I like the idea of "social capital engineering". But using $FLY as both measure of social capital and actual money (you can by stuff for $FLYs) seems intuitively wrong. But hey, we don't know much about how social capital really works - it's exciting to see it being explored in the real world.
I think this is a clear example of what will make New York (Los Angeles, London...) special--potentially a new era of "uneven future distribution," per Gibson. Which will make the cities *more* special, driving settlement and growth, by which they become yet more special. In other words--I have a hard time believing this will work outside a few hyper-successful environments. New York is a perfect storm of residential and restaurant density, inhabitants' dependence on restaurants, and restaurant customer sophistication (in part the result of the first two). I'm not sure how well it'll translate outside NYC-like cities.
People in places like NYC also tend to dramatically underestimate the labor problems of most smaller cities. It's unclear to me how effective Blackbird will be--in a small city, all the great staff are identified and tracked as if they were celebrities (they'd barely be allowed in a kitchen in NYC, but it is what it is).
Really enjoyed this deep dive into Blackbird! Your explanation of how the app scales the "regular" experience was particularly insightful. It's exciting to see how Ben Leventhal is using onchain technology to make restaurants more profitable. The focus on loyalty and payments integration is a game-changer. Excellent read, thank you.
When we trialed the combo of "walk out and autopay" and "blended payment rates (balance and credit card" at PayPal (in combination with POS partners), the results were amazing. Network effects from two different causes. Bet it only gets better with clear rewards and ownership.
let's consider a different market: In China, many independent restaurants have payment fees as low as 0.6%, and online payments have already been widely implemented. I'm curious to know if Blackbird business model would still be viable in China under these circumstances.
This seems to be the best path for consumer facing crypto app so far.
Serve a double side market's demand, make it more efficient for users, create the flywheels and break the bottleneck of the industry and it couldn't within web2.
Another example that I see is Kyd Labs, similar to model to Blackbird but placed vertically in the ticketing industry.
One thing struck me is that when a customer having a high #FLY received bad experience in a restaurant, how does that restaurant get less rewards for not serving the customer with the same level of his/her expectation?
In terms of Web3 adoption, which isn't yet widespread, this is a great example of how to do it without being too obtrusive. Although I thought here the blockchain part for the Blackbird was a bit far-fetched, I'm sure restaurants and users will appreciate what's been done and that a couple more Web3 users will appear per day.
Just to give you a bit of background about me: I don't expect free drinks or gifts, but I do expect high-quality products, delicious dishes and a courteous attitude.
What I am happy to do in return (apart from paying for my order and tips):
1. I can easily share my favourite dishes;
2. I can let you know which ingredients I can't eat (allergies) and which I don't like (onions in soup, For example, I can choose in advance which drinks I prefer.
3. I can also decide in advance how much I want to tip. I can give more if I want to, and I can give it directly to the waiter or bartender.
4. I can share more if I'm asked.
If what I've said above helps restaurants, cafes and bars to run their businesses better, I'm happy to share what I know. In return, I'd like to get a good quality order, a fair attitude and a simpler process for ordering, reservations and delivery.
Part of their solution reminds me of Superfly, a great (but now defunct) app that aggregated your airline and hotels points from various providers to provide a single view to their value. That was useful as a consumer with points spread out across a bunch of places. And for the providers, they got a holistic view of your potential as an airline or hotel customer. For example, maybe you're staying at a Hilton for the first time, but they see that you are Platinum status with Marriott via Superfly (i.e. you spend lots of money on hotels overall); they might choose to treat you as if you were a Hilton Platinum member to try to win your business.
Not a single reference to the Blackbird from X-Men is just lazy writing, Packy.
Or the SR-71 Blackbird after which the company was named! I'm slipping...
Given the names Blackbird & $FLY, I assumed it was named after the Beatles song.
❤️
Great writeup! I wonder how this will work outside of major metro areas / areas with a lot of foodies. Maybe it doesn’t even need to
Bring it to Chicago. 😂
I like the idea of "social capital engineering". But using $FLY as both measure of social capital and actual money (you can by stuff for $FLYs) seems intuitively wrong. But hey, we don't know much about how social capital really works - it's exciting to see it being explored in the real world.
I think this is a clear example of what will make New York (Los Angeles, London...) special--potentially a new era of "uneven future distribution," per Gibson. Which will make the cities *more* special, driving settlement and growth, by which they become yet more special. In other words--I have a hard time believing this will work outside a few hyper-successful environments. New York is a perfect storm of residential and restaurant density, inhabitants' dependence on restaurants, and restaurant customer sophistication (in part the result of the first two). I'm not sure how well it'll translate outside NYC-like cities.
People in places like NYC also tend to dramatically underestimate the labor problems of most smaller cities. It's unclear to me how effective Blackbird will be--in a small city, all the great staff are identified and tracked as if they were celebrities (they'd barely be allowed in a kitchen in NYC, but it is what it is).
good one!
Really enjoyed this deep dive into Blackbird! Your explanation of how the app scales the "regular" experience was particularly insightful. It's exciting to see how Ben Leventhal is using onchain technology to make restaurants more profitable. The focus on loyalty and payments integration is a game-changer. Excellent read, thank you.
When we trialed the combo of "walk out and autopay" and "blended payment rates (balance and credit card" at PayPal (in combination with POS partners), the results were amazing. Network effects from two different causes. Bet it only gets better with clear rewards and ownership.
Amazing to hear from the inside perspective. Walk out and autopay is so cool, leapfrogging the European card reader at table move.
let's consider a different market: In China, many independent restaurants have payment fees as low as 0.6%, and online payments have already been widely implemented. I'm curious to know if Blackbird business model would still be viable in China under these circumstances.
This seems to be the best path for consumer facing crypto app so far.
Serve a double side market's demand, make it more efficient for users, create the flywheels and break the bottleneck of the industry and it couldn't within web2.
Another example that I see is Kyd Labs, similar to model to Blackbird but placed vertically in the ticketing industry.
One thing struck me is that when a customer having a high #FLY received bad experience in a restaurant, how does that restaurant get less rewards for not serving the customer with the same level of his/her expectation?
This was the write-up of Blackbird I was waiting for and it's really clarified my thinking about how this might work.
quick clarification though: Do they use a custom NFC reader? That is, does a partner have to install another piece of hardware when they roll it out?
Great review from Packy McCormick! As usual,
In terms of Web3 adoption, which isn't yet widespread, this is a great example of how to do it without being too obtrusive. Although I thought here the blockchain part for the Blackbird was a bit far-fetched, I'm sure restaurants and users will appreciate what's been done and that a couple more Web3 users will appear per day.
Just to give you a bit of background about me: I don't expect free drinks or gifts, but I do expect high-quality products, delicious dishes and a courteous attitude.
What I am happy to do in return (apart from paying for my order and tips):
1. I can easily share my favourite dishes;
2. I can let you know which ingredients I can't eat (allergies) and which I don't like (onions in soup, For example, I can choose in advance which drinks I prefer.
3. I can also decide in advance how much I want to tip. I can give more if I want to, and I can give it directly to the waiter or bartender.
4. I can share more if I'm asked.
If what I've said above helps restaurants, cafes and bars to run their businesses better, I'm happy to share what I know. In return, I'd like to get a good quality order, a fair attitude and a simpler process for ordering, reservations and delivery.
Part of their solution reminds me of Superfly, a great (but now defunct) app that aggregated your airline and hotels points from various providers to provide a single view to their value. That was useful as a consumer with points spread out across a bunch of places. And for the providers, they got a holistic view of your potential as an airline or hotel customer. For example, maybe you're staying at a Hilton for the first time, but they see that you are Platinum status with Marriott via Superfly (i.e. you spend lots of money on hotels overall); they might choose to treat you as if you were a Hilton Platinum member to try to win your business.
"the first app I’ve used that’s onchain"
???? Is that an autocorrect of "online" or is it a new word?
haha the "online" equivalent for blockchains