Thesis on Catalyst Decentralized VC

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Write a Masters thesis (MSc Finance) on Catalyst as a decentralized VC solution ideally suited for developing country entrepreneurs, which can be used to divulge the platform in academic environments.

Though both Cardano and Catalyst are well-documented platforms, with academic papers regularly publiched in the technical realms, there is a lack of academic production regarding Catalyst´s decentralized VC properties, specially when it comes to focusing on its importance for and appeal to developing economy entrepreneurs. It is this aspect which will be the primary focus of the thesis.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

The development of a Masters thesis (MSc Finance) on Catalyst as a decentralized VC solution ideally suited for developing country entrepreneurs, which can be used to divulge the platform in academic and business environments, fits perfectly in a challenge setting aimed at engaging student entrepreneurs and engineers, insofar as the academic production will be framed within a university environment, and the resulting outcome can be circulated to the local entrepreneurship network, as well as to the more extended developing country equivalents.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

There are essentially no risks to delivering the project succesfully, seeing as it is a necessary requisite for graduation from the MSc in Finance program, and as such the thesis will be written regardless of funding; the difference that funding will generate is essentially the amount of time dedicated exclusively to its realization, the depth and scope of analysis, the translation into English as the Catalyst lingua franca (seeing as the original thesis will be written in Spanish, as per university requirements in Argentina), and the hours dedicated to community engagement with a finished product to engage local student entrepreneur communities and onboard them to Catalyst and Cardano.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

The Masters thesis for the MSc Finance at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella would require the following steps and timeline:

• Elaboration of a written Thesis Memorandum - October 2022
• Approval of Thesis Memorandum - November 2022
• First Chapter - November/December 2022
• Rough Draft - February 2023
• Final Draft - April 2023
• Translation into English (and/or other languages, as required by the Community) - May 2023
• Community Engagement - February-May 2023

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Thesis Memorandum (salary for exclusive dedication, approx. 20 hs) - USD 200.

Final Draft (salary for exclusive dedication, approx. 130 hs) - USD 1300.

Translation into English (translation services, approx. 100 pages) - USD 1000.

Community Engagement (both academic/university with fellow students and at developing country TownHalls, approx. 50 hs) - USD 500.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Myself, as MSc Finance candidate at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, based in Argentina, South America. Aftwerwards, community engagement with local entrepreneur networks and business/engineering schools that have shown a complete lack of knowledge of Catalyst as a funding alternative when approached, so as to use the finished product to generate awareness of Catalyst and aid in the onboarding of new members, specifically student entrepreneurs.

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Further funding will not be necessary for this proposal, due to the defined time horizon to create and submit the thesis at the university.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

As a written product, the project´s progress will be determined by the milestones previously exposed (Thesis Memorandum, First and succesive Chapters, Rough Draft and Final Draft), and can also be measured in terms of pages.

If funded, an additional measure may involve number of interviews conducted with key members of the Catalyst community that may inform and feed the thesis throughout its elaboration.

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

A finished Masters thesis (MSc Finance) on Catalyst as a decentralized VC solution ideally suited for developing country entrepreneurs, which can be used to divulge the platform in academic environments and as a key instrument to onboard creative and driven student entrepreneurs into Catalyst to present their projects for funding, and thus incorporate them into the Cardano community in a more permanent fashion.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This constitutes an entirely new proposal, and is standalone in nature.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

Essentially, this proposal seeks, through the development and divulgation of knowledge obtained from what still basically constitutes for most of the world a niche decentralized VC experiment, to augment the awareness within developing country student entrepreneurship networks of this funding mechanism, to foster economic growth and decent work mostly in Latin America, Africa and Asia, reducing regional inequalities by means of the innovation that is Project Catalyst and, more globally, Cardano.

SDGs impacted:

SDG 4 - Quality Education

SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth

SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

SDG 10 - Reduce Inequalities