[APPROVED] Angel DAO from GooGuild 4NTS and Fabric VC

Angel DAO Proposal

by Rune Bentien (GooGuild), Ozymandius (4NTS), and Richard Muirhead (Fabric VC)

TLDR:

As the NEAR Technology and Ecosystem evolves and more solutions start to build on (or migrate onto) the protocol, a special window of opportunity presents itself for accelerating the development of new and existing projects. The following proposal seeks to take advantage of this opportunity by putting forward an outline of an exclusive, NEAR Ecosystem-focused, venture grant funding entity known as Angel DAO.

Proposal: 450 words or Less:

To support the next generation of Web3 entrepreneurs and products building or migrating onto NEAR Protocol. To accelerate the development and adoption of Web3 products, Angel DAO will provide financial support and advisory services to new projects building within the NEAR Ecosystem or on top of existing projects already launched on NEAR.

Projects must have built a basic MVP version of their solution to be eligible for support of no more than 20k $NEAR per round. Additionally, Angel DAO will work to expand the network of the team in question, making it easier for them to fundraise and hire as their product develops.

In parallel to this investment strategy, we also put forward a long-term business strategy blue print to accompany Angel DAO:

We would like to start that conversation here, and welcome thoughts, insights, additions and edits.

4NTS&Googuild (2).pdf (946.5 KB)

Blog Version: 4NTS and GooGuild: A Business Development Proposal For NEAR Protocol - Near Guilds

Minimum Investment and Management Criteria for Angel DAO:

  • Building in the NEAR Ecosystem or willing to migrate onto NEAR

  • Basic MVP Built

  • Active Development on the Product and Future Development Planned

  • Maximum 20k $NEAR Investment Per Project / Average aim of 10k $NEAR per project

  • Regular Calls Exploring Roadmap, Product Market Fit, and Technical Development Updates

  • Estimated Time to Mainnet maximum 6 months

Inspiration: https://twitter.com/avichal/status/1343265951391748096

Rationale:

NEAR is a young protocol with developer engagement levels reminiscent of the early years of Ethereum. In context, this means many projects being built on NEAR today are on track to launch and scale in the medium-term future (6 to 18 months).

Angel DAO is proposed in line with the belief that financial support, guidance, and oversight will expedite the development of these solutions, for the mutual benefit of both new projects looking to grow and the NEAR Ecosystem at large.

Long-Term Goal:

To jumpstart product development on NEAR and the many protocols built on top of NEAR, to create a vibrant ecosystem of well-funded solutions over the course of the coming decade. We aim to support at least 12 venture backable NEAR startups in 2021. We also aim to launch a legal DAO as we see this is a natural part of the evolution of the financial system

Impact / ROI:

To scalably develop new projects in the NEAR Ecosystem with a focus on increasing engagement, transactions, and value shared on the network. While the initial management and impact of Angel DAO will focus on growing projects, the members of the council expect to phase in a reward structure at a later date, and based upon specific milestones. These specific milestones include:

  • The project reaching over 1,000 active users on the platform.
  • The project having more than $100k USD in TVL
  • The project successfully launching on mainnet.
  • The project raising more than $1 million from outside users.

Initial Granting Amount Requested: 100,000 $NEAR.

Initial Partners:

Rune Bentien (Sharpdarts.co)

Ozymandius (4NTS Guild).

Richard Muirhead /Ian Emerson (Fabric VC).

Sourcing:

ā€“ Guild Projects

ā€“ Open Web Collective

ā€“ Industry VC Network via Fabric

Resources:

Angeldao.io

Community Council Poll
  • Yes
  • No
  • Abstain

0 voters

Open Community Poll (min trust_level_1 required)
  • Yes
  • No
  • Abstain

0 voters

Voting and quorum thresholds:

<2K$ - 1X Yes - no minimum quorum (* quorum defined as min number of members needed for the vote to be valid)
2-10K$ - 2X Yes - no min quorum
10-30K$ - 3X Yes - min quorum 4 of 7 - 4X members should vote in either direction
Above 30K$ requires Erik or Illiaā€™s additional approval (Head of NF/Chairman of NFC)
Above 100K$ requires NEAR Foundation Council approval

8 Likes

Hey @Ozymandius @bentien thanks again for submitting this proposal! Before we move this to official decision/proposal mode, I was wondering if we/you could combine your BD proposal with this one. For example, some of these funds could be used for funding PoCs with high profile leads that cannot commit their own devs yet.

Cc @Grace FYI - this is one of the important proposals to prioritise in the next 1-2 weeks.

1 Like

:eyes: @Ozymandius @bentien thank you for your proposal! We are working on speeding up our processes. We will revert back this week with an update and a decision in the following week.

Edited and added in (let me know if anything more is needed ! )

Happy Sunday! I would like to help move this forward. Shall we schedule a call to answer a few questions?

1 Like

Just had a super awesome meeting with @Ozymandius and Rune :raised_hands:. The right experience and skills set are coming together to create a spark. I can already see how this proposal will open the gate to a flux of innovative initiatives ready to build on the NEAR infrastructure. :rocket:

2 Likes

Looks cool, thanks for sharing Ozzy! Will AngelDAO be giving non-equity taking grants to these projects? Or will these be ā€œinvestmentsā€? (the website says ā€œAngel DAO is NEAR Ecosystem Native investment vehicle for early stage projectsā€)

Hello @waverlymaven ! Thank you for your question and feedback! Itā€™s a great question and important detail. At this point in time our plan was that it would be ā€˜grants/non-equity investmentsā€™. Our focus would still on ā€˜venture backable/investibleā€™ projects though. We are happy to set up a q&a next week to discuss in more detail?

3 Likes

Just wanted to bump this - Let us know if a Q and A would be helpful for pushing this through! We are looking forward to getting started

Great news! Congrats @Ozymandius @bentien
Letā€™s get to work. Shall we schedule a meeting to pick start?

2 Likes

This is very interesting!
Would love to jump in a call to learn more and see what we can do together.

3 Likes

A Q&A is an awesome idea. We can also bring some collective input to shape the kick off and the timeline of the initiative. This could be a great opportunity for members of our community to get involved and support. We will need a big network to launch it. @bentien @Ozymandius we can discuss the Q&A session tomorrow.