The beautiful success story of
@Collector_Crypt.
Our journey with them began in January 2024, when we first spoke with
@TuomHolmberg and
@JoeMunnsHK about an investment.
At first, it looked like a toy and an extremely niche market, so we were skeptical about its potential to become an asymmetric, venture-like outcome. But after a lengthy DD process and many conversations with a deeply passionate team, it became clear: the market is much larger than it seems, the expansion opportunities are endless, and the demand for a solution like this is real.
So we decided to invest and became one of the very few VCs backing them, alongside our friends at
@BigBrainVC, who introduced us in the first place. So shoutout to
@SOLBigBrain and team.
We promised to help bring more investors from our network on board. We introduced Collector to 40–50 other VCs, and only a dozen even took a meeting.
Every single one of them passed.
Most founders would’ve been crushed, feeling invalidated. But not Tuom and Joe. Their passion for cards kept them going. They knew the market wanted this, so they had no choice but to deliver.
They started grinding harder than ever, with minimal funds, barely paying themselves a salary. And then came up with the Gacha machine, which was the beginning of their breakout.
It gave crypto degens the chance to collect real-world Pokémon RWAs in a gamified, randomized, and crypto-native way. Exactly what the market didn’t know it needed - and instantly got addicted to.
From there, the community grew organically. Adoption and volume snowballed. People tried it, loved it, and kept coming back. Word of mouth did the rest.
Once again, the cabals and trenchers proved to be the real smart money, while the so-called tIeR oNe vCs missed out on a highly asymmetric winner.
I couldn’t be more excited about Collector’s success, for several reasons:
1) The team. I’ve worked with them for almost 2 years now, and I can confidently vouch that money is not their main driver. Their motivation is pure passion for the product, and I expect them to work on this as long as it’s even remotely possible. They deserve this more than anyone else.
2) It’s all organic. They haven’t spent a single $ on marketing. No paid shills, no wash trading, no shady market makers. Just a great product and a strong community.
3) The market finally starts rewarding what should be rewarded. A fair and transparent
$CARDS public sale via
@metaplex. A DEX-only launch. A genuine consumer product and exciting on-chain use case, not another useless shiny L1.
4) Real backing, real traction. A token backed by a multi-million dollar RWA treasury of Pokémon cards, with hypergrowth in real, recurring revenue.
We need more teams like this, building what they truly believe in, not what the majority of money driven mid-curvers expect them to. Hopefully this story inspires more founders to bring real consumer use cases on-chain.
We need more success stories like Collector.