MAYA DRAISIN
“I believe in helping people navigate this change into digital transformation.”
The daughter of an Artificial Intelligence scientist, for Maya Draisin, a career in tech seemed destined. Couple this with her family’s artistic background, and it explains why web3, NFTs, and Maya are a match made in heaven.
“I really think that how technology is changing our world has been the throughline of my career,” she recalls. “I moved to San Francisco when Web1 was coming into being. I was struck by how technology could impact education in particular and got into CD-ROMs.”
Her passion for technology grew more while working on a space-themed project on CD-ROMs. She needed images – that the internet could provide – and went down to ‘Wired,’ who had what she needed. “I fell madly in love with the whole idea of the ability to link from one thing to another,” she recalls. “I guess I loved the decentralized nature of it.” Little did Maya know; she would soon become the Head of Marketing for ‘Wired.’
With her love of a digital world growing by the day, Maya realized mass adoption was slow and sought ways to address this. Enter the prestigious Webby Awards. “I co-founded the Webby Awards and we wanted to introduce an award show model, something that people were familiar with. We could both curate and highlight the best things on the web.”
This would catalyze her career, spreading awareness and providing secure and fast ways to enter the web. “I believe in helping people navigate this change into digital transformation; I’m very purpose-driven, and that was my purpose,” she says. From there, she took on a consulting project for NextFest, a world’s fair of future technologies with ‘Wired’ – where she would work for the next 17 years.
Within this timeframe, Maya has helped market some of the most popular magazines in the world. From ‘The New Yorker’ and ‘Vanity Fair’ to ‘Teen Vogue’ and ‘Pitchfork,’ Maya has become an influential figure in world culture.
Having steered a steady ship for almost two decades, it was a time for change and a moment to rekindle her love for the endless opportunities of technology and the web. This transition would come in the form of TIME – with her old colleague, Keith Grossman. Together, they strive to elevate the wonderful world of web3 and become advisors for big brands wanting to enter the space. With these two at the forefront, it proposes an exciting future for blockchain, NFTs, and the Metaverse.