And what if I tell you that with NFTs you can do it?
Picture taken by me at El Purgatorio
I don’t know if it happened to you, but with my friends at various barbecues and gatherings we fantasized about opening our own bar. What would we call it, what cocktails would we sell, the location, and like good porteños, one’s was always better than the other’s. But let’s be honest, opening a bar and make it successful is something really hard to do. Especially for someone like me that the only thing that knows about a bar is how to have a good time in one.
Today I come to talk about one of my favorite projects, NFT Venues. If you follow me on twitter, you probably know I’m a fan, but if not, well now you know. Why? Glad you asked… firts things first.
What is NFT Venues?
At first it sounded complicated to me so I’m going to try to make it as simple as possible because I really believe that it can revolutionize the hospitality industry.
This was taken a month ago to show us how the bar is being builtNFT Venues is a company that aims to open bars and restaurants in different cities around the world in a fast and scalable way.
To open a bar you need two main pillars. The investment and the operation. Without one of the two it is impossible. And in many cases there are talented & capable people without investment and vice-versa.
Basically, what Venues solves is to obtain the funds through NFTs and outsource the operation to hospitality groups with experience in the sector. I see Venues as an umbrella that includes different independent bars.
Each new bar will have its own identity / branding and its own pfp collection, which will serve to raise part of the funds needed to open the bar and will have its own utilities like any pfp project.
How are they going to achieve it?
Before doing all the double clicking necessary to understand the Venues ecosystem, I want to start by talking about the team. A great friend of mine and an extremely talented content creator (Brendan Bald) in one of his videos explains that in NFTs you have to bet on the jockey and not on the horse. In other words, as incredible as a project might be, if the founding team isn’t good or doesn’t have experience, it’s not going to go anywhere. So let’s start with the founders:
Gastón Abramoff (AKA — DuckMaster) & Martín Brenna are two entrepreneurs with a lot of experience in managing bars. Both are founders of some of the best bars in Buenos Aires, if you don’t believe me, click on these links 😉 El Purgatorio, The Hole & J.W. bradley.
In addition to having a lot of experience in the hospitality field, Duck Master (it’s impossible for me to call him Gastón) is the founder of Nonconformist Ducks, which is a pfp collection that is more than 1 year old and is completely insane. Anyone who has entered the “Pond” is not going to let me lie.
One last point about the founders. I think that if you see the bars they made, you will realize that they are not just good quality bars where you drink and eat deliciously. They are experiences. Everyone has a concept that moves them and they do absolutely everything around that concept and the story they want to tell and make us feel.
NFTs from the ecosystem
Founders Pass:
It is the NFT of Venues with which you are part owner of the company. The benefits are:
Participate in the DAO that decides where and when the next bars will open.Every quarter, 10% of the revenue of ALL the bars in the ecosystem will be distributed to holders who actively promote Venues and/or bars (regardless of the number of followers)Discounts on the mints of each bar that opens in the futureFree drinks and discounts on consumption of existing bars (IRL)
There will only be 2000 (at 0.15 ETH) Founder Passes and more than 520 have already been minted with none listed. This shows the confidence that the community has in the project. I don’t know any project that has been minting since July and that does not have a secondary market. What I‘m trying to say is that the community that makes Venues is different, but we are going to talk about that later
My favorite Belle
I like to explain things with examples. As I said before, each bar in the ecosystem will have its own branding and collection of NFTs related to that branding. The first bar is going to be Rouge, inspired by Moulin Rouge & Paris Belle Epoque, it will be like Paris in Buenos Aires (just look at that windmill 🤯)
The Rouge collection is a 3000 pfps (at 0.088ETH), or Belles as we call them in the community, which allows you to partly own the bar. As I talked about in my previous article (in Spanish), pfps collections NEED to look for ways to generate external revenue and not depend purely and exclusively on the crypto market. Rouge fixes it from time 0.
To be clearer, the exclusive benefits you get for being a Rouge holder are:
Sushi and cocktail masterclasses with award-winning professionals in Latin America20% of the bar’s quarterly revenues are going to be distributed between holders, meeting certain promotional requirementsParticipate in giveaways of 6 incredible NFTs (Degen Toonz, Helix metaverse among others)If you mint one of the 5 Harolds, you’ll win a trip to Buenos Aires all expenses payed to the inauguration of Rouge in the beginning of February
I also clarify that if you are (or live) in Buenos Aires you have discounts, free drinks. You are one of the owners, don’t forget
Rouge Roadmap
Community
What initially attracted me to Venues were all the utilities it offers and the potential it has. But the community is something just as unique. If you rush me, it’s the best part of the project.
Explaining communities is tricky because it is a very personal experience, but let’s put things in context.
NFT Venues started their mint in July and Rouge at the end of November. You don’t have to know this, but they were two of the worst times of the year to launch a collection. Is like opening a sex shop in front of a church. Free mints were booming and releasing two projects with “expensive” mint prices is not the best thing let’s say.
Adding to it that most of the projects that were previously inaccessible, lowered their floor price a lot, making new projects have not only more competition, but also a lower roof because a collection that is one year old with 30k ETH in traded volume gives much more security. , than a project that is just coming out.
And despite all this, within the more than 1000 mints (between the two collections) there are almost 0 listings. What does this tell you?
That people trust the project in the long term. Why would you sell something for a little more now, when you know it’s an asset that has the potential to give you passive income forever? And we know this because we studied the project, we get together every Friday at Founder’s Friday to talk about the project and its progress.
The community is built around a project, a goal, and for me it says a lot that in the face of so much noise, people take the time to understand something completely new, complex but with the potential to disrupt both the hospitality and NFT industry.
If I have to define it, it is a mix between smart investors with a business mind and hedonistic foodies.
OG Harold
To close I am going to answer a question that many ask me.
What should I mint a Founder Pass or Rouge?
The best is always both, but if you can only mint one, then it depends.
If you like to have a pfp with good art, play with the traits, learn to make incredible sushi and/or cocktails (not to mention if you live in Buenos Aires) and participate in giveaways, then I would go with Rouge.
If, on the other hand, you prefer to be part of the DAO, decide on the next bars (branding, location, etc) and take part of the profits from each bar, then I would go with the Founder Pass.
Let’s wrap up
I do not expect that with this article you will run to your wallet and start minting. I’m happy if I added value to you and if you didn’t know about this project and now you are curious. I am just a member of the community who truly believes in the vision of the founders. If you have any doubts, join one of our Founder’s Fridays or simply send me a DM to my Twitter or join the discord. The information is there and the community is super welcoming.
Cheers!🥂🎩🍾
