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a16z: Why We Invested in Blackbird.

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How Web3 can help restaurants reshape the industry.

Original Title: "Investing in Blackbird"

Original Author: Arianna Simpson, General Partner at a16z

Translated by: Blockbeats

One of the great pleasures of living in New York City is that delicious meals are always just a few minutes away.

The restaurant industry has long provided customers with food, social venues, and entertainment. Despite the continuous development of the catering industry, creating more value for diners, cities, and society, they often lack profit margins.

We have seen that blockchain has enabled direct communication between creators and fans in the music and art industries, allowing creators to identify, interact with, and reward their most loyal fans.

If restaurants could achieve this as well? What does this mean for the experiences they can create for customers and their bottom line?

Establishing products for restaurants can be difficult - restaurant ownership is usually dispersed, there are almost no economies of scale, and technology itself is rarely a selling point. But sometimes, we are fortunate enough to encounter a thoughtful founder who operates so well in their own field of expertise, and now with the help of new technology, investing is an easy decision.

Under the leadership of CEO and founder Ben Leventhal, Blackbird aims to provide personalized and enhanced dining experiences through Web3, in order to reward customers and make them feel delighted.

In the restaurant industry, Ben can be considered a founder market adaptability model. Remembering the painful era before online restaurant reservations and even online restaurant reviews, Ben is one of the people we should thank. Ben was the co-founder and CEO of Resy, a platform that manages reservations for some of the world's most popular restaurants, which he sold to American Express in 2019. Prior to that, Ben co-founded Eater in 2005, an online authority in the American food and nightlife industry.

During our lunch together, I told Ben that Blackbird seemed to be the culmination of his career, the fruit of his labor over the past twenty years. His eyes lit up. "Yes," he said, "that's exactly it. I've been working towards this goal all along."

Ben loves restaurants. And restaurants love him.

Blackbird has only been online for a few months, and we have already seen the restaurant industry adopting and shaping this platform. Restaurants are using Blackbird to offer customers rewards ranging from free drinks and snacks to off-menu dishes, and even the opportunity to enjoy chef-prepared private meals in their own homes. Blackbird also allows users to pre-purchase membership to upcoming restaurants.

There are endless possibilities for deliciousness here. Therefore, we are thrilled to announce today that we will be leading Blackbird's $24 million Series A funding to support this future.