Building Milady Colombia (Minting Out 200+ ETH Volume)
The story of how a late-night idea at my brother's house turned into my first sold-out NFT project.
Before It All
On April 26, 2022, I officially got my first full-time job offer as a developer.
Before that, I'd been working as an independent contractor since November 2021.
By October 2022, I had been out of bootcamp for a bit, with blockchain experience under my belt, but still figuring things out. ChatGPT didn't exist yet. My brother had been in the crypto space for about 5 years — not in a technical role, but deep in the culture.
The Spark
In anticipation of Devcon Bogotá 2022, I was hanging out at my brother's place.
We were brainstorming what we could build to shill or sell at the event.
My brother threw out the idea:
"Why not build a Milady derivative — but with a Colombian aesthetic?"
At first, I was hesitant. Skeptical, even. But I didn't have a better idea, and our skill sets were complementary:
- He would handle creative, design, and marketing
- I would handle the full-stack development
Building Milady Colombia
We dove in — non-stop building for a week.
Late nights, stressful debugging, endless testnet deployments.
Finally, one week before Devcon, we deployed to mainnet, spending 0.05 ETH in gas fees.
We launched:
Milady Colombia
At Devcon Bogotá, we hustled — talking to everyone we could IRL and pushing online.
First week sales: 13.
Not great. We realized we were probably too late — launching just before the event instead of earlier.
For the next 7 months, the project was pretty much stagnant.
Tokyo & The First Spark of Life
Fast-forward to 2023.
We went to Pragma Tokyo to keep shilling and spreading the word.
We got a shoutout from Charlotte Fang, creator of the original Milady Maker.
The hype picked up a bit… but still, no sellout.
The Elon Effect
Then… it happened.
Elon Musk tweeted a Milady meme.
The whole Milady ecosystem exploded — and we were ready.
One morning, I woke up to a message from my brother:
"Check the site. Now."
Sales were pouring in. Every time I refreshed, more were gone.
Within hours — SOLD OUT.
Over 30 ETH in the contract.
Tweet with GCR sweep Who is GCR?
Unreal.
Celebration
This was my first project that generated real income.
We took our dad out to dinner and told him the news. He didn't really get it — but he was happy.
It meant we could help him out financially.
What's Next? Milady Colombia Music
After selling out, we wanted to give back to supporters.
We launched:
Milady Colombia Music (May 2023)
Free claims and discounts for holders. Another way to reward the community that stuck with us.
Lessons Learned
- Timing matters — but persistence matters more.
- Projects you think are "dead" might just need the right moment.
- Community can come from unexpected places.
- Always be ready for luck to strike.
Links & Press:
And that's the story — from an idea on my brother's couch to a sold-out collection and a project I'll never forget.