SPO Incubator Rollout

[IMPACT]

Our Fund 7 funded proposal is the delivery of an MVP of our Impact Incubator programme. This proposal is the follow on, taking the learnings from the MVP and the participating SPOs and productising the full programme ready for release to the Cardano SPO community. 

This doesn’t fit neatly into any other category in F8, therefore we are submitting in F8 Miscellaneous to ensure the Cardano community sees significant ROI on developing this product in the previous fund. 

SPO’s are mission critical to the successful growth and development of the Cardano ecosystem. Therefore, to be effective, small SPOs need to develop the business, commercial and cultural knowledge necessary to support their growth and maturity. 

Our proven incubation programme for small businesses ensures commercial and sustainable, impactful businesses within the wider SPO network. 

This proposal is the second phase of the small SPO incubator programme that we were awarded funding for in Fund 7. 

It has two main areas of focus:   

• Small SPOs as the end users of the programme; and  
• The Cardano Catalyst Project.  

For Small SPO's – The end users of the programme 

We propose to refine and deliver a tailored version of our Impact Incubator programme specifically for small SPO's.  

Delivered across 8 interactive online sessions this programme provides the following outcomes for delegates: 

• Clarity on their purpose, impact and value add, 
• An audit that delivers clarity of where their business is now, where they would like it to be and how to get there, which produces, 
• A practical top level impact driven business plan 

For the Cardano Catalyst Project Community 

For the broader Cardano community we propose to implement an impact focussed innovation incubator programme with the purpose of embedding good business practice into the SPO community. 

Included in this project, we will produce a report on the outcomes of the Incubator, lessons learned, and opportunities or challenges we foresee for SPOs moving forward. This could then spin off into further projects in following Funds. 

Additionally, this programme will mark the beginning of a ‘generational’ SPO impact innovation programme for the Cardano network, where participants who pass through the programme will become Alumni. These participants will then act as mentors/case studies for future participants, ensuring knowledge is captured and cascades down into further ‘generations’ of SPOs on the Cardano network. 

This is part of a suite of proposals to roll out this product to SPOs of various sizes and geographies as outlined in our F7 MVP project “Small SPO Impact Business Programme”. The intention is to scale the programme across Cardano, by delivering Incubator programmes ourselves and also building the capabilities of others to run the programmes themselves in other geographies. The target groupings in this Fund are: 

• SPO Incubator Rollout (this proposal) 
• SPO Inc. Train the Trainer Africa (Submitted in F8 Grow Africa) 

This proposal aligns with the following Challenge KPI: 

• Number of identified possible Challenges to be proposed in the following Funds based on proposals submitted in the Miscellaneous Challenge. 

It is likely through delivery of this project we will be able to identify areas where SPOs require further support to successfully contribute to the Cardano network. With the final report we will assemble to complete this project, we will include a section on Challenges and Opportunities for future funds. 

Upon completion of the Impact incubator programme, outcomes will be communicated by our social media channels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and after the town halll. 

During the research and marketing pre-programme phase of the project, we will be entering into conversations with multiple stakeholders in the Cardano ecosystem, these relationships will also form the core of our communication strategy post completion of the incubator programme. These are made of SPO groups and network, as well as other stakeholders within the community. 

The main challenge is ensuring a large enough cohort takes part in the programme.  

We will mitigate this by engaging with SPO groups and Cardano marketing comms to spread awareness and gain buy-in from various stakeholder groups.  

This will also be somewhat mitigated by the work done to market the MVP project in F7, and the successful participation of Small SPOs in that programme. Additionally, we have been undertaking further work to integrate ourselves with SPO groups where we have been developing relationships and improving awareness of ourselves and projects. 

[FEASIBILITY]

We envisage an initial cohort of 20 individual small SPO's that will be invited by application to participate in this programme. This project will also assess the feasibility of increasing this number in future programmes. 

Project Roadmap: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOFWi75Y=/?invite_link_id=705726740380 

Project Management:

• Develop detailed project plan, liaise with stakeholders and manage the programme elements throughout duration – 12 hours

Develop the Pre-Programme phase and get it fit for purpose:

• Develop and run Marketing Campaign – 21 hours
• Application sorting and management – 12 hours
• Review submitted audits – 5 hours
• Onboarding – development and management – 11 hours

Refine, run and manage the Programme delivery phase:

• Refine and deliver the programme – 16 hours
• Conduct mid-session reviews – 10 hours
• Programme administration – 11 hours

Refine, run and manage the Post-Programme phase: 

• Collate key metrics -  4 hours
• Conduct feedback interviews – 10 hours
• Report consolidation and delivery – 10 hours

The total cost of this proposal is US$24,600

The cost rates that we have estimated are:

Edify R&D & management team – US$200/hr

Edify workshop delivery team – US$500/hr

Freelance support (Admin, VA, Marketing etc.) – US$100/hr

Project Management: - $2,400

Edify R&D & management team – 12 hours – $2,400

Develop the Pre-Programme phase and get it fit for purpose: – $7,100

Edify R&D & management team – 22 hours – $4,400

Freelance support (Admin, VA, Marketing etc.) – 27 hours – $2,700

Refine, run and manage the Programme delivery phase: - $10,300 

Edify R&D & management team – 18 hours - $3,600

Edify workshop delivery team – 12 hours - $6,000

Freelance support (Admin, VA, Marketing etc.) – 7 hours - $700

Refine, run and manage the Post-Programme phase: - $4,800 

Edify R&D & management team – 24 hours - $4,800

Skills required

The following skills are required to deliver our proposal.

• Capability to organise and run an incubator programme
• A platform to run an online programme
• An ability to attract appropriate people to the programme
• A method of measuring the success of the programme
• The ability to mentor, coach, consult and train participants in the programme
• The ability to adapt our existing programme into an SPO focused MVP programme
• The ability to construct and deliver a research report on the MVP programme
• The ability to engage with the Catalyst community to launch and leverage the programme

We have many of these skills within our current team and will welcome the contribution of others to further expand our collective capability.

Harry Hellyer -  

NED, and chairman, executive and business coach specialising in full value-based impact innovation programmes for enterprises and organisations. 

Founding partner of 50th Generation – one of the UK's first Social Business Generational Accelerators – 2014-2018 

Credited for supporting the development of the NHS's first Sustainable Development Vision and Strategy programme. 

Coached Fellows on the Cambridge University, Programme for Sustainable Development, 

Coached Fellows and Lectured for the Cambridge University, Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning - Social Enterprise 

VP and director of strategy, marketing strategy and business development for several global IT, media and telecoms companies. 

Alan Casey -  

Manager of a sovereign national grid control centre during a period of technological and cultural change. 

Founder and consultant in an organisational effectiveness measurement system deployed into a global advertising and marketing communications network. 

Founder of a conversational AI company creating systems that evaluate and improve competence in key organisational skills. 

Member of the Edify Community. 

Fellow of the RSA. 

Jon Arnett  

Background in Operations and Project Management with startups, small businesses and social enterprises. 

Founder of a coaching and consulting business supporting small businesses and startups.  

Experience in coaching, facilitation, workshopping and programme delivery (online and in person) 

Won multiple EU funded L&D contracts, delivering workshops on entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and leadership to diverse stakeholders. 

Member of the Edify Community. 

Mark Constable 

25 years+ working in small business as a Leader, Founder, consultant and coach - Supporting impact focused business leaders in building future fit organisations

Proven track record of helping clients in building high value, high performing organisations focused equally on both wealth and wellbeing.

Relevant Experience: 

Development and delivery of high impact leadership programmes for fast growth businesses.

Launched a business line providing specialised business development training to bid management and sales teams globally. 

Member of the Edify Community.

[AUDITABILITY]

In terms of measuring and tracking progress of the project, we will be evaluating along a number of metrics. 

Key Metrics: 

1. Number of SPOs engaged in marketing 
2. Number of applications received 
3. Number of successful applications 
4. Number of participants starting the programme 
5. Number of participants completing the programme 
6. Number of Alumni from MVP engaged with new Cohort

These metrics will be measured on an ongoing basis throughout the project and will then we summarised in the end of project report, along with end of project debriefs with participants. 

Success indicators: 

1. Max Cohort (20 people) 
2. Successful completion of incubator programme by Small SPO members 
3. SPO member’s business audits completed successfully 
4. Vision and business plans completed successfully 
5. Completed research report covering metrics and feedback from participants, as well as opportunities and challenges for future funds 

Success for this project also contributes to two of Cardano’s three pillars, namely scalability and sustainability. This programme offers a scalable process for SPOs in the Cardano community to follow, and ensures they are sustainable business operations. 

F7 Small SPO Impact Business Programme: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/384982 

This project is the implementation of a validated product, of which an MVP was produced in Fund 7 under the New SPO Business Opportunities challenge. The F7 project sought to prove the viability of this programme to support the SPO ecosystem with a small cohort of early adopters. This F8 proposal takes the lessons from the MVP and will start to roll it out to the wider ecosystem. 

Within this proposal we have built in a review window to take the feedback and learnings from the MVP and make changes to the programme where necessary.