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We are building a system that picks up where Plutus Pioneers leaves off by:

1. Creating a space where anyone can develop a deeper understanding and get better at building with Plutus.

2. Building an example of a repository of reusable, open source Plutus components (Apache 2.0 License) that will benefit the Cardano community.

3. Practice working together as Gimbalabs begins to take on commercial opportunities.

The Plutus PBLearning Journey comprises a two-fold approach: on the one hand our team is providing guidance and learning opportunities through a weekly learning path, comprises by: 30 minute weekly retro, 60 min weekly open office hours and 2 hours weekly co-development sessions. the scope of monthly work is outlined in our gitlab repository (see link below). Furthermore, the Plutus team is taking on responsibility of creating the scope of each successive month - an approach that is taking into account the self-determination and passions each team member wants to focus on - enriching that way the learning opportunity. On the other hand, we will offer the Plutus cohort to "learn by doing" by working on actual projects for Cardano Startups and Cardano-adopting companies, which will give them the "real world experience" they need to level up. This project-based learning consumes a full time working assignment for 4 months.

The selection of developers: we launched a application form to identify motivated candidates, please see this form here: form: https://form.typeform.com/to/ELjAlMnV. As of to date we started the first pilot programm with our first four Plutus pioneers (launched August 2021) 

Stated above represents the roadmap for a 4 month program including deliverables that serve the cardano developer community (documentation), Cardano-adopting companies (Plutus capacity building for own operations/products), as well as provides an entry point for developers becoming Plutus devs building up credentials, establish a network as well as access and develop commercial opportunities. This proposal contributes to make it easier for developers to build on top of Cardano by increasing the number of developers actively building on top of Cardano (+4), number open source Plutus components produced (15).

Budget is considering to fund two more Plutus developers for 4 months with:

- Base funding of $3000/month

- Monthly bonus for achieving all goals: $2500

-- Total $22000 for 4 months

Gimbalabs forward looking plan (3,6,12 months) is to further expand the onboarding of Plutus developers under this learning program and at the same time enlarging the network of companies in need of their services, envisioning this system being self-sustaining and a platform of supply and demand, by serving the needs of both our Plutus developers and Cardano-adopting companies.

We thought through possible risk factors that hinder the project to be successful. The ones we are in controls are the guiding team, James & Roberto. Since they are the founder of gimbalabs, who believe in the vision and mission of gimbalabs and Cardano, it is very unlikely them leaving this project. Another possible risk is not finding suitable Plutus candidates, that as well is very unlikely since we already piloting this program with 4 highly engaged Plutus developers. The third major risk is not finding Cardano-adopting companies/startups. We are already working on a pipeline of commercial opportunities with both companies and Cardano start ups to pipeline projects to our Plutus PBL program. 

The proposal team is comprised by James, Roberto (both part of the guiding team for developers) and Juliane (proposal lead and supporting commercial opportunities)

Guiding team to Developers 

James Dunseith: Teacher, coach, and facilitator with a passion for helping people gain agency in problem solving.

James creates learning experiences by running development courses, creating asynchronous learning resources, and helping to launch experiments that allow people to contribute their diverse talent to share goals. He is also the front-end developer of gimbalabs.com and is working to create resilient, reusable components that help other people to launch their work.

Relevant Experience: diverse experience in creating systems and tools that support students and teachers to learn by doing. During his 11 years teaching high school math, computer science, creative writing, and bike repair, James experimented successfully with project-based learning and mastery-based grading, showing how systems like these can change the way students approach learning. He was named a Master Teacher by both Math for America and by BetterLesson, where he published two math curricula that are still in use today. Before founding Gimbalabs, James focused on teacher training at BetterLesson and then at MIND Research Institute, in both cases building successful programs while supporting teachers to use new tools facilitate deeper learning, and is excited to apply lessons from those experiences to the project of sharing Cardano with the world.

Roberto C. Morano: Seasoned sysadmin and DevOps advocate and also an OpenSource-everything and decentralization enthusiast.

Roberto builds tools and facilitates their use by ensuring the stability of Dandelion APIs and being ready to answer all questions. He is involved in Cardano projects and testnets development to operate, maintain and support the APIs offered to the community. He will also help with integrating services and pipelines for Gimbalabs and architecting a potential decentralized API solution that helps fund the organization.

In addition, he will collaborate to provide for the entire continuum of lower-tech to higher-tech use cases. Roberto will ensure that the technical side of CSKs is both fundamentally sound and accessible.

Relevant Experience: Roberto has been involved for more than 10 years in projects that vary from developing Linux distributions for the Spanish citizen and governments, an anti-DDoS systems for a datacenter or web infrastructure for different industries like real estate, logistics or fintech private sector, where he worked on projects for important customers.

As an early Cardano adopter and supporter, he has been part of Emurgo's infrastructure team behind Yoroi Wallet and Seiza explorer. Nowadays, he is the operator for La RepsistancE's PEACE stakepool, whose mission is to drive Cardano adoption with full decentralization in mind.

Proposal lead & commercial support

Juliane Montag: expert business developer and marketing professional within the consulting sector, stakeholder management and relationship building from start-ups to large corporations.

Juliane's role is focused on driving the business model for Gimbalabs defining value creation and processes to deliver on the value proposition to both developers and clients. Marketing around developers and how to best address needs and accompany a unique experience is one of the key tasks to be fulfilled under this proposal. She will lead overarching project management and stakeholder engagement, as well as work with the accelerator to prepare Gimbalabs to become a sustainable business.

Relevant experience: Juliane's personal motivation is to support clients, business leaders, family business owners and board members on their top of mind issues and offer open discussion and guidance to create long term value, truly holistically. Juliane brings a rich variety of experience, having led national-scale entrepreneurial initiatives, facilitated strategic planning for digital scaling, and provided guidance for small, family-owned businesses. Her client-facing roles have been centered mainly in Business Development & Sales by serving middle-market, family business, and large corporate organizations. In 15+ years' experience Juliane has held diverse management positions for Business Development, Stakeholder Management, Strategic Planning, Business Intelligence and Global Account Management, working with diverse teams in North & South America and Europe.