Please describe your proposed solution.

Cardano startups face a funding challenge, constantly outsourcing projects to professionals makes it very hard to sustain during current market conditions. However, a solution lies in partnering with Argentina's most prestigious universities.

These institutions offer technically skilled individuals who can develop projects themselves. With lower living costs, funding entrepreneurs from Argentina becomes cost-effective.

This proposal aims to foster relationships between these universities and the Cardano ecosystem, starting with entrepreneurship departments and Project Catalyst. Ultimately, it paves the way for a wave of skilled founders and a thriving startup landscape within Cardano.

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

• "The purpose of this challenge category is to support student blockchain startups and onboarding to the community":

The proposal is directly aligned with the purpose of the challenge by providing direct support to qualified students to build startups in Cardano.

• "Activities to foster student Catalyst proposers and blockchain engineers"

The proposal fits into this category by preparing software engineering university students to set up their own startups and catalyst proposals.

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

The main goal of the project is to onboard engineering students to Cardano, the KPIs for this proposal will be the following:

• # individuals attending the workshops
• # Catalyst proposals submitted by the mentees
• # of Catalyst's proposals funded

As for qualitative KPIs, there are also:

• Relationships with local universities
• Satisfaction of mentees with the process
• Quality of the projects and proposals

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

As for establishing initial relationships with universities, the progress would be shared via the main proposer's Twitter account via pictures with representatives from the different universities.

The virtual workshops and presentations could also be corroborated via picture submissions every week these take place. These could also be uploaded and stored on a Public Drive for anyone to audit.

As for the upload of proposals, these could be easily audited by the community, I would be a co-proposer of the proposals I've helped with.

The approval of these proposals could be also an easy way of double-checking the KPIs of these proposals that were currently reached.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

I've been 3 years working on Marketing in the Cardano ecosystem, and 2 years working as a team member at Token Allies, a startup that has successfully raised funds in and out of Catalyst and is currently very active in the Cardano ecosystem.

I've also had experience mentoring Marketing professionals at SnapBrillia and as an SMM for another project working on improving Cardano's governance, Consenz.

I'm a student of the National Technological University of Argentina, currently studying systems engineering, which makes me eligible to participate in the challenge and also means I have connections inside of the University and easy access to other universities in the same city.

All and all, I have, experience mentoring people, writing Catalyst proposals, connections with the respective universities, vast knowledge of the Cardano ecosystem, and also fulfilling the requirements to be part of this challenge.

What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The main goal is to onboard technically skilled entrepreneurs to Cardano.

This goal will be considered complete if:

• 1 university partners with the proposer and helps with promoting the presentations
• 20 students join the workshops after watching the presentations
• 5 teams/individuals finish the workshops and write a Catalyst proposal
• 2 catalyst proposals from team members are funded

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.

Month 1:

During the 1st month of this proposal, the proposer will arrange onboarding meetings with the entrepreneurship departments of several universities, letting them know about the vision and mission of Cardano, blockchain technology, project catalyst, and the Cardano ecosystem.

The following universities will be UTN, UADE(BA, Economics and Informatics branches), ITBA, UNLP (engineering and informatics branches), and UNC.

Month 2-4:

from the second month until the 4th, the proposer will be giving 2 in-person and virtual presentations per week to the members of the aforementioned universities' about the Cardano ecosystem from a business POV, introducing them to Project Catalyst, and inviting them to workshops.

Month 4-5

During the fourth and fifth months workshops would be held once every week for all the entrepreneurs interested in taking part in them. These would serve as onboarding to the Cardano ecosystem, and an introduction to Cardano's developer tools and Catalyst.

Month 5-6

During the final phase of the proposal, the proposer will help teams set up proposals for projects, social media accounts, whitepapers, and Catalyst proposals for F11.

Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

The deliverables for my proposal are the following:

• A drive folder with the recording of all of the presentations given
• 5 Catalyst proposals written with me as a co-proposer

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

As a single proposer, the funds asked to reflect the time spent with an hourly rate of $65/hrs

• Setting up and attending meetings with university departments: 15Hrs (3 hours per university)
• Giving presentations: 32Hrs (4-hour presentations, one presentation per week for two months)
• Workshops: 16Hrs (4-hour workshops, one workshop per week for a month)
• Consulting:20Hrs (1 hour of consulting a week per project for a month, 5 projects maximum)
• Writing-Editing: 10Hrs(2 hours per project, 5 projects maximum)

Total amount of hours spent: 93hrs X $65/hrs = $6045

At the current price of 0.28 ADA/$ => 21.589 ADA

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

I am the sole member of the proposing team.

Here're my LinkedIn and Twitter accounts

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

I'm a marketing professional with 2 years of experience working on Technology startups, according to Salary.com, the $65 per hour fits inside a reasonable range for one.

On top of that, consultors usually charge even more hourly for individual projects but decided to stick with the $65 for consistency's sake.