Nick Grudin Exits as Meta Head of Content Partnerships to Join NFT Startup Dapper Labs

After nearly 12 years at Meta and Facebook, Nick Grudin is leaving the social-media giant. Grudin next month will join NFT digital-collectibles company Dapper Labs as chief business officer.

Most recently, Grudin was VP of content and community partnerships at Meta, where he oversaw global partnerships and content across the company’s creator ecosystem, media, entertainment, sports and community initiatives. Prior to joining Facebook in 2010, Grudin held senior roles at Newsweek.

With Grudin’s exit from Meta, his team will report directly to Justin Osofsky, VP of content and global operations. “We’re grateful for Nick’s contributions over the last 12 years and we wish him well in his future endeavors,” a Meta spokesperson told Variety. “Through his leadership, the content and community partnerships team is well positioned to innovate for years to come. Meta continues to be an incubator for great leaders and we’re excited to see what Nick does in his next chapter.”

At Dapper Labs, Grudin’s appointment in September will coincide with the new season of the company’s marquee NFT product — NBA Top Shot — and the introduction of new blockchain products and partnerships. Mik Naayem, who was most recently the company’s chief business officer, will assume the role of president.

Grudin will be responsible for partnerships as well as developer experience and marketing across the Dapper Labs portfolio, including Dapper wallet, Flow blockchain and the Dapper Sports Studio, developer of NBA Top Shot, NFL All Day and UFC Strike.

“With his proven track record of driving brand and customer experiences while also enabling scalable and sustained growth, Nick will help us to further accelerate our goal to bring the first billion people to the blockchain,” Dapper Labs CEO and co-founder Roham Gharegozlou said in announcing Grudin’s hire.

Grudin commented, “I have great admiration for Roham Gharegozlou and the work of the Dapper Labs team, making these technologies accessible to everyone as well as safe and easy to use. I share a similar vision for the potential of blockchain and can’t wait to work with the team to help put a crypto wallet in every pocket.”

According to Dapper Labs, its Flow blockchain just set a new record with more than 1.4 million users making transactions during the week of Aug. 1. To date, more than $1.6 billion worth of NFTs have been purchased through the Dapper wallet alone, the company claims.

Vancouver-based Dapper Labs was founded in 2018. The company’s current partners include the NFL, NFLPA, NBPA, WNBA, WNBPA, LaLiga, Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, Genies and UFC. Notable investors in Dapper Labs include Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Union Square Ventures, Venrock, Google Ventures (GV) and Samsung.