This DAO paid a British person $400,000 to make branded food and now they're asking where their baked beans went

Nouns DAO, the decentralized internet collective formed around the popular NFT series, finally has an answer as to what happened to its semi-serious investment in branded baked beans: the money is likely gone. 

The saga underscores the risks of DAO-based funding, where good vibes and quirky ideas can sometimes replace due diligence. What started as a cheeky pitch for premium canned beans backed by an NFT collective has turned into a cautionary tale about how fast funds can disappear — and how hard it is to get answers when things go sideways.

About three years ago, the Nouns community approved a proposal to invest 135 ETH — worth roughly $150,000 at the time — in a project called MOOØNBEANS. The plan was to produce and sell premium baked beans using a proprietary recipe from Sublime Butter, a U.K.-based artisan butter purveyor.

Chris Mair, who posted the proposal and goes by the handle m00t, suggested the effort would be an easy lift, considering he was also the CEO of Sublime Butter, which he founded in 2017. Moreover, the project was already underway at the company. 

"The baked bean industry in the UK is ENORMOUS. Brits get through two million tins of them every single day," Onizuka, who was writing on behalf of m00t, said at the time. "And yet, it is one of the plainest and most uninventive verticals on a supermarket shelf. We think this makes it ripe for disruption."

But three years later, not a single can of baked beans has been produced — and there’s little clarity into where Noun DAO’s $150,000 investment has gone. 

“No cans have ever been put into production. No packaging has ever been designed. The recipe sign-off has never been done,” Tony Ho, a Sublime Butter director, told The Block in an interview. 

On March 28, Ho alerted the Nouns community that he filed a police report against Mair after receiving an inquiry from a member of the DAO known as fattybuthappy. According to a thread on the decentralized social media site Warpcast, fattybuthappy reached out to Sublime to check on the status of MOOØNBEANS.

“I feel a little bad, I’m very pro Nouns and don’t like seeing them being made fun of. So many good proposals being funded for every baked beans L,” Drew Coffman, a Base developer who is part of Nouns DAO, told The Block.

Canned

In a letter to fattybuthappy, Ho argued that Mair "fraudulently used" Sublime’s branding to secure the DAO’s investment. Ho also claimed that none of the directors "had agreed to the company being used as this investment vehicle" and that the company received none of the funds. 

"As far as I am aware, your investment was transferred directly to a wallet owned by him, and then from there I have no idea where the funds have been disbursed to, or how they were used,” Ho said. “They certainly have never been incorporated into our Company."

Ho noted that the company removed Mair as a director in July 2023 due to "erratic behavior." While Sublime is accusing Mair of identity theft for misappropriating its branding to solicit funding, Ho notes that only Nouns can pursue legal action to claw back the funds because they never entered the corporate coffers. “He hasn't stolen anything from us,” Ho said.

"I saw that Proposition 97 closed in July 2022, which meant that [Mair] had had the funds in July 2022. Well, this is where the whole thing blows up because the company had not agreed to be a vehicle to actually do this MOOØNBEANS thing," Ho said. "The company manufactures butter, it doesn't manufacture baked beans."

"He'd used the company fraudulently, without permission, and put the company all over a proposal but didn't actually put any of the money into the company," Ho continued. 

‘Been through hell’

To some extent, none of this is news. According to an update to prop 97 in 2023, the project was put on "indefinite hold" due to "personal issues." However, over the years, Oni has allegedly stated that 9,000 cans were "ready to go," but personal issues derailed the shipment. 

"[H]e says is not a rugger, also says he could not pay back in one go and would need a monthly payment kind of deal," FattyButHappy said on Warpcast. "But guess we'll know more when he will start [to pay] whenever that will be."

For his part, Mair responded to the allegations in a Nouns’ forum post on Wednesday, noting that the past two years have been "hell" as he has "experienced a profound existential crisis" resulting in "the breakdown of my marriage, friendships, business relationships and my sanity."

Mair argues that Ho and other directors were aware of the MOOØNBEANS project and were involved in the recipe development. He also denies the "fraudulent" use of the company he founded, and that he was terminated as a result of his divorce.

"I am the Founder of Sublime, it was my baby and it pains me that I am no longer a part of it. When I set out to create the Moonbeans project I did so in good faith that I was going to deliver a great product," Mair said, adding that if given another opportunity, he would be "100% committed to making Moonbeans a reality."

“If the community is not willing to go down this route I will have to find a way to repay all of the investment,” Maid said. 

Out of respect for Mair’s three children, Ho declined to go into detail but confirmed that Mair had entered a "dark" downward spiral around the time he proposed MOOØNBEANS. He noted, however, that Mair "would face a lot of production issues because he has no working production partners."

"I desperately want to make things right, life has been very tough these past years, and I am only now recovering from what has been a very dark chapter in my life. Yet I have to take responsibility for running away from my problems," Mair told The Block in an email, noting he believes he can “still deliver the [MOOØNBEANS] project at a very high level.”

"But my hunch and my suspicion is that those people who invested aren't going to get their money back because he's got no money to give them," Ho said.