DLT360: cyberLEAN outreach - Connecting cybersecurity decision-makers with Cardano

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

DLT360

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

catalyst@dlt360.io

Additional applicants

• Thorsten Pottebaum
• Heinz Gassner
• Guilherme Pereira
• Jonas Weinberger
• DLT360 team

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

6

[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?

Yes

[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.” .

cyberLEAN outreach by DLT360 is a cybersecurity-focused marketing outreach, which specifically engages the community of cybersecurity decision-makers with Cardano. 

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

No

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

By the nature of the target group and the fact that personal data is protected by law in the European Union, we will not be able to share contact information or commercial insights. We nevertheless will proactively engage with a network of solution partners, which we will build during this project.

Not shared information therefore are:

• Contacts information of CISOs and other cybersecurity professionals (data protection)
• Discussions about commercial use cases or opportunities
• Early-stage adoption use cases (commercial confidentiality) 

[METADATA] Category of proposal

Identity Solutions

[METADATA] SDG rating

This project contributes to the following SDGs

[8] Descent Work and Economic Growth

[9] Industry Innovation and Infrastructure

[10] Reduced Inequalities

[16] Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Summary 

DLT360’s overall mission is to drive real-world blockchain adoption in business and industry. Practical experience has shown, that industrial adoption requires functioning turn-key solutions based on the latest technologies and regulations. Finding the market for already developed products, without having carried out a market analysis is like flying an aeroplane blindfolded. The chances that you reach success are very narrow if not impossible. Carrying out market research can be expensive and needs specific skills. Therefore, DLT360 will Support the SSI/DID developer community by

• Carrying out dedicated market research
• Providing resulting insights into the market
• Building connections build to decision-makers in the cybersecurity space in business & industry

We believe that the adoption of decentralised identity is the unlocking key for the wider adoption of blockchain technology and that this group of decision-makers play an essential role in this.

The outcome of this project therefore will be:

• A pool of qualified contacts in business and industry, which will have gained an understanding of the potential of SSI/DID solutions
• Concrete demands collected from business and industry prospects for SSI/DID solutions
• Market insights, which opportunities are currently given for the adaption of solutions based on Atala PRISM build on Cardano
• A partnership network of solution builders on Atala PRISM moderated by DLT360

To drive engagement we are planning to:

• Give online seminars on the topic of SSD/DID
• Hold a “Cardano meets Cybersecurity Online Summit 2023” with a focus on SSD/DID

The graphic below shows the positioning of this project in the overall DLT360 approach (The DLT360 Business Ladder: From Aggregating News, over Knowledge Management to Consulting): 

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

Connecting with potential customers early in the development cycle is key to reaching product/market fit and prevents investments in solutions, which have no market.

We recognized that for adopting SSI/DID solutions at scale in business & industry it is extremely important to connect with the cybersecurity decision-makers (CISOs) as early as possible to get feedback and address their pain points.

This proposal meets the requirement of the challenge through:

• Connecting to cybersecurity decision-makers at an early stage
• Driving understanding and knowledge about SSI/DID solutions in this group
• Connects the community of solution builders with the target market
• Help to identify opportunities driven by real-world demands
• Avoid costly investments in SSI/DID solutions, which will not have a market

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

We will approach cybersecurity decision-makers with a concrete topic/pain point, which currently is driven by the European Union (EU). The EU Cybersecurity Act and the recent release of the NIS2 directive by the EU are leading to a concrete demand for cybersecurity consultancy for NIS2 compliance in 35 specific sectors, which we will address outside of this proposal. 

Nevertheless, having found an entry-point to decision-makers will enable us to also address topics, which are related to Cardano (e.g. SSI based on Atala PRISM or decentralized access solutions). This proposal, therefore, is a springboard to enable access to a number of topics, which will be covered by our growing ecosystem of solution builders on Cardano. (see also proposal “Industrial Blockchain Application Catalogue”.)

We will generally measure and report on the following:

• number of decision-makers in the target group directly contacted
• number of decision-makers with LinkedIn connections to a DLT360 core team member
• number of engagements to discuss opportunities
• number of initiated projects

Intended Effect on Cardano : (short term/after 12 months):

• Increase the exposure of blockchain solutions on Cardano in the cybersecurity area
• Bridging the gaps between solution builders and commercial/industrial prospects
• Initiation of specific implementation projects with the defined target group

Intended Effect on Cardano : (mid-term/after 24 months)

• Creation of lighthouse projects with a cybersecurity focus based on Cardano
• Significant increase of awareness in the identified target group (people/industry sectors)

Intended Effect on Cardano : (long term/beyond 24 months)

• Increased number of projects built with Atata PRISM in the commercial & industry sector

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

After engaging with the target group and building connections, we will be able to provide the following outputs:

• Market insights & readiness for adoption report for different market segments
• Impressions from the Cardano Meets Cybersecurity Online Summit 2023

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

DLT360 was founded by an ambitious core team coming from many years of leadership experience in business and industry, combined with the fresh perspective of young talents in various disciplines (see team description later in this proposal). The senior founders have also been active members of and contributors to the Catalyst community since early on.

DLT360's core team and extended domain expert team in the knowledge areas of

• Economy
• Technology
• Regulation
• Politics
• ESG

has grown to approximately 25 people (the majority still part-time) during the past 2 years. With Fund 10, we also want to finance the launch of the DLT360 Token as the incentive basis for growing a vibrant global community of content contributors and solution partners.

DLT360 has successfully completed various projects in Funds 6, 7 and 8. Fund 10 is now dedicated to finalizing DLT360's foundational developments. This will get us to scale up our activities in 2024, for which we are aiming for a strategic partnership-based financing round - with the vision to become THE major think-tank and commercial consulting entity in the dynamically growing CARDANO/Web 3.0 space.

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

• Connection with a large group of cybersecurity decision-makers:
• Out of the 35 mentioned sectors we initially identified about 2500 companies with current demand for cybersecurity consultancy related to legally required NIS2 implementations. This cover just a very small portion of the overall market related to NIS2 consultancy - for us, this is the starting point for engagement.

• Increase the adoption of Cardano in the commercial & industrial space:
• Currently, there is limited adoption of public permissionless blockchain solutions in the commercial & industrial space. By connecting builders of SSI/DID solutions with concrete demands, adoption will increase as build solutions will solve real-world demands (product/market fit)

• Collect market insights:
• Direct dialogue with future customers is the fastest way to understand if your solution fits the market. These insights are extremely valuable for the developer community on Catalyst as they will increase the chance of success of solutions they build

How can we verify this?!

We will recognize very quickly if our assumptions are reflected by the target group through direct feedback. 

Prospects in the commercial & industry are looking for specific solutions to their current problems. Our approach to “get in the door” with a current regulatory-driven topic (EU NIS2) will give us the unique opportunity to get direct feedback on other topics, like SSI/DID, when we discuss these with them.

[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.

The project will be broken down into 4-week cadences for delivery as follows:

Milestone 1: Project, Processes & Team in place

• Timeline: End of Week 1 of 24
• Method: DLT360 program- and project management 
• Activities: Setting up project infrastructure & Web-landing page, kickoff meeting 

Milestone 2: Prospecting & Infrastructure

• Timeline: End of Week 4 of 24
• Method: Configuration of CRM system, collection of potential contacts
• Activities:
• Select & setup up a CRM solution connected to LinkedIn
• Collect a list of prospect details from LinkedIn 
• Create marketing material (NIS2 consulting/SSI/DID)

Milestone 3: Building prospect pipeline

• Timeline: End of Week 16 of 24
• Method: Acquisition, video seminars
• Activities:
• Contact prospects & qualifying pipeline
• Contact developers in the SSI/DID space
• Setup “first contact” meetings
• Provide On-demand seminars

Milestone 4: Cardano Meets Cybersecurity Online Summit 2023

• Timeline: End of Week 23 of 24
• Method: Online, report writing 
• Activities:
• Preparation of Cardano Meets Cybersecurity Online Summit 2023
• Delivery of summit
• Creating Insight report 

Final Milestone: Project completed

• Timeline: End of Week 24 of 24
• Method: Reporting
• Activities: As a last step, we establish the close-out report and the close-out video as required by the Catalyst guidelines

Project Management:

• Monitoring progress using Github
• Tracking budget usage via Excel
• Submitting a monthly report to Catalyst IOG Team
• Submitting Proof of Milestone reports to Catalyst IOG Team per milestone

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

These are the Deliverables, Acceptance Criteria and Evidence for our Milestones:

Milestone 1: Project, Processes & Team in place

• Deliverable(s):
• [1] Project environment
• Acceptance Criteria: 
• [1] Project environment available
• Evidence: 
• [1]Short video

Milestone 2: Prospecting & Infrastructure

• Deliverable(s):
• [1] CRM with link to LinkedIn
• [2] Prospect details from LinkedIn 
• [3] Marketing material
• Acceptance Criteria:
• [1] CRM with connection to LinkedIn available
• [2] Prospects identified (due to GDPR this will be confidential)
• [3] Marketing material is available
• Evidence:
• [1] + [2] Short video
• [3] Link to marketing material

Milestone 3: Building prospect pipeline

• Deliverable(s):
• [1] Prospect pipeline
• [2] A pipeline of partner contacts SSI/DID 
• [3] “first contact” meetings (confidential)
• [4] On-demand seminars (confidential)
• Acceptance Criteria:
• [1] A pipeline is filled with min. 1000 prospects
• [2]A pipeline is filled with min. 25 partner prospects
• [3] 50 meetings planned/completed
• [4] 10 seminars delivered
• Evidence:
• [1] + [2] Short video
• [3] Meeting statistics (information about a prospect is confidential)
• [4] Seminar recording (if permitted by the prospect); Statistics

Milestone 4: Cardano Meets Cybersecurity Online Summit 2023

• Deliverable(s):
• [1] Online summit
• Acceptance Criteria:
• [1] Summit has been delivered
• Evidence:
• [1] Short video

Final Milestone: Project completed

• Deliverable(s): 
• [1] Closing video & report
• Acceptance Criteria:
• [1] Provided to IOG
• Evidence: 
• [1] Video/document

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

Budget Milestone 1: Project, Processes & Team in place

• Project & Team Kick-off (5 hours x 250 ADA = 1,250 ADA)
• Backoffice (10 hours x 125 ADA = 1,250 ADA)
• Total: 2,500 ADA

Budget Milestone 2: Prospecting & Infrastructure

• CRM Infrastructure
• Setup & configuration (20 hours x 250 ADA = 5,000 ADA)
• Subscriptions: 13,500 ADA (one time)
• Backoffice (10 hours x 125 ADA = 1,250 ADA)
• Prospecting 
• Prospect collection (400 hours x 125 ADA = 50,000 ADA)
• Marketing material (75 hours x 250 ADA = 18.750 ADA)
• Total: 88,500 ADA

Budget Milestone 3: Building prospect pipeline

• Prospecting
• Prospect qualifying (300 hours x 250 ADA = 75,000)
• First contact (250 hours x 250 ADA = 62,500 ADA)
• Online Seminars (6 hours x 250 ADA = 1,500 ADA)
• Backoffice (30 hours x 125 ADA = 3,750 ADA)
• Total: 142,750 ADA

Budget Milestone 4: Cardano Meets Cybersecurity Online Summit 2023

• Preparation (50 hours x 250 ADA = 12,500 ADA)
• Delivery of summit (32 hours x 250 ADA = 8000 ADA)
• Creating Insight report (40 hours x 250 ADA = 10,000 ADA)
• Backoffice (10 hours x 125 ADA = 1.250 ADA)
• Total: 31,750 ADA

Budget Final Milestone: Project Closing

• Quality Checking and Reporting 
• Infrastructure and tools-share for the project (CAPEX & OPEX) 
• Total: 5,000 ADA 

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

The following background is important for understanding our project-costing

• The DLT 360 Team is located in Europe, the UK and Brazil
• Europe-focused topics can be directly approached in Brussels
• Flexible on-demand access to experts in various disciplines (the DLT360 Domain Expert Team)
• Our Brazil location allows us to do intelligent and efficient cost-arbitration (back-office, project management, web development, design assistance and alike)

[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