In this week’s issue:

• Touch Grass: Blackbird.xyz—Gorgeous Disaster or Game-Changer? (spoiler, it’s complicated)

• Hodl Me Tender: 🔥 Web3, Crypto + AI Jobs of the Week

Hodl Me Tender: 🔥 Web3 + AI Jobs of the Week

Looking for your next move in (or into) web3, crypto, or AI? Here are some fire openings for this week, all remote, all posted within the last three days:

• Paradigm is looking for a Founding Frontend Engineer

• They (Paradigm) also need a Founding Fullstack Engineer to join their team

• OpenAI is looking for a Customer Success Manager, Strategics

• Coinbase is looking for a Trust & Safety Specialist

• Superlogic needs a new Crypto Account Manager to join their team

• Wintermute wants to find a DeFi Algorithmic Trader

• Paal AI needs a Head of Ecosystem—is it you?

• Beam needs a Design Director

• Want to be an HMI Lead at Figure? Get it.

• Circle is on the lookout for a Senior Director, Product Marketing

Want to see your company's job listed here? Reply to this email and lmk.

Blackbird.xyz and/or Loyalty Programs for People Who Think They're Main Characters

Blackbird is Ben Leventhal's (yes, the Resy and Eater guy) latest venture into making restaurant loyalty actually work. The concept is honestly cute—tap a little NFC puck (a puck that contains a Near Field Communication chip) when you arrive at participating spots, earn $FLY points (blockchain restaurant money, because ofc), unlock perks, feel important. It's like a frequent flyer program but for people who pride themselves on knowing which bodega has the good sandwiches.

What’s wild (and what I love) is that Blackbird is fully web3 under the hood—NFT membership cards, crypto tokens, built on Coinbase's Base blockchain—but most users have no idea they're using "crypto" anything. Fuck. Yes. This is how adoption of the new/feared happens—in seamless, inconspicuous ways, without detection of the new/feared thing.

So in this sense, Blackbird is actually kinda… genius? It stealth onboards normies into web3 without the scary buzzwords or wallet setup nightmares. Basically, yr mom could be earning blockchain tokens just by going to brunch with Gigi, and never even know she's entered DeFi baddie territory.

The Blackbird app itself is genuinely gorgeous—NYT, FastCompany, and Time are all obsessed with its sleek design. I mean, someone clearly spent their entire UI budget on making it look pretty damn svelte. The check-in process is smooth and sharing the app with friends to earn more $FLY actually works—which in 2025 is basically a miracle of modern technology.

And then shit gets spicy

Here's where Blackbird reveals its commitment issues: the search function is apparently run by the same people who designed the MTA's weekend service updates. aka it doesn't exist and no one can explain why.

Real scenario from last week: I'm staying at a friend’s in Chelsea, walking down 8th towards the Lower East Side and craving some gluten-free empanadas (annoyingly cliché but true—I’m gf). I open what should be my trusty restaurant discovery app, Blackbird, and see hundreds of little pulsing dots scattered across the Manhattan map like little lightning bugs of promise. Sick, options.

Except wait—I literally cannot search for "empanadas." Or "gluten-free." Or even "coffee," which I also wanted. Nope. I get to play the world's most boring game of restaurant roulette, tapping each individual dot in an attempt to find somewhere I can eat without shitting myself.

Want Korean BBQ? Brazilian? Vegan soft serve? Hope you've got three hours and the patience of a kindergarten teacher, because you're about to manually investigate every single pulsing dot in a five-mile radius. Which makes zero sense, and just ends up being frustrating. So you abandon the app, toggle back to Google Maps, find a sick gf bakery, and carry on with the rest of your day.

The economics of pretty dysfunction

This is particularly unhinged when you consider that their target demo is clearly people with money to burn. We're talking users who drop $50 on "Bar Blackbird" memberships (ok that one’s worth it) and $5K, $10K, or $25K on Gjelina house accounts (yes, that's real, yes, people bought them). These are not people who have time to play "guess what cuisine this unmarked dot represents" while standing on a street corner looking like they're trying to catch Pokemon.

The whole thing kinda feels like watching someone spend $100K on a Tesla and then realize they forgot to include door handles. You've got the fancy crypto payment system (built on Coinbase's Base, v sophisticated), the blockchain loyalty tokens , the Guest Value Score that “helps restaurants contextualize their guests and deliver hospitality.” Meaning they use your data to market to you and treat you better than any other customer—no thanks. All this and you still can't do a quick, simple search for what and where you want to eat.

I’m not trying to shit on Blackbird. I really do like the premise/promise. I just… don’t understand how this search function wasn’t part of the app from day one. Anyhow, at least their token, $FLY, reminds me of this banger throwback from Big Tymers.

The hiccups I'm choosing to ignore (for now)

There are other concerning signs, but nothing too red flaggy. Like how at least one of the spots I went to had employees who looked confused when I pointed to the puck and said oh cool, you have Blackbird. But that feels like an adoption/awareness problem that both time and money can solve.

Also, maybe give actual employees some kind of useful kickback for being knowledgeable about Blackbird and promoting it with tact? idk, just a thought.

As for the search thing, that feels like a fundamental misunderstanding of how humans want to interact with the world. But I don’t dev apps, I just use and have strong, mostly informed opinions about them. So maybe I’m just missing something? Maybe the devs are all rolling their eyes at this writeup rn? I’m fine w that. Regardless, I bet the Blackbird team had their reasons and are already working on an update.

Until then, I'll keep using it for the spots I already know about. And find serendipity in the moments when I stumble across a Blackbird location without even knowing it.

PS: Subscribe now if you want in on this arithmetic. Miss the last issue? It’s right here. Also literally none of this is ever financial advice. I’m sharing what I learn through Babe, and perhaps you’ll learn from my mistakes. Hopefully, maybe, who knows, ily.