This past June at NFT NYC, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian made a surprise remote appearance to announce the latest company his VC, 776, has launched a lead round of funding. Enabled by technology, it has the potential to become a global entertainment brand. Given that Ohanian has been investing in the cryptocurrency space for over a decade, it’s not a prediction to take lightly.
The company is Doodles, a collection of sherbet-colored cartoon characters that has skyrocketed the charts since its launch last October, becoming one of the top NFT projects today.
Doodles counts NFT influencers and celebrities like Pranksy and DJ Steve Aoki as part of its community. (Ohanian himself owns “a good number,” which reminds him of his five-year-old daughter Olympia, and 776 recently announced it had closed a $54.5 million funding round, bringing Doodles’ valuation to $700 million. Not bad for his NFT project in a bear market.
“Doodles is strongly positioned to continue to define the NFT industry, bring millions of people on the blockchain and be one of the most inclusive, creative and fun media brands since Web3. We believe the future holds incredible possibilities far beyond NFTs.”
What many NFT holders and creators are thinking is how to elevate digital images to more than social media flex. Of course, the grim backdrop to the race to Hollywood and beyond is that his NFT market is still struggling to find a foothold in a volatile market. The Doodles team explains how they are navigating rocky waves to expand Doodles into the next generation entertainment empire.
colorful past
Doodles is the brainchild of co-founders Evan Keast, Jordan Castro, and Scott Martin. Dapper Labs alumni Keast and Castro played a key role in the development of the company’s groundbreaking 2018 game, Cryptokitties, which allows users to breed a digital cat as his NFT. But as 2021 culminated, the two began imagining what his NFT project would look like on their own. It is, as Keast puts it, “expanding space” in a community-centered way with a communal treasury and a genuine sense of equity. .
“In early 2021, there was a ton of NFT projects announced, but there wasn’t a lot of transparency,” says Keast regarding token allocation and ensuring fair drops.
Equally important was finding a distinctive look for the collection.
The Profile Picture (PFP) project has played a key role in driving the NFT market in a landslide. According to NFT analytics platform NFTGo, PFP has a market capitalization of $13.3 billion, with the second closest category of collectibles at just $3 billion.
Creating a character that could make it into a market dominated by lethargic apes and pixelated punks was a daunting task, entrusted to artist and animator Scott Martin.
While Keast and Castro were brainstorming ideas, Keast had the opportunity to consult with Martin for a Web3 company. With bold contours, bright colors, and eyes that are hard to stick to his face, Martin’s cartoonish character has already earned a decent following on his social media and clients like Google, DropBox, and Adobe. was
With NFT developer West Coast NFTs providing the tech infrastructure and Martin’s whimsical universe of humans, flames, pickles and popsicles, Doodles will launch in October 2021 with 10,000 generative NFTs. However, there was some controversy.
Lock yourself in the community and keep the hype out
About a month before Doodles went live, the team temporarily shut down Discord with just over 1,000 members. slammed critic Gatekeeping and FOMO ramping teams. But most saw it as what the founders intended: a way to lock a solid community outside the gates.
“We were a little annoyed with the amount of hype and noise that was in the space at the time,” says Keast. “The speculative drop of his NFTs was massive and the artist and founder who seemed to come out of nowhere made a 7-figure drop and really didn’t want to keep working on the roadmap. So we wanted to try a different approach.”
After an initial mint that sold NFTs at a relatively high price as of 0.123 ETH and secured initial funding of 420 ETH, Discord has reopened to welcome new members and Doodles is one of the next great projects. It quickly became a hot topic. ; as a PFP, it’s not hard to see why.
Yohann Calpu, Chief Marketing Officer of NFT analytics platform CryptoSlam, said: “But as for Doodles, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with them. They’re certainly beautiful.”
With child-like designs and pastel colors, Doodles are visual cotton candy. Additionally, Martin attributes the success of Doodles to having such friendly and playful characters, as it makes it easier for people to identify with his Doodles.
“PFP is essentially what you want to identify with. ” says Martin.
At that point, Martin also noted how inclusivity came to mind when creating his character, which he feels resonates with the community. “We wanted it to be inclusive, but banging our heads wasn’t inclusive,” he says. Only, and it exists.”
graffiti domination
The Doodles team had basic functionality. Doodlebank, a community treasury, allows owners to vote on certain aspects of the company, including the creation of official offshoot projects Noodles and Pukenza, creating an immediate roadmap for expanding the project with Space Doodles it was done. In February, the original owner of his 10,000 NFT will be able to use a space-themed option for his doodle.
However, for its long-term roadmap to becoming a global entertainment brand, the Doodles team needed a CEO with IP building expertise.Enter former president Julian Holguin billboard He has taken the publication from B2B trading to more consumer products.
Holguin was already thinking about the NFT project billboard When I met the Doodles team in early 2022 and did some quick consulting work. However, growing interest in the field and his fascination with Doodles prompted him to make the full-time leap as CEO in May.
“We already had a lot of cash on our balance sheet, and the opportunity to turn it into a full-fledged technology and media company has never been greater,” says Holguin.
To that end, Holguin is focused on mass commoditizing the technology around NFTs and expanding Doodles as a brand.
“Using blockchain technology and NFTs to offer new experiences to existing and potential new customers is not that special,” he said. “What’s special are the brands and the storytellers. It’s not necessarily special, like making a T-shirt, but being Gucci is special. In the same way, recording your voice on a track is special. It’s nothing special, but being Kanye West is something special, and that’s the Doodles team to the NFT ecosystem.”
To ensure a cohesive brand message, Doodles has chosen for NFT owners to have their own limited IP rights.
Yuga Labs set a high bar for NFT projects by releasing full IP rights to Bored Ape Yacht Club owners, then CryptoPunks and Meebits after acquiring Larva Labs earlier this year . It’s a move that offers definite utility, and has become increasingly important as his NFT space has taken a nosedive in the past few months. However, the Doodles team is betting on the long-term value of brands and owners as a whole, as well as more direct personal gain.
“We are at a very delicate point in the evolution of the brand,” says Holguin. “We believe controlling the narrative around Doodles is the way to go in the short term, as there is a lot of branding activity that could dilute the greater benefits of the project.”
For example, there has been talk of licensing Doodles from comic book, TV show, and music video owners, but that possibility, especially in the latter case, could be on the horizon with the upcoming Doodles album. I have. Doodles Records: Volume 1 Produced by Pharrell.
But for now, the Doodles team mostly has IP in their hearts. That signals CryptoSlam executive Calpu that Doodles is eyeing a high-level partnership or even being acquired in the future.
“When a project limits rights, it tells me they see the potential for brands to come together with legacy companies,” he says. Creativity doesn’t have to be outsourced. [Doodles] Because the creativity of the team itself is very strong. ”
Doodles seems to have the right look and team to pull off their plans to create a global entertainment brand. But we can’t ignore the dark clouds hanging over their pastel wonderland.
come out of hibernation
Global NFT sales fell by more than $4 billion this year to a record low, according to analysis by NFT media company BeInCrypto. And Doodles isn’t affected, either, as his June sales fell by more than $100 million.
Calpu estimates that the oversaturation and hype around collecting PFPs has given way to more useful applications such as Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains and decentralized websites that store cryptocurrency addresses. But there’s his PFP that certainly has the potential to weather the market downturn.
“When you visit their Discord, you can see the community still interacting, growing, coming together and attending meetings,” says Calpu. “That’s usually an indicator of a quality project.”
And, according to 776’s Holloway, the community around Doodles is one of the main reasons they decided to support the company. “Without a strong community, no Web3 company can survive,” she says. “This team has been community driven since day one. Alexis and I know a little bit about what a healthy, inclusive and thriving community looks like.”
The Doodles community (and 776 in its corner) is a strong enough base for Keast in the midst of NFT’s precarious state. He said the company is positioned to scale “for the future” and has every intention of continuing to build regardless of volatility.
“Everybody is feeling the turnaround,” adds Holguin. “Whether it’s six months or 12 months from now, real builders are ready for the moment. We’re not slowing down at all.”
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