Paris-Based Web3 Consultant Doors3 Helps Some of The World's Biggest Brands with Blockchain Strategy
While Blockchain Journal has been spending time connecting with some of the biggest consultancies (the so-called "Final Four") to understand how their blockchain practices — typically one of the multiple practice types they operate — can help large brands and enterprises with their blockchain go-to-market strategies, there are also other independent consultancies that are "Web3-native." In other words, 100 percent of their firms' energies are devoted to helping clients with blockchain and Web3 strategy and execution. One such Web3-native consultancy operating out of France is Doors3. In fact, Doors3 claims to be the first of its kind to operate in France.
While attending the NFT.NYC 2023 conference in New York City, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind met with Doors3 co-founder and CEO Karen Jouve to learn more about the global brands the firm is helping and its methodology for helping clients like Groupe Renault, L'Oréal, L'Équipe, and Yves Saint Laurent.
According to Jouve, Doors3 takes a long-term strategic approach that starts with helping them to understand the Web3 ecosystem and related concepts having to do with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies, blockchain, the idea of metaverses and the technological gaps between Web 2.0 and Web3. A journey with Doors3 starts with the development of a strategic vision and goes right through to the deployment of a proof-of-concept and, after that, deployment at scale.
The good news, said Jouve in the interview, is that a lot of brands have already moved past the early days of one-and-done publicity generating air drops and on to an understanding of how blockchain is less about making money and more about building a shared ownership experience (shared between brands and their customers) and a true internet of value. Referring to one of the key use cases, "Loyalty 3.0," Jouve says the next wave of digital transformation involves a reinvention of the way that customers engage brands and vice versa. (The full-text transcript appears below.)
Published:May 5, 2023
9 min read
Audio-Only Podcast
David Berlind's Interview with Karen Jouve, Founder of Doors3
David Berlind: I'm David Berlind. Today is April 12th. This is the Blockchain Journal podcast. I'm coming to you from New York City, where right now NFT New York City, one of the biggest NFT conferences, is taking place. Sitting with me is Karen Jouve. She is the founder of Doors3, a company that helps big enterprises and big brands execute their NFT strategies. Karen, thank you very much for joining me on the Blockchain Journal podcast.
Karen Jouve: Thank you. And nice to meet you here.
Berlind: Yeah, it's very nice to meet you too. Now, have you come here from France?
Jouve: Yes, we've been here from France, and we are really happy to see a lot of people in New York City and all the community of Web3. It's really interesting for us.
Berlind: And so, is the interest in NFTs and blockchain as vibrant in France as it is here in the US?
Jouve: Yes, it is also. And we have also [had] big events like NFT Paris, for example, or Blockchain Week Summit just a few weeks ago. But here it's the United States, so it's pretty much cool and we are really happy to be there.
Berlind: Yeah, there's a lot of cool factor going on around the building here. Maybe I'm not so cool. I'm a little overdressed, but yeah, it's a lot of fun. So, Doors3 helps big brands, [and] enterprises, move forward with their NFT strategy. I'm assuming that some of these companies come to you and don't even know anything and you have to take them from ground zero to whatever it is their strategy is. Why don't you talk me through the process that you go through when you meet up with a brand like that?
Jouve: Yeah, sure. So Doors3 is in France, the first independent consulting company and we work all around the world with major brands and corporations, and yes, executive directors to help them go through the Web3 ecosystem. So we work with them from the strategic vision to the deployment of their projects, which can be NFT projects, crypto, blockchain project, but also Metaverse and gaming experience. And yes, sometimes the first thing is that these brands want to go through Web3 but don't know anything about Web3, don't know the codes, [and] don't know how to go in this ecosystem. So our goal is really to help them first understand this new ecosystem, understand the technological and cultural gap between Web2 and Web3, and all the key strategies and the potential of Web3 for their brand. So, it's our goal and our DNA to help them understand and then build a strong strategy in one, two, or three years with a long-term vision and sustainability and then can deploy with proof of concept and then deploy at scale.
Berlind: Does it take two or three years before you get to proof of concept?
Jouve: No, no, no. We just bring long-term strategy, but we have to quickly have proof of concept and MVP to prove and to test the audience because all brands are not on the same things and do have not the same audience. So, it's important to experiment and test and learn. Doing a first NFT drop, having a first collab with a web-free community, or having a first quick metaverse experience, for example.
Berlind: So, what are the biggest use cases you're seeing so far when you're dealing with your clients? Because you actually mentioned that you go beyond NFTs, you even go into the area of cryptocurrency and stuff like that. So that's a broad range. Primarily though, where you're seeing the most interest?
Jouve: Yes. First I want to say that we are in a good way today because a lot of brands have [to] understand that Web3 is not just a one-shot and it's a long-term vision. So, if yesterday we saw a lot of NFT drops about nothing today, they really want to make Web3 an enabler and accelerator for their strategic vision. So we...
Berlind: The point is we've seen the headlines, and enterprises are starting to get that Web3, NFTs are not just about Bored Apes and JPEGs, it's about other means of stakeholder engagement, customer engagement, [and] employee engagement.
Jouve: Yes. And most of ours is not just for making money, but it's to build a real ownership experience and true internet of value. It's really the next wave for corporate brands to go through the digital transformation...
Berlind: And ownership experience. When you say ownership, ownership of what?
Jouve: Ownership for brands and ownership for customers. We are reinventing the way that we consume data. So in the CRM strategy, for example, with the loyalty 3.0 strategy, like Nike Swoosh or Starbucks. We are reinventing the way that customers and brands are doing together something. And what we see, for your question, what we see today about measure use cases are first, yes, membership and royalty 3.0, how to make the CRM better tomorrow. Second, we see the digital twin. Digital twins and phygital are really a good way for traditional brands to enter the Web3 ecosystems.
Berlind: For the people who are watching this and don't know what a digital twin is or phygital. You probably have this conversation all the time with the companies that you visit, like, "What's that full stop?" What's phygital? What's a digital twin, and is there a difference between the two?
Jouve: Oh, phygital is just the way to have digital and phygital experience at the same time. And so digital twin is like a digital asset that represents a physical object. For example, your suit could be also wearable in the metaverse and could be a digital twin, but we can also have digital twin in [the] industrial sector. For example, automotive. We work and we combine major automotive brands like Opumo Group.
Berlind: Oh, so you're working with Renault?
Jouve: Yes. And digital twin in the industrial sector is really interesting because it's about Web3, but not at all. It's also about IoT and AI and this is our conviction also that Web3 is a way to have a lot of technologies and maturity technologies.
Berlind: Going back to what you're saying about how you engage with customers, what the customer owns, what the company owns. I've heard multiple times at this event already that NFTs are the new cookie, right? It's the new way to stay connected to your audience. That's what cookies traditionally were used for is maintaining a session or something like that in on a website. There's also, especially in Europe, I'm sure you're familiar with the privacy laws, which are far more aggressive in Europe than they are in the US currently. That could change. The US may catch up. Who knows? Is there any threat of the regulators in Europe taking a closer look at this technology and also putting the kibosh on any innovation there?
Jouve: Yes, we have a lot of discussion around the regulators and legal, and actually, in France and Europe, we are professional to make loud and not allow innovation to better develop.
Berlind: You're professionals at making laws that stifle innovation.
Jouve: Yes. But it's also a good way to regulate this ecosystem because we have to. It's a new ecosystem also, with not so many rules. So our vision is that legal has to be an enabler also to the Web3 ecosystem. And we can also see that in a positive way. We can make some IP strategies, for example, Bored Ape for example or Adzuki are showing that. And I think, for one point, it's interesting to have legal and regulatory rules around the Web3 ecosystem and not to be far west. But also in another point to take part of these legal rules and to take advantage of brands around, for example, IP. But not only this point. And what's really interesting [is] that you say the NFT is like a cookie...
Berlind: Is it? Is it the new cookie?
Jouve: Oh, I think yes or no, but I think what is interesting, yes, is how NFT are a new tool and a new enabler for customers and for brands because...
Berlind: Also, how does an... Compared to a cookie, which is something that if you went to a website, that website would deliver a cookie into your browser, and it would sit there, and Lord knows what it would do, but you had no control over it as a user other than removing it. You could do that, but there was no ownership of it; it wasn't like an interactive piece of technology. So how do NFTs take the place of the cookie, and what capability does it provide to both the business and the consumer?
Jouve: The main difference is that when you have NFT, you have the ownership and this is the main difference.
Berlind: You being the consumer side.
Jouve: Yes, the consumer, and first, the brand that leads the NFT. But for the consumer, it's really interesting because in Web2, we did not have that. We just sell our data.
Berlind: And what information, when a brand delivers an NFT to one of its customers, what information gets exchanged over the long run across that NFT? As long as the customer is holding that NFT, I'm assuming the implication is there's a technological relationship of what they say is an intimate relationship. So what information can the brand get, and what control does the consumer have?
Jouve: What is interesting from the brand point of view is that they can have a lot of information about [the] community, about preferences of the consumer, and also can co-create with the consumer. That is really the main difference between what we can do today in the Web2 ecosystem. And for the consumer, it depends on the NFT because some NFTs are really ownership, and other NFTs are not really, because it's so much Web 2.5 and not really Web3 because we are also in a long way in this transformation. But for the consumer, it's also interesting to co-create with the brand to give their opinion and, yes, to try to be [an] actor and not just [a] consumer.
Berlind: You mentioned Renault as being one of the brands that you work with. Are there some other brands you can tell us about?
Jouve: Yes. We work also in the luxury sector. So we help, for example, L'Oréal group and Yves Saint Laurent Beauty. They launch...
Berlind: Those are big names. You said L'Oréal and Yves Saint Laurent — okay.
Jouve: They launched a few NFT drops, and it's also all about community and loyalty programs. In other sectors, like financial services, we work with AXA, which is the major insurance group in France and all around the world. We work with them on a metaverse experience in a cool way. We work with Royal Canin, which is a pet care renowned in France and also all around the world.
Berlind: You can have an NFT for your pet?
Jouve: I can't tell you what we are doing, but it's a Metaverse experience also. And we help the famous Ballon d'Or, I'm sure the Ballon d'Or in the soccer world. We help them go through the Web3 ecosystem and we did the first world during a ceremony because we give a digital twin NFT for all the Laureates that have the trophies. So it was really cool. And yes, we work with a lot of sports brands, entertainment, financial services, [an] automotive brand, and also [the] industrial actor.
Berlind: Wow. So you're very busy. Well, congratulations on all the things of that success. Hope you have a great rest of the event. And Karen Jouve, founder of Doors3, thank you very much for joining us on the Blockchain Journal podcast.
Jouve: Thank you, and see you soon in France or in [the] United States.
Berlind: For sure.