will likely continue their growth trajectory of onboarding millions into Web3.

Nike’s .Swoosh project is a Web3-enabled platform that will utilize the Polygon blockchain in order to create a new, inclusive digital community that will allow members to learn about, collect and eventually help co-create virtual objects such as shoes or jerseys. Currently in beta, people can register for a waitlist to join .Swoosh. Nike plans to launch the first digital collection in 2023.

Starbucks Odyssey integrates NFTs with the world’s most successful loyalty program, Starbucks Rewards, which counts 60 million members globally. Members will have the ability to earn and buy digital collectible stamps that will unlock access to new, immersive coffee experiences. The stamps or NFTs will be on the Polygon blockchain. Starbucks has opened a waitlist, and the Odyssey is expected to launch by the end of the year.

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Two of the biggest brands in the world chose to build on Polygon to power the next iteration of their consumer experiences. That’s a big deal for Polygon but it has the potential to be a seminal moment for wider adoption of Web3.