Hello MetaCartel team! We’re excited to share this grant proposal and get some initial feedback from the community members.
Governance Strategy Consulting for DAOs
A web3-native consultancy to help people build strong governance for their DAOs.
Problem
While any person or group can set up a DAOs, many struggle to realize their overall mission and ultimately fail. Many of the common pitfalls new DAOs face (e.g. inability to attract & leverage contributor talent, community mismanagement, suboptimal tokenonmics, poor tooling, contributor attrition) can be due to a poor Governance Strategy (1). As we’ve seen, poor governance puts DAOs at risk of rugability and hacks, poor communication and coordination among contributors, lack of accountability contributor churn, and inability to coordinate the dissemination and communication of information and decisions to its members (2,3).
A silver bullet solution to DAO governance isn’t possible because each DAO’s needs are unique. Different DAO designs lead to different types of governance issues. Technological tools are not enough to solve human coordination challenges.
Where can DAO genesis teams turn for guidance on best practices for setting themselves up for success?
Solution
BanklessDAO’s mission to help 1 billion people enter Web3 aligns with MetaCartel’s mission to accelerate and drive mass adoption of Web3 and the open internet of value to make the world a richer and fairer place.
The key to realizing this vision is to focus on people. More specifically, to help DAO leaders to develop their knowledge, perspective, and skills around DAO governance.
As DAOs that have frequently been highlighted as examples of “DAOs who are doing it right,” Bankless & MetaCartel together are in a strong position to leverage our experiences to help other DAOs on their journey. As an extension of BanklessDAO, Bankless Consulting’s primary mission is to give DAOs, the people layer of Web3, a path to BUIDL a roadmap for DAO success and enable them to be self-sustaining (4,5).
To this end, we’re working on a DAO-in-a-Box (DiB) offer: a set of tools, frameworks and best practices focused on the most important modulars of DAO design. DiB becomes a time-saver & money-saver, allowing DAOs to:
- De-risk their DAO journey
- Accelerate community growth
- Indicate actionable steps for operational excellence
- Provide a Reference Model to create a world-class DAO
- Help DAOs reach their goals leveraging our experts’ pioneering experience
The core module in DiB is Governance Strategy, which should be the starting point for any group looking to DAO. We’re choosing to focus on Governance Strategy because it has tremendous impact on every subsequent aspect of a DAO, including Community Strategy for cultivating contributor engagement, Tokenomics for properly aligned incentive structures, and more.
Overview
Product
No matter how decentralized or autonomous we make an organization, the success or failure of a DAO will always be predicated on it’s most valuable asset, its people. As a web3 native consultancy, we aim to help DAOs through this process by leading Design Thinking-style workshops, conducting assessments of their current organizational state, and sharing industry best practices from our team’s research. At the end of each engagement, our client DAOs have a clear strategy and plan for successfully implementing it.
Our Governance Strategy offering focus on 3 areas:
-
Governance Strategy & Design (best for establishing new DAOs)
- Strategy: Identify the impact that the DAO aims to achieve & which governance structures are best aligned to support its mission
- Design: Create the governance model & supporting documentation
-
Governance Review, Assessment & Facilitation (best for existing DAOs seeking comprehensive review of existing structure)
- Governance Review: Examine DAO governance documentation and current processes and compare them to best practices from other successful DAOs
- Stakeholder Engagement: Interview members of the DAO to understand where & why participation is dwindling
- Facilitation: Organizational Change Management (OCM) services designed to increase contributor participation & motivation by educating them on the governance changes being implemented in their DAO
-
Technical Architecture & Tool Ecosystem (easily tailored for DAOs at any stage of their lifecycle)
- Tool Goal Setting Workshops: Establish best practices and objectives for tool usage to ensure productivity and proper usage
- Tool Documentation and Office Hours: Create onboarding and training materials for contributors to understand how to use tools in their DAO environment
- Current Architecture Assessment: Building an overview of the costs and benefits from each tool in your stack based on both business and technical needs
- Tool Migration Strategy: Develop a custom migration strategy for each tool depending on the level of effort willing to be expended as well as the estimated impact that it will bring to the DAO
Progress
Our team has identified the core areas within Governance Strategy and we are building the components of our offering. This includes documentation around governance frameworks, workshop templates, market research, tool comparison guides, and other project collateral.
Our next step is to create public-facing, open-source resources around the best practices of DAO governance. We hope these materials can serve as a free resource both for individuals & DAOs looking for guidance, and also help us attract clients who are interested in engaging around these services, giving our contributors the opportunity to generate income by working in their passion: web3 governance.
Our future roadmap includes building out our services for the other modules within DAO in a Box (DiB).
Differentiation
Description
Bankless Consulting is a subDAO of BanklessDAO. In alignment with the overall Bankless mission to help one billion people go bankless, our mission is to support this goal by providing professional services and web3 tooling to DAOs and more traditional businesses, thus expanding web3 opportunities for all.
Bankless Consulting’s contributors consist of seasoned professionals with experience in many domains, such as consulting, entrepreneurship, non-profit organizations, academia, retail, healthcare, technology, marketing, finance, and sales. Our team leverages the tremendous human capital resources of BanklessDAO, which include 20,000+ members and 13 Guilds focused on areas such as research, analytics, software development, marketing, translation, tokenomics and education to name a few.
Given our professional backgrounds as technology, management and development consultants, along with our passions and expertise in this nascent industry, we believe the impact we can deliver as an Advisory partner to both other DAOs and traditional businesses is outsized compared to any group in the world.
Manifesto/Vision
We believe in the future of decentralized money, and we believe that blockchain technologies and decentralized governance will disrupt all businesses in the decades ahead. We see the beginnings of this paradigm shift and will play a leading role in solutions that unlock the infrastructure of the future.
Team
@BeijingBoudreau#4959
Technology consultant with 7 years experience leading digital initiatives at Fortune 500 companies as well as startups. Has led projects ranging from technical assessments, implementation and developing long-term project roadmaps. Industry experience spanning Aerospace, CPG, Retail, Healthcare, Education and IT. Based in Atlanta.
@puncar#6764
Former Big4 consultant. Experienced in managing full product life cycles, establishing programs and activities according to business goals. An expert at managing multiple blockchain products development and projects implementation. Currently focussed on DAO creation, innovation and management. Bankless Consulting co-founder. Based in NYC.
@Chuck#4313
Began career as a teacher. Worked in philanthropy at private foundations. Spent a few years working in public policy at the state and federal levels. Created some nonprofit organizations then built a nonprofit management program at an American university. Now pivoting career to be full-time in web3. Bankless Consulting co-founder. Based in Baltimore.
@RunTheJewelz#7931
20 years of Management and Technical Consulting experience at Big4 and boutique consulting firms in the areas of Data & Analytics. DAO-related activities include: Analytics Guild, Dev Guild, Education Guild, Bankless Academy, PLM and Compensation Working Groups. Bankless Consulting co-founder. Based in Chicago.
@ryananderson.eth#1839
With a background in branding and public relations, has been advising clients on their digital strategies for 20 years. Has developed brands for Chernin Entertainment, Toronto International Film Festival, Penguin Books and has developed communications strategies for Microsoft, HBO and 20th Century Fox. Bankless Consulting co-founder. Based in Ottawa.
@DSide#0019
Was a physical therapy practice owner in NYC for 20 years, telehealth expert and practice management consultant. On a quest for blockchain solutions to improve health and medicine, including tokenization/gamification of health and smart insurance contracts. Specializing in DAO Operations and Governance. Bankless Consulting co-founder. Based in NYC.
@MC10#8599
Has been a Management and Technology consultant with both Big4 and niche advisory firms for almost 20 years, in the Banking and Insurance industries. Has experience in forming and managing practices of consultants, starting and scaling businesses globally, running business development and P&Ls. Bankless Consulting co-founder. Based in Sydney.
@omen#6952
Corporate crypto-lawyer specializing in disruptive high-growth technologies. Possesses a diverse array of experience in corporate and securities law, technology consulting, financial services, international development and the startup world. JD/MBA from the University of Toronto. Bankless Consulting co-founder. Based in Toronto.
Grant Request ($) & Ask
Amount Requested: $10,000
Primary Funding Needs:
- Compensation for Governance Strategy contributors
- Development of service offerings
- Research and analysis for a whitepaper on how DAOs are currently tackling Governance Strategy
Help
We would value any introductions the MetaCartel team can make to organizations looking for professional consulting services.
Additional Resources
- DiB Overview & Governance Strategy: Deck
- Twitter: twitter.com/banklessconsult
- Website: banklessconsulting.com
References
- Samman, G., & Freuden, D. (2020, May). DAO: A Decentralized Governance Layer for the Internet of Value. Monsterplay.
- DAO Rugability and Architecture, https://szns.mirror.xyz/
- Bitcoinist. (2022, February 23). DAOs Are Having a Moment, But Are They Ready for the Mainstream? Bitcoinist.
- What Happened Today at ETHDenver 2022. (2022, February 18). CryptoNews.
- Hamm, C. (2022, February 23). ETHDenver Takeaways.