Cloud Credits

The Catalyst Community would profit from being able to offset some infrastructure costs. Whether you run a stake pool, need to host an API, or some other part of a traditional web stack, having the option to utilize well-understood infrastructure is going to be helpful if you don't have to worry too much about its cost for a while.

As this proposal, if successfully implemented, would provide access to financial capital to fuel the success of Catalyst-funded projects, it fits right into the Catalyst Accelerator & Mentors challenge.

While coordinating efforts with the Cardano Foundation, I am working on behalf of the Cardano community to provide funded proposers with cloud credits.

Impact

If implemented, this proposal would create immediately a value of approximately $1,000,000 to the Cardano community; a product of funded proposals and cloud credits per funded proposal. As Catalyst scales, so will the benefit of the implemented proposal.

Cloud credits are standard for companies participating in incubators and accelerators. Yet, proposers have to budget these costs and work with already limited available funds. This proposal complements other proposals in this challenge nicely as this is the only proposal that addresses an infrastructure need that most proposers face at some point.

Feasibility

If this proposal is funded, I will not accept any funds after an initial disbursement of $5,000 until the first deal is closed to the benefit of the Catalyst community.

I am requesting a total amount of $30,000.

6 Providers, 20h of negotiation each at a rate of $250/hr = $30,000

I was asked to justify the high hourly cost.

I approach negotiations from an academic angle reinforced with practice. Within just 4.5 years, I have acquired my GED (didn't need it as a self-taught professional Sr. Software Engineer of 2 decades), several AAs, a BA in Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding on a full-ride scholarship (keeping a perfect 4.0 GPA throughout), and a Master of Dispute Resolution at a top US Law School, published a peer-reviewed article, facilitated peace, and improved relations between law enforcement and the general public in the community I am now a part of - all while being in leading Software Engineering positions and building two companies on the side. United States Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Zimbabwe Steve Rhodes requested me personally to teach a class on Negotiation & Mediation pedagogy for the upcoming semester at my alma mater. I feel confident in my abilities to make things happen. Graduates of my school (without prior industry experience) start off at a similar rate but with benefits and bonuses.

Second, as the CEO of Loxe Inc., I have a fiduciary duty and an opportunity cost to pay. My company already has agreements with several cloud providers through various means and prior established connections - just for our company. I have to ask myself: Is this the best use of my time? What am I giving up when I'm actively pursuing better opportunities for the greater Cardano community?

Third, our advisor recommended me to up my rate to this number for this kind of work.

Fourth, in comparison to another proposals that has the exact same rate of $250/hr (i.e. "Let's Woo Techstars"), I provide more value. Techstars is an accelerator that is a lot more selective than Catalyst. Techstars comes with cloud credits (AWS) but there's a lot more requirements and expectations associated with that type of accelerator. Do you really want to give up equity? Most funded proposals do not even have a company where they can offer equity in return. It's too exclusive and I wonder why nobody has made a comment stating that $405,000 out of $500k seems a little high - especially considering if the proposer has the connections he claims to have. I'm the last person to expect free labor, but the long and short of this is that I think my rate is fair - even without offering not to get paid if I don't deliver results.

KPIs

• Number of projects that are eligible for access to cloud credits
• Number of projects that utilize cloud credits
• Sum of cloud credits offered

Success

This proposal meets the outlined challenge success metric of "Access to financial, human, and intellectual capital to fuel the success of Catalyst-funded projects":

• after 3 months: cloud credits for all Catalyst-funded proposals from one cloud provider
• after 6 months: cloud credits for all Catalyst-funded proposals from two cloud providers
• after 12 months: cloud credits for all Catalyst-funded proposals from four cloud providers

I will be presenting at IDEA Fest on December 19th, 2021 - bring your questions.