Mutual Friends. Giorgi Kapanadze

From a clothing brand
to an animated universe

It started with a hippo on a hoodie.
Sober Hippo was a clothing brand I founded in 2020.

Around the same time, NFTs were exploding into the mainstream, and Twitter feeds were filling up with collectible avatars. Iconic faces everywhere, but no stories behind them. What if the most recognizable characters from the NFT space existed in the same universe? What if they had voices and personalities?

I had an idea. I took the hippo and two other characters from my brand and built an animated universe around them. I called it Mutual Friends. We partnered with the biggest NFT IP holders, including CryptoPunks, BAYC, Doodles, and Moonbirds, to feature their characters in future episodes.

My three partners and I built a 20+ person production team across Miami and Tbilisi, created a 3-minute pilot trailer, and launched the NFT collection, Sober Hippo. It sold out - without a single paid ad. All organic.

I co-founded the project and led it across creative, production, development, and partnerships. Greenlighting designs late at night, handling IP negotiations across timezones, and keeping the entire operation moving.

Meet the Characters

Different backgrounds. Different paths.
One shared story that connects them all.

Sober Hippo

The Anchor · Always in control

His story starts with breaking into NASA headquarters and lands him in prison for ten years.

When he gets out, he finds a world that moved on without him. But what he left behind turned into something beyond his imagination.

The one holding everything together while everything around him falls out of control.

Laidback Sasquatch

Free Spirit · Unpredictable

He doesn't follow the plan because he never has one. Massive, unbothered, and somehow always where the story needs him.

Laidback Sasquatch brings the humor, the warmth, and the occasional moment of unexpected wisdom - usually right before he disappears again without a trace.

The one who keeps things from getting too serious.

Local Alien

The Observer · Street Smart

He doesn't say much, but he sees everything. Calm, observant, and always tuned into the small details others miss. Only eats green food and keeps it low.

Nothing feels random to him.

The one who's always one step ahead without trying.

The marketing

Zero paid ads·Zero outside investors·All eyes

We launched into the hottest market on the internet.
The NFT space that year had everyone's attention - tech, art, music, celebrities, Hollywood…

Every project launching at the time followed the same playbook:
a PFP collection, a promise of future content, a Discord, and a roadmap.

We did the opposite. We built the content first, partnered with the culture, and let the space do the marketing for us - while we took people along for the ride in the Mutual Friends world.

The guest characters

We put the biggest IPs in the show.

With the trailer done, we went directly to the biggest NFT IP holders -
Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Apes, CryptoPunks, Doodles, Moonbirds, World of Women…

At the time, these were high value assets - worth tens of thousands, sometimes even hundreds of thousands and the owners were very selective about who they licensed them to.

Our pitch was simple, but strong:
Let us integrate your NFT character into our show as a guest. Bring it to life, give it a personality, and a moment on screen - alongside other iconic characters in the Mutual Friends world.

In exchange, share it with your audience when we go public and help spread the word.
They loved it. Then they started bringing other top NFT holders to us, hoping we'd integrate them too.

Official partnerships - announced daily from our account

01 BAYC #2012

02 BAYC #5019

03 BAYC #6556

04 CryptoPunk #8053

05 MAYC #499

06 MAYC #6996

07 GCG #1259

08 BAYC #9133

Posted by the IP holders - reaching hundreds of thousands of views across their combined audiences

The casting call

Then we let the public in.

After the IP holders and influencers had their moment, we announced a new campaign: Become a Character.
Anyone could apply. Anyone could get drawn into the show, as themselves, or as their NFT of choice.

The community was already deeply invested in their NFTs, and now they could become part of the show -
as themselves, or through their own NFT of choice.
Animated, voiced, and dropped into scenes alongside the biggest names in the space.
Something no one had offered before.

We didn't run the campaign - The community ran it for us

As part of the application, we built a custom auto-tweet flow.
On submit, a pre-written tweet went out from the applicant's own account announcing they had applied,
with a description of the show and an open call for others to do the same.
Thousands of people applied. Same week. Same template. Crypto Twitter was covered in it.

More attention than we planned for.

After the trailer dropped, the wave didn't slow down. Applications kept coming.
Web3 press picked it up, and our Twitter following took off - reaching 60K+ in just a few months.

We found ourselves in conversations with teams behind names like Logan Paul, Steve Aoki, Hasbulla
and others deeply involved in the NFT space at the time.

All of it from one trailer, a Discord, and the right partnerships -
paired with a marketing approach that felt new to the space. We did it with no paid ads, all organic.

The Outcome

A show, a brand, a community

The idea of Mutual Friends started with a single character on a hoodie and grew into a Web3 animated series and a sold-out NFT collection. By the time we launched, Mutual Friends had grown into a 20+ person production team, partnerships with leading NFT IPs, and a community built around the project.

My Contribution

Project leadership from concept to launch
Creative direction across branding and character development
Built and managed a 20+ person team across Miami and Tbilisi
Led partnerships and licensing with major NFT IP holders
Oversaw trailer production from script to final delivery
Led community growth, drop strategy, and launch operations

What It Became

Fully animated 3-minute pilot trailer produced in-house
Original cast and visual identity created for the project
Sold out 7,777 NFT collection
Discord at capacity within 48 hours
Partnerships with major IPs in the NFT space
Zero outside investment. Zero paid marketing.

From a clothing brand
to an animated universe