A builders guide to DAOs – Learn the practical tools and skills to launch your decentralized governance layer. Let’s automate the best practices for regulatory clarity, compliance, community building, branding, fundraising, and general operations.

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Sheraz Ahmed [on behalf of STORM Partners Sàrl (CHE-435.083.916), a limited liability company duly incorporated under the laws of Switzerland.]

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

sheraz.ahmed@storm.partners

Additional applicants

1. D.Jur. Nicola Massella, Legal & Compliance Dept. (nicola.massella@storm.partners)
2. Callum Kennard, Marketing & Growth Dept. (callum.kennard@storm.partners)
3. Nara Babayeva, Branding & Design Team (nara.babayeva@storm.partners)
4. Louis Beuque, Finance & Fundraising Dept. (louis.beuque@storm.partners)

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

4

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.” .

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

Project will be fully open source.

[METADATA] Category of proposal

Education

[METADATA] SDG rating

SDG goals: 4) Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. 8) Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. 9) Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

SDG subgoals: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship.

Key Performance Indicator (KPI): Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

When DAOs approach STORM Partners, they seek specific, practical business and legal advice. Often, there is surface-level understanding and knowledge from online resources. However, their uncovered material does not offer enough in-detailed information or frameworks to enable DAOs to overcome real-world business and legal challenges. 

This is because the content is fragmented, shallow and repetitive across platforms, only scratching the surface of what is really needed to build a successful DAO. Moreover, the early-stage development of DAOs translates into a scarcity of expertise in the market that can adequately convey and apply industry-specific knowledge.

The Approach

Our proposed solution will address the challenge by providing comprehensive educational workshops on marketing, legal and fundraising aspects specific to DAOs. The workshops will cover legal frameworks, compliance, tokenomics, branding, community building, and fundraising strategies. The impact of this project on participants will be:

1. Enhanced knowledge and skills: Participants will acquire in-depth knowledge and practical skills to navigate legal challenges and implement effective marketing and fundraising strategies for their DAOs;
2. Increased compliance: Participants will better understand legal frameworks, ensuring compliance with regulations and reducing legal risks;
3. Strengthened marketing strategies: Participants will develop robust marketing strategies, including branding and community engagement resulting in increased visibility and user adoption; and
4. Improved understanding of fundraising strategies: Participants will be given a detailed overview of fundraising options within the Cardano ecosystem, ensuring the most appropriate strategy is selected based on desired outcomes. 

Targeted Audience

The event will be open to all. We foresee it benefiting various demographics, such as the entrepreneur looking to build in Web3 and structure their Dapp’s governance as a DAO to the native Cardano DAO ecosystem and communities. It will suit all DAO builders who will benefit extensively from business and legal-detailed training led by experts.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

When designing this project, we focused on the value the challenge aims to bring to the community and answered it in a meaningful yet very pragmatic approach. 

• How can we make Cardano the go-to choice for building DAOs?
• What tools can we provide to enable effective DAOs Creation and Operation?

The Cardano DAO ecosystem can grow by improving the understanding and abilities of growth, operations and governance from a business and legal perspective. STORM Partners aims to fill this gap and offer unique, legal, marketing, and fundraising advice to Cardano DAO builders through our workshops. The latter will give Cardano a unique competitive advantage compared to other chains, attracting more communities to build on Cardano. 

The online workshops will also align with the following KPIs:

1. Number of communities collaborating using Cardano DAO creation tools.
2. Number of DAOs that use Cardano as a governance/management chain in 6 months.

As mentioned, the successful outcome of DAO creation resides not only in the effective implementation of software development/no-code services but also in the ability to select appropriate legal & compliance frameworks, marketing and fundraising strategies.

These aspects ensure the long-term survival of DAOs, allowing them to mitigate legal & compliance risks, nurture a solid community to leverage their participation and ensure a fundraising roadmap with proper financial planning.

Equipping DAO builders with pragmatic and professional advice in these areas will increase the long-term success of each project. Consequently, bolstering the number of DAOs in the Cardano ecosystem.

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

Demonstration of Impact: Demonstrable qualitatively and quantitatively. We will follow the number of DAOs that have benefited from the training and support in answering follow-up enquiries.

 

1. Attendance: We aim for ~40 interested builders to join the lives workshop series;
2. Quality of Content: Feedback, surveys, and ratings will be shared;
3. Number of DAOs set up after 3 to 6 months from delivery:
4. Calculation of the % of successful participating DAOs compared to market data. 
5. Engagement post-event: >25% of the participants following up with additional questions;
6. Number of subscribers, and social media engagements
7. Views on recorded material: >1500 views within six months of uploaded material.

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

Public Relations & Media: Outreach to traditional tech and web3 outlets to push the series.

Cardano Community: Shared with multiple relevant community channels, such as the Cardano Town Hall, F10: DAOs <3 Cardano- Telegram, Project Catalyst Chat – Telegram, etc.

Cardano Youtubers: Promote the initiative to their audience, resulting in a highly targeted campaign of users already interested in Cardano’s development.

STORM Partners News Section: We will share each milestone update on our website with detailed information about each step undertaken towards the project's completion.

Social Media Channels: The articles published on the website will then be shared through our social media channels, including our LinkedIn, with 9k followers, and Twitter, with 4k followers.

Reports & Documentation: All the research and project update reports will be created and attached to each article so that the Cardano community can freely check on the project’s progress. 

Dedicated channel: A dedicated stream will be created for the recorded course to be rewatched at any given time.

A final article outlining the metrics and KPIs achieved and the consequent impact on the Cardano community will be published. We are confident that our targets can be reached and that we will deliver outstanding value to Cardano. We will use the feedback and results to continue providing excellent educational content to the Cardano community through the following funding rounds.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

STORM Partners has played an active role in the development of DAOs for many years now, from a participation, governance and strategic level. Our clients include innovative DAOs we have supported from a legal, compliance, and marketing perspective. 

Legal & Compliance Department has extensive experience with the legal recognition (and related regulation) of DAOs. We have incorporated several DAOs in Switzerland and abroad, registering them either as foundations or as associations (depending on the intrinsic characteristics of the projects and the different governance structures), and we are always up-to-date on regulatory changes to mitigate our clients’ regulatory risks.

Marketing & Growth Department has helped curate high-level go-to-market strategies while providing the affiliated brand research and guidance needed to become a leading DAO, helping with long-term communications, social media, public relations, growth hacking, personal branding, and influencer programs.

Finance & Fundraising Department has a successful track record in developing articulated fundraising strategies and financial planning. Areas of expertise include tokenomics mechanisms, nurturing investor relations, pitch deck structuring, etc.

As a founding member of DAO Suisse, we seek to strengthen leadership in Web3 by focusing on overcoming the challenges faced by DAOs operating here and abroad.

We are also highly active in the Cardano ecosystem and have contributed through various initiatives and events to strengthen and shape its community and ecosystem. Some of our Cardano contributions and initiatives include:

1. Sheraz Ahmed as Master of Ceremony at the Cardano Summit 2022 in Lausanne.
2. Host at the Crypto Valley Conference 2022 & 2023, welcoming Frederik Gregaard.
3. Executive Leadership at Crypto Valley Association coordinating activities with Cardano Foundation to promote the ecosystem in Zug and abroad.
4. Participated in various Cardano side-events / meetups such as the London Masterclass and Meetup on 9th May 2023.
5. Contribution to CIP-1694 workshop in Zug in June 2023.
6. Early-stage private investors in Cardano projects such as MELD.

We understand the importance of financial planning, budgeting, processes and accountability for the engagement we perform. Specifically, we will deploy progress updates. The team will regularly update each milestone with detailed explanations of a given task, with hours employed, outcomes and measurements. The updates will include reports on KPIs and metrics reached and strategic and implementation adjustments due to emerging issues or changes in the Cardano DAO ecosystem.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

Our objective is to provide an opportunity for Cardano DAO builders to access industry-leading educational content. We will share and democratise niche industry knowledge that is often costly and, thus, overlooked by early-stage projects with scarce financial resources. Appropriate planning of the areas for this proposal is essential for a venture to avoid encountering issues during a growth phase of a DAO. 

Success will be determined by the number of Cardano DAOs directly benefiting from our course. Measured by performing an analysis with all the builders participating in the course after six months to a year and quantifiable by at least 30% of participants stating the course has helped them to knock down barriers to legal, marketing and fundraising growth. 

The strategy is clear, simple and effective. Delivering three online DAO-focused workshops for the Cardano community with a pragmatic approach to Legal, Marketing and Fundraising matters, with a final playbook of the do's and don’ts.

STORM Partners already possess the necessary internal capabilities to deliver the project in the timeframe, cost and deliverables set, making the proposal feasible for our organisation.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

As we aim for the course to help the Cardano ecosystem reach the challenge KPIs, this will be delivered promptly and effectively to maximise its chances of positively affecting Cardano DAOs’ success outcomes.

Therefore, the team is confident that they will be able to prepare and deliver the online workshops within a 12-week timeframe. The event will be held on Zoom and will be recorded and shared online on a dedicated YouTube channel so that everyone will have access to the content in the future. 

The course will include three 2-hour workshops, one for each specific area, and the following deliverables: 

Legal & Compliance Workshop: Aims to give the participants a basic understanding of the legal implications of funding and operating a DAO. The workshop will cover:

1. The legal concept of a “DAO”;
2. Incorporated and unincorporated DAOs;
3. Legal capacity of a DAO;
4. Legal structures available to DAOs from a cross-jurisdictional perspective;
5. Comparative assessment of the benefits and pitfalls of various DAO’s legal structures;
6. The governance structure of a DAO;
7. Contractual relationships of the DAO members;
8. The DAO as a token issuer (DAO tokens, their characteristics, features and legal qualification);
9. Regulatory risk mitigation measures for DAO founders; and
10. Oncoming regulatory trends: the future of DAOs. 

Marketing & Community Building: This workshop will guide participants through creating a thriving community for DAOs while focusing on building a strong brand and reputation. The workshop will cover:

1. Exploring the role of community in the success of DAOs and how it contributes to brand building and reputation.
2. Identifying the target audience and understanding their needs, motivations, and pain points.
3. Developing a unique brand identity that resonates with the target community and aligns with the DAO’s mission and values.
4. Establishing clear guidelines and principles that foster positive interactions, inclusivity, and trust within the community.
5. Exploring effective communication strategies and platforms to engage and nurture the community.
6. Providing practical tips and techniques to encourage active participation, collaboration, and contribution within the community.
7. Discussing the role of community managers, defining their responsibilities, and sharing best practices for successful community management.
8. Highlighting the importance of transparency, accountability, and delivering value to maintain and enhance the DAO's reputation in the broader crypto ecosystem.

Finance & Fundraising Workshop: will cover the various aspects of fundraising in the context of a strategy and objectives of a DAO. Case studies will be utilised to explain use cases. The workshop will include: 

1. Exploring the different funding options for Cardano DAOs such as private token sales, types of public lunches and ISPOs, community fundraising and grants.
2. Exploring the creation of a sustainable financial strategy, roadmap and finding funding sources in alignment with DAO’s objectives.
3. Exploring the advantages and disadvantages of Tokenomics mechanisms in relation to Governance systems.
4. Looking at different crowdfunding and community-driven fundraising options, launchpads and strategic alignment with community members' contributions. 
5. How to build investor relationships and choose the most appropriate investors in line with the vision and needs of a given DAO. 
6. What to include in a persuasive pitch deck to investors with case studies and examples. 
7. Exploring the legal implications and requirements based on token choice.

DAOs will also be surveyed to understand the most critical and common pain points for the above areas. There will be marketing and communication efforts to ensure that the online workshops are well-received by the community and that a diverse and wide range of participants attends. The course will be communicated on all relevant community platforms and our social media channels, as previously described. 

Finally, a playbook of the dos and don’ts for DAOs of the areas explored and its material will be created and shared, serving as a consistent summary of what has been taught. 

First Phase (Month 1)

• Research and Survey;
• Event advertising and subscription link creation; and
• Marketing, Legal and Fundraising content research.

Second Phase (Month 2)

• Marketing, Legal and Fundraising content creation;
• Continued advertising efforts; and
• Graphic Design of Content.

Third Phase: (Month 3)

• Content adaptation 
• Delivery of workshops over three days
• Recording of workshop
• Recorded content online uploading 
• Communication of event outcomes

Fourth phase: (Month 4)

• Playbook creation and publication 
• Content feedback gathering

Fifth phase: (Post Completion)

• Quantitative measurement of outcomes

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Milestone 1: First Phase (Research and Event Organisation): 

1. Deliverables: Research of current and evolving legal, marketing and fundraising DAO environment. Survey rollout to Cardano DAOs for the relevance of content.  Creation of an online subscription link. Start of event advertisement;
2. Intended Outcome: Developing especially targeted and relevant topics for Cardano DAOs. Spread of awareness and start the onboarding process; and
3. Measurement: Successful roll-out of the survey with 20+ participants. Number of communities reached with onboarding links. Successful update of workshop content based on primary and secondary research. 

Milestone 2: Second Phase (Advertisement and Content Creation):

1. Deliverables: All content preparation. Slide design. Continued marketing efforts; 
2. Intended Outcome: Successful preparation of slides and lesson content for Legal, Marketing and Fundraising. Obtainment of clear and succinct content slides from graphic designers. Increased awareness and interest in the event through continued advertisement; and  
3. Measurement: Easy-to-navigate content. Increase in number of interested participants. Number of communities and channels promoting the event. High click-through and conversion rate through marketing campaigns. 

Milestone 3: Third Phase (Content Adaptation and Workshop Delivery):

1. Deliverables: Last modification of content to ensure its relevance to the ever-changing environment. Delivery of 3 online workshops over week 5. Recording of workshops. Creation of a dedicated YouTube channel and uploading of recorded workshops. Spread of workshop outcomes and numbers. 
2. Intended Outcome: Relevant and up-to-date content delivery. Delivery of practical and valuable content for Cardano DAOs. High attendance in keeping with KPIs Successful recording of online workshops. Successful upload of recorded material and share of relevant link. Successful workshop outcome in line with KPIs and Metrics set; and
3. Measurement: Number of attendees. High engagement in Q&A. Follow-up requests. 6+ hours of recorded content. Proof of recorded material upload. Number of views and watch time on YouTube Channel. 

Milestone 4: Fourth Phase:

1. Deliverables: Drafting and consolidating information for the playbook. Graphic Design for clarity of information on the playbook. Creation of a second survey for content delivery feedback. Sending the survey to all participants;
2. Intended Outcome: Successful creation of the playbook with clear and easy-to-digest information for users. High survey response rate and excellent constructive feedback to improve on; and
3. Measurement: Physical creation and spread of the playbook. 80% response rate from participants. High-level and detailed feedback to work on. 

Milestone 5: Fifth Phase:

1. Deliverables: Contacting participants who went on to create DAOs. Measuring the success rate of DAOs going through our course and comparing it with market data; 
2. Intended Outcome: High number of DAOs built from course participants. Higher than market data success rate of projects; and 
3. Measurement: Number of projects created by people that attended our workshops vs number of projects still in existence.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

1. Marketing Workshop:
2. Research and content creation:  700 ADA/h*20h= ADA 14000
3. Workshop preparation and delivery: 700 ADA/h*10h=  ADA 7000

Subtotal = 21000 ADA

1. Legal & Compliance Workshop:
2. Research and creation of material: 1450 ADA /h*20h= 29000 ADA
3. Workshop preparation and delivery: 1450 ADA/h*15h= 21750 ADA 

Subtotal= 50750 ADA

1. Fundraising Workshop: 
2. Research and content creation: 700 ADA/h*20h= 14000 ADA
3. Workshop preparation and delivery: 700 ADA/h*10h=  7000 ADA 

Subtotal  = 21000 ADA

1. Project Management and Coordination:
2. Coordination of team; Survey creation and analysis; Event coordination and organisation: 875 ADA /week

Subtotal (16 weeks) = 14000 ADA

1. Marketing expenses: 
2. Advertisements on social media platforms: 700 ADA/h *3h= 2100 ADA 
3. Reaching out to relevant communities: 700 ADA /h*18h= 12 600 ADA 
4. Event organisation, moderation and link creation: 700 ADA /h*13h= 9100 ADA 

Subtotal = 23800 ADA

1. Playbook creation and Graphic Designer:
2. Drafting and consolidation of information: 700 ADA/h*8h= 5600 ADA 
3. Graphic Design for clarity: 700 ADA /h*5h= 3500 ADA 

Subtotal = 9'100 ADA

1. Miscellaneous: 8'500 ADA (5% circa of total sum)

1. Grand Total: 148'150 ADA 

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

As showcased, STORM Partners comprises highly skilled individuals who are leaders in their respective areas with multiple years of experience on Web3 projects and involvement in the Cardano Ecosystem. Furthermore, the project would not only directly benefit the participants in the online workshops but would also serve as a trampoline to increase the reputation and awareness of Cardano DAOs in Switzerland and internationally.

By leveraging our existing network in Web3, social media presence and marketing efforts, we will contribute to the betterment of the reputation of the Cardano DAO ecosystem. We want it to be the go-to place for DAO builders and collaborators. Most importantly, the cost associated with the project will democratise information which is often hard to obtain and scarce in the market. 

STORM Partners have applied competitive market rates for the types of expertise and quality of the delivery in the context of a leading Web3 consultancy firm.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept