▼ Culture Elon’s Pet Goat Tempe fans make an offering to their ‘god of Crypto,’ but is it just a Trojan Goat? BY CYRUS GUCCIONE T he entire business concept of the Arizona cryptocurrency technology startup Elon Goat Token just sounded like some weird joke. Somebody decided to build a company with the goal of grabbing the attention of billionaire Elon Musk by building a sculp- ture of his likeness and delivering it to his California doorstep. And just like that, the stunt would deliver a supercharged pro- motional boost to a new digital currency. Yeah, that will do the trick. So thought Tempe resident and Musk superfan Ashley Sansalone. He listed the help of a dozen friends and a community of the crypto-obsessed. Elon Goat Token is dropping $500,000 on the five-ton, 23 foot-long metal sculp- ture which is projected to take four months to complete. Everybody is getting paid, though they won’t say how much or in which currency. The goal is for investors to ride the wave of Elon Musk juju if it’s successful. It’s clear that the two sculptors and fabricators are getting cash – $75,000 each – according to the startup. Each investor of the digital coin startup paid a “marketing and development tax” for each transaction, which is funding the venture. It was unclear what to expect walking into the West Sixth apartment complex building in downtown Tempe with skyscraper views of Phoenix and beyond. Sansalone is the brainchild behind the massive steel monument which features a giant metal head, goat body, riding a rocket ship thrusting itself to the planet of Mars. The symbolism for the goat really refers to G.O.A.T., meaning “Greatest-Of-All-Time.” A semi-truck trailer devoted to carrying the monument will be equipped with lights, pyrotechnics, and concert-quality speakers. It’s all an ode to Musk’s entire business portfolio as the figurehead of Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity and Hyperloop startup The Boring Company. Musk’s 73 million Twitter followers have shown the power to move markets. Perhaps a bit too strong considering that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has attempted to step in and penalize him for sharing company infor- mation with the public before investors, contrary to the rules of the stock exchange where his companies are publicly traded. Some call it ‘Elonomics’ and others use the name ‘Dogelon Mars’ in the cryptocur- rency world when digital coins have teth- ered their popularity to Musk. Startup Elon Goat Token plans to pros- trate to the self-proclaimed ‘Dogefather’ and demand that he accept the gift in real life, not just on the internet. Tesla buyers are able to choose to pay for their new all-electric luxury cars with Musk’s favored cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. Musk fanatic Sansalone has a back- ground in marketing and construction. He hired California designer Danny Wang for the mar- keting strategy for the cryptocurrency startup. The goat head, which will weigh around 200 pounds, is being fabri- cated by a metal sculptor based in British Colum- bia, Canada. The metal sculptor Kevin Stone is an avid fan of Elon and believes him to be the “Nikola Tesla” of this generation, according to an interview with the Chilliwack Prog- ress. Stone has already been ‘touched’ by Musk due to the magic of the internet. His work was tweeted by Musk in 2019. It was a photo of a 35-foot-long sculpture of a Chinese Imperial Water Dragon Musk used as his profile picture for 18 days. Just before the vision of a ruby red Tesla Model S replaced it. After the sculpture is assembled in Scottsdale, plans are to trot out the artwork on a two-week-long tour as a pilgrimage to Tesla’s Palo Alto, California, headquarters with the hopes of presenting it to Musk, the man himself, in the flesh. During a recent visit, Sansalone showed up outside of the giant apartment complex in downtown Tempe and took a crowded Danielle Dorfman Danielle Dorfman Above: A scaled rendition of the EGT Monument to Elon atop a semi- truck trailer. Right: Musk head being wrapped in high heat aluminum. elevator to the apartment where the startup has its own basecamp. “Trading hours don’t stop with crypto, it’s a 24/7 revolving contract,” Sansalone said about the cryptocurrency market as it appears is always on the top of his mind. “People around the world in different time zones come in and out, so you’re always accountable in some way,” he said. Near the top floor of the building, Sansalone gets out. He’s donning a camou- flaged snapback hat em- broidered in large white letters Elon Goat Token’s moniker, EGT. From his perch, Sansa- lone can see the dusty mountain branded with the letter “A” and the rest of the downtown. For a stint, the startup kept a real live pet goat named BabyElon to “keep spirits high” around the office. But the balcony where BabyElon lived reeked of a petting zoo. So a dog replaced the goat as the startup’s mascot. The rest of the startup crew, almost none of whom were willing to share their real names, grabbed some Red Bull energy drinks for the caffeination and Smartwater for hydration that their leader purchased earlier that day. Nobody remarks on the otherwise stun- ning mountain view. Instead the crew is focused on the soft glow of their computer screens. Sansalone said that “getting things done over email is just too slow” and perhaps a quick flight to Los Angeles would speed up the sculpting. Sansalone’s business partner Cory Strawbridge is buzzing around and laser- focused on the task at hand. The pair met six weeks ago and have been inseparable, they said. 20 FEB 17TH– FEB 23RD, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
