Luca Schnetzler

Luca Schnetzler, also known as Luca Netz, is CEO of Pudgy Penguins, an NFT project and physical toy brand based in Los Angeles. He acquired Pudgy Penguins in April 2022 for 750 ETH (approximately $2.5 million at the time), following a public bidding war, and subsequently became CEO. Under his leadership, Pudgy Penguins completed a $9 million fundraise in May 2023 and launched a line of physical plush toys, Pudgy Toys, which reached 2,000 Walmart stores in the US by September 2023 and Canadian Toys R Us locations by November 2023. The toys include QR code access to the Pudgy World platform on the zkSync Era blockchain. Each toy corresponds to a licensing arrangement with individual NFT holders, who receive royalties in perpetuity. He also founded Abstract, an Ethereum Layer 2 network built on the ZK Stack, designed for consumer-facing blockchain applications with low fees and fast transaction speeds.

Schnetzler's earlier career included roles as CEO of La Gold Cartel (2016–2018), CEO of Manners Holdings, CMO at Von Dutch (from 2019), CEO of LPT Technologies, and CMO of Gel Blaster. He began his working life at Ring Doorbell in 2015 as part of a warehouse team. He dropped out of high school around the 10th grade and has no recorded formal higher education. He also runs Netz Capital, an angel investment vehicle focused on technology startups.