A Boring Revolution Rewards Loyalty
A Boring Revolution Rewards Loyalty
Boring small bets could work great. Thoughts on one company's small bet.
The stuff that keeps working, even as you watch the grass grow and dust gather, is hot.
There’s a small bet being made by a stealth bank which sells desserts in a cup and burnt liquid bean juice, for flipping the script on loyalty programs. OPEN SOURCE.
I saw news about one of my favorites in “Web 3” (or whatever it ends up being called, we’ll let the crowd sort it out), infrastructure provider Polygon.*
Starbucks is using NFTs (which are down hard from 2021’s mania) for “Starbucks Odyssey”, where you can get collectible stamps, which holders can hold or trade.
Don’t get mad, don’t get mad.
This idea, giving the timing, signals to me it might be worth thinking about. Anyway, I’m thinking about it, I’ll apologize later. Besides, I can use it in a story, my first brain in action. I’m filing this idea under my “finance”+ “the future” categories.
Since they’re “non-fungible”, each stamp is unique, a tiny work of art (sounds so 2021).
The more rare the stamp, the more benefits come with it, which holders can use to get merch, trips, and experiences. Customers won’t need a crypto wallet or crypto currency to do it. Starbucks, you’ve invented a loyalty program with reward points.
Boring as hell could work, because expectations are low, the bets are small. If it works, genius. If it doesn’t, no worries, on to the next small bet that might win.
Jon Wu has the chops to understand money. I remember a thread he wrote about credit, loans, and money creation.
He chimed in on Starbucks getting into web 3 loyalty points as so boring it could work.
Maybe it’s the whole “let’s build in winter” mode.
Less casino and price and more coffee and points.
We want to see the whole “what’s the use case? what’s the product market fit?” answers being rolled out when no-one gives a shit, and see experiments for adoption.
Starbucks is a stealth bank, and now that stealth bank has launched a reward points feature built on new rails. It already does rewards but under legacy infrastructure.
CAVEATS about this infrastructure? It costs more than the cloud we already have.
What’s the 3-D chess edge does Odyssey might have over punch card points? Loyalty.
This could be a small bets on the part of a stealth bank that sells desserts in a cup, and burnt liquid bean juice, for flipping the script on loyalty. OPEN SOURCE.
The whole thing to worry about is regulation if the small bet works out and blows up in a good way. You fail they come in. You win, they still come in but you have money.
Sure, you can build the chain but what will the alphabet soup agencies of the world’s protector of the incumbents have to say? Who knows.
The real caveat is none of my spit-balling.
A new CEO is coming to Starbucks on October 1, 2022.
Every new guy wants to make his mark. Maybe he scraps this small bet anyway.
History shows us what works and what goes in the waste can, so let’s give it time.
We’ll see if the next new networks in web 3 will show us which boring stuff works.
Last words. Look at something that most of us take for granted, forgot about. Radio. It was new, it was hot, there was a mania, many stocks exploded and then imploded. The sales crashed, there were naysayers. And then, it grew. Maybe Starbucks and Polygon get to live in terms of discovering demand and organic growth for loyalty.
We will see if there’s a bubble, bust, and recover on new organic demand.
*NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE of course. I’m not telling you to buy or sell anything, I’m not in that line when it comes to writing. Anyway, nobody is dumb enough to think that but I still have to point it out anyway, that’s our world, I still have to.