Web3.0 Brand Building & The Lessons of My (Failed) NFT Project

Will Blockchain Tech accelerate Facebook & Amazon's decline?

It’s becoming prevalent in mainstream consciousness that the fundamental business model of Facebook is corrosive. The way they make their money is eroding society.

If it’s free, you are the product.

All of these centralized platforms feasted on data & addiction. I was fortunate enough to build a company early on in this era, where the mass accumulation of potential customers in one place was more or less a brand builders dream!! Amazon did it one better by making their users actual shoppers.

It was a great run but this isn’t an appreciation post.

This is an acknowledgment that things are changing & change is has been needed. Jeff Bezos’ predicted innovators dilemma has arrived in the form of Blockchain Technology.

Within the span of 3 years, I’m becoming a father x2 and I can’t speak for all parents but the idea of Mark Zuckerberg & the Silicon Valley Centralists playing a role in my children’s cognitive development is creepy & unacceptable. As someone who grew up in this era & personally used all of the technologies as both an individual as well as a business operator, I feel compelled to help accelerate the next wave.

I’m currently operating a couple of consumer product brands in the grocery space. We are digitally native with a relatively strong presence on Amazon & Social Media but the decline of these centralized platforms already feels inevitable to me.

Anecdotally it feels like everyone has grown weary of divisiveness & screen time. Practically speaking, organic engagement has declined & ad costs haven’t been profitable for a year or two. They will continue to have their run & it will last much longer than I think anyone would like but to me, this signals a wonderful opportunity to foray into the future.

So, what is the future?

NFTs have garnered plenty of media attention as of late. Plenty of it negative with the general sentiment being that this is an unsustainable boom that will surely come crashing back to earth, I mean, kids don’t become multimillionaires because of monkey JPEGs, right?

On one hand they are right & having waded into the space over the past 6 months, the primary NFT buyer is a “degen gambler” - On the other hand, as the dust settles and things come crashing back to earth, it’s important to understand why this was even thrust into mainstream consciousness to begin with. It also shines some light on why Zuckerberg is betting the farm on “Meta”

Being able to transact on the internet without sharing personal information is a pillar in this revolution. Being able to prove ownership without sharing personal information is another. Security is the third.

Doesn’t that sound like the basis of human freedom?

Instead of supplying our (absurdly undervalued) data & information as the currency that enables the great centralizers to profiteer, secure networks will instead be powered by micro transactions (gas fees) that enable privacy & peer-to-peer operations.

How this all unfolds remains to be seen but I’d like to share my personal experience from our first foray into non-fungible tokens.

My Protein Bar Company’s Web3.0 Transition

Brief context on this company’s background. Chef Physique is a CPG Brand with a flagship protein bar! It’s a joint venture between my team & Sadik Hadzovic, a very popular bodybuilder! The general consumer here falls within the traditional bodybuilding demographic. They typically wear GymShark, take sports supplements and prioritize their physical aesthetics above many other things in life.

This means, most of their free time is spent getting a pump in the gym, planning out their meals or researching supplements that may help them achieve their goals faster.

The goal of our NFT project was to move towards a community of token-holders that could ultimately own a piece of the company.

There were other benefits as well, including lifetime 20% off our website, voting rights on future flavors & access to the inner circle within our Discord community.

While I still believe both the concept & project roadmap to be very strong, hindsight has identified 3 hurdles that limited our launch.

1.) Total lack of financial interest by our customary target demographic

2.) Lack of user friendliness & understanding within the blockchain ecosystem

3.) The barriers to acquiring cryptocurrency

Acknowledging Mistakes…

I stressed education throughout this entire process.

I didn’t promote on Twitter. I didn’t seek to create a hype storm. I thought the value was self evident & I spent an inordinate amount of time educating our community on why this technology is important (much like my talking points above).

The reality is, people aren’t going to do something if it’s too much work & if it’s not relevant to their interests, they are unlikely to be moved in any real capacity.

We should’ve opted for simplicity as well.

The process for an absolute to beginner to acquire Ethereum, set up a MetaMask, transfer ETH to that wallet & then mint an NFT was daunting, to say the least.

Removing that friction would’ve improved our initial results significantly. We sold about 25% of what I had hoped to sell.

Not awesome.

Where do we go from here?

This project was a good exercise in seeing just how far away this technology is from reshaping day-to-day life but I think it’s important to keep moving it forward regardless.

Some actionable items that might help others.

1.) Simplify the entire process, taking a payment in Shopify and manually sending a customer an NFT is much easier for them

2.) At the community level, really stress adding value to the individuals life in such a way that it makes them feel like they are apart of something

3.) Lean into the crypto native avenues and leverage those users to help build your community. The mix of traditional customers & crypto native individuals naturally accelerates the education process

It’s very much day 1 in this world & I’m looking forward to seeing it continually moved forward.

PS - The project is trading on OpenSea now, if anyone is interested

https://opensea.io/collection/club-physique