MetaVault: Feb 2nd Town Hall Recap
This is MetaVault, the best way to keep up with the Pixel Vault universe: PUNKS Comic, MetaHero, United Planets, $PUNKS, $POW, and lots of DAOs.
Before jumping into the post, a quick reminder that I launched the MetaVault podcast with my co-host, Brad Barrett. Every week we dive into the latest alpha and project dynamics with frens from the company and community. In anticipation of the Elite Ape Week, our next pod will feature an Elite Ape to talk about the BAYC community and collaborating with Pixel Vault. Super excited about this one!
And remember, you can always find me on Twitter and via email.
There have been a few PV Town Halls that were Moments for the company. The Moon Exploit. The adidas x Gmoney x BAYC partnership. The 15-minute mint out of Punks Comic #2. BeanieGate. That time the Scottish guy told us all about his Digital Museum.
But this one takes the cake. A lot of the drama swirling around PV for the past 9 months was released. GFunk likely felt 15 pounds lighter afterwards. And the community got a great introduction to the new VC investors (who are also PV collectors!).
Quick shoutout to BCheque for live tweeting the Town Hall. This guy’s skill are out of this world. Highly recommend a follow.
PV + VC
GFunk: we have officially announced an investment from Velvet Sea Ventures and 01A of $100 million into Pixel Vault helping us finalize the formation that has been underway for many months. The new Pixel Vault Inc., a Delaware C Corp, now maintains control over all Pixel Vault IP, and all of the NFTs that we've recaptured as part of Beanie’s exit from the company.
For those of you following along, you probably saw it happening over the weekend. All of those assets now sit in the corporate multi-sig. The 1,000 Founder’s DAO tokens, 385 Mint Passes, 150+ Comic #1, etc… are now safely back with the community, with Pixel Vault Inc.
And we have lots in store for those tokens, some interesting mechanics that we're planning with the MetaHeroes for Comic #3, which will be the introduction of the MetaHero Universe.
Adam, Dick, and Laz have been incredible partners. From the outset, we had been somewhat hesitant to take “VC money.” But what drew me to working with these three guys is that they're operators, they've built businesses, and they really believe in this space and the long term vision for Pixel Vault to be the first decentralized entertainment company. And they're not coming in with any leg up on the company itself. They're truly joining us as partners in every sense of the word: myself, all of our employees who now have equity in the business, and then these great investors with proven track records to help us get where we need to go quickly.
Pixel Vault Inc.
GFunk: The money that we've raised today is for the purpose of reforming this business and setting us up with a runway as we move forward and try to build quickly and efficiently.
During this process, we've had conversations with a number of other investors that that we think will be valuable. And we're still midstream in these conversations. So because because of that, we can't really jeopardize those conversations, which will be very beneficial for the community.
So I can't speak to to the ultimate valuation today. But if you think we're just building this to be a unicorn, obviously you are greatly underestimating the vision for Pixel Vault. We are going to change the way that media is consumed and how people are able to actually interact with brands and an IP that they love.
So our aspirations are greater than ever. And now we have the resources and connections to help us execute. We've obviously been very profitable to date. But given those large goals in traditional media, whether it be film and television, or gaming, those come with significant capital expenditures. And speed is a priority.
We have a significant runway now with some of these legacy media businesses, but make no mistake, they will be coming. And so making sure we execute today while we have the advantage. Focusing first and foremost, on providing ourselves with the resources, both from a human capital and financial perspective, to execute on our large vision.
I won't really be able to speak much to Beanie’s exit. But you can be sure that no funds were used at the expense of the community. We have a lot of resources allocated through different treasuries. And for those of you keeping track on the blockchain, ignore any FUD. It's there. Unmistakable, immutable, none of those funds were obviously touched. So we are certainly well capitalized to move forward with all of our plans. And now we have an even stronger team to back us and much, much, much news still to come.
Let’s Welcome the VC Partners
Laz: I think it was 267 days ago, 19 hours, I bought 10 Comics, number 105 to 114, if I remember correctly. And just the dork in me and NFT fan thought it was super cool. And fast forward, not only I’m an active collector with tons of stuff, but I've just seen a team execute. And so when we Sean (GFunk) reached out, I was advising already. And he needed some help. Obviously, as a entrepreneur myself, I went all in.
And we're in good hands. I've worked really closely over the last few months. Frankly, I've seen a lot of great entrepreneurs. I've seen Twitter built, which we're on today. And in all these big platforms, I've built really big businesses. Great entrepreneurs, they shine like a pile of diamonds. And that's what Sean has done to form the company and to give the community a chance to succeed at the highest level.
I am super pumped. But at the end of the day, I'm just a community member here to help Sean as everyone is, and look forward to continuing and meeting many of you…
We know a lot of people and companies work because they have the right people in the right positions. They have the right networks, so we can accelerate his vision by getting him into the right rooms. And we can clear obstacles. And one of the biggest obstacles that he had was a misaligned partnership group where I can confidently say very few firms would have taken on the challenge.
You have to understand the business, you have to understand the market, you have to have access to $100 million. We throw around these numbers. $100 million is a boatload of cash. And so when he needed something done, we stepped up and got it done. And our role is really just to support the team. We don't want to run the business. We just want to be there for the hairiest issues. So Shawn and the team can go back to focusing on the business and that's all that matters.
Adam: this community is beyond bonkers, amazing. My @ replies and DMs have been crunked all morning. And I've been involved in businesses that have reached human scale. But actually haven't felt the love and real connectivity from a community like this in a really long time. So anyway, I'm just blown away by it all.
What we're super excited about is the ambition of the team and of this project in general. The ambitions here are absolutely massive. And you can't help but get excited about getting behind that type of ambition. Overall, there's a crazy unique differentiation. And it's that this collection is driven by story and narrative. And I think that really speaks to all of us, because all of us as people love a great story.
But most of all, just the engagement of this community, it's it's super powerful. Lurking in the discord for for a while over the last weeks and months, it's just been amazing to see. It's an easy decision, because you basically are investing in the community. And then, our goal ultimately is just to keep asking the question, how do we continue to increase value for the community?
A little on Adam’s background:
I came to Twitter in 2010, when it was less than 100 people, one office location in San Francisco and zero in revenue. And together with Dick, we took the company from 80 people to about 8500 people, in a couple years. We went from zero to $2B in revenue faster than almost any other consumer internet company on the planet. Took Twitter public in 2013, and ran a public company for a bit. And so our focus has been taking those lessons that we learned around building a real company.
You know, the point that we came into Twitter, it was an amazing product. It was time to take it from being an amazing product into an amazing business and company. And so we started 01A after I left Twitter, for this exact purpose, when we realized most people in VC haven't actually built anything before. We wanted to build something for operators by operators, because we feel like we have a good way to relate to the same sort of problems and struggles. What makes us unique in terms of how we can help, if we do our job, we're a massive resource for the team. In taking what's an amazing product already, and an amazing community, and continue to build that out at hopefully human scale beyond where it is even today.
Pixel Vault… Studios?
GFunk: You can think about it as a studio for web 3.0. What we're looking to do, and I think what really differentiates us from most other collections in the space is that, we've focused it all on story and the creation of really high quality IP. So at the get go, that's Punks Comic and MetaHero.
But as we move forward, there will be a whole bunch of ecosystems that sit under the Pixel Vault umbrella. And so trying to empower both creators and community to bring really powerful IP to life.
People that have asked about the game, and I constantly say, “the game started on May 10, right?” Finding ways for people to interact with content in a compelling way that not only drives value to the business, but drives value to the community, and collaborators that are working to build this vision alongside of us.
So we're always going to focus on the creation of very high quality content, working with the best artists and actors, musicians in the world. And try to bring something to life with community involvement.
Web2 created sort of this environment where the consumer is the product, right? Well, in Web3, this can be a much more unified ecosystem where value is spread across the chain. I really look forward to the opportunity in shaping this narrative and IP alongside the community. There's no reason that a studio structure needs to be a negative thing, right? If we sort of cut out middlemen, and empower community, give people direct access to creators, I think truly amazing things can happen.
We're building a massive studio across multiple sectors, right? Film, television, and gaming. And we are starting with a Web3 team at the center. So we have proven our ability to execute in this space, I think we have initiated more creative thought processes than most projects. Whether it be staking and burning, which has now sort of become commonplace or the mint pass or the other sort of fun tokenomics that we put in place. I feel incredibly confident in our ability to continue to execute in this Web3 environment.
And now is really where we sort of branch out into the mainstream. And myself having grown up in the entertainment space, I feel very confident in our ability to surround ourselves, actually, through the help of Adam and Laz, with some of the greatest creative minds in the world.
We're in the process of putting together an advisory board that I think would impress anyone. And focusing on creating just great content, that's what it all comes down to. So I feel very confident in our ability to execute in the realms of film and television, but gaming is new to me. So you know, reaching out to resources like the Virtunaut, a handful of others from from this space. Mama Dukes' husband, works at Bethesda. He's been in gaming and has been a great resource for us. Building through a very Web3-native group of people. There are so many amazing minds in this space, and everyone is sort of working towards this common goal.
PVDAO
Jacob: Creating a DAO out of a company is a clear security, right. So distribution of a token that represents shares in a traditional C Corp would have to be compliant with securities laws. You'll never see that. It hasn't been done by a company and it won't be done by a company. Unless the securities laws change.
Something that we've talked about is building out the DAO structure separate from Pixel Vault Inc and creating different revenue streams that the community is actually involved in creating. So it removes that passive investment, which is the concern under securities laws, and really gets the community involved in finding ways that they can use this open source IP and other avenues to create revenue streams.
GFunk: The idea is putting in place ecosystems that allow the community in a very real way to make an impact on the direction of projects and companies. That was a core reason why Jacob joined. We want to find every way for this community to help drive forward the course of this business. And certainly, we're going to remain on the cutting edge of everything, so long as we do it compliantly.
Gamified Staking
Virtunaut: First and foremost, the plan for the game is to be fun for everyone, not just for whales. We don't want whales being the ones that extract all the value and fun of the game. The game is also not intended to just have a collection of $POW that is withdrawn and then it's “game over.” We'll think of round two and come at you when that's ready. You know, we have plans for the game to be more cyclical and have a much longer tail for the game.
We're trying to think through how do we let people play who don't own a MetaHero? Or if they just have a Sidekick? Or what about a planet? Can I play this game with my planet? So we want to certainly include the whole community of Pixel Vault token holders. How do we let the community of human beings that aren't Pixel Vault token holders play the game?
We're currently staffing up to build this game. There's about six more positions we're trying to fill. Then we'll be off to the races building what I think is a cool, compelling defi game.
United Planets DAO (UPDAO)
Ned asked a great question on how PV might return revenue to planet holders. Jacob’s answer:
Jacob: A lot of that stuff has to be worked out. We have the vision of where we want it to be. And we're currently in the process of putting that in place. So, step one is getting the actual DAOs on chain and allowing them to have mechanics to vote and participate in certain discourse. Any on-chain distribution of revenues earned by the game would have to be approved by the DAO. And they may want a different direction, right? Maybe one planet wants to actually use those funds to buy land of another planet, or distribute back to them. Pixel Vault Inc will not be making that decision alone. It'll be involved with the community. And we just got to get those guardrails in place for that to happen. And that's something that we're actively working on.
Elite Ape Coins & Special Edition Mints
VGF: Entry coin holders will need to maintain ownership of those coins within the wallet that was taken in the snapshot to be eligible for the drop next week. So because there because we are using chain link to randomize the order of eligibility, you are going to want to maintain the same number of coins in that wallet as you intend on minting.
GFunk: Once the snapshot is taken, about a day before the actual drop, we're going to publish what minting window you'll have eligibility to mint from and then you'll need to burn one of these coins to get access to the mint. So theoretically, you could sell and rebuy but keep in mind, you will need to maintain access to one of these tokens for the drop which will be taking place in the next week to 10 days.
Misc
Physical Claim of Comic #1. Cases for all comics are ready. Claim should be this month!
Origin Stories #1. Release seems to be moved to later in the month (wonder if this is because Coinbase will have have their NFT platform up and running?!). While the mint is exclusive to PVFD holders, PV will make about 800 available to Punks Comic #1 and #2 holders using their recently re-acquired stash of PVFD tokens from Beanie. Not sure if you have to own both Comic #1 AND #2, or you’d be eligible if you own either.
Some Disclaimers: None of this is financial advice. DYOR. And yes, I’m obviously a PV collector and long-term hodlr. Not a whale by any measure (maybe a squid?).