Dirk Lueth, Co-Founder of Upland, on the State of the MetaVerse, SuperApps, and Web3 Games

Dirk Lueth, is the Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Uplandme, Inc. Based in Silicon Valley, Dirk is a serial entrepreneur and an early adopter of blockchain and related technologies. In addition to being the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Uplandme, Inc., Dirk co-founded and is chairman of the Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 (OMA3). He is the author of the bestselling book, Navigating the Metaverse: A Guide to Limitless Possibilities in a Web 3.0 World (Wiley, 2022) and the official Metaverse ambassador of the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC).

Previously, Dirk co-founded European and US-based FinTech and digital media companies, including the Financial Times Deutschland and Forbatec, which SunGard acquired (today NYSE:FIS). Dirk mentored over 30 startups through his work at international startup accelerators in Silicon Valley and is a frequent speaker/panelist focusing on topics about the metaverse, blockchain, and platform economics. He studied Business Administration in Frankfurt and Paris and earned a Ph.D. from the European Business School in Germany, where he wrote his doctoral thesis about private and state-controlled currencies.

In this conversation, we discuss:

- In-game currencies & economies
- Upland ‘Cafes’
- Expanding to new cities
- SuperApps
- Web3 gaming
- Navigating the metaverse
- Importance of the community
- Upland’s partnership with FIFA Women’s World Cup
- State of the Metaverse
- Why the future will and most be open