Greetings from NEKO!
We would like to begin by extending a huge thank you for the opportunity to attend Consensus 2022 as ambassadors to NEAR Protocol and the NEAR NFT community! Our team had an extraordinary time attending the conference and events at the NEAR Austin Hacker House. We have learned a ton which will help us to improve our plans for the NFT NY conference.
The main objective was onboarding new users and project teams to NEAR via in-person networking at Consensus 2022. Our networking efforts were effective. We developed new relationships with Project Teams and aspiring Founders, and educated them about the advantages that NEAR offers. This proposal outlines the main interactions we had which can have a positive impact on NEAR Protocol.
Marketing Activity:
We hosted a marketing activity for the duration of Consensus that awarded $10 USD in free NEKO tokens to conference attendees. The intent of this marketing activity was to onboard new users to NEAR by incentivizing them to create, fund, and use a NEAR wallet. We set a goal to giveaway NEKO to 100 people resulting in the creation of 75 new NEAR wallets.
We streamlined the marketing activity into 3 easy steps:
-
Scan barcode to be directed to a custom Consensus 2022 page on the NEKO website. that provides instructions on how to set up a NEAR wallet in minutes.
-
Direct users to our Google Form where they input basic information and their NEAR wallet address.
-
Once the wallet address is recorded, we run a custom script that funds the wallet with 0.2 NEAR required for initial funding and then sends 10,000 NEKO tokens ($10 USD worth of NEKO).
Our 3-step procedure proved to be very efficient in terms of creating and funding a NEAR wallet. This allowed us to quickly onboard users while simultaneously exploring Consensus. Upon completion of the conference, the NEKO marketing activity yielded a total of 51 new NEAR wallets. While we did not meet the goals noted in the proposal, the experience helped us identify key areas of improvement for our next networking event at the NFT NY conference.
Marketing Activity Improvements:
Physical Cards with QR Code: Using a QR code to direct individuals to our custom instructions page worked very well. However, there were significant bottlenecks with hosting the QR codes from our iPads. We can scale the process by handing out cards with the QR code on them. Using cards with QR codes instead of an iPad allows us to onboard multiple users at the same time. People can hang on to the cards and scan later instead of requiring direct contact with us at time of sign-up.
For future events we will utilize cards with QR codes linking to the giveaway details. This will scale the process and reduce the amount of time needed to onboard each person.
Secure a Central Location: While there were designated areas for networking and discussion, it was difficult to reach an impactful amount of people in this manner. A central location, such as a booth, would help with engagement and reach.
We were not able to secure a booth for Consensus 2022 or NFT NY due to the short time frame we had to prepare for the events. However, for future events, reserving a booth will give us a major advantage in networking and onboarding more people to NEAR.
Collaboration with the NEAR Foundation: When attending events at the Austin NEAR Hacker House, we had to scan a QR code to receive a NFT pass for the event. Many people that arrived at the Hacker House were not prepared to create a new NEAR wallet. We could have helped streamline this by using the easy 3-step signup process that we created.
In future events, we will contact the NEAR foundation (or other NEAR related organizations) to integrate with organized events to maximize efficiency for marketing.
Schedule Meetings with Founders / Project Teams:
In the proposal we set a goal to schedule meetings with 5 different Web3 Founders / project teams who are interested in NEAR Protocol. We are proud to announce that we met this target and have listed the notable connections below.
Paul S - Product Manger & Aspiring Web3 Founder:
David met Paul S. while talking with Dorian Crutcher (NEAR) at the NEAR booth. Paul is currently a product manager at a tech company and he is an aspiring web3 Founder. Paul is investigating which blockchain he wants to build on. David told Paul about his experiences as a developer on NEAR and noted key benefits to building on NEAR including technical advantages, strong community and support from the NEAR Foundation.
We connected with Paul on LinkedIn and we have reached out to him to schedule a follow-up call.
Bulla Network: https://www.bulla.network/
We met Mike, the Head of Product for Bulla Network, a bankless Web3 protocol that allows users to send invoices and manage business/personal accounts fully on chain. We demo’d the Bulla product and were blown away by how valuable it could be to our accounting operations as Web3 Founders.
From a Web3 business development perspective, there are not many options for intuitive invoice and bookkeeping. The product that Bulla has created is fully on-chain and delivers valuable accounting services for free. Bulla would be extremely helpful to Web3 startups and DAO’s on NEAR Protocol.
Bulla is already available on Aurora as they received a grant to set up on Aurora previously. However, Bulla is not available on NEAR Protocol and it will take development work to make this happen. On Friday 6/17 we had a meeting with the Bulla core team and discussed bringing their application to NEAR mainnet. Bulla is very interested in this and they plan to reach out to the NEAR Foundation to discuss further.
Also, Bulla is interested in onboarding new users from multiple blockchains onto their application. NEKO is in a prime position to bring this information to the public; showcasing the application as a valuable tool that other projects on NEAR can utilize to pay/invoice others.
Banxa: https://banxa.com/
Banxa is an industry leading payment on-and-off ramp solution that allows users to buy crypto with fiat currency directly from their checking account. Banxa is used by top CEX’s like Binance, Kucoin, etc. and they have expanded their services to DeFi platforms as well.
We met with Angel, Head of Growth and Partnerships at Banxa, and he informed us they are planning to come to NEAR Protocol. This is very exciting news for us as we are also developing the Jump DeFi platform. We are planning to work with Banxa to offer their services natively on the Jump DeFi platform. Setting up Banxa’s payment on-and-off ramp solution via the Jump DeFi platform will be a major step towards facilitating mass adoption on NEAR Protocol.
States DAO: https://statesdao.club/
We met with a member of the States DAO at the Austin NEAR Hacker House who detailed the DAO’s fellowship program. The fellowship program can be very beneficial for supporting new fellows looking for a mentor on NEAR.
NEKO creates educational content about NEAR Protocol via TikTok, YouTube and more. NEKO token is rewarded to creators for making content, and users will be rewarded for learning as well. #LearnToEarn. We plan to discuss integrating NEKO with the States DAO to reward fellows that complete NEAR fellowships and developer training.
University DAO: https://twitter.com/UniversityDAO_
We talked to Talha, a new Founder of an upcoming DAO focused on creating a functional University. U-Token is the native currency that students will pay their tuition and other fees with. The project is still in the early stages, and Talha expressed that University DAO had not decided which blockchain they want to build on.
We recommended that University DAO comes to NEAR because there is a strong community that is passionate about education. Additionally, the fast transaction speeds and low fees are perfect for structuring classes, enrollment, etc. in mass.
Conclusion:
We are proud of the results that we achieved as ambassadors to NEAR at Consensus 2022. We delivered a valuable perspective to other aspiring Founders as a third party that truly loves building on NEAR Protocol. Our mission aligns closely with the NEAR Marketing DAO and we hope for continued growth in our partnerships and collaborations. This was our first crypto conference and there was definitely a big learning curve, but it has prepared us to be even more effective this week at NFT NY!
We are eager to hear any feedback and suggestions from the Marketing DAO council. Thank you again!
Sincerely,
NEKO Team