I messed up...

I'm happy I messed up...

Lately I've been focusing on small experiments. Trying out small ideas, learning, and applying those lessons.

My latest experiment was an open edition called the "Vrbs Coffee Beta." Minters would be able to redeem a bag of coffee and unlock lifetime discounts on future Vrbs Coffee products.

Of course I would have preferred things to go perfectly, but if it had to fail, I'm glad it failed during a beta-version. I mean, I called it beta for a reason, right? There were bugs to find.

As it turned out, my token-gated redemption was not compatible with the open edition I released, oops! So now I'm here, writing this essay.

curtiscoffee

@curtiscoffeew

Transparency time, I made a mistake…

I recently launched the Vrbs Coffee Beta as an open edition on Zora. Each NFT was promised to be redeemable for a free bag of coffee and lifetime discounts.

The mistake: Zora open edition mints are ERC-1155 tokens (each has the same ID).…

11

3:54 PM • May 20, 2024

Failing is to entrepreneurship as breathing is to living. Small consistent experiments allow me to fail small and learn big. My mistake with the Vrbs Coffee Beta is completely recoverable (airdrop a compatible token to the minters), but it highlights the spirit of the entrepreneurship process. In order to reap its rewards, you must be willing to take risk and fail publicly.

"Embrace accountability, and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage."

Naval Ravikant

So here's to more experiments, and more failures!

I'm not some doomsayer, screaming on the street corner about the end of reality as we know it. In fact, I'd say I'm more of a preacher, passionately discussing my faith in a better future, and the future is here...

I know what you're thinking, but no, it's not AI. Sorry, but there will be no new chatbot or image generator today. I'm talking about the future of loyalty programs. Starbucks pioneered this when they launched Odyssey, an extension of their loyalty program, powered by Web3 technology.

You may or may not be familiar with the program, but that doesn't matter, all you need to know is that it allows the customer to collect "Journey Stamps" (NFTs) that unlock access to additional benefits and experiences. The NFT Staircase Model categorizes this as "Ownership" and "Utility."

"So Curtis, why is this the future?"

I'm getting to the point with haste, just give me a second...

The symbiotic nature of ownership in customer acquisition

"A vampire attack takes place when a new project or protocol... provides improved incentives or rewards for users compared to the original."

Daniel Phillips

It's very easy to assume that customer engagement is a zero sum game. That every customer acquired is a loss for someone else. In Web3, it's not that simple.

Let's look at Starbucks Odyssey as an example. Traditional loyalty program data is private, but Starbucks Odyssey is public on the blockchain. There are over 5,000 owners of the Starbucks Odyssey Avatar NFTs. This means I can find public information about all 5,000 of these customers (their wallet address) and send them incentives to switch from Starbucks to y00ts Coffee (sounds farfetched, but it's possible).

If we abide by the traditional definition of Vampire Attacks, this would be a negative for Starbucks. In The Everything Token, authors Scott and Steve argue otherwise.

By offering Utility to owners of the Starbucks Odyssey Avatar Collection, I'm actually increasing the value of their NFTs. If multiple coffee companies have this same idea, now it feels like owning a Starbucks NFT is extremely valuable and beneficial to the customer.

This position means that in use cases like Odyssey, Vampire Attacks are mutually beneficial: I get some new customers and the original NFTs increase in value.

Vampire Attacks in my strategy

I plan to use these mutually beneficial vampire attacked in the launch of the y00ts Coffee Bar. Not just with Starbucks NFTs but every Web3 Coffee Company I can find...this is going to be fun!

Win a FREE copy of The Everything Token

I believe this book is essential reading for anyone that is Web3 native or curious. It is the guide on how all brands will operate in the future. I have such strong feelings for this book that I'm giving away one copy for free.

Here are the 2 rules to enter the giveaway:

1. Collect this article

   Collect

2. Share this article on X (Twitter) and tag me (@curtiscoffeew)

   Share

Good Luck!

I've been not-so-patiently waiting for this moment: packaging for the y00ts coffee bar has finally been manufactured, and you get to see it before the timeline does!

Believe it or not, I actually designed the packaging myself, which was much more difficult than I imagined. So, go hug a designer when you have a free moment, they deserve it.

In this newsletter I'll go over the process of designing a packaging label from scratch, show you an early draft compared to the final, and try to explain why on Earth I was dumb enough to try to design this myself.

Design Iteration

The easiest part of this design was the graphic. This is a coffee bar for all people, not just NFT lovers. With this in mind, unlike our coffee beans, I didn't want to use someone's PFP as the main product image. I made the graphic in Midjourney in about 5 minutes (AI is awesome!).

I also had to consider factors like fonts, use of color, and details like underlining the word "coffee."

The colors orange and brown felt the most aesthetic and coffee-esque. Font was also made a lot easier for me when the y00ts brand released a kit with guidelines!

Is the design perfect? No. But I learned a lot in the process, and also spent zero dollars outsourcing. In these early days as a startup, every dollar matters, and I believed I could come up with a clean and simple, yet effective, package for our coffee bar.

So let me know, did I crush it, or did I take an L?

Reply with your feedback on the final packaging design!

Startup Founders wear many hats

This process has made something abundantly clear to me. To run a startup, you have to be willing to wear multiple hats. When problems arise, you can't say, "Oh, that's not my job." Everything is your job.

Packaging Design? Your job.

Contract negotiations? Your job.

Marketing? Your job. (In Web3, the community plays a pivotal role here)

To be willing to do the dirty work, you truly need to believe in yourself and your vision.

Thanks for reading, please let me know if you found this article interesting and want more building in public content!

A small but very meaningful milestone for me: My PFP will be featured on a coffee bag! When I first started this journey I only dreamed of one day having my own coffee brand. The day came much sooner than I expected!

We've completely redesigned our coffee labels, and I'm lucky to be featured (or at least have my PFP featured) on one of the designs! Check it out and let me know what you think!

p.s. Collect this article and you'll get 20% off the Mexico Catimor Coffee featured below!

Scale: Required to Succeed

"The Coffee Experiment" is a grassroots effort to successfully launch a product and build a coffee business in public. I increasingly want to involve the community in this process. Already I've given away ten y00ts Coffee Bars for free, and offered a 20% discount on our Smile Club Ethiopian Coffee.

We can do even more together...

1. Referral Bonus: Paragraph has a built in process to reward newsletter referrals. Want to help me scale and pad your wallet at the same time? All you have to do is modify the following link by adding your wallet address where prompted. Anytime someone subscribes or collects via your link, you get a bonus:

   paragraphy.xyz/@thecoffeeexperiment?referrer=ADDYOURWALLETADDRESSHERE

2. Guest Writers: To provide new perspectives and value, I will be having guest writers featured in this newsletter. To incentivize incredible authors, I'll send the bonus from article collections directly to the contributor's wallet. (If you believe you have value or insight to contribute, please shoot me a message!)

3. Discounts/Special Offers/Utility: I will continue to offer discounts and special offers to collectors of The Coffee Experiment. I'm also looking for opportunities to collaborate with other communities on "Utility."

y00ts Coffee Bar Update

I've been itching to share mockups with you, but unfortunately I am still waiting on the manufacturer and our partners after a few production delays. Once I have these mockups in hand, that's when the starting gun is fired and I'll be working on marketing efforts 24/7.

I won't promise a specific launch date, because there are things outside my control, but I'm so excited to show you this product! I'm extremely proud of what we've built so far, and this is just the beginning.

Thanks for reading!

Please help me scale and reach more coffee lovers out there!

If you love coffee, and want to support me on this startup journey, share this post with a friend!

Share

I won't claim to predict or be the authority on the future of decentralized social media, but I know one thing, I wish I joined Farcaster sooner.

Especially after seeing the rapid development of Frames! I've seen these interactive in-feed apps used for minting NFTs, reading newsletters (I'll post this on Farcaster, you can read inline without being booted to an external link), and even ecommerce.

I'll be experimenting on this rapidly growing platform for a few reasons:

1. I think it's here to stay. Traditional social media is heavily centralized, and people are craving a change.

2. I can post these newsletters as Frames (two birds with one stone, I can create connections on Farcaster and potentially drive traffic to The Coffee Experiment)

3. Frames also make it possible to shop inline.

If you're reading this on Paragraph, you can find me on Farcaster as @curtiscoffee.eth

If you're reading this as a Frame, hey there ;)

The NFT Staircase Model*

Let's take a trip down memory lane...

You started a group chat with all your friends and disaster struck. One of them hit send and a green text bubble appeared. Instantly, the vibes were destroyed, and you began to question the entire friendship. "How could a friend of mine have such poor taste and judgement?"

iMessage isn't just Apple's in-house blue-colored messaging app. It's a part of people's identity, and strengthens the iPhone community while simultaneously weakening the competition. While Apple clearly demonstrates the power of "Identity" and "Community" in building a brand, The NFT Staircase allows for Web3 brands to grow like iMessage on steroids.

The first step, "Ownership," is the clear distinction between Web2 and Web3. It is ownership that drives incentive alignment and allows for the delivery of utility. For example, ownership of my first Paragraph post, "Welcome to The Coffee Experiment," unlocked the utility of a free y00ts coffee bar, and kickstarted this journey.

Ownership also unlocks a deeper sense of identity. In the case of profile picture (pfp) NFTs, people make the token their entire digital identity. This is much more than a green text message, this is deep psychological ownership of a small piece of the greater brand identity.

"Once you become part of someone's identity, they're much more likely to stick with your products through thick and thin."

Maybe I haven't convinced you yet...

This connection between Ownership and Identity is how I became Chief Coffee Officer of y00ts Coffee! Because I owned the token y00t #4393, I had a strong affinity to the brand, it became my digital identity, and I formed deep connections within the community. Those connections led me to meeting other y00ts holders that had started a coffee company!

The next step from here is "Evolution" which I'll dive into fully in the next post. Evolution is really the core principle behind The Coffee Experiment.

*Source: The Everything Token (incredible book, I highly recommend you go read!)

Progress Update

I've now made it extremely public that I'll be documenting the process of running a coffee company and launching a new product. I posted this video as another effort to spread the word, and accidentally created my highest engagement post to date...

curtiscoffee.eth

@curtiscoffeew

I’ve never been comfortable in front of the camera, but there is something that overrides that discomfort…

My passion for building a career in coffee and Web3.

When you’re obsessed with your mission, small discomforts become meaningless. You’ll do whatever it takes…

135

6:18 PM • Feb 3, 2024

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more updates on The Coffee Experiment!

Intro to the NFT Staircase

I started The Coffee Experiment because I believe that people that take advantage of Web3 benefits early will change how business is done forever. As Steve Kaczynski and Scott Duke Kominers wrote in their new book, The Everything Token, "NFTs and Web3 will transform the way we buy, sell, and create."

More and more people are coming to this realization, myself included.

My key takeaway from The Everything Token is The NFT Staircase Model, or the five principles of NFT strategy that will build the future Nikes, Red Bulls, and Apples of the World.

In The Coffee Experiment I will be using all five of these principles (Ownership, Utility, Identity, Community, and Evolution) to launch a coffee product and amplify shared brand values through the Web3 network effect. The idea is that through these five steps of the staircase, will allow me to build something greater with the community (you) than I could build by myself, or as renowned internet artist Jack Butcher says...

Jack Butcher

@jackbutcher

the combination of your efforts and the amplification of your shared values (that you were only able to discover via your appreciation for a specific aesthetic)

allow you to build things (actual or metaphysical) that are greater than something you could build by yourself

92

1:30 PM • Feb 1, 2024

Progress Update

1. Labels for the y00ts Coffee Bar have begun printing and should be sent to our packaging facility by the end of February!

2. Product Mockups are being finalized over the coming days, this will allow me to really ramp up my marketing push.

3. Marketing Strategy being developed. The beauty of the NFT Staircase is that I can gain some real traction from the existing y00ts network. I want to get the bar in as many hands as possible and see photos flooding the timeline.

4. Newsletter growth: 5 people have collected a copy of "Welcome to The Coffee Experiment" which unlocks a FREE y00ts coffee bar upon launch. The first edition of the newsletter received a 100% open rate (shoutout to you early subscribers!) and 86 page views. Not bad for my first at bat!

Bonus!

My goal is to continue providing you with updates as we approach the launch day, and reward you for supporting me whenever possible!

In the first newsletter I gave away free coffee bars (like a chocolate bar but with coffee...). There are still 5 available, so make sure you collect before it's too late!

Collectors of this newsletter will receive a 20% discount on y00ts Coffee's Smile Club Ethiopian.

https://y00ts.0x.shop

Smile Club Ethiopian

The subtropical climate of the Haru, Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia and heirloom variety give this coffee a delicious, delicate, floral, and citrus quality. In collaboration with Smile Club, this limited edition coffee also unlocks special perks!

My only ask of you, please share this newsletter with your coffee lover friends. Together we can shape this into something really special!

Sincerely,

Curtis

The Coffee Experiment is exactly that, an experiment. I'm going to execute ideas quickly, iterate quickly, and document the process as I launch the "y00ts coffee bar" (sort of like a chocolate bar, so I guess you could call me the Willy Wonka of Web3).

This product even existing is a testament to the power of Web3. It was not too long ago when I was just a community member. My love for coffee led me to cold DM'ing as many Web3 Coffee Companies as I could find.

Those cold DM's unlocked opportunities that I hadn't even imagined, like becoming the face of the y00ts Coffee brand and making many of the macro-level decisions.

A simple hobby became so much more just because I asked the question, and seized the opportunity.

Okay yeah, cool, whatever. What now?

If you're reading this you have the opportunity to see this experiment's journey from start to finish, and get rewarded in the process!

This article is collectible, meaning you can own 1 of 10 "Welcome to The Coffee Experiment" NFTs. These 10 NFTs will be redeemable for a free coffee bar through our token-gated store.

Content you can expect moving forward:

• Inside look at the marketing campaign development

• Designing the label for the coffee bar

• Securing cool utility through the Web3 network effect

• Conversations about coffee

• and more... like I said, this is an experiment, if something works I'll double down, if something doesn't I'll adapt!

Thank you for joining me on this journey, feedback is always encouraged, I want to build this with you.

Sincerely,

The Willy Wonka of Web3