Birdie Golf Update / DH Update

(Originally published on X on 6/12/24)

I've never written an article here, but I thought about it and figured this was an appropriate time for a few reasons. The first of those reasons is that transparency is always the best policy. It's 100 times better to put it all out there on this platform than to hide away in a discord channel. Second, the visibility could be beneficial down the line.

When I started as the Community Manager for Birdie Golf, there had been significant resources used to launch a crypto wallet, called Birdie Wallet. Maintaining and supporting this wallet took a lot of money and time and was really the focus of Birdie before my entry.

I could see that this was not sustainable as a business model and suggested that we pivot to apparel in hopes of driving revenue that could finance the growth of the company. This was our focus through much of the bear market and we launch multiple collaborations and products through 2023. I am proud of the work that was done and the people that I was able to meet and connect with along the way last year.

In January of this year, I took a trip to see Ryan in Florida, as well as attend the PGA Show in Orlando (my golf irl gets me in). There were many people who marveled at the number of apparel companies compared to previous years. Ryan and I began having serious discussions about the level of marketing that would be required to compete with even the niche, boutique golf clothing companies making a name for themselves on Instagram.

Ryan put a lot of his own money into trying to get Birdie off the ground and attempted to launch products in both web2 and web3 to gain traction. I contributed my own money to get Birdie off the ground. I never took a paycheck for the work that I did (marketing, consulting, community managing, whatever needed to be done) in hopes of moving the needle financially to get the brand off the ground.

On March 20th, 2024, I wrote an update on the holder's channel in the Birdie discord that we were running out of money. Frankly, the amount of marketing we needed to do was beyond our means after seeing many competing brands that there are.

Okay, so now that you're caught up, here's the update. As a result of the lack of funding, as well as the crowded market we aimed to enter, we have made the difficult decision to pause operations. The growth of Birdie will no longer be Ryan's or my primary focus in web2 or web3. The store has been taken down, as sales were not happening and it was costing money to maintain the site. Although the pivot to creating more tangible products seemed like a good idea, the golf apparel market is completely oversaturated at this time. We have not found anyone willing to invest the resources we'd need to tackle such a major barrier to entry and we cannot endlessly fund this ourselves knowing the difficulty of the market.

I'm obviously disappointed in the way things have turned out. I spent a lot of time, energy, and resources on this project as if I had founded it myself. Although I did not agree with the direction that Birdie had taken before I came aboard, I genuinely feel that Ryan has always tried his best to create a business with real value proposition and drive real benefits to the community.

There are a few important things I'd like to share. First, Birdie products are still able to be created and sold without the marketplace. Should someone want something, they can still speak with Ryan for individual orders. Obviously, having a marketplace is a much better means to transact, but after not having any revenue in 2024, it became a liability.

Also, Ryan and I are still around despite this pause. We continue to participate in web3, network, and explore opportunities. There is no telling what the future could hold. The infrastructure for Birdie still exists and the store could be reinstated should it make sense down the line. The discord still exists and will remain open. We have a small, loyal community who I have come to thoroughly enjoy speaking with about golf and web3. I know I speak for Ryan as well as myself that we appreciate the support immensely and we will always be on the lookout for ways to give back to those who supported Birdie.

As far as myself, I'm not really sure what comes next. I've spent the last couple of months really absent from web3, trying to focus on my physical and mental health. The realization that we weren't getting anywhere despite all of our efforts was a difficult one, as I know much was sacrificed by all of us to try to get Birdie off the ground.

I want to close by telling you all that I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I couldn't do more or accomplish more with this effort. I give 110% to everything that I do, often to the detriment of my own personal life. I wanted this to succeed as much as anything I've ever done in my entire life. I feel I've let many people down, including myself.

As always, thanks for being here.