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Reflections and Lessons We’ve Learned Through the @llamao_ Launch
The Llamao launch days were exhausting and overwhelming for our team, not only because of the intense preparation but also due to the continuously unexpected challenges that arose.
To summarize: Llamao went through a price cut from 1200 $MON to 500 $MON (we refunded 700 $MON to those who minted at 1200 $MON), and a supply cut from 5000 NFTs to 1200 NFTs. We’ve been building Llamao for almost two years with genuine love and dedication to the Llamao IP. Below are some reflections and lessons we’ve learned:
1. Price & Supply
Our initial mint price and supply were based on subjective self-valuation using data such as testnet NFTs, GTD WL holders, Monad airdrop claimers, Monad overall sentiment, etc. However, market conditions changed rapidly, making that valuation less accurate.
One key challenge was that pricing was tied directly to MON.
- When MON rises, supporters feel the mint price becomes too expensive.
- When MON falls, the team’s financial planning is impacted.
Lesson learned: We should announce price and supply much earlier, giving the community enough time to absorb the information and provide timely feedback. The team also needs sufficient time to collect feedback and make adjustments. For Llamao, we announced too late (because we were worried about MON volatility), which made the timeline too rushed and left little room to gather feedback. Fortunately, we still managed to adjust the price and supply in time.
2. WL Distribution Strategy
Our strategy was to distribute WL not only within Monad, but also beyond Monad, to well-known NFT and DAO communities across Web3. However, this led to a problem. Because the number of GTD WL holders was high, we felt pressure to maintain a large supply to ensure their minting opportunities. Ideally, we should have followed a stricter WL strategy or conducted a large role purge earlier to determine the realistic supply. Onboarding non-Monad communities was also challenging. We had to convince them about both Monad and Llamao.
3. Timing
Launching on day 2 of Monad mainnet was not ideal timing. Most CEXs had disabled MON withdrawals. To get MON to participate in the ecosystem, users had to perform complicated steps like bridging from Solana. This significantly limited the real liquidity available for the NFT ecosystem. We should have delayed the launch until MON was easier to access. I personally struggled to get MON at that time.
We’ve been building Llamao for almost 2 years entirely with personal funds. We never raised from VCs. The truth is, the amount we received from minting is nothing compared to what we’ve actually spent. This shows how much we genuinely love and believe in the Llamao IP. There’s still a long path ahead, with more plans to develop it further. It will require time, trust, and support.
We’ll share more about the next steps next week. For now, the Llamao team needs a few days to deeply rest, recover, and come back stronger than ever. You’ve seen how hard we’ve tried, right? And we’ll continue that way 💜
More importantly, we want to send a heartfelt thank you and appreciation to @KeoneHD for what he did. It was unexpected, almost like a dream. The most beautiful part is that it feels like a recognition of the effort we’ve dedicated to Monad. I know Keone will change his PFP, but the day he chose Llamao as his first Monad-based PFP will never be forgotten. You are a GOAT.
One more happy thing: everyone who believed in us and hit the mint button is now in profit. You deserve it. Once again, thank you so much for trusting and supporting us. You choose to stay with us 💜
For those who are currently holding Llamao NFTs: please don’t overhype. Instead, take the time to learn about Llamao & Llamaoism. We’ll start RTing old posts for you to learn from. Thanks so much for trusting us and holding 💜
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