Developer DAO Fellowship w/ Press Start Capital

Author:@dropknowledge#0001

Summary

This proposal suggests initiating Developer DAO’s first Fellowship Program in partnership with Press Start Capital. The partnership aims to provide first checks, mentorship, and camaraderie to aspiring Web3 builders and entrepreneurs to bridge them to top accelerators, downstream investors, and customers.

Motivation

Press Start Cap 👉🎮🧢 is a pre-seed Web3 fund founded by builders with exits. They invest in the “full stack” of Web3: from infrastructure & dev-tools to game studios to liquid NFTs.

Web3 is still in its early stages, and the gap between weekend hackathons and accelerators has widened with time. The Press Start Fellowship is an opportunity to seed the next generation of Web3 builders at Developer DAO. The fellowship provides its fellows first checks and a structured program with experienced founders, enabling them to gather feedback and iterate their ideas before they reach accelerators, investors, and customers.

Scope of Work

Domain of Operations & Team

Domain: Entrepreneurship, Fundraising

Fellowship participants receive

• First check ($15k) using YC’s MFN SAFE and a token side letter. This SAFE only converts to equity if and when the fellow raises a round or joins a future accelerator within 12 months of issuance.
• Mentorship from builders who’ve walked the walk.
• Accountability of building and shipping alongside peers in 6 week sprints.
• Safe space to experiment alongside like-minded Web3 builders.
• Perks such as company incorporation, priority banking, free merch store, discounted legal, discounted API access, etc

The fellowship is open to the larger Developer DAO Community, and is not restricted to members. If any non-members are selected for the fellowship, Developer DAO will provide them a sponsorship of 400 $CODE to admit them into the DAO. $CODE allocation covered in Budget Request.

The Press Start Fellowship team will focus on providing first checks ($10k-$20k) to ambitious Developer DAO members, running day-to-day operations of the Fellowship, bringing in experienced mentors who have walked the walk, and connecting fellows to downstream accelerators/investors. The Developer DAO team will collaborate with Press Start Capital and partner organisations to execute cross-marketing to attract fellowship applicants, assist fellows on PR/marketing, join top accelerators, and raise new fundraising rounds.

The Team:

Developer DAO

@drop_knowledge:

1. Has been with Developer DAO since 2021
2. Currently one of the DAO's Governance Stewards
3. 2x Founder in web3, successfully raised $3M venture funding
4. Prior experience working at a startup accelerator

Press Start

Steven Chien

1. Co-founder and GP of Press Start Capital
2. DeFi and NFT advisor
3. Serial founder with multiple exits; raised $30M+ as a founder
4. Co-founder at PRIMA Cinema, Growth & UX lead at DivX, Techstars, United Talent Agency, etc.

Luke Xie

1. Co-founder and GP of Press Start Capital
2. NFT advisor
3. Founder of MIT Beaver Blockchain group
4. Extensive operational experience at McKinsey, Airbnb, Walmart, CODA Automotive, etc.

OKRs

	VIBE
O1	Support and grow the DAO’s community of Entrepreneurs	Owner
KR	Channel for fellowship recipients within Developer DAO’s discord	@drop_knowledge
	Developer DAO to provide operational as necessary (e.g. company incorporation support, etc)	@drop_knowledge
KR	Two twitter spaces announcing the program to generate interest	@drop_knowledge, Press Start
KR	Fellowship to be advertised during weekly Dev N Tell interviews, as well as connecting with prior Dev n Tell participants.	@drop_knowledge
KR	Meeting with the D_D Agency team to educate them on Fellowship opportunity and encourage projects to apply for fellowship	@drop_knowledge

	LEARN
O2	Provide DAO members the opportunity to learn from successful founders	Owner
KR	Fellowship kickoff intro (30 min), Fellow ice breakers (30 min)	Press Start
KR	Product AMA with speaker (60 min)	Press Start
KR	Growth AMA with speaker (60 min)	Press Start
KR	L1/Technical/etc AMA with speakers (60 min)	Press Start
KR	Demo day practice with Fellows (60 min), Demo day practice with mentors	Press Start
KR	Demo Day (90 min). Fellows are expected to present a proof of concept, demo, prototype or working product.	Press Start
KR	Blog Post recapping the program, including interviews with the fellows and learnings from this initial program.	@drop_knowledge

	BUILD
O3	Support DAO members ton their journey to become entrepreneurs	Owner
KR	8 Accepted Fellows	@drop_knowledge, Press Start
KR	50% Acceptance rate into Accelerator or funding round within 6 months	@drop_knowledge, Press Start

Budget Request (Including value returned to the DAO)

Press Start Capital is paying Developer DAO $5,000 via USDC to cover operational expenses of the fellowship program.

Ryan Gill: Developer DAO to pay @drop_knowledge 2000 $USDC (40%) and 600 $CODE to manage the fellowship marketing effort, application management, recruiting, podcast/spaces, blog post, and fellowship community.

$CODE Rewards for accepted Fellows

8 Fellows, each receiving 400 $CODE regardless if already a member of the DAO.

400 x 10 = 4000 $CODE

Total $CODE Requested = 4600

Drawbacks

This is an MVP Program, and so there are plenty of learnings to be had in regards to running the fellowship program.

Due to this being open to only 6-10 selected fellows, the exposure to mentors and expertise will only be available to a few members of the DAO.

This program will reduce the DAO Treasury by 4600 $CODE.