Paper 28: Product-first in Web3
Why focusing on an actual product will put you ahead of 99% of projects
Contents
On being product-first in Web3
This Week in NFT World
New Interview with SpaceWalk
Thought of the Week
Meme of the Week
If you find this paper helpful - or have found helpful any of the 27 papers published over the last 27 weeks - consider supporting me by minting my genesis Creator NFT. There will only ever be 100 and are priced at only 0.02ETH each. You can mint here.
1. On being product-first in Web3
From where does the value in your project derive?
It could be from the ownership of beautiful work; ownership of something of historical/cultural significance; ownership of something very scarce; access to an exclusive community; status; access to a product.
The precarious position most NFT founders are finding themselves in is that almost none of these “reasons of value” can be relied upon when they are so subjective.
What seems to happen is that projects rise with a group of people saying something is good, and fail when those same people lose hope.
As such, it must be true that the value derives from the community - and this is largely the case because there is no product behind which the founders can stand and say: “This product has value. We will keep demonstrating the value over time.” When hope is lost and people leave, there is nothing left.
When we launched Airdrop Szn 1 NFT we did not even cover our costs - at first.
We were two professional people who were convinced we had a product-market-fit, but simply needed more time to convince more people that we could help them.
How could we do that?
By delivering product over time, over and over again, every single week. This is what we have done the last 6 weeks - and will continue to do until the end of the year.
Content calendar: this is what our NFT holders see in the content calendar in our Discord
We’ve provided tutorials on how to onboard onto Arbitrum, Starknet, and zkSync, as well as tutorials on how to use interesting protocols to set up for potential airdrops - every single week since launch.
We provide all the content and strategy breakdowns too.
Content and Strategy Breakdown
Every now and again we attract another few minters. And this is how we grow. Slow and steady.
It’s still a work in progress; it’s not a fairytale - but it is honest work where we turn up each week and deliver product.
I believe this is the right approach for any project which wants to win in the long-term and be in charge of their own destiny.
2. This Week in NFT World
Class Action against Yuga Labs - Yuga Labs, creators of The Bored Ape Yacht Club, are having an action brought against them that they “used celebrity promoters and endorsements to inflate the price of the company’s NFTs and token.”
Crypto assets regulated as digital objects - UK Law Commission recognise that NFTs and crypto are going to play a significant role in the future - and propose that they are considered “digital objects”
Tiffany’s enter the NFT market with 30 ETH ($50,000) offering - 250 limited edition NFTs to be sold for 30 ETH each to Cryptopunk holders. The NFT will allow the Cryptopunk holder to claim a physical pendant of their Cryptopunk.
Pranksy calls out Pak - legendary collector Pranksy asked Pak - the famously successful and mysterious artist - for more information regarding a number of their latest collections, which appear to have been abandoned after a lengthy Twitter silence.
3. New Interview
SpaceWalk (@space___walk) is the founder and producer of two newsletters and a podcast, MetaVault and Valet Confidential.
He is a big thinker in the Web3 space and one of the first people with whom I discussed the opportunity of "community created content" for existing NFT projects - an opportunity which we have seen play out.
SW is a really good friend and I loved this conversation because we really got into the weeds of the potential we see in the space, particularly for “content creators” - a term which we both dislike (we think of ourselves more as producers or directors!)
In this chat we discuss
- the inspiration for starting a newsletter and how to get started
- the challenges of remaining independent and how to pivot when things aren't going as planned
- the problem with the "content creator" title
- the huge opportunity to create content for communities in the Web3 space
4. Thought of the Week
OSF produced this killer thread which you must read to understand how interest rates affect the valuation of businesses (and by extension crypto and NFTs).
It explains (at a high level and without going into all caveats)
The present value of a company takes into account that money in the present is worth more than money in the future ($100 is worth more than $100 in the future because you would earn interest on your $100 now)
So the present value of a company is the revenue of a company over a period of time discounted by the current interest rate - because that cashflow has not happened yet
If interest rates go up, that means a larger discount is applied to future cashflows, which gives a company a smaller present value
This is why tech/high growth stocks - which have higher projections of future cashflows because they don’t make a lot of money upfront- are hit hardest when interest rates rise.
I would recommend reading twice.
5. Meme of the Week
This made me crack up so much. Something about the looking up and the angle of the lean lol - and the eyes. Shoutout @NFTHawks.
Have a great week,
B
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Disclaimer: The content covered in this newsletter is not to be considered as investment advice. It is for informational and educational purposes only.
I hold some of the NFTs mentioned in these newsletters.