Founder @ Third Time. Created the Hit Stick. Current:
@photofinishgame
+
@TheMVPSociety
. 24yr game dev - Creative Director of Madden, FanDuel, Zynga, etc
A Fundraising Story
Now that the ink has dried, I thought it might be cathartic to look back and discuss what all went down as I started the fundraising process literally the same week FTX cratered.
At the advice of our lead investor LVP, I spent much of September and October
One of the main reasons I left EA was because as creative director I had to spend most of my time making hundreds (or even thousands) of PowerPoint slides, instead of working on the game.
Here I am 10 years later, back in it. But never had a slide like this one before. 💪💪
“EA SPORTS, IT’S IN THE GAME”
How many times have you heard that? I am not exaggerating saying I have probably heard it over a million times. It partly triggers ptsd from hearing it echoing through the halls on testing machines as I slept at my desk crunching for an E3 deadline,
The thesis, from the first pitch, has never changed.
✅ Build the best horse racing game in the world.
✅ Build the best community in the world.
🔳 Utilize mobile app for easier onboarding, performance marketing, and international expansion.
Nearly 15 million people
A New Chapter
It’s crazy to think it's been over 2 years since I first announced the vision and roadmap of
@photofinishgame
on a zoom call to our community.
The most critical aspect of PFL’s design is and always has been 'lifecycles', that is, AGING. Every 4 weeks, our horses
Nothing is ever perfect. Building a game is a never ending journey.
But yesterday, we set all time highs of ...
- Total entry fees ($193k | +90% from day 1 of last season)
- Races run (645, +27%)
- Horses running in a race (6016, +38%)
Oh, and DAU continues the steady upward
We are about one year into
@photofinishgame
More horses. More racing. More stables.
Players are earning millions.
I sure hope we find product market fit soon so i can reach back out to some
thought-leading thesis-driven VC's
<clears throat>
@photofinishgame
will be the number one game in web3 (not just Solana like we are now)
Then the only game that will take the number one spot from us will be our next game.
There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s simply programmed.
Just hop in.
Yes,
@photofinishgame
has officially signed on with 2 market makers and is adding a third.
Legal process w new entities took some time, but Rome wasn’t built in a day!
We onboarded this week, getting our plans of attack together on marketing / exchanges.
Exciting times.
Have you ever wondered what my very first prototype of a horse racing game looked like in 2014?
I'd show this to friends and their first reaction was always to laugh. "Really? A horse racing game?"
It sure has come a long way!
@newheightshow
Former director of Madden here…
A) it was bought by a holding corp called Evergreen at an Atari auction about 10 years ago
B) You should make your own IP! no reason to call it Backyard Sports, it has no real / tangible value. “Big Head Baseball” or whatever you wanna name it
When
@photofinishgame
goes live on the App Store + Google Play, correct me if I’m wrong but I believe it will be the first and only real money horse racing game in the universe.
Available on up to and including 15 billion mobile devices.
Crypto game dev is truly a pivotal shift.
Having to make a FUN game first is a given. But if you can, having your players own their assets is POWERFUL.
91% of players that have bought a horse in
@photofinishgame
are still playing 𝟲𝟬𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿. 🤯
It can feel amazing seeing the bullishness and euphoria on
@photofinishgame
on the timeline. So happy for our community!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yet, here I sit, with blood still boiling at the countless tweets and shitfluencers that ignored us, left us off their stupid tier graph
I’ve seen just about every meme coin to roll through Solana over the past 2.5 years.
And I have never been more impressed with meme perfection as I am of $COST - aka Costco HotDog.
If Solana degens don’t send this to $1.50, words won’t describe my disappointment.
If you faded us when we needed it and questioned our ability to succeed why on earth would we give you a good deal when we are finally getting the recognition I worked tirelessly for.
I keep all receipts. Forever.
Gtfo my team’s DMs.
Coinbase Wallet users are allowlisted for three free NFTs for the 150th Kentucky Derby™!
Visit the Explore tab to mint your SuperFecta scratch-off ticket from
@photofinishgame
.
Only on Coinbase Wallet.
Why Web3?
Most of our community knows but maybe others don't -
@photofinishgame
is actually a sequel to our previous mobile game, "Horse Racing Manager" (which was also a sequel to our previous game, aptly named "Photo Finish", which actually started out named "Derby King" but
Fun fact, almost nothing has changed about the core fundamentals of
@photofinishgame
since its original idea and inception. Sure, we've iterated. We've tweaked racing schedules, we've added new race types, we've juiced certain races, we've put on live streams.
But the CORE is
I have an idea to get nearly the entirety of web3 watching the 150th
@KentuckyDerby
at the same time.
Hundreds of thousands of degens, all 72 solana devs! It is going to take some effort. And some help.
Need some legal clearance first before I roll out the plan…
Yesterday in
@photofinishgame
.... All-time high of races run in a single day (683)...
In case you're new to the Photo Finish ecosystem, the growth path is:
More Horses ➡️ Running More Races ➡️ Higher Entry Fees ➡️ More earnings for $CROWN track owners.
Simple really.
If you are involved in the
@solana
ecosystem as a
- token creat000r
- soon to be token creat000r
- token enjoy000r
I think you're going to love what's going live soon in
@photofinishgame
Free hotdogs on July 4 was just the beginning... feels like web3 magic is about to
Just hung out with
@0xMert_
in NYC for 2 hours over 2-5 drinks (lost count).
What happens when the number 1 infra provider and the number 1 game on Solana get reasonably drunk together with a beautiful rooftop view?
MAGIC HAPPENS THATS WHAT
🪄
The community asks, so we deliver.
(Again, disclaimer, I think this is crazy)
A new race type will be going out soon in
@photofinishgame
where:
> Winner takes whole pot
> Losers are sent off to pasture, lost forever
Only possible on Solana?
Welcome to the Thunderdome.
These are just a few of the
@photofinishgame
executives that came from all over the world to Churchill Downs.
Warming up today at Kentucky Oaks…prepping our livers for tomorrow’s Derby. 🌹
Special weekend in the web3 timeline!
In the past 24 hours,
@photofinishgame
had 545 races open for entry, and of that, 491 total races were filled and went off. (this is a new record)
To fill those races, 4,223 horses raced in the last 24 hours:
Over $120,000 (USD) was paid in entry fees for those 4,223 horses
Public speaking doesn’t usually rattle me, probably too tired to be nervous anyway.
Should be a fun day regardless…can’t wait to meet all the Solana chads and chadettes.
@SolanaConf
Every time we iterate on the race schedule in
@photofinishgame
, there's bound to be fear.
That's healthy. Especially I know a lot of players have gotten burned hardcore by massive sweeping changes in other games that didn't seem to make any sense.
We aim to not work that
February through April 2023 was a kinda tough time in
@photofinishgame
. This was before the game launched 'for real'. We were still testing a lot of things in beta, and real money was required to race, so people were definitely on edge. Vibes were shaky. And here and there,
Good progress lately on
🐎 A way to more quickly enter races
🐎 Assets moving on chain
@solana
🐎 private loans for stable managers
🐎 mobile app
🐎 liquidity and market makers
Future so bright I gotta 😎
A bunch of virtual horse owners just screamed at a projector screen in downtown Louisville for the virtual Kentucky Derby in
@photofinishgame
@SOLBigBrain
took the victory in this prestigious race, crushing the dreams of all owners in attendance.
What a legendary weekend. 🌹
Building a game within the crypto / web3 ecosystem has been extremely challenging.
No, not because of nascent tech. Not because of the volatility. Not because of Luna or FTX or whatever.
It’s challenging because getting noticed here follows nearly a total polar opposite
Tomorrow night is the virtual
@KentuckyDerby
, which means right after that we are full speed ahead with one season leading into the 150th anniversary (irl) race on May 4! 🌹
Soooo much is happening in April...
✅ Influencers and KoL’s locked up
✅ Activations with brands
So called “risk capital” VC’s with a “strong bull thesis on gaming” who passed on Third Time last year waiting for me to “reach back out when you have more traction”
A little over 1 year of Photo Finish…
Stellar revenue growth from zero to ~2 thousand racing stables with basically zero paid advertising and a fully geolocked game.
I can’t wait to see what happens next.
@photofinishgame
Just got off a great & energizing call with
@ChurchillDowns
.
I think a good hint of whether you have a successful partnership with a licensor is whether you are scared to get on a call with them. (I’m not)
Absolutely amazing partners. One of the best I’ve ever worked with!
I'm not posting this as any kind of a victory lap. Job's not finished.
But I am posting it as a reminder to founders to stay strong out there. 99% of all people in the world will just say no to risky opportunities. Which I get! Taking a risk is hard. The fundraising process is
❓“Hey Ian, what is up with the $DERBY currency in
@photofinishgame
?”
Glad you asked, pal!
Photo Finish utilizes “DERBY” as its own “stablecoin”, effectively a virtual currency that players can utilize in the game. It keeps our economy much healthier and in better balance than
Building
@photofinishgame
has been nonstop exhilarating.
For those keeping score, like just a couple thousand players are racing regularly. Probably only 20% of them are in our Discord. Filtering between vocal minority and silent majority requires constant iteration and care.
This is absolutely UNREAL.
@RoaringHammy
has basically single-handedly driven 1.5M views to this video of a Virtual Kentucky Derby replay in
@photofinishgame
.
For comparison, the real 2023
@KentuckyDerby
video replay is at 416k.
Community is absolutely UNMATCHED.
We are very much looking forward to rolling out a new way to register your whole
@photofinishgame
stable into races with probably 10-20x the time savings!
Here's a sneak peek at "PFL Pro":
Big thanks to
@Benzinga
and
@chriskatje
for sitting down with
@iancummingsnft
to chat about Photo Finish™ LIVE!
Madden Gaming Veteran Leads Play-To-Earn Horse Racing Game Photo Finish Into New Growth Phase: 'More People Racing All Day, Every Day'
Noticed a couple of the
@photofinishgame
players hit a bit of a lull and wanted to comment on it!
It can be difficult to play hardcore games for so long, especially as some grievances you have continue to come across your screen and re remind you of them daily.
But it’s also
Can’t wait to share some details about our new user experience especially as mobile gets farther along.
It’s really been an amazing phenomenon that we’ve been able to add players to
@photofinishgame
directly to the bottom of the funnel (magic of web3?), but we’ve been working
We are giving away $100,000 just so all of web3 can watch the Kentucky Derby together.
- Free superfecta scratch offs
- Minted with
@CoinbaseWallet
- imagine insanity of aftermarket trading of these things next week after post positions are announced!(
@MagicEden
?)
I first announced the design of
@photofinishgame
nearly 3 years ago.
The most critical aspect of the design was AGING.
This was met with a ton of FUD from competing games.
“Wow, that is stupid! Have fun losing your horses morons!”
…
Anyway now all those games are dead.
With Track Sponsorship...
ANYONE...
Can submit ANY
@solana
token...
And automatically engage the huge diamond-handed PFL community in a play-to-airdrop campaign.
Majority track owners choose what makes the cut.
I believe this is a first.
(Now live on devnet... mainnet
"Hey Ian, do you happen to have the last 60 days of entry fees in
@photofinishgame
, showing an unbelievable spike over the past 10 days?"
You bet, anonymous question asker!
Today was an eye opener.
One of our biz dev guys messaged me "was just chatting with [redacted] track, they think the game is really cool and just wanted to inquire about what the cost structure might look like if they wanted their own track in the game" ...
And so I looked,
Legendary evening in London meeting up with a bunch of
@photofinishgame
faithful.
Guinness challenges, sambuca shots, roulette, blackjack, closing down the bar… smart decision prior to an 8+ hr flight.
Hard to imagine what the
@KentuckyDerby
is going to be like. 😳
We just reached an unbelievable milestone, over 100,000 horses created in
@photofinishgame
!
However, each of them need a name! Multiple community members have mentioned how painful it can be to name all of their horses each season.
I just rolled out a generator, here's how!
Soon I’m going to explain how
@photofinishgame
is building the premier L2 on Solana.
I will be making most of it up but it’s kinda true.
I like this concept of games all becoming their own side chains / L2’s. Do complicated and secret work on your side, settle it to chain when
An epic day in Third Time history - I hired a full time office manager and she starts today.
Taxes, payroll, hr, contracts, invoices, vendors, travel + event planning…I’ve had to do it all since founding the company in 2015 and I hate every single bit of it.
Until today.
Coming soon on
@photofinishgame
- the "LIVE" actually goes LIVE!
We now have the ability to curate and feature external live streams directly on the homepage of the site (twitch, youtube, and kick!).
I’m gonna come clean, I’ve had a serious low key hatred of
@GalacticGeckoSG
at their launch. Why? Well, those dudes raised 10x what we did in their mint — like a week before us — with basically zero plan and nothing but empty promises. It to me was everything wrong with Solana
Ever since 15,000 of you mfers came flying into my discord in September 2021 (thank you
@SOLBigBrain
@mdudas
!), I’ve been chained to our beautiful project,
@photofinishgame
.
It was so exciting but man was it a LOT. I started having crazy heart palpitations from the lack of
Breakpoint + Gamer Village +
@photofinishgame
+ Solana Derby…
What’s stopping you from minting your own
@rajgokal
collectible and a shot at a bottle of free champagne?
Is the Photo Finish “Executive Club” the most exclusive club in Web3?
In less than 2 weeks, nearly 40 members of this crew in Web3 will descend on Louisville, Kentucky … flying in from all over the world to watch the historic 150th running of the
@KentuckyDerby
🌹
For many,
1/X Everyone has posted this graph, obviously it wants to make us all boooooolish. I mean I hope to hell history repeats.
But what was the catalyst to the 2021 bill run? I mean, in my eyes, it was a one in a million SERIES of events…
🧵
TOMORROW IS THE DAY!!!!! 🌭🌭🌭
The debut of the Photo Finish™ LIVE custom sponsored purse prize feature debuts courtesy of our friends at
@costcodogsol
All races. Every horse. $1.50 $COST bonus.
If dudes in hot dog outfits break out of the gates instead of horses, $15
Life can sometimes really be unfair.
Rest in peace,
@SlyRaven1432
Founding member of the “Bad Girls Club”, and an amazing source of inspiration for our whole community and me specifically.
If you are interested in helping her family through this awful time, read on:
Daily
#ALS
Post:
I am officially on hospice. Im actually quite relieved to have it done.
They came in like a friendly whirlwind of energy. Ive got a hospital bed, Actually looks comfortable. Im getting in it Thursday for a bath...may not leave again. My legs are making
4 hours sleep, a million presents, kids and wife overjoyed, 2 naps, leftovers, and some Solana programming to handle exponential back off retry logic on our servers for $DERBY transactions on chain.
Merry Christmas mfers!
Do you have a
@photofinishgame
stable?
Are you following me and I’m not following you back?
Drop a note below, we will fix it asap! Bonus points if you drop your country flag 🇺🇸 in the reply and show me the best horse in your stable ! 👇