VDP-157: Develop VitaDAO’s first longevity product

One-liner: Develop VitaDAO’s first longevity product

Team: Alex Dobrin, Benji Leibowitz, Lukas Weidener, Paul Kohlhaas, et al

Objective: Develop scientifically-backed longevity products for the longevity community, advancing VitaDAO’s mission of promoting longevity research, and exploring new ways to deliver value to VitaDAO token holders.

Project Overview: This proposal aims to create a longevity supplement product offered and co-branded by VitaDAO. The product candidates will contain the ingredients submitted in the Longevity Prize. These ingredients will have life extension data in C elegans. Our goal is to generate a product VitaDAO can offer its members. We hope that the sales revenue can grow the VitaDAO treasury to enable VitaDAO to fund more longevity moonshots.

Key Deliverables:

1. Data from the cocktails tested as part of the Longevity Prize
2. Marketplace with all product candidates for pre-order
3. Coupon codes for VITA and IP Token holders
4. Shipments of compounds if the products receive enough preorders (200)

Implementation Plan:

1. Build a marketplace to enable pre-ordering (Molecule team)

2. List product candidates on pump.science (Web3 pod)

3. List compounds on the marketplace for pre-ordering (Web3 pod)

4. If any of the ~20 product candidates reaches 200 pre-orders, orders will be fulfilled

5. All manufacturing, testing, and shipping of the product will be handled by an external partner (Zola - see below)

6. VitaDAO has pro rata governance of product revenues based on IPT holdings

7. VitaDAO will work with the cocktail inventors to secure patents and publications on the ingredients in the products

Timeline: 2 months

Budget: $10,000

This budget will be used to purchase an initial IP Token supply to fund downstream (fly and mice) experiments as part of the pump.science protocol (in development). In short, if the IPT price appreciates, more of this initial supply is sold programmatically to pay for in vivo longevity animal tests. If the IPT does not hit a 60k market cap within a month, the IP tokens will be sold and the proceeds (less 1% fees charged by pump.fun) returned back to VitaDAO.

Rationale

To date, VitaDAO has been singularly focused on funding ambitious longevity research. However, there has been little experimentation around creating consumer products for VitaDAO members that align with the mission of radical lifespan extension. Given VitaDAO’s expertise in biotech, developing a life extension supplement could provide immediate value to its community. While human data on the longevity effects of specific compounds is still limited, VitaDAO has a unique opportunity to generate valuable datasets by engaging its members to test which products positively impact lifespan through biomarkers. Delivering the same product to members is a first step in this direction.

A first product candidate should have the following criteria met:

1. The product’s ingredients are classified as a supplements or food additives, which will accelerate the speed we can bring the product to members
2. The product should be relatively low cost to VitaDAO to produce to minimize the financial risk of a pilot
3. The ingredients should have evidence of lifespan extension in (at least) model organisms, ideally with a synergistic effect
4. The ingredients should have validated demand within the community prior to productization

In VDP-156 there was strong disagreement with the choice of rapamycin as the active ingredient. Not everyone agrees on what the optimal first product ingredients are, so rather than arbitrarily determine this, we would ideally let the market decide. Neither a survey nor governance actually measure demand, as neither demonstrate a willingness to pay. A marketplace with products for preorder will most accurately measure demand.

Why the partnership with Zola Nutrition

Zola Nutrition is a supplement brand and manufacturer with operations based in Austria. We are exploring a partnership that would help VitaDAO ship a first product via a co-branding deal, where profits will be split between VitaDAO and Zola. We will handle the scientific side (research, whitepaper, formulation) and Zola will manage all logistical services (including sourcing, quoting, formulation, packaging, branding, third party testing, fulfillment and shipping). While we are confident that a partnership with Zola Nutrition can happen, there is nothing tangible in place and a deal will only be pursued after the successful passing of this proposal. If for unforeseen reasons the partnership won’t be closed, we will actively search for comparable opportunities for co-branding and development.

Why the partnership with pump.science

pump.science (PS) is a product for submitting longevity cocktails, tokenizing them, securing the IP, fundraising for in vivo experiments, and streaming the data to users. We think it should be easy to launch a longevity experiment, create a clear path to a potential product, and create a more engaging and interactive experience for users. We want PS to bring more funding and engagement for longevity research, and create a pipeline for longevity products.

In its pilot launch, PS generated significant interest and engagement that can be leveraged for VitaDAO’s benefit:

1. Driving funding to IP created by VitaDAO
2. Driving attention and demand to purchase any products VitaDAO commercializes
3. Enabling research for the compounds originally tested on worms to be tested in flies and mice

Benefit to VitaDAO Members

Ultimately, this is an effort to benefit members of VitaDAO by providing members with access to cutting edge longevity supplements. Our goal is to provide members with the most cutting edge longevity products for personal consumption at low prices.. This effort is also intended to support VitaDAO by generating revenue to the treasury to fund more moonshot longevity science.