Pond - Pooled incubator with smart-contract loans

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Nikias Arts (narts)

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

nartsclay@gmail.com

Additional applicants

Evan Foster (Nalu)

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

5

[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.” .

There are two main dependencies which will contribute to the continued existence of Pond:

• operating costs to run our infrastructure
• collaboration with external technical team

The Pond platform currently runs on state-of-the-art infrastructure, which is essential to deliver the best experience when using our platform. In order to sustain this infrastructure monthly operating costs have to be made.

Development on the Pond platform is done by an external technical company, which has been responsible for both the first and second version of the Pond platform that has been delivered so far. This technical company is responsible for both the back-end and the front-end, while the overall setup and configuration is done by the Pond team.

[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

dApp

[METADATA] SDG rating

4 - 5 - 8 - 9 - 10

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

In the inception phase of a lot of projects, fund requestors have to . However, to establish these kind of connections a certain network is required - a network which is not available to all.

This is something we want to change, hence why we'd like to introduce our pooled incubator.

The goal of the pooled incubator is both to help fund requestors raise funds for the goal they have in mind, and to allow fund raisers to partake in several funding activities. Since these type of investments are usually based on trust, we're adding the layer of our smart-contract based loans on top of it - ensuring that collateral is provided by the fund requestors.

The funds that are requested are thus backed by the collateral, provided by the fund requestor, and can be filled in by an unlimited amount of fund raisers, until the fund goal is met. For every fund amount that is raised by a fund raiser, certain milestones can be set - as described in the fund request.

To ensure the funds are used to incrementally develop we propose to introduce a vesting mechanism. One where every new vesting period / milestone needs to be approved by a majority of the fund raisers within the pool, based on the progress of the fund requestor.

If the fund requestor fails to reach the milestone, then the fund is defaulted, and both the collateral and any remaining funds is returned to the fund raisers.

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

We believe that venture capitalist funding, and the possibility to partake in this is currently not available to everyone participating in the Cardano ecosystem.

By offering the pooled incubator we want to open up this possibility to everyone, both fund raisers and fund requesters.

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

There are several key metrics that we will use to measure the success of the pooled incubator:

1. Funding Raised: The total amount of funding secured through the platform would be a key metric in evaluating its success. This includes the volume of smart-contract loans disbursed and the value of NFT collateral utilized.
2. Project Viability: Monitoring the success and progress of projects funded through the platform would provide insight into its effectiveness. This can be measured by assessing key performance indicators such as revenue growth, user adoption, and product development milestones achieved by the supported projects.
3. Investor Engagement: The level of investor participation and engagement within the platform is an important metric. This can be measured by the number of active investors, the frequency of investments, and the overall growth of the investor community.
4. Return on Investment (ROI): Evaluating the financial returns for both investors and projects funded through the platform is crucial. Calculating the ROI for investors and tracking the success rate of funded projects would provide a clear indication of the platform's effectiveness in generating positive outcomes.
5. Ecosystem Growth: Assessing the growth and expansion of the Cardano ecosystem, including an increase in the number of projects, entrepreneurs, and investors participating in the platform, would indicate the project's impact on ecosystem development.
6. User Feedback and Satisfaction: Gathering feedback from users, including entrepreneurs, investors, and incubators, regarding their experience with the platform, level of satisfaction, and perceived benefits, can provide valuable insights into its success.

All of these metrics could then again be combined into a weighed metric to report on the evolution of the pooled incubator.

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

Since we already have a vibrant community and active Discord server with several thousand members, we will use this Discord server to actively communicate on the progress of our project and the next phases of our journey.

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

Over the course of the past years we've already delivered different versions of our platform. From a small try-out application with a small subset of people, to our very first dapp, and more recently the launch of our beta version.

There's always another version being worked on by our team, and this summer we're expecting the launch of our next version, with another set of features to further support our community.

With the release of these previous versions, we've also come to have experience in budgetting, and have a very solid understanding of the funds needed to execute the steps to evolve from an idea to a working product.

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

To create a simple and accessible product for venture capitalists to provide capital and earn yield,

and for projects and startups to access capital to grow and expand.

[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.

Roughly there will be three deliverables:

• Development of smart contract -> 1,5 month
• Front-end of platform -> 1,5 month
• Back-end of platform -> 1,5 month

Which leaves us a buffer of 0,5 month in our expected timeframe of 5 months.

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

With our smart-contract development we want to reach the outcome as described in the desired solution paragraph. This smart-contract will build on the components that have already been delivered for the Pond platform. As soon as this phase is finished, we will start - in parallel - the audit of the smart contract, ensuring there are no gaps or potential exploit of the contract itself.

Afterwards we will focus on the back-end of the platform, ensuring the technical components and technical infrastructure is installed. We'll also use this phase to create the different concepts as we call them (such as the fund raiser and fund requestor).

In the final step we'll focus entirely on the front-end of the platform, working closely together with both end users and UI/UX experts, ensuring that we can deliver the best fit between our user requirements and the technical capabilities of the platform.

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

The budget of 60,000 ADA will be allocated in the following way:

1. Technology team -> 14,000 ADA
2. Technology infrastructure -> 12,000 ADA
3. Design and User Experience -> 6,000 ADA
4. Smart Contract development -> 10,000 ADA
5. Testing and Quality Assurance -> 6,000 ADA
6. Security and Audits -> 8,000 ADA
7. Marketing and Outreach -> 4,000 ADA

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

From the start Pond's mission has been to open up financial services to a broader audience, within the Cardano ecosystem. It was our main driver to deliver Pond as the first borrowing and lending platform on Cardano.

As our understanding of the ecosystem continued to grow, we discovered this additional gap of venture capitalist funding, and have the strong desire to continue our mission and also open up this financial service.

With our experience in releasing previous versions of our platform we've come to have a solid understanding of the budget required to deliver a working product. Therefor we believe that the requested budget will be sufficient to deliver this additional service, filling yet another gap in the current Cardano ecosystem.

[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