Startups vs Hype: VeVe's Real Web3 Business
Mark Pavlyukovskyy and Hendrik Remigereau host TechMates, the NZVC podcast. The guest on this episode is David Yu, Founder and CEO of VeVe, and it went out on 25 August 2025.
David Yu grew up in Taipei, moved to Auckland, and turned a teenage collecting habit into a retail chain, a licensing career, and VeVe, the digital collectibles platform behind 3D and AR drops from Marvel, DC, Disney, and car brands. He shares the numbers, around 600,000 funded accounts and roughly $1.5B in secondary GMV, and explains how he pitched licensors when NFTs sounded like a scam. The episode also covers VVverse and a creator economy built on fandom and AI.
- From Taipei to New Zealand: retail, licensing, and the VeVe founder journey.
- Frictionless onboarding and why Web3 UX has to feel like Web2.
- Pitching Disney, Marvel, and DC when NFTs sounded like a scam.
- VVverse and the rise of creator-built shops, galleries, and car dealers.
VeVe, digital collectibles, NFTs, Web3, licensing, augmented reality, creator economy