INTERVIEW: Founder And Chief Conspirator, Daniel Saynt On The Launch Of $LOVER
Never one to just tiptoe toward the cutting edge, Daniel Saynt, the founder of the New Society For Wellness, is flying at hyperspeed right past it. Instead of resting on his laurels and collecting cash from events at the clubhouse, upcoming franchise locations, and elsewhere, he’s handing over nearly all of the profits to NSFW membership by restructuring the company into a decentralized autonomous organization, or a “DAO.”
This will be made possible by the pending launch of $Lover, NSFW’s very own cryptocurrency that members will be able to buy, trade, and use to purchase community-related commodities.
I chatted with Daniel about this exciting transformation, his motivations behind it, and its impact on NSFW membership.
So… you’ve been busy!
It has been insane. With the launch of our cryptocurrency and move into a DAO structure, we’re trying to take better control of the likelihood of us becoming a big brand, the ability for us to build spaces, and the management of revenue and finances. For a long time we dealt with credit card processors and other companies that don’t allow us to do things like sell tickets for our events, which has hindered us from growing. So this is a big, massive move into a crypto space that hopefully wants us and appreciates us coming.
How will this all work for your members? Is this almost like a company going public and making stocks purchasable?
With a DAO, any revenue that comes in, it goes back into the DAO, which is like a pool. From there we can build out more revenue streams and make it a bigger pool.
As we succeed in that, as we launch more of these revenue-boosting initiatives, it allows us to prove to that collective DAO that the value of the community is rising. A big portion of this shift to crypto, as well, is the utility aspect — the way the currency is used, which is something that companies don’t traditionally have to do with an IPO. But as you increase the value of a specific DAO, you have to increase the utility of the coin itself. For us, we have a really good utility plan, in terms of how people are going to use it, and I think that will keep the value increasing and make it positive for people who are getting involved in it now. Hopefully in, say, seven years, they’ll see it turn into something that’s much more global and impactful.
This move seems like it could limit your own capability to make money through the business you built. Why don’t you just run the company yourself instead of turning it over to shareholders?
For me, this isn’t a business; it’s a community. NSFW has always been a community of people who share similar thoughts on how we interact with each other, how we want to explore sex, how we want to engage in relationships, how we seek and enjoy pleasure. It’s not just me; it’s never been just me. I’ve been looking for ways to incorporate more of the community into the actual ownership of NSFW, to expand the number of people who can be a part of it and a part of its success, but it’s been difficult. There aren’t a lot of easy ways to do that. Crypto allows us to do that; launching a DAO allows us to do that. We want this company to reflect what it actually is, which is a community.
I’m reducing my own controlling stake to 11 percent. I don’t want to have a lot of ownership. I want to have enough so that I’m financially comfortable, but I never built NSFW to make money or to become rich. The whole purpose was to show people that even without money, you can have an amazing life because sex and cannabis exist.
It’s a collective of really talented and already successful people, globally, working on big initiatives, bringing people into our spaces, increasing our reach in the fashion and art world and everywhere else.
It’s going to be so sexy.
Founder and Chief Conspirator, Daniel Saynt
You’ve created a new manifestation of “putting your money where your mouth is.”
[Laughs] Nice.
Where have you seen other companies adopt a DAO structure successfully that might have at least partly inspired this maneuver on your part?
The most successful one that seems to be out there now is Friends With Benefits, which was just featured in The New York Times. I don’t think we’re going to be following exactly the same structure as they are, but that company is valued at $190 million and I think they launched about a year ago. They’ve definitely been successful at pooling that money together to build more of what they want to do, which is coordinate events to keep that community connected. In that regard, it’ll be the same for us, but it’s also about expanding the brand and building on what NSFW can do. It’s about having more community spaces where people can go and connect with others and find partnerships, new relationships and friendships. We want to do more than just build a space that’s safe and judgment-free. We want to offer, just, more things for people to do so they don’t fall into this meta trap — that’s gaining steam — and become more insular. We want a lot of people to have the NSFW live experience and the only way we can do that is if we work together.
How does one get their hands on $Lover?
We have a gift of $Lover that’s going out to all members — people who’ve contributed to NSFW over the past seven years, whether it’s coming to the events or being a part of it as a muse or an educator or anything else that’s had a positive impact. Those’ll be the first people to get some coin. They’re the ones who helped build this community and turn it into what it is. On the 17th of April, the coin will be available for purchase by all those people. Shortly thereafter, probably the next day, on the Uniswap platform, trading begins. The initial trades from membership will create a value for it which we hope grows.
Should people just keep an eye on their inbox and await instructions?
Airdrops are happening now. Members can submit their wallet address on our website to get access.
What else are you working on that’s keeping you so busy?
We have a couple of ideas on how we want to approach our NFT strategy.
We’ll be introducing Tribute yearly membership NFTs which will give you access to Tribute passes and chats. We’ll also have Status and KeyHolder art drops as we add new locations. These will provide a select group of members 24-hour access to select or all Clubhouses in our portfolio.
One of the first major KeyHolder level events which will take place is the release of 777 Pirate Bunny avatars. Each is attached to a lifetime unlimited access membership which will include complimentary access for two to all our events at all our future international Clubhouses, Secret Rooms and parties. The membership includes merchandise and experience perks featuring our furry swashbucklers.
The Pirate Bunnies are coming…
After a few weeks at sea, the Pirate Bunnys will have access to Love Potions which will amplify characters and open up new adventures and artist originals for the holder. Over time multiple artists will have their impact on the look of your avatar and past ones can be sold with rights attached. Each Pirate Bunny NFT will also include $LOVER Coin attached to your contract, providing those who hold them more power over the decisions of the DAO. We have members ready to build an entire universe around these characters and are bringing many of our celebrity members together to lead revenue growth in television, comic books, and book deals.
The NSFW Clubhouse, is in many ways an art piece unto itself. It’s an expression of a lot of pieces that the community have brought to it or contribute to. Because of this we’re creating a Collective Artist group within The NSFW.
Our first collaboration is with the street and mural artist, FAUST. Focusing on the city where it started, we’ll be introducing 212 inspired NFTs attached to Status Level memberships at the new NSFW HQ. The concept is a six-story experience house with over 30k square feet of artist designed play space. As a 212 member you can enter the play spaces 24/7 allowing these holders a second home to call their own in the heart of New York City. Our first concept includes a spa level, shop, bar and restaurant, theatre space, and 16 intricately themed artist play rooms available to fulfill any fantasy. We’ll build a garden on the roof to provide additions for our infused bar and kitchen. One floor will be dedicated to production on new NSFW member content.
The 212 will also get special access to an NFT collection featuring an updated ledger and the 212 phone number for each of the 212 NFT holders. The phone number, app and all the benefits of membership will transfer with the phone ensuring this 1/1 retains its value. Additional perks will be revealed to the 212 including exclusive artist collection pieces featuring the iconic numbers.
Right now different members of various specialities are being invited in to work on projects that we help them pitch to the overall membership that they can develop and make available through NFT releases.
We’re working on fashion design collaborations, digital artwork, publishing possibilities; we’ve just hired on a CTO to build out our NFT shop. We’re gamifying our experiences and will eventually have custom NFT art pieces to associate with all the adventures our members have attended. This will live on an NSFW app which will provide members who login in a little more details on the people they are interested in connecting with.
Because of the initial success of the coin we have been able to bring back our online Clubhouse and welcome back classic events like Netflix + Chill and our NSFW In My Bed series. This allows us to better connect to our international audience and will expand as our membership grows. Thursday Happy Hours are back at the Clubhouse and we’re bringing new events to the space and to our online membership more programming. In addition, we’ve brought back our Elevations series of parties for our Status and Keyholder level members.
We’ve been on a bit of a hiring spree as we now have the resources we need for growth. There will be some acquisitions we announce soon which will help us have a stronger impact on nightlife. We’re working on bringing back our editorial division with the announcement of a new editorial director and creative director for NSFW Archive.
Lot’s of things coming at once. It’s gonna be a fun ride.
I imagine that members can come to you with ideas, right?
That’s the whole point of this.
Once we have established a DAO, we’ll start presenting various plans from the core team. I’ll be presenting as well, and we’ll have other plans from holders coming in. We’re providing instructions on how to submit and what we will be considering for approval. We’ll explain how to get plans to us and what the process is to get them voted on. Those plans should be focused around revenue-generating initiatives. We’re only taking one percent profit for the core, for the next seven years, so we have more and more money to invest back into the membership because we’re only hiring people from within the membership.
It’s a collective of really talented and already successful people, globally, working on big initiatives, bringing people together into our spaces, increasing our reach in the art world and everywhere else. It’s going to be so cool.
For now, we’re preparing a roadmap that all controlling members can vote on and approve. After that it’s really up to the members to decide what happens next. I’ll still be here to run things, but it’s their support that is most important for us.