Today’s interview is one we’ve been looking forward to for a while. As well as owning 3 Goats, that we minted back in October, the Ada Goat drop was the very first drop submitted to our CNFT Calendar.
In the interest of transparency we would like to let readers know that we are fans of #GOATtribe and we personally own some Goats (some of which we’ll share in the post), that said there is no incentive or payment for this interview. It is NOT paid promotion.
If you missed any of our previous interviews, you can find them here.
For anyone not familiar with the project, why don’t you give us a little intro into Goat Tribe/ADA Goats.
GOAT Tribe was first conceived by Dan / autre coeur in early 2021 and design in earnest started around May time. Soon after the art came a backstory / synopsis to give the goats context.
Although GOAT Tribe started as a 10k art project, as the team came together our excitement fuelled our dreams and aspirations to become much more. It’s a real focus for us to create something lasting, which we can all be proud of and which keeps our Tribe entertained. Alongside developing concepts for future art, we’re working to create the world that the goats inhabit through story-telling and brand building around the original art.
What about the team behind the project, what can you tell us? What lead the team to this project?
There was no corporate plan in the beginning, it was really just autre coeur with his iPad drawing one of his favourite animals. Despite inspiration from other PFP projects (and we’re aware of how corny this sounds), everything else was just a dream.
Through his AI art, he met J/CNFT Cult and Bross then introduced them to the early goat designs and they were pretty well hooked from the start, seeing the potential of the project.
DyNite came a little later as an active community member, AI artist and someone with a deep interest in Cardano / computer tech as well as an involvement in other blockchains.
As a small team we have to be flexible and acknowledge / outsource when there’s a skills gap, but we’ve created roles which are based around our strengths and experience. Much of what we do is by consensus and all of our ideas are discussed.
The drop was a 10k and sold out, it wasn’t an instant sell out though it was more of a slow burn. Were you worried at all that you weren’t going to get the full set sold out? What was the plan if say sales stalled at 75% gone?
It was a wild couple of weeks. I think we sold 700 NFT’s in the first 4 minutes of our launch and things definitely did slow down. Although 2 weeks is slow by the standards of a lot of projects, we’re very proud to have completed our mint at a time when confidence in the space was at an all-time low due to copy-pasta and rug-pull scandals.
We launched with a relatively small following, but the commitment and passion from our collectors from the start was incredible. Between them and the hard work of the team we saw a steady rise in popularity and the speed of the sale picked up again towards close. It was just great seeing people get behind the project and rather than panicking and exiting they were buying more in genuine excitement for the art. It was a firm lesson in not taking our community for granted.
autre coeur’s main concern at the time was securing funding to execute the team’s vision and ensure value for people who had bought GOAT Tribe NFT’s. We had already discussed alternative sources of funding, should the sale not have been the success it was, so that we could see the vision through regardless.
There was talk on Twitter just prior to launch that some of the artwork was very similar to Bored Ape, do you want to discuss this?
We took a lot of inspiration from other projects in terms of art and direction. It’d be foolish not to learn from the successes and failures of others. That said, we do pride ourselves on our unique design and level of detail that isn’t common in our space and we draw a clear distinction between copying and inspiration.
What does the future hold for Goat Tribe?
We’re looking at a broad range of developments which would reward our community and which have been successful for other projects (as well as some things that haven’t already been done).
We’ve taken on-board feedback from our community as well, who really value GOAT Tribe as an art project above all else and don’t want utility for the sake of it. We’re really refining our ideas now so we can focus on what matters.
Right now, we’re working on incorporating LudoToken into the original Tribe NFT’s so holders can access a restricted area of our website which will initially host a space where NFT owners can buy exclusive merchandise.
In terms of future releases, we already have a finished script in hand and an incredibly talented comic artist working on edition 1 of our story.
What have you got planned for current holders? Anything cool coming up you want to share? (I ask this as a holder myself!)
Aside from the restricted site access area, which will have more to it than a shop in future, we’re looking into all aspects of launching our own token and have some really fun ideas around that.
We are also planning another limited free drop for Xmas, following the success of our Halloween collection. After that we’ll likely be retiring the original goat design and will have our heads down perfecting the new design for Series 0 and furthering talks with potential partners for collaboration on a range of items including NFTs.
How much of the success of the project comes down to the community you can build around the project?
To be succinct: all of it. Of course a certain degree of talent and ability is required for the building, but as a team we’re replaceable. Without the passion of our audience and their feedback there would be no project at all. We’re thankful that their desires align very well with where we would like to see the project go.
As project creators yourselves how do you feel about the recent “rug pulls” or project abandonments that we have seen?
We feel that we’ve felt first-hand how damaging they are to our entire space and they’re a sad fact of the current state of NFT’s.
Although we all need to be vigilant dealing in cryptocurrency and the world in general, it’s very difficult to see people buying into an idea where there is no intent from the team of seeing things through. It’s utterly perplexing how someone could create art and often a committed community that has come together around it, only to abandon it for short-term gain.
What advice would you give to genuine creators to set themselves apart and build trust in the community?
The most important thing is to create something you will be able to look back on with pride. If you want to do something, you should want to do it well and if you believe in it, then it doesn’t matter what others think. Even if you don’t sell a single NFT you can still look back and be proud of the art you made in the knowledge that you went into it and did your best.
Accept the help of others, but always be wary of those offering it. You will be lucky to find people who are talented and passionate about your project, but believe that they are out there. Also reach out to other creators. You can learn from their mistakes and a lot of us are approachable.
Don’t allow the community to pressure you into revealing your identity. That has to be your choice and the success of your project shouldn’t depend upon it.
The most important thing is to create something you will be able to look back on with pride.
#GOATtribe
Consider input from as many places as you possibly can. You don’t have to agree, believe or act on everything, but it’s good to hear people out and consider whether they have something valuable to add. There are many sayings about the loudest voice in the room and they’re often true.
How do you see the NFT space evolving over the next few months?
We definitely see the community becoming wiser to projects which won’t deliver.
There will probably be a greater number of corporations trying to enter the space as well and this will probably drive a greater utility offering, but perhaps we’ll see the rise of a community which values quality art above all else as well.
Let’s say we could get one famous person to pick up a Goat and make it their Twitter PFP, who do you pick?
Well that would have to be Charles, wouldn’t it? We’re firm believers in people being goats because they want to be goats, so we’ve not gone out of our way to seek endorsement, but Charles would be something else.
What project would you like to collab with if you could?
We really like what Angel Baby Hit Squad are doing to push cross-platform operability and to bring ETH and ADA communities together and it’d be fantastic to be a part of that.
autre coeur has always liked the art of Clay Nation and would definitely love to see some Clay goats, too.
Do you guys collect NFT’s too? What are your favourite?
We all have backgrounds in AI art, whether as project support, artists ourselves or as collectors. I think we can all agree on being fans of Entheos, which in one way or another was responsible for bringing us together.
autre coeur recently picked up some GENTOPHILE pieces after we were on the same Cardano Nights show, along with a piece from Machine Dreamz 3 by Sami.
Another unexpected benefit of our project is being connected with some very talented artists within our community and we’re really looking forward to what they have to come.
Many thanks to the guys at GOAT Tribe for taking the time to answer our questions. We hope you enjoyed the interview. If you did, feel free to leave a comment below and sign up to our mailing list.