Ikigai:
Ikigai is a Japanese concept that means your ‘reason for being’. ”Iki’ in Japanese means’ life,’ and ‘gai’ describes value or worth. So your ikigai is your life purpose or your bliss. It brings you joy and inspires you to get out of bed daily. It intersects four pillars: talent, love, need (what the world needs), and pay.
Dr. Deeban Ratneswaran is decorated with countless academic and medical accomplishments, but his ambitions do not end there. Ever since his formative university years, he developed a tenacity to build things and a strong desire to make a difference in everything he did. He recounts vividly to us that while a young student at King’s College London, he embarked on a mission to re-design policy around cigarette graphic health warning labels to maximize their impact on preventing smoking. He says his initial impetus was after his friend’s father had died of mouth and throat cancer due to smoking. This idea later impacted policy and, in the process, brought Dr. Ratneswaran a host of accolades and awards.
“I couldn’t understand why a friend of mine had to suffer because these labels weren’t doing what they were supposed to. I found the quality improvement process and the subsequent measurable change extremely satisfying. I then began to design research everywhere and anywhere, including on Mt Kilimanjaro! I was a bit of a maverick. I eventually met my long-term academic mentor and settled in a London-based research group where we investigated, designed, and produced new products for patients with difficulty sleeping. This applied focus was great for my intellectual development, and it’s with this group that I am currently completing a Ph.D. and gained huge support for my academic/ entrepreneurial initiatives.”
In his spare time as a busy medical student, Deeban established a company offering interview courses for prospective medical school applicants; and, later, as a young doctor, educational classes for medical students before their examinations (Osler’s Room). These became widely attended, with Osler’s Room drawing an attendance of students from across the Europe and the States to hear Dr. Ratneswaran teach. He then developed technology to provide infrastructure and scale for this platform, whereby he could expand his courses to a global, more diverse audience/ attendance. From this point onwards, he developed an entrepreneurial drive, leading to an exploration of blockchain and web3 technologies. Fast-forward seven years, he wakes daily to channel his seemingly boundless energy into the next generation of the Internet as we know it – Web 3.0.
“We now have a global team of around 40 managing the VC and a separate arm to support the marketing and development of our investments. Marketing is generally poorly executed in the Web3 space but adds significantly to the project funding burn. We are usually large funders of these start-ups, so we have a vested interest in reducing this. Hence, we established a marketing subsidiary to reduce costs via streamlined hyper-efficient processes and a best-in-class team. Alongside other stellar titles, we are currently marketing the blockchain game of the year, Cross The Ages, backed by investors such as Square Enix and Ubisoft, in addition to GD10 and other strong capitals. I’m proud of what we built and what we have coming.”
Despite completing a prestigious Ph.D. program in central London investigating new frontiers in respiratory and sleep medicine, Dr. Deeban’s primary focus is furthering his portfolio companies, his fund, GD10 Capital, and on a broader scale, the entire Metaverse itself. His current focus is on establishing metaverse technologies in the sports industry, the health profession, and across fashion brands – his Instagram stories are alight with excursions to luxury clothing launches from major labels, most recently Dior.
Interest in the metaverse and Web3 sector has been blossoming in tandem with the general growth of the blockchain sector. Dr. Deeban’s firm, GD10 Capital, has a knack for seeing the potential in Web3 companies. He has developed a staunch reputation for being a significant value add for the time and effort he applies to the start-ups GD10 invests in. GD10’s portfolio boasts a comprehensive, carefully curated range of hugely successful companies, from a Web3 shoe brand system to a sims-like game where your assets are digital collectibles. Each project solves a unique problem in Web3, and GD10’s portfolio, if realized, will help develop the next wave of infrastructure for a fully-fledged metaverse and the realization of his Igikai.
“I believe that innovation often happens in the grey area between disciplines. Before medicine, I was very close to entering a career in product design after winning a UK national scholarship in design and innovation – the Arkwright Scholarship. However, ultimately I was drawn to medicine as I felt I could apply the tenants of design to impacting this field, which to an extent, I did. Within medicine, by applying myself in academia, statistics and entrepreneurship, I developed a unique perspective on analyzing start-ups which gave us a unique advantage. Very early in my investment days, I was lucky to be supported by friends that believed in GD10’s mission of helping start-ups with due diligence, infrastructure, and business modeling to make us the force we are today. I know we have a long way to go and have huge plans for our company’s purpose.”
Web3 can be a somewhat obscure new technology in the eyes of the uninformed, and much of modernity remains unaware of the term. However, Dr. Deeban sees Web3 as the far more impressive successor of Web2: the latter being the Internet we experience right now, and the former the natural evolution of the Internet, with its functionality and integration into our lives massively enhanced through blockchain technologies. Moreover, if one imagines how interconnected, informed, and convenient the current internet model has made our lives compared to the pre-internet era, web3 intends to herald an equally radical paradigm shift in how we live and enjoy our day-to-day lives.
The natural pathway for widespread Web3 adoption to replace the current Web2 iteration is well described. It is a model based on users’ needs: ultimately, the key stakeholders are the average person. Web3 must become ever more accessible and seamlessly integrate the Internet into our daily lives; it must be borne through convenience. For example, instead of swiping your credit card and having US Dollars come out of your bank account, perhaps you are using an NFT or an accepted digital currency to pay for your shoes, groceries, or even your car. When such technology arrives, it will feel just as intuitive.
Dr. Deeban confesses we are not at that level of technological advancement as of right now but stand on the cusp of it, with many pre-existing barriers to such technology now falling to the wayside. He is also the first to admit that while there is much ‘hype’ about the potential of the Metaverse within the industry, there is a long way to go before this is widely accepted within society.
“Social normality, of anything, is the key to acceptance. When everyone else is doing it, it’s something you would also do – it’s normal. The Metaverse needs to be normal and not an exciting new technology. We’re heavily focused on making the Metaverse less cumbersome and more grounded in our everyday reality. This will happen; it’s just a matter of time.”
One project he was excited to talk to us about that directly explores this point concerns fashion and clothing. Last year, the global apparel market was worth 1.6 trillion USD and held constant demand. Clothes shopping, both out of necessity and as a hobby, is a worldwide activity. Moreover, with the arrival of Web2, many companies developed an internet presence (with even small, independent businesses virtually all incorporating e-commerce in the covid-19/post-covid era). This revolutionized how people can browse and purchase apparel, from a simple swipe or a click straight to your door. However, it was not without its drawbacks. Many consumers still enjoy the in-person activity of shopping, of trying on clothes in the flesh before they commit to purchasing or being able to stroll around a store and browse their options.
Overcoming this final frontier is being made possible through the new blockchain technology he is working with. No longer will an individual have to endure the inconvenience of a long trip to the shopping mall or the risk of getting caught in the rain to enjoy the benefit of in-person shopping. Instead, through a screen or VR headset, they can enter the Metaverse and instantly appear in the store of their choice. With their avatar (the digital representation of themselves), they can walk around the store and browse different items for sale. When they find something they like, they can see how it looks on their avatar and pair outfits with ease.
There are various other applications of such technology, such as utilizing smart glasses or, in the future, contact lenses to view an augmented reality version of a clothes store. In this case, you may be present in the store but see prices, colors available, stock, and similar options pop up on a window whenever you focus on a piece of clothing. In either case, this technology appeals to Deeban and his overall mission for the same reasons. It takes something integral to our society and rooted in normalcy- shopping- and adds a new layer of convenience and utility, through the Metaverse, without any downsides.
He says:
“People don’t even have to see it as “the metaverse” in their conceptualization of it to use it, and many may not. Shopping online in a limited fashion has been available and widely used for years – web3 simply enhanced the experience. Regardless, users will readily engage with this new technology, and it will improve shopping both for consumers and retailers.”
Dr. Deeban says GD10 are dreamers but also pragmatists. His Ikigai is to see web3 effortlessly incorporated into the day-to-day lives of people everywhere. He intends to achieve this one project, use-case, and innovation at a time. His portfolio reflects this ambition, and GD10 is a venture capital fund that hopes to curate a better future through a simple mission statement they first conceived many years ago:
“Merging great ideas, to powerful relationships, and smart capital.”
