Spry

Before I was “company”, I was Community. And tbh, I still like to think I am. So what I’m gonna write is mostly from that perspective, but now with more context than before. When you are a bagholder, for better or worse, you’ve put your blind hope in a team. Sure, you buy to be part of the community, maybe vibe with the art, or perhaps you just want that flex. But for holders, you inherently put some degree of trust that the team is working on something real and rewarding. And fast. After all, you just paid a lot for it. When there’s silence, you get a little anxious. When other projects pump, and yours doesn’t, you get annoyed. When others get free internet money and you don’t, you get angry. And worse, when there’s a misstep, you lose faith. As an Azuki holder, we’ve felt it all (unfortunately more than I would have wished 😅). And yet, many of you who will read this are still here with Azuki because its something we all *want* to succeed, but we’re just not yet sure how/if it can happen. Being on the other side now, its easy to see how being a buildoorrr can be at odds with this and where the disconnect grows. For Azuki, the long game is to grow our brand into an multifaceted, globally recognized Anime empire (media, gaming, and physicals), built on the foundations of community, IP, and web3. But building the machine (particularly in the Anime industry) takes time, especially at the scale of expectations. While we can disrupt parts of the value chain, we can’t disrupt everything all at once. So here’s Azuki’s (and quite frankly any NFT project) challenge: 1) Speedrun our path to widespread relevance in a timeframe that, in the anime industry, would typically take 10+ years. 2) Simultaneously, keep the holder base entertained, engaged, and supportive during that process, 3) push the envelope of web3 and contribute more broadly to the space, and 4) (most importantly) respect the level of investment that holders have put into the project and the expectations that come along with it. So how will we solve this? A few ways: - More rapid, iterative development: Rather than shipping “one big thing” once a year, take smaller steps to increase cadence. This will come at the expense of maybe not getting everything perfect, and each release may not appear “world changing”, but it will help us bring the community along for the journey rather than just periodic destinations. - Better transparency: As a holder, I’m not sure I was completely aware of what exactly the “end goal” of Azuki was/is, And I was even less aware of how the team was planning on getting there. Now that I’m on the other side, its far more clear to me now, and this is something I will try to do a better job at sharing with you all in the coming weeks. Keep in mind I (for obvious reasons) can’t share literally everything, and plans are always subject to change, but I strongly believe that with enough context setting, sharing something is certainly better than sharing nothing. - More listening: We can never lose touch with what our community is feeling / asking for ever again. Our futures are intertwined; the future of Azuki as a brand is dependent on a strong community and holder foundation, so we need to make sure we are hyperaware of how people are feeling. Please don’t ever feel like you can’t talk to us, whether DMs or publicly. - Build for the long game, but don't forget the short game. Optimizing for one of course comes at the cost of the other, but this is something we need to always ensure is in better balance. - Better results: This one is pretty simple. Talk is cheap. We need to deliver. I can say that I once was a naive optimist turned into a jaded skeptic turned back into a grounded (still skeptical) optimist. But in as much of a “I promise this isn’t just blind hopium” post, I legitimately can see how the pieces can come together for us, and we will do a better job at sharing this vision with you.