Please welcome VeeFriends, Gary Vee’s NFT collection building real-life connection
Meet VeeFriends, the latest addition to Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio.
HQ: New York, NY
Founder: Gary Vaynerchuk
The problem: Many suggest that NFTs and Web3 technology will shape the future of how we create, own, and access all forms of content, but bridging Web3 and the real world remains challenging. At present, few understand the depth of potential applications of digital IP existing on the blockchain, and access remains gated to many. Plus, Web3 has a utility problem — it’s challenging to provide actual value for digital assets beyond a PFP collection. Opportunities abound in expanding access to community and real-life interactions. In order for Web3 to come to the forefront in the way entrepreneurs and creators expect it will, more leaders in the space need to focus on getting the next billion users onboard.
VeeFriends solution: VeeFriends is an NFT project designed around meaningful intellectual property and a one-of-a-kind community. Founder Gary Vaynerchuk, a long-time collaborator and LH co-investor, created the VeeFriends collection not only to produce digital art and create virtual community, but also to facilitate in-person experiences. VeeFriends’ inaugural collection, which includes 10,255 VeeFriends tokens and 268 characters (which Gary drew himself), provides access to VeeCon, an exclusive multi-day event bringing together the VeeFriends community in real life for live discussions and music. Select tokens provide access to Gary himself, both virtually (via FaceTime) and in-person (via tennis games, dinners, and more). Even in its earliest days, VeeFriends’ ability to bridge the virtual with the physical suggests a roadmap for other entrepreneurs to follow and emulate.
Origin story: As a true serial entrepreneur, Gary created VeeFriends to learn more about NFTs firsthand. His projects are numerous: he’s best known for co-founding restaurant reservation platform Resy (a business we invested in years ago before it sold to American Express), building communications company Vayner X (the parent company for nine sub-entities tackling different aspects of media and entertainment), and writing books that advise other entrepreneurs on leadership, social media, and emotional intelligence. Plus, he’s amassed over 10M followers across social channels for his viral content about company culture, marketing, and management. VeeFriends brings together Gary’s passion for mentorship and inspiring good in others with his expertise in technology and innovation.
Why we’re betting on it: First and foremost, we believe in Gary. Through numerous interactions across many walks of life, we’ve always been astounded by Gary’s work-ethic, enormous EQ, and ability to see the future. Beyond that, though, we’re excited about projects bridging real life interactions and Web3 innovation and we continue to admire Gary’s ingenuity and proven success as a creator. VeeFriends has already generated a cult-like following among its enthusiastic community members. The real life aspect of VeeFriends is also already being taken to new levels with partnerships with Reebok (“Veebok”) and Mattel’s UNO card game. Above all, VeeFriends brings a dose of humanity to Web3. Each of the original characters represent traits Gary admires, such as compassion, authenticity, and curiosity. We are happy to support Gary and VeeFriend’s latest funding round, which the team will use to create new characters, NFT drops, and ancillary business lines.
Our take: Uber influencers like Gary are using the multi-billion dollar explosion of NFTs to expand their communities of followers. Providing users real life or virtual access to influencers through NFTs creates a new dynamic for influencer marketing. Gary’s rightly tapped into how the evolving superfan thinks and operates, and how the creator economy and Web3 are bridging in real-time. We remain excited to see how NFTs will continue to reinvent marketing, and be applied in ways we can’t yet imagine across society.
Further reading: “VeeFriends Closes Seed Funding Round” via Finsmes
