An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
I have one story: “Dream big.” It may sound cliché, but if you do not dare to dream, you are NGMI (short for the Web3 term “never gonna make it”). Two years ago, we were struggling financially after moving to Singapore without a stable income. One thing my husband and I did was spend a day writing down our life goals on a vision board. We were joking that anyone who saw it would think we were crazy. But after one year, we made a major financial breakthrough.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cindy Jin.
Cindy Jin, Co-Founder of Metapoly, is a female entrepreneur who is passionate about NFTs and the Metaverse. Before co-founding Metapoly, she launched Mintology Studio, her own startup in the NFT space. Prior to that, Cindy worked as a commercial lead in e-commerce and digital marketing corporations, including IPG and the Lane Crawford Joyce Group. She has been involved in crypto investment personally since 2017.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Before starting my adventures in cryptocurrency, I was a corporate professional working in fashion, e-commerce, and digital marketing for over a decade.
In my journey, I had two major shifts in career focus. The first one happened after I worked in fashion procurement and supply chain management for about 10 years. I worked for brands like Forever21 and was in charge of their supply chain in China. While I am still very passionate about the fashion industry, I started to realize that the industry is downsizing in China, and the majority of production is moving to the SEA region, where manpower is generally cheaper. I found myself at a crossroads, considering a change in careers at the cost of sacrificing 10 years of work experience. I struggled for some time, but was lucky enough to secure a role as business development manager in a startup e-commerce company.
The e-commerce industry at that point was booming in China, so I was happy that it put me in a good position. Unfortunately, the startup company did not survive after three years, so I was let go. By then, I was 35 years old, and I still remember when I got a chance to be interviewed by one of the giant e-commerce companies, only to find out that there is an unspoken rule about age and gender bias in those companies. Once again, I was at a crossroads.
I’m very grateful to have my inspiration and motivation by my side throughout all this, which is my crazy entrepreneur husband and life partner. He is the reason I was introduced to the cryptocurrency space. After living in Shanghai for over a decade, we decided to move to Singapore to pursue his cryptocurrency startup.
I never really pursued my own career in cryptocurrency until late-2021, when NFTs started to gain a lot of traction in the mainstream. I quit my job as a commercial lead in a leading e-commerce enabler company in Singapore, and created my own startup, called Mintology Studio, which is an NFT agency and studio that helps to advise and launch NFT projects. When the Metaverse became a lucrative topic because of Facebook’s name change to Meta in November 2021, that’s when my partner and I came across the idea of Metapoly, with the goal of democratizing Metaverse land ownership for ordinary people.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Our work at Metapoly is disruptive as well as experiential, as people are only starting to get a grip on what the Metaverse means now, even though they have seen it played out to some degree in fiction. I do believe that if we are able to achieve our vision successfully — which is to democratize Metaverse land ownership and unify different Metaverses through an asset-backed stable coin (imagine USD in the real world, but for the Metaverse) — that would be disruptive!
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I’m very lucky in this sense, because my family and friends are open-minded and supportive of my startup mission. Especially my husband, who I consider to be my mentor. In a way, we were both failed by the overarching economic system, which pushed us to relook at our lives and career choices, and we were lucky enough to break away from it. I still remember when we had just moved to Singapore in our late 30s: we barely had any savings, but my husband was crazy enough to pursue his startup even after a few failures. His determination and persistence influences me a lot, and I finally decided to step out, although in my heart, I knew for a long time that this was the right step to make. Sometimes you just need someone to push you at the right moment.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
My view on disruption is that it is good, because that’s how mankind has been evolving and moving forward. Although people may be scared about what moving everything online to a virtual space can mean, younger generations are embracing this, and we should be open-minded to the concept of the Metaverse. While many people view Metaverses and NFTs in a negative light, it may be the ideal space for people who are disenfranchised in the real world to empower themselves.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
I have one story: “Dream big.” It may sound cliché, but if you do not dare to dream, you are NGMI (short for the Web3 term “never gonna make it”). Two years ago, we were struggling financially after moving to Singapore without a stable income. One thing my husband and I did was spend a day writing down our life goals on a vision board. We were joking that anyone who saw it would think we were crazy. But after one year, we made a major financial breakthrough.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Aside from our startup project, making a positive impact socially and being able to encourage and inspire more people would be a great personal achievement.
For example, we are planning to work on a move-to-earn platform, where we are encouraging energy saving by rewarding the users with usable tokens. By doing so, we are hoping to accelerate the mass adoption of whole cryptocurrency and blockchain industries by the general public.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
In the traditional world, women are usually more conservative, and any female disruptors will be typically more challenged on their authority and capability. But Web3 is changing these aspects, which is also why the Web3 and Metaverse spaces really fascinate me. You can be anyone in the Metaverse, and the boundaries between genders are becoming blurry and irrelevant. We are already seeing more women step up to pursue their career in these spaces.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
People now are too busy or too numbed by their general circumstances to really put a pause on whatever they are doing in order to take the time to reflect and make proactive changes. I would encourage everyone to spend some time with yourself or your loved ones, and make little changes to address the things you are unhappy about. This is the advice I give to myself, too!
Can you please give us your favourite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Life is about change. Sometimes it’s painful. Sometimes it’s beautiful. But most of the time, it’s both.”
Change can be uncomfortable and make you feel insecure. That’s why stepping out of your comfort zone is always tough. But I’m so thankful that I made those tough choices in my career that put me in my current position.
I was reading some media reports regarding the employment situation in China, and maybe this will resonate with people worldwide. In general, it’s very tough for people above 35 to find a job due to the lack of new skills for thrilling new industries. It’s a tough lesson, but an invaluable one: If we are not ready to embrace the rapid changes that are happening to the world around us, we will be left behind.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can find me on Twitter: @cindyjinll and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindy-jin-79914741/
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this!
Female Disruptors: Cindy Jin of Metapoly On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.