This is my Proposal to Builder DAO for the role of Founder Support Resident. It's Builder DAO Proposal #79. I'm sharing it here as an example of how to write a DAO proposal.
Founder Support Resident
tl:dr: 9 ETH for 3 months to actively support DAO Founders using nouns.build
This is a proposal to create a Founder Support Resident to facilitate communications, connections and the sharing of knowledge between DAO Founders and those considering it to unlock the power of DAOs and onchain collectives using Nouns.build for a diverse set of use cases. It requests 9 ETH for 3 months (Nov/Dec/January) for Chris Carella to administer the program.
The real tldr; it's hard and at times absolutely sucks to be the Founder of a DAO and there is almost no one to talk about it with.
Description
DAOs and onchain collectives created with nouns.build are the lifeblood of the Nouns Builder protocol. When they are well run, they can achieve a self-sustaining virtuous flywheel of projects that make people want to join the organization, thus contributing back to the Treasury which can be used to fund more exciting projects. Additionally, when well run, they inspire other social entrepreneurs to create new DAOs built with Nouns.build.
To date, BuilderDAO has provided limited support to those Founders and those thinking about becoming Founders of DAO's or onchain collectives. However, being a Founder of a Nounish DAO is a challenging position, with no manuals or playbooks. It’s just as challenging as being a startup founder but without a rich history of tactics to lean on.
It’s a challenge; I have first hand experience. The good news is we have had many social entrepreneurs start DAOs using nouns.build, experience challenges, learn lessons and find repeatable strategies that work for them. The bad news is that we’ve had no forum to connect with each other and exchange those learnings. While some of these learnings should be shared publicly, like discovering additional revenue sources, others require private discretion, like how it feels when your leadership is being questioned in mean and trolling language.
The Program
The Program is a mix of public and private engagements, one on one engagements and group discussion. Acknowledging that our DAOs are Global I will aim to make myself available across timezones. Early mornings and late nights are fair game to make sure everyone is heard and knowledge is transferred. It can be even more difficult to be a Founder from Australia when a vast majority of Builder DAO operates on U.S. hours.
My goal is to work 7-8 hours a week. Any unused office hours will be used to write or record videos about issues facing leadership at DAOs and onchain collectives.
Office Hours: Two 30 minute slots will be available each day for private and small group chats. I will make morning, mid-day and nights available. In addition to Office Hours:
Monday:
Public Aburra Sessions with Founders and Prospects
The goal is to engage with a public audience about the benefits and challenges of starting a DAO with nouns.build. I want to encourage people to start their own Builder DAOs. I will workshop and engage with Prospects and inspire people to consider nouns.build by highlighting other founders and DAOs.
Tuesday:
Private Zoom Sessions with Founders
Most of the issues facing founders, that can make them feel isolated or confused must be discussed in private. Private Zoom Group Sessions (along with office hours) give the Founders a place to discuss issues that are sensitive or that they might feel embarrassed about talking about in Public.
Wednesday:
Discord Audio Chat & Hangout with Builder DAO Members
The goal of this weekly chat is to bring the lessons and stories learned through this process to the BuilderDAO Membership. What are some processes working for DAOs? What are some challenges? What is blocking people from starting their own DAOs?
Friday:
External Media
I will try to represent the Founder experience for Builder DAOs on podcasts and twitter spaces. Any unbooked weeks I will stream on Unlonely and talk about the Founder experience with a wider, more diverse audience.
What Does Success Look Like
A successful program will result in the following:
Founders of DAO's and onchain collectives feeling more confident with the tools available to them and less isolated. (Qualitative)
New DAOs being created whose first contact was the Founder Support Resident. (Quantitative)
Successful communication back to BuilderDAO about the top issues facing Founders and blockers stopping people from creating new DAOs. (Qualitative)
Artifacts such as recordings, blog posts and videos that can be evergreen resources directed at those who have created or are considering creating a DAO. (Quantitative)
Founders engaging with BuilderDO evangelism, drawing new people to BuilderDAO and Nouns Builder.
Budget and Timeline
9 ETH over 3 months to administer the program streamed via Sablier.
Multi-sig
9 ETH would be sent to a multisig as outlined below. They would set up a Sablier stream and ccarella.eth would receive 3 ETH per month for 3 months at the beginning of each month.
The Safe to handle ccarella.eth's transaction:
eth:0xBA7a9d3Ad841B9CfC679DcD3fa152Cd46daba29a
Signers:
zaak.eth: 0x77ac30452890E5210CB334f601a0A6E8F0A5201B
thenounishprof.eth: 0xCEEd9585854F12F81A0103861b83b995A64AD915
ccarella.eth: 0x3B60e31CFC48a9074CD5bEbb26C9EAa77650a43F
Recipient:
ccarella.eth: 0x3B60e31CFC48a9074CD5bEbb26C9EAa77650a43F
Why Chris?
I’m the co-founder of Purple, our oldest and one of our most liveliest DAOs. I have overseen our initial success, navigated us through a number of social engineering challenges and encouraged members to take ownership and feel empowered.
I’m a member & contributor to:
I’m a member and support of:
Additionally I’m a member of the Optimism Citizen’s House, a Delegate at Nouns and Head of Product at CharmVerse, a DAO operations platform, where I collaborate with dozens of DAOs and their leaders on a monthly basis.
I have experienced the isolation of challenging DAO events with no resources to talk to and navigated Purple through many difficult issues including a co-founder leaving and a fork, yet we have continued the virtuous flywheel and maintained strong auction performance. We’re also one of the most decentralized DAO, with a top Gini coefficent amongst mature Builder DAOs and we've encouraged many leaders to step up, take ownership and themselves think like a Founder.
Finally, I have been doing this work on a informal basis, since our second onchain collective, The Park, contacted me to discuss lessons learned before they launched. I’m generous with my time and have helped discuss and onboard prospects such as Refraction and Based Management.
Northstar Check
Builder DAO is dedicated to the creation and development of free and accessible DAO infrastructure as a public good.
This proposal furthers that mission by de-risking and increasing the chances of success for DAOs and onchain collectives using nouns.build by supporting the Social Entrepreneurs who took the risk of deploying a DAO.
Ultimately, our successful DAOs will always be our most successful marketing and means of proliferation and by sharing the lessons and tactics learned by the Founders of DAOs using Nouns.build, we will increase our number of successful organizations.
Treasury Impact
Requesting 9 ETH streamed over 3 months which is approximately 2.9% of the current Treasury (300.026 ETH).
Team
Chris Carella (ccarella.eth) is leading this effort and will be responsible for tax filings. Chris is the first Founder of a Nouns Builder DAO, through his deployment of the Purple contracts on October 25, 2022.
Transactions
Send 9 ETH to the Safe that is responsible for setting up and administering the Sablier payments.
