Please note: This is a continuing funding request! Originally funded in Fund4! and Fund6! and Fund7!
Please note: We did not have a chance during Fund5 to amend the Fund5 submission due to the closeness of Fund4 and Fund5. We did receive overwhelming support for this project in Fund5. Sadly, we did not receive funding in Fund5 due to a lack of available funding left over in the proposer outreach category. Please note this project received an advisor score of 4.11 in Fund7!
Goal:
The goal of this project is to reach out to as many students/graduates as possible to raise awareness of Cardano and the opportunities that exist for both developers, professionals and business owners. We want to drive the targets to Project Catalyst and assist them in submitting ideas and earn Referrer fees (to be self funded). We also want to incubate those that want to continue to learn more about Cardano and help to nurture this audience, we want them to stay part of our community and part of the Cardano Community. We have grown to over 650 followers on Twitter!
Addendum: A clarification, we plan to request additional funding for a few months until we can be self-funded. During these next few months, as we introduce student and graduates to the Cardano ecosystem, we hope to help candidates develop Catalyst ideas; Steer them through the process of developing ideas and refining them for submission to the project thereby earning Referrer Rewards. When this conduit matures, we will be able to sustain the project without further funding from the Project (ideally by Fund8). Note Fund7 was supposed to be our LAST Funding request before we were considered SELF SUSTAINABLE and able to pay ourselves full time salaries. Sadly, only 3 of the 40 projects referred to Catalyst have been funded to date. Therefore, this funding request is to expand and broaden our reach by
KPI:
1. Number of people Engaged (80/day, responses, learning, referrals)(down from 200 last fund) (This KPI is being DROPPED in FUND8 as this metric is no longer being tracked)
2. Number of people Attended (50 per Zoom/Twitch)(down from 100 last fund)
3. Number of Ideas Submitted. (20 per Fund, adjusted from 30)(same goal since last fund)
4. Number of Twitter Followers (1000, currently 650)
Campaigns:
Social Media: Twitter, Telegram, Zoom etc. Daily Twitter/Twitch Spaces
Email: Lead Nurturing and CRM During lead nurturing we will continue to engage the targets by drip marketing and steering them to learning resources that will be helpful in ensuring their adoption of the ecosystem. A sample drip would include a short 1-2 min video with the learning resource of the day. A link to register to twitch stream/zoom call. A reminder email/text sent to the target 15 mins before start and at the start of the call.
Incentive Program ADA Airdrop to student association presidents, participants; introduces them to Daedalus, broadens adoption, incentivizes key student figures to promote participation
Risks: Students are very busy and this project has had to pivot a number of times to accomodate COVID, changes in student habits and changes given to war and its impacts. Our zoom calls are stable and maturing to the point where the presentation deck and topics are evolving to include a greater focus on Project Catalyst and connecting the students to the SWARM, SCHOOL and Town Halls.
Further risks include public perception of blockchain and Cardano itself. The image of Cardano and the brand itself could be tainted by bad actors or other negative events within the ecosystem such as a disruption to the functioning of the protocol itself.
A final risk is the fact that not all students engaged have included us as a referrer to receive the referrer reward. Sometimes the integrity of the proposing student and ultimate greed take over and we never get the credit we deserve for helping shape and refine their proposals. We spend many hours (sometimes more than 10 hours) working patiently with student proposers crafting their proposals for no direct compensation).