When I think of the word Gutter, the first thought that comes to mind is slipping from the roof of my parent’s home while cleaning leaves in my early twenties. Fortunately, it was a lower section of the house and only knocked the breath out of me for about ten minutes. Nevertheless, this Gutter did not catch me. Two decades later, the word Gutter reminds me of how I was caught by the Gutter Cat Gang stumbling through NFTs and why I will remain Gutter for life. 

I’ve minted or bought from twenty-seven NFT projects in twelve months. That is the extent of my NFT journey thus far. I created my first NFT on Cardano to learn while building Stake Pools on the Cardano blockchain. Ethereum being where the action was, I dove into Google searches and NFT Twitter to learn more. I first struggled to figure out how to mint, and most NFT projects seemed sold out or priced higher than my mortgage. I secured my first legitimate NFT mint after a weekend-long marathon of posting chats and memes. Not the best experience, but the process introduced me to voice chat, and Twitter spaces, which I later found out could be a blessing or a curse. For instance, I missed minting Bored Ape Yacht Club and mfers, but I did not miss Apemfers, thanks to influencers on Twitter. The project had its website taken down during mint. Sheesh, I thought this was NFTs?!

Wanting to walk away, I shifted my attention back to learning and listening without action on Twitter spaces. Less acting on impulse and more digesting information while seeking genuine connections. Luckily, this approach led to my first conversation about Gutter Cat Gang and Gutter Juice which was my entry in March of 2022. Gutter Cat Gang NFTs were selling for tens of thousands, so the opportunity to spend a few hundred dollars and become a member seemed too good to be true. It turned out to be a net-positive decision. Gutter showed up the instant I rolled my first DNA-1 Gutter Juice through the Clone Machine. Coming from $20k OGs and $200 Clones in the Gutter Cat Gang, I learned that we were the same. I bought deeper into the Gutter ecosystem once I learned that from the founders throughout the entire Gutter family, we are here to have some laughs and lift each other, always building better opportunities for those to come. 

Today I have almost 2k followers. Strange because I am a shy guy in real life and hardly talk, so why do I even have followers? There are only 3000 Gutter Cats and 1,795 Gutter Cat holders as of this writing. I’m forever grateful to the Gutter family for reminding me why I am here. I want to learn, lead, and inspire growth. That is why I am Gutter. 

@Hawl3y