Own a Digital Twin of This Iconic Silicon Valley Institution

Experience this singular, one-of-a-kind NFT here: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=k6RtWhrenma

Read the full brochure for this NFT here. Watch a 3-min video of the NFT here.

Buck’s first opened its doors in 1991 and it did so with little fanfare. It sits in a strip mall, the kind that can be found in any small-town West of the Rockies. As legend has it, Buck’s isn’t actually named after the enormous wealth that surrounds the town of Woodside, California, but rather the restaurant was named after the town drunk at the time, Leo Buckstaber. It was quiet that first year, almost too quiet.

And then, just one year later, InfoWorld mentioned that Bob Metcalf was having “a power breakfast at Buck’s” followed shortly by a mention in The Economist that John Doerr was spotted at Buck’s. Things went crazy. No one could have ever predicted that this little restaurant would become the epicenter of activity that would go on to change the world. Since those early days, hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth have been generated around fewer than 30 restaurant tables. An invitation to “Breakfast at Buck’s” would go on to become an official step in the high-tech startup funding process.

It is hard to overstate the historical importance of this site. Ground zero of the global internet boom is traced to table 48 where Marc Andreesen and Jim Clark first toiled over the early formation and funding of Netscape, the company that started it all. (Interestingly, Buck’s soon became the first restaurant in the world to offer free Wi-Fi, thanks to a customer.) On table 15, Sabeer Bhatia reached an agreement with Steve Jurvetson to fund his company, Hotmail. In fact, like Hotmail, many companies have been funded or even founded at Buck’s through the years including Tesla, Netscape, and PayPal. A great number of companies held early foundational meetings while dining at Buck’s, companies like Yahoo! and eBay.

This unlikely restaurant, tucked away in a small town of 5,000 — which includes 14 billionaires, hundreds of horses, and only one stoplight — began to garner international attention. Movie stars, sports heroes, presidents, and kings call Buck’s their Woodside home. The walls are lined with photographs of visits from the notable to the notorious. The likes of Mike Tyson, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Nicolas Sarkozy, Shimon Peres, Steph Curry, Johnny Depp, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, and the Sultan of Oman are among the remarkable people who have contributed to the stories and history of this place.

Buck’s is also legendary for its world-class collection of historical and fun artifacts which line the walls. One Japanese media outlet wrote, “The interior of Buck’s is a toybox entirely.” All the over 300 items have been personally curated by owner Jamis MacNiven, who has been anointed “Silicon Valley’s Prime Minister” by many in the media.

An Apple I signed by Steve Wozniak, a letter from Steve Ballmer announcing the original Microsoft Windows release in what would be years too early, and a perfect two-inch silicon ingot from the late 1970s, a gift from Steve Zelencik, are among the many pieces of Silicon Valley history on display. Customers might dine under a narwhal tusk gifted to MacNiven by the president of Iceland or sawfish snout owned by Jack London. A Russian spacesuit, courtesy of the Russian military hangs from the ceiling right next to Shaquille O’Neill’s size 23 shoe. The space is something to behold.

Buck’s has earned its place in the international spotlight with over 500 video crews and uncountable publications reflecting on the phenomenon of the establishment. A short list of sources includes ABC, CBS, CNN CNBC, NPR, ZDF, BBC, Newsweek, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Der Welt, Le Point, Stern, Le Monde, SF Chronical, San Jose Merc, LA Times, NY Times, Irish Times, Moscow Times and the Hindustan Times and, even The Christian Science Monitor. And magazines from Forbes, Fortune to GQ and strange ones like Oym, Stratos and Click featured articles. There have been hundreds of press accounts of the happenings at the tables, but the walls, ceiling and floor also tell the stories. There was even an article declaring Buck’s the “Cheers of Silicon Valley”. In 2004, MacNiven became an author himself with the publishing of “Breakfast at Buck’s: Tales From the Pancake Guy” a first-hand account of his life and wonderment of Buck’s.

The impact that Buck’s has had on Silicon Valley, and by extension the world, is hard to overstate. So much so that Buck’s became the subject of a 24-page Harvard study in 2020 titled, “Breakfast at Buck’s: Informality, Intimacy, and Innovation in Silicon Valley”. The study attempted to get at the question, “Why is it this restaurant?” The author takes it to a philosophical level in writing, “Breakfast at Buck’s may be a small thing, but its consideration is a way of understanding some quotidian processes of late modern innovation, and it offers a possible model for further inquiries into eating and knowing.”

About the Buck’s of Woodside Immersive 3D NFT

On June 4, 2021, the legendary Buck’s was captured using a three-dimensional camera system that created a realistic, fully immersive virtual experience and can be easily enjoyed with a mobile device, web browser or Virtual Reality headset. Users can virtually walk fluidly into and through Buck’s, access and zoom into well over 100 stories on the tables, walls and ceiling, all in 4K HDR. This is a chance to own not only the world’s first NFT artform of its kind but one which captures and preserves a one-of-kind treasure trove of Silicon Valley artifacts and lore. Walk to the table where the “PayPal Mafia” got its first $6M in investment or turn around and see Mike Tyson wrestling a white tiger in his underwear (given by Tyson to MacNiven) or see the vacuum tube that gave Silicon Valley its start in 1906. This is a unique piece of history, delivered as art in the most modern of forms. It is apropos that the history of Buck’s is preserved in Immersive 3D. It is a celebration of all that is Silicon Valley.

See Buck’s of Woodside here

Technical Details and Risks Associated with This NFT

This singular, one-of-a-kind, immersive 3D digital artwork or model is delivered as a composite of technologies provided by third parties. The 3-dimensional model is rendered, hosted, and delivered as a cloud service by Matterport, Inc. As of this writing, the model is not transferable from Matterport to, say, a private server. But a downloaded copy of the model may be kept separately from the main cloud instance on an Apple iPad and/or an Apple iPhone using a currently available application from Matterport called “Showcase”. Another technical element involved in producing this composite artwork is Google Photos, which hosts and serves the photos found under each item listing within this 3D model. In addition to Matterport and Google Photos, there are third-party informational sources that feed certain item listings.

The use of this Immersive 3D model of Buck’s is subject to the terms and conditions of service as set forth now, and in the future, by Matterport, Inc. and, separately, Google Photos. Matterport's End User License Agreements, Terms of Use, and Cloud Subscription Agreements are all posted here. The Google Photos Terms of User can be found here.

The seller of this artwork is selling this artwork as-is. In other words, there is no warranty that the systems will work to render this artwork in the future. The seller has no reason to believe that Matterport (a soon-to-be public market listing, Nasdaq: MTTR) and/or Google's services will not continue to support this artwork in the future. But as with all third-party services, there is the risk that one or more parties involved may change their systems and/or go out of business. That said, should some complications arise in the future, Buyer can engage with Mr. Jonathan W. Buckley, the photographer for this NFT, and an expert on Matterport and Google Photos, at his prevailing daily or hourly rate, to rectify such issues as best he can.