Greetings Investors, Partners, and Pals!
June is here, and May ’22 is in the books. Despite a plummeting crypto market, Praise has continued building value for its stakeholders. In the month of May, we…
- Launched the Praise Gold Membership Card
- Announced our next event, “Web3 in the Hills”
- Added celebrity photographer, Jim Jordan, to the Praise family as a strategic partner
- Signed an agreement with Momentum Media Fund to raise a $5M seed round
- Announced multiple metaverse gamification features and NFTs—including Joyful Jewels, Love Machines, XP, and leveling.
- Made progress on merch partnerships and other IRL opportunities
- Created the Pal Squad evangelist team
- Added a Praise Baby to our fam
Read on for the full scoop, Pals!
The Praise Gold Membership Card
On 5/15/22, we launched the Praise Gold Membership Card for presale. The limited-quantity Gold Card is like the ultimate master key. It unlocks the entire Praise universe, including private real-world events, discounts on merchandise and future NFT drops, free utility-based NFTs for use in our metaverse, and daily rewards in the form of the $PRAISE network token.
The supply is fixed at 888 cards. Existing Pal holders claimed 400 cards during the private presale, leaving 488 for our treasury and the public. We listed 200 cards from our treasury on Opensea for 1 ETH, each.
Buy a Gold Card on Opensea here: https://opensea.io/collection/praise-golden-membership-card
Web3 in the Hills
To us, the worst part of conferences is always the conference part — the boring presentations, the crowds, the shilling, etc. Conference fatigue inspired us to design the ultimate unconference and mini-festival experience. It’s called, “Web3 in the Hills.”
This is NOT your average crypto bro party. It’s a private festival & unconference curated for Web3 thought-leaders, investors, celebrities, & brands. You must hold a Gold Card and/or receive a personal invitation to attend.
Our events include all the good parts of a conference and none of the bad parts.
All of these:
- Music and dancing
- Live DJs
- NFT art exhibits
- NFT drops and scavenger hunts
- Prizes and giveaways
- Intimate 10–15 minute fireside chats with true industry leaders
- Live art performances
- Complimentary artisan cuisine and drinks
- Media and podcast interviews
- Photoshoots and red carpet moments
None of these:
- Lines
- An exorbitant amount of walking here and there
- Pointless conversations with random people
- Long, boring seminar-style sessions
- Too many things happening at once
- Expensive food and ‘VIP’ experiences that don’t quite add up
Instead of going big, we’re purposefully going small. Our parties are limited to 300–500 curated industry leaders.
Instead of public, we’re private. Imagine a conference with only speakers, influencers, industry leaders, and VIPs. That’s Web3 in the Hills.
Instead of focusing on learning and work, we focus on connection and play. We hope you’ll consider buying a Gold Card, which grants access to ALL of our special events, including Web3 in the Hills.
To learn more, view our Events Deck:
Photoshoot with Celebrity Photographer, Jim Jordan
At NFTLA, Jesse met LA-based photographer, Jim Jordan. Jim was already neck deep into NFTs, working on several massive projects—so when he invited Jesse to his Calabassas studio for a dedicated photoshoot, Jesse couldn’t say no.
The photo above is a sneak peek from the shoot. The classy and artful photos will provide more coverage for the Praise brand and push us further into the fashion world. Jim will also bring value in the form of partnerships and connections to A-List celebrity clients like Zendaya and the Kardashians.
Praise is Raising a $5M Seed Round
In February, we raised $250,000 in a fully regulated pre-seed crowdfunding campaign via the StartEngine platform. In April, we posted revenues of $257K+ from our initial NFT drop. To pour more fuel on the fire, we’ve partnered with Momentum Media Fund to raise a $5M seed round at a $15M pre-money valuation. We’ll use these funds to accelerate growth and expand the team.
For more details, view our latest Investor Deck:
Joyful Jewels, Love Machines, XP, and other Gamification Features
After releasing the Praise Gold Card, we announced several new game mechanics rolling out later this year.
- Islands: Plots of digital land that Pals can own and then mine for resources. Among these resources are Joyful Jewels.
- Joyful Jewels: These magical stones can be converted into Love Bombers using a Love Machine.
- Love Machines: An official doohicky that converts Joyful Jewels into Love Bombers
- Love Bombers: An explosion of crystaline light that can be sent to friends for a smile. Sending Love Bombers increases XP, which contributes to leveling.
- Levels: Higher levels unlock new areas and capabilities, both in the Praise metaverse and at our events in the real-world.
To learn more about the gamification features on our roadmap, view our Gamification Deck:
Merch, Merch, Merch
Praise Pals™ merch continues to be a hot topic internally and within the community. We’re pumped about the iconic IP we’ve developed, and we’re exploring options for bringing the brand to life.
We’re taking an open approach, meaning we will work with multiple partners and do a bunch of merch experiments.
One idea is to involve fashion brands by selling co-branded or limited-edition items at our events and contributing some or all of the profits to a cause.
If you’re a fashion brand, get in touch!
Pal Squad Assembles to Invigorate Discord Community
A down-market is tough. People stop chanting “LFG” and “WAGMI” when the entire crypto industry is tumbling. As entrepreneurs, we see a short-term dip as a long-term positive thing because it weeds out fake companies. That said, it still saps the market’s energy.
Don’t worry, the Pals will find a solution.
With no prompting whatsoever, the community offered to form a team of volunteer community-builders so we could avoid spending our limited budget on discord marketing during the downturn. Engagement and conversation within our server have increased noticeably since the Pal Squad was formed.
If you’re interested in joining the Pal Squad and chatting up our community, join our discord server and reach out.
Another Praise Baby is Born
On May 12, 2022 (exactly two years after my daughter, Mia, was born) team member Richard Parr and his wife gave birth to their second child, Harro.
Welcoming a new person into the world directly from our core team is a special moment in our history. Harro and Mia will grow up with Praise behind them.
Congratulations, Rich and family!
Final Thoughts
Thanks for spending time with us and learning more about our experiences this month.
We hope to see you in the metaverse or at an upcoming event like the one pictured above. Who knows—maybe your outfit will get converted into an NFT for our next collection!
To get involved in the Praise project, please send us a note at info@praisepals.io. To learn more, visit https://praisetoken.io/.
Love, Peace, & Praise 🤟🏻✌🏻🙏🏻
Jesse
