Let’s Build Together
As I sit here and write this there is a lot of uncertainty about the future.
One of Crypto’s indestructible companies, FTX was brought to its knees by over-leveraging itself.
While 180 year old financial institution Lehman brothers failed, start-ups including Uber and Airbnb were creating a brand new industry affectionately known as the sharing economy.
The share economy was able to unlock untold value in people’s time using inventory that would normally sit idle.
Similarly, Blockchain unlocked a peer-based monetary network founded on the principal of decentralization.
Both are game-changing new forms of technology that have and will continue to transform the world.
Both Blockchain and the share economy were invented after the 2008 collapse; at the worst possible moment.
But was it?
In September, famed venture capitalist Bill Gurley wrote an article on McKinsey Quarterly about why now will be the best time to start a company in the next 15 years.
From less competition to better credit options and inexpensive supplies and materials, starting a company in a recession has its advantages.
With that backdrop, there are two moves Probably Nothing needs to make as a project to ensure we come out of the other side of this bear as a top Web3 brand.
Conserve cash and Raise funds.
But before I dive deep into these, let me back up for a second and talk about how we can build together.
On Open Source Business (OSB)
It’s hard to make OSB a reality when what you’re working on is happening in stealth mode.
This has been our conundrum at Probably Nothing. Everyone started following us because of our transparency and I’ll admit we were way more transparent than most projects. However, the one thing we couldn’t be transparent about is what we have been working on.
We needed to keep things as close to the chest as possible until we were absolutely ready to come out publicly. This ensured we didn’t give away too much to the competition until we were absolutely ready.
However that chapter will be coming to a close as we reveal our product on November 29th at the Metaverse Miami VIP party.
After that, we plan on putting together a community council to work with us closely on major product decisions. If you are interested in joining please contact us.
Building in stealth has necessitated us to make a number of key decisions internally as a team, but this is not how we believe a true Web3 native company should operate.
It’s time to do this right.
It’s time to build from the bottom up.
It’s time to take advantage of this paradigm shift where the community can be the customer, end user, financier, partner, the PR agent, and the marketing firm, at any given time.
We decided against raising traditional funding so that we can remain autonomous and only accountable to the community.
We’re starting to see the formation of a completely new type of enterprise, one that leverages NFT technology as proof-of-membership.
In this new world, like minded individuals get together and rally around common interests, buying into their membership. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure the project is a success.
With the old way of doing things, customers had to sit back and rely on the team to get everything done outside of the occasional user conference.
But in Web3, your community has all kinds of hidden talents. We’re expected to not only vote with our wallets, but participate within the ecosystem in a variety of ways.
One of the ways the Probably Nothing community can contribute will be tied directly to our product, which gives anyone a chance to be rewarded for contributing their time and effort.
Probably Nothing is leveraging on-chain technology to unlock the full potential of each and every one of you.
Web3 is an experiment in building businesses at light speed. The only way this is possible is by doing it with the community. This is the competitive advantage we have on Web2 and we designed our product around these principles.
Building together means different things to different people, but what it means to this project is being involved with your time, your skills, your amplification, or by helping fund our future together.
You will soon find out about the skill sets we will be looking for at launch, but for now let’s discuss how we’re going to fund this.
Conserve Cash:
As seasoned entrepreneurs we understand nothing is more important than cash flow.
It’s the life blood of a company.
In order to get to cash flow positivity, we have gone into boot-strap mode.
Some of the team have stopped taking compensation altogether, and others are working at below-market rates. We are also personally covering half of the costs for the reveal party in Miami.
To date, we have taken a token first-approach to fundraising by leveraging ERC-20 mechanics and will deliver an MVP in the near term. We need to conserve cash while growing our audience and making some noise for active members of the Web3 community.
With our connections and willingness to make sacrifices, we will have our brand in front of everyone within the next two weeks.
Raising Funds:
As soon as possible we want to launch our subscription service to drive towards cash flow positivity. To get to this point, we must fund this next leg of our journey. Our goal is to raise $500k through the sale of an ERC-721 token, a first for this project.
Broader market dynamics aside, the timing makes sense as we begin releasing a product designed for digital asset collectors… namely NFTs.
To kick off this process, we are announcing additional utility for the Probably Nothing Genesis NFT gifted to all long-term holders back in June 2022 as a token of our appreciation for supporting the project. At the time, we introduced a multitude of benefits and are now excited to share the pro-rata distribution of 25,000,000 $PRBLY tokens to Genesis NFT holders who stake their NFTs. These rewards will be available for up to 12 months or until our product goes live on the App Stores (whichever comes first).
Shortly thereafter, we will be releasing subscription passes to access Product Ø.
Product Access
Our current product launch strategy includes two tiers of service: free and premium (aka paid). We are exploring different options for how to offer the free tier of service; it may be time-limited, feature reduced, or employ some other mechanism that allows people to try out the app before making a purchase.
Access to the premium version of the product will come in a number of different ways and through various avenues that may evolve over time. As of this writing, here is our plan (subject to change as the product evolves and the community comes closer to the work):
Beta testing will be available to:
- All members of any $PRBLY holder tier, starting at 10k Bronze
- Holders of a Probably Nothing Genesis NFT (gNFT)
- Holders of a forthcoming product Genesis NFT
Once the app officially launches in both the Apple App and Google Play Stores, we will sell subscription access through a combination of in-app purchases and NFTs. Both $PRBLY and gNFT holders will be granted varying levels of access. Here is an example of the model we have in mind (subject to change):
- Silver Tier PRBLY Holders (50k+): 2 months of free access
- Gold Tier PRBLY Holders (100k+): 3 months of free access
- Platinum Tier PRBLY Holders (500k+): 4 months of free access
- Diamond Tier PRBLY Holders (1M+): 5 months of free access
- Genesis NFT Holders: 6 months of free access
Note: gNFT holders can combine their holder tier benefits with their gNFT to receive additional free access. For example, a Diamond Tier PRBLY holder with over 1M PRBLY tokens and a gNFT would receive a total of 11 months of free product access in this model.
Access to the product via holder tiers is a limited-time benefit. We will be taking a snapshot of wallets and holder tiers at some point prior to launch of the app, and closing the opportunity for access via holder tiers at that time. You must maintain at least your current holder tier at time of the snapshot to continue to receive access.
What’s next?
We are mere days away from taking the next major step in this experiment we call Web3 and have something truly meaningful to offer this space. Thank you to the community for your support thus far and welcome to those who are learning about us now. We are excited to have you here and build with you.
If you are ready to build together, become part of the IP by joining the Probably Nothing community on Discord. You can also sign up for product updates and ensure you never miss the next drop.
