Profile: Zach Burks, Mintable CEO and metaverse entrepreneur

There’s no question about it: the metaverse is here, and many corporations are looking to capitalize on it. Zach Burks and his company, Mintable, are poised for incredible growth. While some investors are still uncertain about its future, most agree that it means that NFTs will be more relevant and critical than ever before.

Many people thought that the “NFT” buzzword would phase away, but the sector is still going strong. According to a Cointelegraph Research report, NFT sales are headed towards a record $17.7 billion. There’s more interest in NFTs due to the fact that the metaverse represents an immense business opportunity, as well. 

An interesting journey here

There’s a common question that you often hear posed to a crypto entrepreneur. When interviewed, they are frequently asked: “Well, how did you get here?” or “What made you go into the crypto sector?” In the case of Zach Burks, he had heard about Bitcoin long before many others; he was reading about it back in 2012 and 2013. 

When Burks returned to the crypto space, he decided that he would begin making smart contracts. Burks worked on Ethereum for a long time, on various projects. In 2017, he decided to pivot to NFTs, and he’s been in the NFT space ever since. He was drawn to the versatility of the NFT, and immediately knew he found his niche. 

Zach Burks has done a tremendous amount of work within the sector, and he doesn’t shy away from his achievements. He states plainly: “If you’ve interacted with NFTs, you’ve likely interacted with my work.” He launched Mintable in 2018.

Mintable is growing

Mintable is both an NFT minting platform and marketplace. Mintable hopes to be the most flexible and accessible way for individuals to create an NFT, whether they are an artist, YouTuber, musician, or author. Zach Burks has said that he wanted the platform to be so easy that his mother could make an NFT, and guess what? She actually did. 

There are countless entrepreneurs who wish they could appear on Shark Tank and pitch some high-profile investors who can help them scale their business. Zach Burks has a very important individual in his corner: billionaire Mark Cuban. Cuban has been one of the more vocal proponents of crypto, and he’s also a massive Ethereum fan.

Burks refuses to say how much Cuban invested in Mintable, but it all happened because of a cold email. Mark is clearly passionate about what Zach Burks is doing, because they exchange up to ten emails per day. Mark Cuban isn’t the only high-profile investor interested in the NFT platform. Ripple has also invested in their Series A funding round, which raised $13 million. Jon Oringer, founder of Shutterstock, also invested.

Ahead of the curve

Will the NFT craze continue, and will the metaverse continue to sell more virtual land than ever before? It certainly looks like that is the case. The fact that Mintable offers gasless minting also means that it can set itself apart from the competition. This allows creators to create NFTs within minutes, without an upfront gas cost. 

Zach Burks was so early to Bitcoin that he framed his first purchase. Similarly, it looks like he was early to enter the NFT space in 2017, considering that 2021 was a record year for the NFT sector. Burks wants to continue to expand his team to 35 by the end of the year, and Mintable also recently launched a Mintable Go! fund to invest specifically in the metaverse.

He plans to roll out new features for the platform, and is also excited about Mintable Plus. Ultimately, Mintable’s goal remains simple: make it easy for anyone to create NFTs on the blockchain.