Compelling community culture has been the bedrock of Mad Lads and Backpack since day zero. At the heart of it all is the WAO mentality, the result of two years of relentless community building.
WAO's humble origins begin before the Mad Lads mint when a fateful early community member first uttered it in Discord. What began as an innocent pledge of loyalty has evolved into a cornerstone of Mad Lads and Backpack philosophy.
WAO. We are one.
It's not just motto, it's the lifeblood of a global ecosystem of builders, traders, artists, investors and degens from every corner of the blockchain.
Community is real. Mad Lads is real. Ecosystems of people all around the world with rich lore, immense talent, and strong bonds creating an unshakeable social foundation for the products built on them are real.
If harnessed, community can be the differentiating element in a world with a knack for commoditizing scarce resources. It's one of the most magical powers in web3.
Armani Ferrante
It wasn't long before founders Armani Ferrante and Tristan Yver picked up the chant and soon WAO was spread far and wide across the Solana ecosystem.
Before anyone realized it WAO had permeated the DNA of Mad Lads and Backpack. Coral, Armani's developer infrastructure project, even became known as "The WAO Company".
All of this happened during one of the most challenging time periods for blockchain brands. In the face of a major value pullback and waning interest in crypto, a core group of traders, builders and artists refused to give up.
Their conviction became the bedrock for what Mad Lads and Backpack would ultimately become.
WAO is a rallying cry which instantly identifies the bearer as a member of the Mad Lads community. It represents a large, diverse faction of like-minded individuals who share a passion for art, technology and a permissionless world.
It instantly identifies community members who are a part of something bigger. A vibrant, diverse group of individuals who thrive on creativity, technology and changing the world.
WAO manifested itself in a material way with the WAO List, the whitelist for what would eventually become the Mad Lads mint. At this time, the Mad Lads name and artwork had yet to be released.
Today, WAO is an integral of the Backpack identity and is found in the comment section of every announcement and product update.
We quickly realized that just doing product and tech wasn't gonna be enough. we needed a way to allow this community to feel like they were really part of something we were building.
Tristan Yver
Tristan cited the introduction of the Bitcoin whitepaper and the early fringe groups that became evangelists of what Bitcoin stood for, an intersection of product and culture.
Community is what took a piece of technology and turned it into a cultural revolution and that has powered the WAO movement.
WAO has since transformed into a living thing which grows stronger as more community members embrace the mantra.
Mad Lads holders and Backpack users have transformed into evangelists with WAO on the mind and a sense of shared mission.
I recall this story, I was having dinner with Tristan and Armani when it occurred to me that the community that they had built, they had done something so incredibly special.
They had taken this group of people who are early supporters and believers. They really vetted for them and had a core group of great people who were behind them.
It was these conditions that ultimately led to the creation of the WAO.
Mad Monkey
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