Women X Meta is the family run Web3 multigenerational company with a mission to propel women into the bold new frontiers of Web3 and the metaverse. SoVonna Day-Goins is the founder with a wide smile, charming personality and self-described Curator of Genius who stands at the helm of this venture.
“It began with my daughter telling me about teaching kids in the metaverse and how excited she was about it,” she says.
Something clicked almost immediately for Ms. Day-Goins, a successful former investment banker who aims, with her two daughters, to change the face of Web3 especially for women of color. How will they do this?
By taking a multigenerational approach to launching the Women X Meta brand, with the Ethereum based NFT drop Bad Bitches as their inaugural project. Bad Bitches is the team’s initial collection that will provide utility for the Women X Meta platform. The NFT’s are designed upon the Goins’ family poodle and resident muse, Fonda, and are comprised of a set of 2,022 tokens with 312 unique traits, as well as a special VIP set of 12 one-of-a-kind. The mom shares on having family members as fellow founders.
“It was illuminating,” SoVonna laughs, “moving into a business role with my daughters.” The traditional roles, which transformed from mother/daughter to co-founders was inspiring, she relates, because she learned a new way to interact with her children.
“Most of Web3 is targeted to men 18 to 35,” the former banker notes.
Because Web3 started in the gaming industry with virtual reality ties, the industry retains deep roots in that area. Her view is it could be very exciting to have voices from all ages obtain the ability to design creations that are responsive to everyone, including older people. “I wanted to impact all generations,” she continues, “including building legacy and generational wealth for your children.”
SoVonna Day-Goins certainly has the track record to walk the talk. Her stellar background spans three decades on Wall Street specializing in debt capital markets and acquisition bridge finance. Her experience means she has a solid grasp of moving and shifting landscapes.
“I spent a lot of time advocating on social justice issues as it relates to the workplace, as well as in my other philanthropic work.”
As a true DEI believer, Ms. Day-Goins was always focused on trying to democratize spaces she was in. However, after decades in the trenches, she found it difficult to shift existing structures and change narratives embedded in staid, often inflexible institutions. She therefore made the difficult decision to step away. By this time her older daughter Krishawna Goins, a grade school teacher, was participating in technology workshops geared to kids. It was at one of these Ed-tech conferences that Krishawna came to learn about teaching kids in and about the metaverse, how to develop labs with e-sports and how to develop other forms of learning involving games. Such games included Roblox and Minecraft, which are particularly popular with Gen Alpha. SoVonna delved deeper into this, and was excited by what she found.
“It clicked for me right away,” SoVonna says, her eyes gleaming. “I saw it as the democratized space I’d always been looking for, because it allowed for the removal of some barriers to access. I feel it’s a wonderful way to onboard women and people of color, connect that with Ed-tech and community to get people of all ages involved.”
SoVonna’s Gen Z daughter Kayla agrees. Because Web3 is primarily a culture- driven industry designed by creators mainly from her generation, Kayla felt it made sense for her to get involved. In this way, she could help to move systems that would otherwise have higher barriers of entry.
On choosing their dog as the NFT muse, the family says the decision came naturally.
Fonda is a rare Blue Merle Miniature poodle, with a personality as colorful as the coat she wears. Fonda, SoVonna notes, is the bright light with the blue coat that appeared during Covid. As the pandemic reached its heights and with the months of lockdown grinding on, Kayla, now 19, was powering through her senior year of high school. Despite doing the right thing, staying safe and being responsible, the teenager still found herself feeling lonely and out of sorts. The family felt that it would be a good idea having the dog to care for while sheltering in place. From a mental health perspective, Ms. Day-Goins knew caring for another being would be helpful to her daughter. After some research, the family came across the unique blue dog with the perfect temperament. The perky new addition added just the right element and extra layer of happiness and dimension to their lives that they didn’t even know they needed. Kayla opted to name the poodle after the actress Jane Fonda because she admires how the activist and performer has always cared about social issues.
“Fonda,” SoVonna laughs, “is a bad bitch in her own right as a female dog who is fierce, strong willed and knows what she wants, which represents bad bitches all over the world.”
On choosing the name Bad Bitches for their NFT project, Ms. Day-Goins says it was a play on their female poodle Fonda, as well as the reference to strong women who get results.
She continues, “Bad Bitches is the edgy title that means you get things done. Women are often doing a lot of work and not being well paid or acknowledged for their contributions. Women can be liberated to own the power they have.”
How has the project affected the family?
Overall, it has had a positive impact and brought everyone closer together, including Kris, SoVonna’s husband who has always played a supportive role throughout her career. The Goins family is very vested in how this project can transform lives by having a direct impact on women and other people of color. They feel it carries a rare opportunity to have a truly impactful way of changing things for women by putting a stake in the ground in this new industry. This means so much more to a family with three empowered black women. For them, it has been truly engaging experience and they are enjoying meeting the community of Web3 women, learning, talking about things that are changing in the world, having fun, and creating brand new entities in a stimulating environment.
Article written by Julie Obaso for Medium.com
(https://medium.com/@NFTCOFFEETIME/meet-women-x-meta-propelling-all-women-into-the-metaverse-5aaa27b14725)