A closer look at the Minneapolis Steemians who make up the Caffetto incubator!

Hey, guys! Minneapolis has a widening Steemit community. I see such amazing things happenings in Brooklyn, Germany and Europe, so I’m proud to be an active participant in my city’s role in bringing the blockchain to new Steemit users. I’ve made jokes that Caffetto coffee shop in uptown Minneapolis has become the incubator for Steemit alumni, but it isn’t that much of a joke! You can’t walk in there without two of us writing posts or huddled around Poloniex/CoinMarketCap or BitShares. It’s like a crypto-puppy mill […worst analogy, I’m sure, but couldn’t help myself]. So, with such a growing Minneapolis community, I decided it’s been too long since I did the who’s who of Twin Cities coffee shop Steemit geeks.

@mada is the reason I’m here. I came across one of his early fiction works last summer. I link to Steemit that he posted on Facebook. I followed the breadcrumbs to this place that would eventually become my new internet home […I’ve seriously redirected my personal website to my Steemit blog]. @mada has been an invaluable resource to my questions regarding crypto education. He’s a brilliant artist and writer, and if you follow me, you should follow him. Period.

@lovejoy is the reason @mada is here, so if you go up the Minneapolis Steemian hierarchy, he’s also an easy default follow-worthy author. @lovejoy has also been nothing short of incredible as a friend and mentor in the Steemit/crypto space. Just a few weeks ago, he sat down with me […late at night] and walked me through the purchase of some @zappl shares when I had extra SBD to invest in that project. Staring at BitShares was like looking at the schematics of a 1946 fighter plane engine, but @lovejoy knew exactly what to do. Also a great film maker, traveler and thinker. It would be criminal to not have him in your feed.

@denno is a great guy! I met him recently. He’s a developer that I spoke with periodically until one night, I finally had to sit him down and preach the Steemit gospel. He seemed cautious as I began explaining the opportunity that lay before him, something he later admitted to me was because he was waiting for the inevitable pitch to build me an app for free […apparently developers hear this often]. There was no pitch. I just gave him an honest, altruistic crash course on STEEM and crypto and he caught the fever shortly there after. Now when I see him, our first interactions are about the price of Ethereum! It’s great.

@tarotbyfergus is my Magic: The Gathering arch nemesis, but when we’re not playing cards, I like him a great deal. He’s an incredibly skilled tarot reader and all around spiritualist. He has a wide variety of pretty stones that I constantly make fun of explaining “What does this one do? Oh! That’s right! It doesn’t do shit!”. He’s active here on Steemit and recently, I helped him shoot a intriguing reading sessions about what to do with my newfound STEEM fortune […modest fortune, but for a freelance artist, still a fortune no the less]. If you haven’t already, you should watch this if you asking yourself the same question.

@moony I met under atypical circumstances, and we still have an atypical friendship. Atypical in the sense that I would normally never get a long with someone like her, and the same can be said for her getting along with someone like me. I can’t stand her music, she’s a street bike and stunt rider; a culture I know nothing about […and also can’t stand], but she’s a good person with a big heart and big ass. What’s not to love? She made a few big posts last summer and is about to make her triumphant return to Steemit next week.

@scorpiodragoness has been a long time Facebook friend and we recently decided we had to finally meet. She met me at Caffetto and we immediately ran down the list of what’s going on in our lives. She mentioned that she was looking for funding for a film project with friends and I had to tell her the role Steemit could play for her. She’s beautiful, and a talented writer. She’s pretty active her now and a great addition to the community, so follow her!

@vermillionfox is my favorite of all these Steemians. She’s a beautiful, stoic, intriguing artist that quietly leaves her mark on the world. She’s been posting since September of last year but recently has starting getting a ton of attention for her “Musings” series. We draw comics together. She supports my tireless hours posting and even the schemes I come up with to sell one crypto for another, just to sell and make more money to buy more STEEM […for the record, it worked]. Her patience alone is worth me advocating for you to follow. I love her. I’m sure you will, too.

@frenchvanilla and I have been friends since the earliest days of Caffetto. She came as an employee but we soon because meeting before or after shifts, talking about film, creative writing, art and the world. She’s an old soul that craves interpersonal experiences with the world. She has a brilliant mind for film, screen writing and dialog. She makes me feel important buy always making my coffee the way I like it, adored with a tiny spoon. She just came to Steemit recently and had a wildly successful introduction post. Definitely worth your attention and follow.

@grizman and I met on an off chance at Universe Games in uptown. I was buying MTG cards and while they were being pulled, I was on the phone with @customnature, talking about STEEM and Bitcoin. @grizman overheard the conversation and later mentioned he was looking to get in to cryptocurrencies. I told him about Steemit and how it could give him an entry in to crypto-exchanges without investing a single dollar. He seemed interested and I told him if he met up with me at Caffetto, I’d give him the broad strokes. He called, we met and the rest is history. He just made his introduction post and it’s still open season for rewards. Follow him! He’s going to have stories to tell.

@elibemusic.com is one of my first first I made when I moved to Minneapolis. I met him by chance through a friend that hired me for a photo shoot. @elibemusic.com eventually hired me to photograph images for his upcoming album and since then, we’ve spanned a great 5 year friendship and collaborative partnership. I’ve photographed many of his live performances and promotional material. He’s one of the hardest working artists I’ve ever met and he’ll be bringing the best in hip-hop to your feed, so follow him.

@britleigh is a crazy talented photographer that I met through the Caffetto incubator. We’ve exchanges photography discussions on and off for the last three years, but recently, @britleigh made the jump to full time freelance art. It’s a scary step; I made it myself in 2010 and it’s still scary now. When we met to talk about self-employment strategies, I told her about Steemit. She joined and made her introduction post. She’s had some very successful posts and shows remarkable depth to retain all this crazy cryptocurrency knowledge. She just got back from vacation and is anxious to start sharing new photography. She’s a great one to follow.

@bryanpolitte is a gifted concept artist and illustrator and we’ve been getting together and drawing for years. I met him through mutual friends at an event/release party for the t-shirt brand in which I drew the artwork for the designs. @bryanpollite is also a talented photographer […and model, fuck you, @bryanpolitte, pick one and leave something for the rest of us]. He’s an awesome guy and he’s had some great Steemit success. I know he’s going to bring more of his art to our community.

@mtbmondo and I go back more than 15 years. He was […and still is] legendary death match wrestler, “Sick” Nick Mondo, and I met him in South Philadelphia when he was wrestling for the ultraviolent indie wrestling promotion, CZW. For the last five years, @mtbmondo has been living and working in Tokyo as a director and has just recently moved back to the US. He’s currently in Minnesota […ironically, he’s the reason I first moved to Minneapolis]. He has an insatiable curiosity for life and technology, which is how I began telling him about Steemit and blockchain tech. He’s had some great posts here on Steemit over the last few months. He’s currently circulating his feature film “The Trade” across world film festivals, but has assured me that once life settles down, he’ll be contributing to the community again.

And that’s the synopsis for the Caffetto incubator and where they fall in place with respect to my life. All great people and I’m privileged to call them friends. This place grows and matures by connecting the best authors with the best curators, and this group of people is top shelf. In the avalanche of Steemit growth, all of them are worth your attention. 

Thanks for reading. I post here daily. For more thoughts on Steemit and life in general, photography and illustration, you can follow me @kommienezuspadt.