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RT @davidtsocy: Bond is a new mini app by @blauyourmind and @justinblau that introduces a better way for creators to make money on the inte…
Building @joinbond | prev @a16zcrypto | programmer | magician
RT @compassdotfun: This week’s 🧭 mini app spotlight is @joinbond by @blauyourmind and @justinblau Bond lets fans lock in a refundable stak…
Building @joinbond | prev @a16zcrypto | programmer | magician
RT @eshanxyz: love seeing products that actually deepen the bond between creators and their fans huge fan of what @joinbond, @blauyourmin…
Building @joinbond | prev @a16zcrypto | programmer | magician
There is another aspect of @joinbond that might prove more powerful than the financial mechanic itself. Social media is driven by social signaling: - How many followers do you have? People chase follower count, even paying for it, because it is a proxy for reach and a step toward monetization. - How many likes did you get, or what is your follower-to-like ratio? We have all posted something, deleted it, and reposted later to get better engagement. - Blue check marks. Are you a legitimate and authentic profile? - What company do you work for? When I was at a16z, having that badge on my X handle was a superpower. Almost anyone I DM’d replied instantly. Bond introduces a new signal: Total Amount Bonded. How much money has been bonded to you? This metric carries real weight and might be more meaningful than any of the signals above. - It is unlikely for bots to bond to you and keep money bonded for long periods of time. - It becomes a reference point for valuing yourself in other contexts. If X is bonded to me, I should be paid around Y. - When duplicate accounts exist, the legitimate one is likely the one with the higher amount bonded. Think of a hypothetical Taylor Swift Bond profile versus the copycats. - On an individual level, think about what it signals when someone with a large amount bonded to them, someone with real credibility, then bonds to you. Bond is not just a new way to make money on the internet. It is an authentic audience list of real users with real intent. It is a new layer of social truth.
Building @joinbond | prev @a16zcrypto | programmer | magician
RT @justfred_ar: @tigerisfine @jessepollak @joinbond The Blau brothers replaced speculation with actual fandom. TLDR: (1) Bond any amount…
Building @joinbond | prev @a16zcrypto | programmer | magician
I want to zoom in on something from my last post about @joinbond. Bonding is a cheaper and lighter way to support a creator or thought leader you love than a subscription because (1) you bond once and (2) you can take your money back anytime. So it’s effectively free. Your only real cost is the interest you could have earned on the amount you bonded. But are people actually giving up meaningful interest when there’s about $4T sitting in US checking accounts earning nothing? What about from the creator’s perspective? I see accounts with 250K followers and only 250 people paying $5 a month. That enormous gap shows how broken subscriptions are as a support mechanism. The thesis with Bond is that by making it cheaper for the fan, more fans will bond. Creators keep asking for one thing: a verified audience list of real people with high intent. @joinbond gives them that. Because of how bonding works, creators can identify and surface far more high-intent fans than they ever could through subscriptions, because subscriptions have so much friction. Why do creators want a high-intent audience list they can communicate directly with? Because their content gets buried by the algorithm. Even with 250K followers, your post won’t reach all of them unless you pay a platform $50–$100 to boost it. While it’s true that interest earned is lower than subscription revenue in the short term, here’s how the math could work out. A $5 monthly subscription gives a creator $60 a year from one person. Bond works differently since creators only earn the interest. At 5%, you’d need about 20 people to bond $60 to match subscription revenue. In other words, you need 20x more people bonding than subscribing. I think that’s achievable, especially since people can unbond and get their money back. The 250 vs 250K gap suggests the 20x isn’t just possible, it might be conservative.
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