Proposing a Business Development Working Group II

Growth Business Development
1

Title: Proposing a Business Development Working Group II
status: Proposed
author: @BigSky7

Situation

I am proposing the second iteration and Q3 funding for the Business Development Working Group (BDWG) for the next 3-months starting on the 1st July 2021 to 1st October 2021.

BDWG 1 Proposal

What is the core problem(s) you want to solve?

BD working group has been operating for the past 6-months, first as a vertical within GWG and then autonomously as is its own working group. Each iteration of this WG has seen significant improvements and major initiatives. We continue to fine-tune and hone our strategy as the Coop evolves.

BDWG I

What happened:

  • $7.75 million Treasury Diversification
  • Partnership with SushiSwap to launch BTC2x-FLI with Onsen rewards
  • Bitgo listing
  • Rari Capital Fuse pool initiated
  • Relationships established with all major Index stakeholders
  • Perpetual Protocol trading competition
  • Perpetual DPI treasury purchase
  • Miami BTC Conference attended and numerous relationships established
  • On-going conversations with Polygon and leading L2 DEXes
  • In-depth competitive analysis of other leading Index providers
  • Investor landing page and numerous investor materials created
  • DeFi Summer Series conference scheduled for NYC on July 15

What we liked:

  1. Verticals within the WG enabled each contributor to have a high level of autonomy and accountability
  2. We continue to attract high leverage individuals to the WG
  3. Bias towards action. WG members identify and execute key Coop-wide initiatives
  4. Aggressive focus on building long-term relationships throughout the DeFi and investors ecosystem

What we didn’t like

  1. Numerous initiatives were bogged down in the Forum. We need to focus on executive-level execution
  2. Increase focus on core strategic priorities and cut extraneous efforts. A major focus for this WG iteration will be honing down on our core mission and improving our focus.
  3. Better communication with the broader Coop community around what we are accomplishing and the value add of specific initiatives

Why is this worth addressing today?

BDWG continues to be one of the core WGs directly driving IC’s external partnerships and product distribution. The continuation of this WG is vital for the long-term success of our protocol.

Activities that BDWG will oversee:

  • Major DeFi integrations
  • Growing relationships with major Index stakeholders.
  • Direct sales of Index products to DAOs and other ecosystem partners

Alongside these major strategic priorities, BDWG will prioritize initiating, maintaining, and building long-term relationships with DeFi projects, crypto partners, and Index Coop Investors. These relationships provide valuable introductions, advice, and strategic perspective. Developing and deepening relationships will continue to be a core focus for BD.

What impact will this project have?

  • Increase in unincentivized supply growth & unincentivized AUM
  • Increase in total holders
  • The formation of deep relationships throughout the crypto and DeFi ecosystem
  • Expanded extrinsic uses cases of Index Coop products in the Defi eco-system

Working Group Leader

  • Simon Judd (Discord: BigSky)

Core Contributors

  • Michael Mtenga (Discord: Mringz)
  • David Silverman (Discord: TrotNixonLine)

Request for Funding

We are requesting a budget of $190k over the next three months. Note this is a significant decrease from the previous cycle as we will be focusing our efforts on a few key initiatives.

Rewarding high leverage contributions is our largest expense. I expect that we will not use the full amount requested for contributor rewards every month if our working group does not produce high-leverage results. On the other hand, it is important that we are able to generously compensate contributors when they truly move the needle. Examples of high-impact contributions include, but are not limited to, completing major DeFi partnerships or facilitating large sales of our products to ecosystem partners.

We have increased the amount to support conference attendance and hosting Index Coop events. Conferences and in-person events are significant drivers for key BD relationships.

(note: several other working groups have expressed interest in sending participants to conferences or hosting events. I believe that over the next six-months we should develop a conference and event oversight committee to handle coordination and expenses for all in-person Coop events.)

1600Ă—806 169 KB

Organization - How will it work?

The BDWG will be led by BigSky. Each vertical will be led by core contributors with an established track record of long-term high-leverage contribution to the Coop. The working group members will be directly accountable to the broader Coop community for the execution of the stated objectives.

BDWG assigns stipends for regular contributors and award discretionary payments to incentivize activities that directly enable the WG to accomplish its strategic priorities.

The BDWG continues to meet once weekly. These meetings are open to the entire community and we encourage attendance and participation.

Commitments

I am committed to Index Coop principles 1

I am committed to serving the entire Index Coop with my work.

I am committed to open, rapid communication: I know that clear, constant, public communication lifts up the entire Index Coop community. I am committed to this style of communication.

Shared learnings: I will share my progress, learnings with the entire community. I will ensure that anything I create is accessible beyond my own tenure for future generations of Indexers to access & build on.

Intellectual honesty: I am committed to growth and improvement. I am open to feedback and will use feedback to improve my work for the benefit of the entire Coop community.

I am committed to making Index Coop a welcoming, fun, and engaging community to work in!

2 Likes
2

Hey @BigSky7 - the BDWG has been killing it - just wanted to give props for all the hard work you and the other contributors across BD have been giving!

qq - what exactly are “partnerships” in the budget?

2 Likes
3

Partnerships is somewhat of a catch-all that is intended to provide support for smaller initiatives that either drive value or offer opportunities for protocols to collaborate.

These small collaborations (such as our work with Perpetual Protocols and Pool Together) provide valuable opportunities to deepen relationships with other players in the ecosystem and expose Index Coop to other communities. Another use of these funds is small giveaways for regional AMAs (see our work with Bundle Africa).

I view small partnerships as important for generating awareness and goodwill throughout the ecosystem. They are not meant to be huge high-leverage initiatives - but small allocations. They are valuable because they provide valuable deal-making experience for newer BD members as they grow accustomed to the nuances of DeFi deal-making.

With that said - many of these smaller partnerships are nice to have - not a must-have. If partnership opportunities do not arise I do not expect us to fully use that aspect of the budget.

During this quarter BD will be laser-focused on the highest leverage and high impact deals. We are quickly moving past the stage of small partnerships - however, the learnings from coordinating these partnerships have been incredibly valuable for my entire team and as we build deep expertise in DeFi deal-making.

2 Likes
4

Appreciate the quick reply! I think that makes sense, and I trust you and the BD team to be focused on high-leverage and high-impact deals.

With that proposed as the second (tied) highest monthly item in the budget, it might make sense to include a paragraph or two on the current partnership strategy and how it relates to our Q3-2021 Priorities? Or just as a way for the community to align on the efforts from BD in regards to parternships?

Y’all are doing great work!

5

Good stuff, Simon. In the course of replying to @DarkForestCapital’s comment on the IB post, it occurred to me that we were raising the bar on impact attribution across the Coop.

Paraphrasing DFC’s questions and then some editorialization of my own.

What directly measures the success of this working group? How can we tie increases in supply, AUM, and holders back to BD?

I can guess at some of these, but in line with our Q3 priority of raising the bar for contributors in terms of impact and deliverables, I think WGLs should expand the details of impact and measurability in our proposals.

7

Hey @jdcook, Thanks for your response and I believe what you are bringing up is really important.

In regards to how BDWG activities relate to Q3-2021 Priorities. I definitely see our biggest impact with our activities towards the
Doubling down on the most effective growth & distribution tactics (Tier 2).

We have already started some activities that will help us complete some of the tasks that were highlighted.

For example, based on the tier 2 priorities we have began doing the following:

  • Major DeFi integrations (i.e. Aave) - @Matthew_Graham Is leading the efforts with the AAVE integration and has made good progress. Additionally, we are on the verge of completing the integration with Rari Capital by creating our own dedicated FUSE pool.

  • Direct sales of Index products to high-demand audiences - i.e. DAOs - We have already made steps with the following post DAO Treasury Sales Lead - BDWG which subsequently lead to us creating a small working pod that is actively working on creating a dedicated verticle to execute this as a strategy.

  • Educational content - We have created a content strategy which we published in the forum here: Extrinsic Productivity Content Strategy. The first article should be published this week.

In relation to what you are bringing up with our partnership strategy. It will still be focused on the following things:

  1. Creating extrinsic productivity opportunities for all our products
  2. Creating awareness of the extrinsic productivity opportunities for our products

These goals were highlighted in this post DeFi Partnerships and Integrations Q2 and beyond. Nothing has changed in the activities we are conducting. Even now while we are building liquidity on polygon we have already engaged with lending/borrowing protocols like Qi DAO and yield optimizers like Pickle finance to integrate our products on their L2 platforms.

3 Likes
8

The two core thesis that BD will be pursuing in this iteration of the WG are:

  • Increased access to DPI, MVI and all Index Coop products across DeFi will directly lead to higher AUM as more users have opportunities to buy and use or products. 20% of DPI supply is currently deposited in CREAM - directly decreasing sell pressure and earning a yield. We expect the same to be true for Layer 2 solutions as more traders and holders use these platforms to gain cost-effective access to our products.

  • DAO Treasury sales offer the opportunity to significantly increase our AUM. We are highly focused on building the infrastructure to reward contributors who drive results in this area.

When it comes to directly measure results - this is what we are targeting:

  • Tier-1 DeFi integrations. This can be measured by whether or not our products can be used on the leading money markets in the space. Specifically AAVE, Maker, Compound

  • Significant liquidity on Polygon. This will be measured by the liquidity level of our products on key Polygon DEXes and money markets

  • Index Coop products held across DAO treasuries. The number I am targeting for this quarter is $25 million. This will be measured by on-chain data.

I look forward to continued deep collaboration with @fallow8 and @Metfanmike as they embark on their own WG journey. I am excited to see a new working group emerge and know they will be successful. Both are valued community members who have driven great results for BD. They will always be valued members of the BD family.

Part of the measure of a successful working group is developing verticals that one day become their own autonomous structures. BD has spun up a number of highly successful verticals to address specific challenges that the Coop faces and I expect we will continue to do that as new challenges emerge.

Every community member should be striving for ownership. This is a good thing that we need to encourage. We fail as an organization when our structures become closed gardens. Ultimately this DAO succeeds or fails based on our ability to collaborate and work as small teams cross-functionally. There is simply too much that needs to be accomplished to waste time fighting over turf.

We are building a global financial powerhouse that will be around for decades to come - we don’t have time for anything but ruthless focus on mission execution.

Finally, I want to highlight a shortfall on my end. Over the past two months, I have spent the vast majority of my time on the Index Fundraise. This has taken away from my focus on other areas of BD. Specifically, I would like more forward momentum on Exchange Listings over the next three months and I expect that BD/IB will work closely together to make that happen. Individuals do not drive results in the DAO - community drives results in the DAO.

4 Likes
9

Given that Polygon is geared towards gaming. I think we can lean on the MVI token. I believe this is the token we should go to Quick and Sushi with, to potentially get incentives for. Further development to the MVI token, may be needed as it currently does not include GHST, a major player in Polygon, as well as other Polygon gaming tokens. I envision a cross-border universal currency, specifically designed for Polygon and the various games, to be used for trade and accepted as currency for NFTs within them. This idea is out of scope for this group; however, BD may benefit to approach Polygon with this option in mind.

1 Like