Trading in PlayStations and Pokemon for NFTs, the Pieland cofounder navigates a new life during the pandemic
For more than a decade, Daniel Bimke, a native of Calgary, sold rare collectibles like console games for Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, PlayStation, and Japanese Pokemon cards at trade shows and conventions throughout Canada. Then 2020 hit and trade conferences came to an end. Bimke, 33, spoke candidly about the challenges and risks he took to create and build a new career.
How did you end up at Dapper Labs?
During the beginning of the shutdown (in 2020), everyone thought it was just going to be a few months and then we’d be back. But things kept dragging on, and then my mom, Korrine, died of a heart attack in June. I was in a funk and struggling. But after a year, I had to really think about what to do next.
I’m an avid card collector and I also love sports, and I stumbled on these digital basketball highlights in January 2021. I thought it was weird but intriguing, and I became interested when reading more about the technology that was being used. I joined the NBA Top Shot Discord and was hanging out there. A lot. After two weeks, I had the epiphany to email the CEO of Dapper Labs and tell him why he needed to hire me.
That’s a baller move. Two weeks, and you’re already good enough to land a job?
It seemed interesting, and my instincts told me that this was something I should try. NBA Top Shot was the cross section of all my passions — sports, collectibles, and technology. And even though I had never worked in tech, I had dabbled in crypto in the past and I knew how to wear a lot of hats. I told the CEO to put me where the fire was and I was put in touch with the Customer Support team.
What do you do now at Dapper Labs?
I’m currently a LiveOps producer for NFL All Day. Our team creates collectibles with content from our NFL partners. I’ve had a handful of roles in the past year from customer support to community rep to live ops producer.
Don’t forget Pieland cofounder. You do wear a lot of hats, kind of like the Piesons Slice. Why did you start Pieland when you had a demanding full-time job?
I wanted to do something that I was proud of where I could be creative. I think a lot about Web3 technology from a business development standpoint, and Pieland allows me the expression and freedom to do that. It is a lot of work, but I don’t have a life. Also the pandemic made things a bit easier because we were stuck at home so there wasn’t much else to do besides work.
How did you end up partnering with Luke McIntyre for this project?
Luke and I got to know each other when he first joined as a volunteer moderator for NBA Top Shot in early 2021. We talked a lot about comedy and British panel shows. I liked Luke’s Britishness and we have a similar sense of humor. It just seemed natural for us to work together on our own project. We got to know Bonfire, the creator of Livetoken, through the NBA Top Shot community.
Using a baseball analogy, describe the role of the three Pieland cofounders — you, Luke (eldumbo), and Bonfire.
Hah. I guess Luke would be the rising star player. Bonfire is the nerd analytics guy, like the Jonah Hill character from Moneyball. I’m definitely the back office, the general manager.
Speaking of GM work, what’s been the hardest part about running an NFT project?
While I have a great deal of business experience as an entrepreneur, I haven’t run a modern tech company until Pieland. There are definitely new challenges to navigating the Web3 space. There’s no clear blueprint for this. Learning how to hire people for roles and figuring out what roles are required has been something that’s been a steep learning curve.
You mentioned you dabbled in crypto. Were you mining bitcoin?
Back in 2013, I was working part-time at a hotel in Calgary pulling night shift duty. I spent a lot of time reading and learning about bitcoin. The price was around $200 back then. I bought a couple machines and was mining bitcoin and altcoins, which were other cryptocurrencies that could be converted into bitcoin. I would then send it to a wallet address and sell it, and use the money to buy collectibles to sell at trade shows. I stopped doing it because I had to pay the bills. I actually made more of a profit from selling the bitcoin mining machines.
How much did you make off your two machines?
I sold them for $1500 each and bought them at $800 a piece. I thought about buying Ethereum when it was at $18. I tried to get back into crypto in 2020 when ETH was at $200 but I didn’t have the money to do it. There’s a lot of missed opportunities when you have credit card bills and rent and don’t have a lot of liquidity.
Sounds like money didn’t come easily. What was life like growing up in Calgary?
We didn’t have a lot of money when I was a kid. My mom was a single mom and she worked full time as an administrative assistant. I spent a lot of time on my own. I learned to cook for myself when I was seven and do my own laundry at age eight. I made lots of pasta and Kraft mac and cheese. As a kid I liked video games and I would write up these story structures for more elaborate gameplay.
That’s awesome. How will you bring that creative world building to Pieland?
Pieland is more than just a land of pies. When we were thinking about this big world, we thought about what it looks like, who inhabits this place, their relationships to each other, and how they live their lives. I find this quite exciting because there’s no limit to where our imagination can go. Whether we see a board game around a table or a video game or immersing yourself in a virtual Pieland, there are lots of potential avenues to explore.
