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ABOUT US
ABOUT WORLD BUILD LABS
BUILD FOR EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE

World Build Labs is an elite builder community focused on the World ecosystem. Our mission is to find and support breakthrough founders building internet-native companies that have potential for global impact. Our flagship program, World Build, is a 5-month acceleration program for bold founders building breakthrough applications using World App, ID and World Chain.

Originally founded as a partnership between Friends with Benefits and World, World Build continues to grow as a top tier founder collective driving forward global scale products on blockchain rails.

WHY BUILD ON WORLD

We believe that World is the best place to build new apps because it offers a unique combination of:

  1. Instant Global Distribution: Deploy your product to 38M+ users across 160+ countries.
  2. Proof of Human: World is able to verify its users as human. Build applications where you know your users are real — not bots, not duplicates, not synthetic.
  3. Ease of deployment infrastructure: Through its Mini App and World ID SDKs, building new apps has never been easier. In-built wall infrastructure offers smooth UX and gasless transactions for verified humans through its Priority Blockspace for Humans (PBH) mechanism.
These combined are already enabling the development of new primitives. Examples include:
  • Human-only, bot-proof social networks
  • One-click global remittance networks
  • Financial services products now accessible to underserved communities
  • Bot-proof digital asset claiming platforms
  • Resilient learn-to-earn and play-to-earn platforms
World is only just getting started, and we’re looking for the next generation of products for the network.
OUR COMMITMENT TO BUILDERS

We invest 100% of our time, focus, and network in our founder community. Their success is the only metric that matters. Here's what that looks like:

What only World Build can offer:

Your product, deployed to 38M+ users across 160+ countries. Not as a future ambition, but as your launch reality. World Build founders get privileged, direct access to the World technical team to solve challenges in real-time as they build. No other program offers this combination of instant global distribution and hands-on infrastructure support.

What we bring to the table:

A peer group of founders building at the same scale and ambition. Mentorship from people who've done it. Introductions to professional investors and grant capital. And a platform that puts your product in front of users, the industry, and the people who can help you win.

we expect from you:

We look for founders with a proven commitment to their products. That means the intention behind the approach and real time spent building. We don't accept ideas alone but builders who are already in motion.

What happens after:

World Build alumni are a tight community. We help them win, and they pay it forward to future cohorts. The relationships and momentum from this program don't end at demo day but compound with each cohort.

OUR TEAM
Will
Mercer
CEO
Will is an early-stage venture strategist who partners with elite founders to build companies with global scale and impact. Will’s 20 year career has seen him launch 4 companies, raise over $30M in early stage venture capital and deliver venture ecosystem work across 3 continents, advising the US, EU and UK governments. Prior to World Build, Will was an advisor to KYVE, a Cosmos chain, headed up strategy and business development at Human Protocol and was a core contributor at FWB. Will holds a Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Reading and a diploma in Financial Services and Organizational Management from the London Institute of Banking and Finance. He is a guest lecturer at ESCP, the world’s oldest business school where he lectures on their creative MBA program.
LinkedIn | X | Website
Iz
COO
Iz is COO of Friends With Benefits, a pioneering decentralized autonomous organization of technologists, artists, and founders accelerating the adoption of new infrastructure through culture.
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Marko
Basarab
Program
Manager
Marko is a technology enthusiast and community builder. He is co - founder of AfterParty UA, a Ukrainian venture community. Marko has taken up C suite roles in several growth stage startups including Spokk, a digital insurance solution. Prior to World Build Marko was Program Lead at EO Incubator, a USAID funded program for Ukrainian tech startups that supported 200 founders creating over $200M in venture value. Marko holds a PhD in Biomedical Electronics & Machine Learning from NTUU KPI and a joint Master’s degree in Biomedical Data Science from NTUU KPI, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Nancy and the University of Warwick.
LinkedIn
Amanda
Maritan
Socials and
Community Manager
Amanda is a Brazilian web3 builder focused on youth empowerment and regenerative finance (ReFi). As a founding builder of DreamDAO, she has supported Gen Z onboarding into decentralized governance, on-chain coordination, and crypto x social impact. In the past 5 years, Amanda has taken on multiple roles across the web3 ecosystem, spanning DAO governance, fundraising, and community growth. Currently, she also serves as a Youth Advisor for Google via Canvas8, contributing insights on emerging technology, digital culture, and innovation strategy.
LinkedIn | X
Joel
Cares
WEB & DESIGN
Joel Cares is a creative developer and founder of Lobal Global, ANOA, and Lodewell, building clear, durable websites and public-facing infrastructure for internet-native projects and creative teams. Within the Nouns community he co-founded Nouns Fest and Nouncil, and created Nerman, a Discord bot that formalized community governance. His work focuses on making complex ideas legible, organizing information and interfaces so a project can be understood, trusted, and actually used by the people around it.
LinkedIn | X | Website
Domingo
Beta
Design
Domingo is a creative director and founder of Veleta StudioLab (VSL), a design studio operating where culture meets system. Building worlds that act as living organisms. He builds brands and campaigns that turn complex ideas into clear, culturally relevant visual narratives, with a focus on tech, AI, and blockchain companies. He leads teams across branding and art direction, combining strong creative concepts with AI-enhanced workflows. Over the past years, he has developed brand identities, campaign systems, and visual strategies for forward-thinking organizations like FWB, Radar, Courier and Impact3 and is now expanding VSL through workshops and consulting that help marketing and creative leaders adapt their design processes to the AI era.
LinkedIn | X
ADVISORS

KITTY VO

As a product and UX advisor, I work with creative technologists on human-centered design for emerging tech platforms. I focus on accessibility, cross-cultural usability, and ensuring products serve real human needs at scale. This commitment to inclusive design extends into my research on AI infrastructure and energy transition systems, where I examine who gets access to compute resources and renewable energy, and who bears the costs. I help founders navigate the tension between building for traction and building responsibly—designing products that scale globally while serving diverse user contexts and real human needs.

Sean Thielen - Esparza

Sean Thielen-Esparza is a multidisciplinary technologist based in NYC. He currently leads the creative technology team at Complex. He also runs a design studio and gives grants to artists.
Previously, Sean co-founded a digital identity startup. His life's work is to build tools that use frontier technology to catalyze creativity.