Original author: Arianna Simpson, a16z general partner Original translation: Blockbeats

One of the joys of living in New York City is that a delicious meal is always just minutes away.

Restaurants have long provided customers with food, social spaces, and entertainment. Although the restaurant industry continues to evolve and create more value for diners, cities, and society, they often lack profit margins.

We’ve already seen blockchain enable direct connections between creators and fans in the music and art sectors, allowing creators to identify, interact, and reward their most loyal fans.

What if restaurants could do the same? What would that mean for the experience they can create for their customers, and for their bottom line?

Building products for restaurants is hard — restaurant ownership is often fragmented, there are few economies of scale, and technology itself is rarely a selling point. But sometimes we’re lucky enough to come across a thoughtful founder who’s so good at what they do, and now has new technology to help, that the decision to invest is an easy one.

Led by CEO and Founder Ben Leventhal, Blackbird aims to reward and delight customers by delivering and personalizing enhanced dining experiences through Web3.

In the restaurant space, Ben is the poster child for founder-market fit. It’s painful to recall the days before booking restaurant reservations online, or even reviewing restaurants online, and Ben is one of the people we can thank for that. Ben was previously the co-founder and CEO of Resy, a platform that manages reservations for the world’s most popular restaurants, which he sold to American Express in 2019. Prior to that, Ben co-founded Eater in 2005, the online authority on food and nightlife in the US.

As we were having lunch together, I told Ben that Blackbird seemed like the culmination of his career, the culmination of the past two decades. His eyes lit up. “Yes,” he said. “That’s it. I’ve been working towards this.”

Ben loves restaurants. And restaurants love him.

Blackbird has only been live for a few months, and we’re already seeing the restaurant industry adopting and shaping the platform. Restaurants are using Blackbird to offer customers rewards ranging from free drinks and snacks, to off-menu items, and even private chef-prepared meals in their own homes, and it also allows users to pre-purchase memberships to upcoming restaurant openings.

Expect an endless world of delicious possibilities. So today we’re excited to announce that we’re leading Blackbird’s $24 million Series A round to support that future.