Last year, the account was banned from both Twitter and Instagram. Aaron Avruskin, one of the co-founders, is back to look for new investors.
One of the co-founders of the controversial Instagram account is attempting to raise millions of dollars for his latest cryptocurrency venture. A year ago, the Instagram account was accused of charging $100,000 for paid posts and falsely listed investor Mark Cuban as one of its co-founders.
About the idea of Aaron Avruskin
Now, one of its co-founders, Aaron Avruskin, has resurfaced with a new crypto business idea: “Rollies,” a browser-based mobile crypto gambling game in collaboration with musician Lil Baby.
The 18-page deck claims that “Lil Baby’s Rollies” is looking for seed funding of $6 million and has been in the works since January 2022. The Instagram account was banned in February 2022, but the Twitter account was already banned in January of last year.
The majority of the Rollies deck is comprised of graffiti-style fonts, representations of dice, and Lil Baby’s image. The presentation offers a “free” Lil Baby NFT drop of between 50,000 and 100,000 NFTs, a mobile crypto gambling game based on Rollies, and a roadmap centered on sponsored tournaments and further NFT drops.
According to the deck, the project is employing the artist Distortedd, who has worked with the likes of Reebok, Redbull, and Adidas, to produce the project’s artwork. Additionally, the group has enlisted the gambling game developer Aquimo to create the main Rollies game product.
Rollies also says that it has found partner NFT collections for Doodles, Pudgy Penguins, Sappy Seals, and six other projects. According to the deck, these “partners” will promote the Rollies brand, get spots on the allowlist, talk about Rollies on Twitter and Discord, and have “some access” to Rollies live events.
“Doodles has nothing to do with Lil Baby’s upcoming Rollies NFT collection,” a representative for Doodles told Decrypt.
Rollies plans to use “further funding” in the second and third quarters of 2023 to launch a native token, which doesn’t have a name yet. No tokenomics or other information about the token’s use or distribution was given. At that time, it also wants to get another $10–20 million in funding.
The launch of Lil Baby’s “Cultural Fund” is the third “phase” of Rollies. This fund is supposed to help “Black and brown” entrepreneurs with “culturally savvy business acumen and plans.”
The deck says that in two years, Rollies could make $16 million from “wearables and forging” drops (likely NFTs), $9 million from “sponsorship sales,” and $5 million from “secondary sales” (royalties from NFT trading). During Rollies’ seed funding round, investors will be able to buy Common Share. One venture capital consultant told Decrypt that this was a very unusual move for a seed round. “Common shares are typically offered later on, in a Series B,” the consultant told Decrypt.
Common shares are also usually given to employees and the people who started the business. Preferred shares, on the other hand, are sold to investors.
But investing in seed-round projects can be a high-risk gamble for investors, just like playing dice. During the seed rounds of a startup company, investors usually don’t have much or anything finished to look at. Many initial seed investments are made because investors trust the founder to deliver what’s been promised.
A crypto VC firm partner told Decrypt in a direct message that “VCs typically examine numerous factors including the founding team’s background, as well as consider what kind of “problem” the project is solving before investing. The partner said that unreasonable valuation asks, a lack of understanding user “pain points,” and a team with little experience are red flags that can cause concern.”
“The team is the most important component in the early stage,” the partner, who would only speak on the condition of anonymity, told Decrypt.
What will happen next?
It’s not clear how much Lil Baby will be involved in the project, but he likes NFTs. He has tweeted about them before and has been collecting PFP NFTs, including a pink Bored Ape with a baby bonnet, which he later mutated.
“While celebrities and rappers have harmed the space with countless cash grabs and rug pulls, Lil Baby has done Web3 the right way,” the team behind Rollies says in its pitch deck.
A source who knows about Lil Baby’s NFT plans told Decrypt that the rapper has been working on his own NFT project for at least six months, but it’s not clear if it’s Avruskin’s Rollies project or something else.
Content Source: decrypt.com
Cover Image Source: finance.yahoo.com
