FTs, Investing, NFT Drops

Anatomy of a Generative NFT Drop Team: Roles and Responsibilities for Success on the Ethereum Blockchain

Planning a drop? Here’s a list of roles you’ll need to cover, including one critical area that everyone misses.

Here at GenerativeNFTs, I think we’ve lost count of the number of worldwide NFT teams we’ve met with. It’s easily in the hundreds, and it’s also easy to lose track.

Over time, it’s become clear to me that, while there isn’t necessarily a magic team size out there to optimize a drop’s chances of success, there IS at least a list of critical roles that need to be fulfilled for any team. Let’s look at these roles.

And keep in mind that (1) one person can often cover multiple of these roles, (2) many of the roles listed below may represent entire teams, and (3) team members from any of these roles often provide input into many other areas. Overall, it’s a cross-functional TEAM approach here, but the roles include (listed in alpha order, so as not to anger anyone, lol):

• 🎨Artist(s) — Usually, this is a single person who handles the NFT artwork. Occasionally, I’ve seen multiple people working in this area, but not often. (Once we get to generative coding, this is the person that I personally usually work closest with — even closer than those for whom I write smart contracts or do minting sites.) You may well have other artists in the marketing area, but I’d include those below. (Please show this person my how-to articles on NFT art setup, as they will make this person’s life so much easier.)
• 💰Investor(s)—The money behind the initial development. Can easily be one person or a group of people (quite common to see both scenarios). Also, this is often someone from one of the other roles listed herein, as many (not all) investors like to be proactively hands-on with meetings and participation.
• 👀 ️Marketer(s) — This is almost always a team. If you’re not a celeb or influencer, it should be a team. And if you’re a celeb or influencer, you probably have your own team. So, teams are (almost always) best here. Marketing would be in charge of strategic planning, advertising, web site development (the marketing / communications site; not the web3 minting stuff), messaging, PR, partnerships, etc. In my experience, this is usually (not always) the weakest area. The old “if you build it, they will come” strategy always was, and always will be, painfully wrong. Competition is fierce, and you absolutely need a solid plan. So, please take this area seriously.
• ⚖️ Professional Advisor(s) — As far as I can tell, most teams are completely ignoring this absolutely critical component. And it’s a two-pronged one: (1) Accounting and Tax: Well, no one is listening to me here, but the NFT world is going to get hit with this hard, and the neglect here is going to bring down some otherwise successful drops. When you do an NFT drop, that’s income for you and, as far as I know, pretty much everywhere on Earth, there’s some authority who wants a piece of the pie. And the paperwork is likely a nightmare. So, get a CPA, okay? (2) Legal: Almost every drop team I talk to asks me a few questions that I answer with the same introduction of, “Well, I’m not a lawyer, so all I can do is share my own opinion, which is…” Seriously, though, remember that old saying: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Get a lawyer, okay?
• 👩‍💼Project Manger(s)— The team leader and professional cat herder who keeps the project (and likely the entire team) organized, in motion, focused, on target, etc. Really, this is more than just a project management role and should be considered an empowered role for all of the various business decision-making that will crop up. This is often the person (or group) charged with building out the team being described in this article.
• 🐦 Social Media Manager(s) — Those who tweet, post, moderate Discords, and all of that good stuff. (Arguably, this is a subset of marketing. But, to a marketer, everything is a subset of marketing. I like to break it out, though, as I see this as a bit of a functional specialty, whereas the “Marketer” item above is meant as more of a broad / strategic partnership / planning type of role.)
• 💻 Technology Partner(s) — The individual or company that handles areas such as generative art programming, metadata, file management/storage, smart contracts, mint-on-demand web sites, etc. (Hint: This is what we do at GenerativeNFTs, although we’re generally tightly involved in all of the areas herein as well.) For most teams, there will be multiple tech partners, though, and that goes double for post-launch, when new tech roadmap items need to be pursued, such as token development or metaverse expansion, for example.
• 💡Visionary(ies)— This is usually one or two individuals who had the idea and who plan out most of aspects of the drop — from aesthetics to utility to roadmap to overall guidance.

I always hate hitting the “publish” button on list pieces like this, as I usually have the feeling that I’ve left something critical off. But, then again, publishing thankfully isn’t yet as immutable as the blockchain, so I can always come back and edit if needed. I hope the above list helps those interested in pursuing NFT drops plan out their initial teambuilding. And when it comes time for generative art coding, smart contracts, and mint pages, feel free to contact me. :-)