What people still get wrong about VeeFriends: Andy Krainak, NFT Creator

It’s hard to ignore the impact Gary Vaynerchuk (aka Gary Vee) had on the NFT space in 2021-22. The founder and CEO of VaynerMedia and prolific content creator onboarded thousands of new people onchain with the launch of his project, VeeFriends. 

For those outside of the Vaynerchuk ecosystem, VeeFriends was misunderstood when it launched and for many, still remains so today. It often sits outside the regular discourse on NFT Twitter and its extensive character base can make it seem complex to the causal NFT degen. 

But despite this, four-plus years on, VeeFriends continues to expand its universe. While the brand and IP was born out of the blockchain, VeeFriends has crossed over into different worlds and niches most NFT collectors would not even be aware of.

We sat down with VeeFriends president Andy Krainak to discuss what’s been cooking at VeeFriends and what it’s like to work with Vaynerchuk on a project whose mission statement he describes as: “Brick by brick, we build”.

What is VeeFriends: The beginning

Vaynerchuk has described VeeFriends as his “Pokemon, Disney, Sesame Street or Marvel,” an IP ecosystem of characters based on traits he believes in and wants to spread positivity through. 

The original genesis of VeeFriends is the Series 1 NFT Collection that minted around the same time as Bored Ape Yacht Club and Meebits, and just two months after Beeple’s iconic $69 million sale of “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” which set rocket fuel under the emerging category of crypto.

All of the Series 1 VeeFriends were hand-drawn by Vaynerchuk himself and are described as the grail collectible in the VeeFriends universe. The collection features 10,255 NFTs, representing 268 unique characters. Of these, 236 characters are IP characters that grant admission to VeeCon, such as Gift Goat NFTs and “access tokens” such as Basketball Butterfly and Facetime Five.

NFTs with “utility” weren’t yet cliche during the lead up to the VeeFriends mint, and Vaynerchuk was ahead of the curve attaching a three-year ticket to VeeCon for 2022, 2023 and 2024 for each Series 1 VeeFriend. VeeCon is Vaynerchuk’s version of an SXSW-style conference.

Krainak describes the IP play as constantly evolving and that it’s not just a traditional NFT project that often revolves around a single character. 

“It’s a universe of over 250 characters that are coming to life through comics and collectibles. Every character will have a different origin and meaning, but it’s grounded in our ultimate collectible, which is a Series 1 VeeFriend NFT, which unlocks different opportunities and advantages either in our collectible ecosystem or with other perks and special events with the VeeFriends community,” Krainak says.

For Series 1, the floor price currently sits at 1.05 ETH ($4,545), but as Krainak points out, it’s a collection that traditional floor price isn’t the easiest to translate due to the extensive character library.

“The interesting thing about VeeFriends is it does have a floor price but I actually think VeeFriends has 250 different floor prices, based on the character. Some characters are way more popular than others and the prices reflect that.”

“The most emotional I’ve ever seen him” — Memories of the mint

With Vaynerchuk’s favorite number being five, the mint had originally been earmarked for 5/5/21, but a few delays set it back. Krainak recalls how intense that period was, living at Vaynerchuk’s apartment in the lead-up and ultimately seeing his boss the most emotional he’d ever seen him once the mint went live.

“That launch changed my relationship with Gary. I was basically living at his apartment for a week. We just weren’t sleeping. We were trying to get it done. I really learned the aptitude he had to do what he did throughout that time. I saw how fearless he was.”

“He’s a very successful individual and businessman. He did not need to launch VeeFriends. Was there capital to gain? Yes, but there’s also so much downside. He put his reputation and legacy on the line because he wanted to build this IP, and he thought putting collectibles and his IP first on the blockchain was not only going to be an unprecedented opportunity to build IP, but to be a blueprint for how others could do it.”

“That’s the most emotional I’ve ever seen him. I think it was a culmination of everything. All the hard work that we did to get to that launch and just cementing what was going to become like his life’s legacy as creating an IP.”