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Making a Social Impact in Web3 with Sam Wellalage
21 Plays1 year ago
Sam Wellalage is a global Web 3 / Metaverse Recruitment leader.
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Transcript
Introduction of Guest & Background
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome to the Laughing Otter, where we're making the world a happier place, one person at a time. I'm your host, Jeff Bogginsburger. And luckily there are others out there that share our vision and who are doing amazing things to help this vision progress. Today we have Sam Welalage, who like the Laughing Otter is leveraging all of the exciting things that are happening around web3, blockchains and the growing metaverse to make an impact on the lives of children.
00:00:36
Speaker
He is a director at Work and Crypto Global and the founder of Untapped Futures, which is helping underprivileged kids get a fair start in life. Welcome, Sam, and how are you doing?
Entering the Crypto World
00:00:48
Speaker
Great, thanks for having me, Jeff. Yeah, lovely to be here. We are doing great, enjoying the sunshine in the UK, almost going to be 40 degrees today. So yeah, thanks for inviting me to your show.
00:01:04
Speaker
That's fantastic. I think the UK weather knew that we were going to be talking today and decided to shine some sun down on us. Now, maybe you can give us a little bit of background of where you started, how you got into crypto. And then I'd love to hear more about untapped futures and how it got started because that's really in line with
00:01:33
Speaker
why the laughing otter got moving. Right, yeah, of course, of course. So I was born in Sri Lanka and I used to be a professional athlete playing badminton and age of 19, I was the national number one in badminton and I was traveling throughout Asia and stuff like that.
Mission for Children's Welfare
00:01:58
Speaker
But I quit all that and then moved to the UK
00:02:03
Speaker
because basically I always want to live in the UK and then I did my undergraduate in human resources and then I also did my master's in international business and then I moved to recruitment. The main reason for that is I wanted to find something that keep me on my toes and working with
00:02:23
Speaker
recruitment is all about working with human beings so
Crypto Community's Social Impact
00:02:27
Speaker
it all doesn't matter how much experience you have you're still going to learn things day in day out because you know every human being that you work with this is different and I got into crypto in 2019 through an introduction where there was a this
00:02:45
Speaker
billionaire asset manager wanted to build a huge crypto platform from scratch and through that I got introduced to that and we helped them to build a 100 plus team mainly in the UK but in Australia as well and since then I've been in crypto which I think is a great place to be in before that I used to working in FinTech and places like that compared to that I think crypto is such a
00:03:14
Speaker
I would say such an inclusive community. Everyone wants to help each other along the way. And I felt that that's a really good attraction point for me to stay in the industry. So yeah, so I started in 2019. Now we are coming to 10 people in the company.
00:03:38
Speaker
And like you said, with regards to the untapped future, this has been a lifelong dream of mine.
Changing Crypto's Image
00:03:50
Speaker
Because when I was 16, maybe between 16 to 19 years old, I was living in Sri Lanka, I realized that there are lots of children with huge potential.
00:04:06
Speaker
but yet they don't get the opportunity. It's a personal experience for me as well because I'm not coming from any privileged background and we are just middle-class people. And I really wanted to do really well in sport. However, there was so much constraint, financial, equally the expectations because living in a country like Sri Lanka, which is a third world country,
00:04:33
Speaker
The expectation is, doesn't matter how good you are in sport or any other thing, you have to study because that's the only way that you're going to find a job and then make a living, right? So I felt like there's unfulfilled potential that I could have achieved, maybe perhaps, you know, become Olympic champion or whichever it is. And so when I was like 16 years old, I realized that
00:04:58
Speaker
If one day I can make it, I want to help starting with my own country, the children in my country, and then expand it to Southeast Asia and make this a huge charity where the profit that we make, so 10% of the profit that we make from working crypto goes directly to the charity which I set up.
Personal Experiences & Aspirations
00:05:22
Speaker
So this is a huge passion for me to see
00:05:28
Speaker
to bring opportunities for children, otherwise who doesn't have that and children who might not have even seen what are the other opportunities they have apart from the little villages they live in. And basically it's also about opening eyes for these children so that the world can become a better place. And I think it's very important we start with the children because they're gonna be our next generation. And if we can shape
00:05:57
Speaker
how they think, how they do things, I think the world will be a better place. So that's the inspiration for me to, for behind it. And the idea, so we are very clear on what's the objective of this charity is basically,
00:06:16
Speaker
we trying to identify children who are coming from underprivileged background but either they are really really good from my educational point of view or they are really good at sport starting with badminton because that's where I got lots of connections but those are the two and then when I say education what I mean by that is we identify children and then we help them to
00:06:44
Speaker
getting to a perhaps a new international school or something like that and then with the idea that they will be able to one day be educated in Oxford, Cambridge and any other you know very well known highly ranked universities and I think that will also bring for a country like Sri Lanka especially with things going on right now in the country with the total economic collapse
00:07:07
Speaker
I think if we be able to in 20 years time, we see that a bunch of people graduate from Oxford or wherever it is and bringing back something to the country that would be great.
00:07:22
Speaker
my dream is to have some Olympic champions from a country as Sri Lanka.
Impactful Individual Contributions
00:07:27
Speaker
Of course, cricket is doing great. I don't think much help needed on that, but I'm looking at other minors for that people from that country is really talented. And then once I go through, I'm also looking for partnership with other people in other countries, how we can identify children with that sort of nature.
00:07:51
Speaker
to build that tone. So that's the idea behind it. And yeah, I'm really excited about that and see what the future brings. Yeah, that's fantastic. And it's very much in line with what the Laughing Otter is all about. You mentioned something at the beginning that really was a surprise to me
00:08:19
Speaker
because I came from the outside into Web3. And you mentioned how everybody within this space wants to help each other. And I was blown away with how cooperative everybody who's in the crypto space, Web3, blockchain, all those areas, how helpful they are with sharing knowledge, ideas and
00:08:49
Speaker
there's this undercurrent of passion that believes that this space can make a difference in the world. How are you finding outside of your own organization, how are you finding people that you're engaging with, how passionate are you finding them with this idea of helping children and just making a difference in the world?
00:09:17
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, great question. So, I mean, one of the things that I thought like, you know, sometimes
00:09:23
Speaker
First of all, I think the crypto blockchain, all the sub sub sectors, it's a much more open space compared to maybe perhaps some like FinTech perhaps, right? I find that
Expansion & Future Plans
00:09:37
Speaker
people want to really help each other because still I think it's a smaller community. And so I think there's more interactions time to time with people that may have spoken
00:09:53
Speaker
a couple of months ago, a year ago, something like that, because it's a smaller community. And it kind of makes sense for everyone to work together. And also, I think how crypto and that whole ecosystem is perceived by the other industries, as well as people maybe want to work in the industry. So I think if we all have a collective responsibility to make it a very open environment,
00:10:23
Speaker
um and with regards to the the the um charity side right because I thought I didn't I didn't find a lot of um organizations who are who are really um
00:10:37
Speaker
looking into how we can help a wider society via Web3. And this is one of the reasons as well why I want to specifically move profit from our Web3 company to the wider society because I want everyone to know that
00:11:02
Speaker
Web 3 is not just about the new age of technology or way to make money, but it also has another side of it. So I hope that there are many more companies will follow in what I'm doing. And so we'll have a better reputation in a way, even considering all things happening in crypto. I think that's my take on it.
00:11:30
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. All of us who are using this new technology to make a difference, we need to stand loud and proud to overcome the negative stigma that the media tries to paint, that it's all just a bunch of greedy speculators or scam artists who are just going to take your money.
00:11:59
Speaker
That's not really the case. There's a lot of really great projects out there that are using crypto, NFTs, that sort of thing for good and really making a difference. And the more that we all stand together and unite and work together, then it's going to really
Social Responsibility in Web3
00:12:22
Speaker
improve the overall reputation of everybody in this space. Yeah.
00:12:29
Speaker
And there's so much, just like you said, great projects, great infrastructure projects. Even today, when we speak to some candidates in maybe traditional areas like marketing or places like that, and we're trying to bring people from non-crypto back down to crypto,
00:12:52
Speaker
They still think about crypto when they think about Bitcoin. And that's all they think about. But actually, if you look deeper into the ecosystem, there are so many great projects, infrastructure projects, DAOs, and all sorts of things are building right now. And I think it's going to be such an amazing space to be in. And it's only going to start at obviously, there's obviously a bear market at the moment, but I think
00:13:20
Speaker
it'll probably be passed in about in a few months time and we'll see more and more better quality things will be built as well. That's my opinion. Yeah, I'm in agreement. I think this bear market is actually a blessing in disguise because what it's going to do is it's going to cull out a lot of the scams and projects that have no real utility or value and it's going to allow those projects that are strong
00:13:50
Speaker
and delivering real world results to gain more momentum and more visibility. So I think it's, and it's not gonna last for very long. This space moves so fast, it's gonna bounce back. My prediction is well before Christmas.
00:14:10
Speaker
And you know, we are seeing that right straight away in hiring, right? The companies are doing really well and they have a clear business plan, they're adding value to their consumers, are still hiring.
00:14:26
Speaker
Whereas some startups, maybe it doesn't have the clear objective or some of these companies are not seeing enough traction. So they stopped hiring. So I see that right in front, straight away in hiring, which is an interesting thing to see. Yeah. And I guess that's another silver lining is that because people who are really talented in this space
00:14:56
Speaker
are relatively scarce. They're now moving to projects that are solid backed by solid business principles and solid founders. So that's great as well. I've also seen a lot of the projects that are really getting momentum have a social impact
00:15:25
Speaker
component attached to them, much like yourself. So that's really exciting as well. And also, if you look at a company like FTX, where Sam was a founder, is doing great things, right? He's donating a lot of money.
00:15:43
Speaker
So certain things and that's a great thing to watch, right? That's the industry leader in our industry and doing great things for the community as well as the outside of crypto community, which I think is a great example as well. Fantastic. So what with untapped futures, do you have any
00:16:09
Speaker
any stories you'd like to tell of some successes, anything along those lines, some kids that you've helped that you'd like to share?
00:16:21
Speaker
So we at the stage right now is identifying children in Sri Lanka. And what we are doing is we only got started very recently. And what we are doing right now is we are going to schools individually and mainly rural school, which is outside of Colombo. And we are trying to identify children who are good at
00:16:49
Speaker
good at education. That's actually a really, because we are still a small fund, it's funded purely by my business. We only get only a handful of children at a time. And the good thing in Sri Lanka is education is cheaper and it doesn't cost as much in terms of playing sports and stuff like that. So that's a good thing.
00:17:19
Speaker
So at the moment we are trying to identify the right type of individuals because what we don't want to do is to sponsor someone and then stop middle way through. Although it's sometimes very difficult to predict how everything is going to turn out.
00:17:37
Speaker
But it's about taking time to identify these children from this background. That's taking a lot of time at the moment. And to be fair with what's happening in Sri Lanka right now, some of these things we cannot do.
Empowerment Through Web3
00:17:55
Speaker
Hopefully, once Sri Lanka has come back to normal, I hope within the next couple of months or so, we can go back to resume doing these selection activities. So that's where we are at the moment.
00:18:07
Speaker
And I think, you know, considering where I come from, it's just not me that there are lots of my friends who grew up with me, who also had had a difficult time, right, doing sports or education or whichever it is. So there is a huge community that needs to be looked after. And I'm really, really excited about that. And I think you touched on one thing that's
00:18:36
Speaker
that excites me about this Web3 space is you talked about how you're a relatively small fund at the moment, and I'm sure that'll grow, but the beauty of this Web3 space is it allows individuals to make small impacts. And if you look throughout history, most of the change, if not all of the change that's happened in this world has been a result of
00:19:03
Speaker
individuals doing little things that all of a sudden became big things. It's never been a top down initiative from the policymakers and leaders. It always comes from individuals doing little things. And I see that all the time in web three, where little projects are making an impact on this, on the world, whether it's with helping children,
00:19:33
Speaker
uh, helping mental health, supporting the arts, climate change and the environment, all of those things. Uh, but they're not necessarily great big media grabbing, um, events. It's just little projects that collectively are actually making a huge difference. So yeah, that's, that's fantastic. Yeah.
00:20:00
Speaker
And you know, I think it's as long as if you're doing something, if you're doing something just for the money, I don't think it's never gonna be successful. But what is your, I think anyone who's looking in web three, right? I think what you need to do is you need to really find out what's your real passion is. How my success can be
00:20:28
Speaker
assistance to the wider community, right? For me, it's always been, how can I give back? How can I give back what I learned,
Vision for Collaboration
00:20:37
Speaker
what I earned, right? Because one day we all gonna pass away, we all gonna die. And what you left with, that's what really drives me as well. And I hope that more and more web3 entrepreneurs and people working in web3,
00:20:54
Speaker
can also see that and I think that itself that the attitude of I want to do good for the community will actually have a much better positive impact on the business that you are doing as well. I think so and the wonderful reality is there's a real pressure from
00:21:22
Speaker
a growing number of people and consumers that they want a social conscience from the organizations that they deal with. So more and more, it's actually becoming profitable to make a difference. So at the Laughing Honor, we embrace this idea that the more good that we do, the stronger our brand becomes, which means
00:21:52
Speaker
And the stronger our brand becomes, the more good we can do. And it's a wonderful way to spend your day. And compared to, you know, I left the corporate world and I have no interest in going back. It was hollow, shallow. And a big reason I started The Laughing Art was the next 50 or the, sorry, the next third of my life,
00:22:23
Speaker
of my career is going to be about more than just making money for people. I didn't want to do that anymore. And I think this Web 3, for me especially, it's gaining momentum at just the perfect time. I also believe that COVID, one of the silver linings of COVID has changed the mindset of so many people as they step back
00:22:53
Speaker
and reevaluated their lives and went, wait a minute, I'm just wasting my time on earth. I could be doing so much more. And whether it's in web three or not, there's so many more people who are doing great things and giving back to the community and helping people in need and improving the environment, all of those things. Yeah, absolutely.
00:23:22
Speaker
Yes. So where does crypto global or working crypto global head from now and what do you got on the roadmap for the next year or so?
00:23:36
Speaker
Yeah, so we've grown steadily since we started in 2019. And the next year or so, it's all about expansion.
00:23:52
Speaker
we are looking to hire in the US because that's the market that we want to tackle because we are HK in London and I actually employ some of my employees in Sri Lanka. Again another thing I'm doing for the Sri Lankan community is that
00:24:08
Speaker
trying to bring a job opportunity working in an international company so that because I think you know that's also important right so looking back where you come from and identifying people that who might want similar opportunities is important to me so I'm looking to hire in Sri Lanka as well as in the US and expansion and basically the
00:24:33
Speaker
the more money we make, it directly impacts the charity that I'm doing. Perhaps we're able to sponsor more children. And I think by the end of next year, within the next 12 months, if we can identify, I would say, between 6 and 10 children that we can sponsor,
00:25:00
Speaker
I think I'll be very happy with that. I think that 12 months will be really fulfilling. So yeah, that's the plan. And making meaningful connections, you know. You and I have a meaningful connection, which is great. And equally, I love people, right? I love people, human interaction. But also at the same time, I want to
00:25:28
Speaker
who want to build a meaningful connection with people that might be able to add a positive impact for each other. Those are the plans, really. Yeah, well, that's fantastic. I love your vision. Love what you're doing. And if you can change the lives of six to 10 kids, that's fantastic because those kids will then
00:25:54
Speaker
change the lives of hundreds of others. So it's a chain reaction, and it's a beautiful thing that you're doing. So where can people find you? If they want to learn more, get in touch. If they need to hire, because it's definitely a challenge in this space, where can they find you?
00:26:17
Speaker
Yeah, of course. I think the easiest place would be LinkedIn. I'm probably the only, the most unique surname, Belalagi. I don't think you will find anyone else. So if you just type Sam Belalagi, which is W-E-L-L-A-L-A-G-E, I'll be probably one of the first, probably the first person to come on LinkedIn. If not, you can reach us to us via our website, workingcrypto.global.
00:26:47
Speaker
And yeah, those were probably the best way to contact me. Well, that's fantastic, Sam. And I hope people do reach out to you and help you in your visions. And for everybody else, and thanks for being on the show. Really appreciate you being here and taking the time.
Conclusion & Call to Action
00:27:09
Speaker
And I love that we've connected because we definitely share that future of giving
00:27:14
Speaker
We definitely share that vision of giving children a fair start in life. So that's fantastic. Thanks to everybody for listening. Remember to visit the laughingautor.com and to find us on Twitter, Discord, Facebook and Instagram for all the latest news and cheers. And remember, we all deserve to be having a lot more fun. Have a great day. Thanks Jeff.