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From group chat to $15 million financing from top institutions, Seed Club is more than Web3's YC

Chao

22-05-18 13:26

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Original title: "SeedClub - The past and present of the top Web3 accelerator"

Original author: cwweb3, Empower Labs

SeedClub recently received a $15 million investment led by Union Square. This news has attracted the attention of many friends who follow DAO. What is SeedClub for? How do they speed it up? SeedClub is also a DAO? Everyone has a lot of questions. As a senior diver who has fished in SeedClub for a year, let me briefly talk about my understanding.

DAO Accelerator

SeedClub is simply an accelerator to help outstanding dreamers and communities start. The object it serves is DAO, and it is itself a DAO. The acceleration direction of SeedClub is very focused, and the main service objects are people-oriented community projects. The philosophy is "We believe in a world where people, not platforms capture the value created online"

Origin

SeedClub started as a Telegram group chat with 11 people. It was the summer of 2020, and everyone noticed that as the infrastructure evolved, many people began to do cool things on Ethereum, especially related to social tokens. So Jess pulled a Telegram group and formed a study group, and everyone tried to figure out what Social Token is.

The original words say this -

This is a learning network of 11 charming, confident, intelligent people. Everyone tried to ask questions and find answers. As the answers were found, more questions were discovered, and eventually developed into today's SeedClub.

Most of the names in this group chat are now well known in the Web3 community:

Alex, Masmex(Showtime), PrdeSai(The LAO), Brian, Flynn(RabbitHole), OKdunc(Collab.land), Reuben(IDEO), Cooper Turley (Fire-Eyes DAO), Bradley Miles (Roll), Joonian (Rally), Carlos (Forefront), Jess Sloss (SeedClub)

Core Mode

SeedClub is one of the few DAOs with a very clear business model and healthy cash flow. It provides acceleration and follow-up alumni services in exchange for 3% tokens (or NFT) of the accelerated projects. It does not provide any financial support for the accelerated projects, and the token charged is the service fee of the accelerator.

Since SeedClub itself is also a DAO, it also has its own Token. Therefore, SeedClub will also donate its own tokens to accelerated projects to strengthen mutual connections. But this is a pure gift and cannot be regarded as an exchange of 3% Token with the other party. Specific to each project, whether to donate and how much to donate should be evaluated with a model defined by the community, which is currently in the process of being defined.

SeedClub has held four accelerators so far, each called a Cohort. A total of more than 50 projects have been accelerated so far. Including CabinDAO, Forefront, PoolSuite, GCR and other very fast-growing DAOs. The fifth phase will start in Q3.

Because it already has a good influence in the Web3 world, the competition for SeedClub to accelerate the application is very fierce. The data for the fourth period is that a total of 210 teams applied, and 21 were finally selected, which is exactly 10 to 1.

In-depth accelerator

Accelerator is the center of SeedClub ecology. It continues to incubate or accelerate community projects through 3-4 sessions per year. Each selected team can receive 6-8 weeks of coaching and finally graduate (Demo Day). This basic model is not much different from traditional accelerators.

During the 6-8 week tutoring period, there will be 2-4 online meetings per week. Either provide specific guidance, or conduct discussions, or just hang out together to strengthen the connection between members of the same period.

The counseling content is mainly aimed at different stages of the community

·Proof of Community (find like-minded friends, develop a small community with a common mission from a dream)

· Community Building (find builders, build the community together)

Path to Tokenization (Token model and strategy, how to issue, when to issue, whether to raise funds , whether to airdrop, how to prevent Token from entering the hands of speculators)

· Maturing Your DAO (diversification of treasury, legal affairs, talent introduction, income generation, DAO2DAO cooperation and other topics)

Each direction is guided by the top practitioners in the Web3 field, FWB founder Trevor, Mirror founder Denis, Cooper Turley, Reuben Bramanathan, etc. wait.

All forms of recording are prohibited during the course, because what everyone discusses is too cutting-edge and contains elements of great exploration. SeedClub hopes to create a safe enough space for all participants to conduct such exploration.

Each accelerated project will be assigned a WayFinder. WayFinder is an expert who is accurately matched from the collaborative network according to the characteristics of the project. They have provided silent support in the corner from the first day, acting as the most staunch supporter of the acceleration team and the most important resource pool at the beginning, whether it is a technical problem that needs to be solved, or a need to cheer up in difficult times, they can be find them.

The accelerator itself has formed a set of standard and complex SOP processes. From how to organize registration and screening, to how to set up courses, how to connect with tutors and resources according to the different characteristics of each project. Even applications for eliminated projects go into a process to provide feedback and some help to the project.

Learning and support networks

The networking opportunities and relationships formed may be more important than the accelerated program itself. All accelerators will say that I have a strong alumni network, and all VCs will say that our portfolio is great and can provide entrepreneurs with a lot of support. But in the actual situation, most of them are not expected, and even if they can be used sometimes, they only provide some superficial support.

Because there are several problems here:

The first is that everyone is often not that familiar and the relationship is not enough. Doesn’t it mean that the founders in Sequoia Zhengra, a invested company’s WeChat group, are really friends , that's just plastic friendship.

Second, what connects everyone is interests, not values, and this connection is very fragile.

Third, everyone's business does not match, and sometimes they can't cooperate if they want to.

But at SeedClub, it's very common to help each other out, and it's a really strong alumni network. When the 8-week acceleration is over, members often feel that the greatest value is not the course itself, but the real relationships formed with other members. This is because the problems mentioned at the door have been resolved to varying degrees.

During the acceleration process, everyone's communication is often in-depth and two-way. Almost every community will bring out its own situation and discuss it with everyone. The DAO field is too new, and the tutor cannot guarantee that all questions are answered, so most of the time is not so much tutoring as it is more about discussing with friends and learning together. This kind of two-way communication makes a strong social link between tutors and students, and between students and students.

All projects share the underlying concept of Web3, and Vibe Check is also carried out when screening projects, which brings a high degree of synergy of underlying values.

Although everyone focuses on different directions, everyone is ultimately a DAO and a community. Therefore, there is a huge space for mutual understanding, mutual support and mutual help among projects. This strong social connection brings great value to everyone in the network.

End this section with a recommendation you wrote for an article earlier.

Each DAO is born in a random place on the map, surrounded by heavy shadows. What everyone has to do is to explore the surroundings in different ways, and gradually uncover the dark scenes in the map. Maybe after looking in one direction for a long time, I found that there is a cliff over there. Alas, I can only do it again in another direction. Possibly poking around to spot another DAO scout, " Yo brother, where are you? Why so much mud? " " Hey, don't mention it, that road is full of pits, so don't go there. " Some DAOs are well organized and lucky enough to find a large mine, which can support them to send multiple teams to explore for a long time. Some DAOs may run out of resources and shut down after trying several directions. But regardless of whether the exploration is long or short, all explorations are worthy of respect. When this large map is explored almost, we enter the next version of the world.

Web3 strongest voice

The value that SeedClub provides to members is not limited to the accelerator. SeedClub has been making its own voice and constructing its own methodology and values since its inception. It has the highest quality PodCast in the Web3 field, and the SeedClub ecological network already has at least 10 different podcasts and many social influencers with the same views and values. Together they occupy one of the commanding heights of voice in the Web3 circle, and are still trying to increase their volume to another order of magnitude by building a more powerful media matrix. Using the analogy of the Web2 world, SeedClub is not only Y Combinator (the strongest accelerator of Web2), but also Wired (one of the most influential technology media). This right to speak is of great help to expanding the influence of the Alunmi project. This is not just about publicity. Whether or not enough consensus can be gathered determines the life and death of a DAO, and such a sounder is of great help to build consensus.

I have shared this point of view with many friends, and everyone thinks that the SeedClub model is worth learning and can also be learned. My personal opinion is that this is worth learning, but it is really not easy to learn. The sound is not equal to the volume. It is easy to buy a big stereo, but if it is a square dance, no one will like it. To form such an influence, you need to have your own unique value proposition, and you need to have a large number of networks that recognize this value proposition, repeat it in different ways in various channels, say it every day, and practice it together in this way .

Communities and Working Groups

The SeedClub community is composed of Cohort (accelerated team), Alumni (alumni), Collaboror (participating in incubation), Contributor (organization and operation), and Community Supportor (pan-community members). SeedClub itself is also a DAO. This time I won’t disassemble the specifics of the DAO in detail, as it is still very early.

In terms of organizational work, SeedClub has a streamlined core contribution team (less than 20 people), distributed in different working groups. It is open, but unlike BanklessDAO, it does not accept community members without barriers. Only community members who are extremely proactive and have recognized capabilities have the opportunity to enter the core working group. This is also one of the ideas advocated by SeedClub. In many cases, what you need is 5 right people, not 1000 contributors.

At present, six working groups have been formed, including Accelerator, Media, Products (Building Services Accelerator Products), Operations and Governance, Community, and Alumni Support. SeedClub also established a SeedClub Ventures at the end of last year for ecological investment, which is also a venture in the form of DAO. However, SeedClub Ventures and SeedClub Accelerator are independent of each other in operation, and there is almost no overlap between the projects invested by Ventures and the accelerator projects. 50% of the Carry proceeds from Ventures will be donated to SeedClub DAO as support.

Finally

In the past less than two years, SeedClub has formed a relatively mature acceleration mode through a learning network where everyone learns and explores together. The continuous expansion of the ecological network makes this learning and support The network becomes stronger. Getting into SeedClub wasn't easy, but once you did, Vibe was fantastic and the rewards were huge.

SeedClub is not perfect, there is still a lot of room for improvement in many places. But I am very fortunate that such an excellent accelerator appeared in such an early stage of the Web3 ecology, encouraging innovation, dreaming, culture and community. Many builders in this ecology are building the new world in their own ways.

The original intention was to write a long tweet to answer a friend’s question. After writing a little, I found that the tweet couldn’t be put down, so I decided to expand it more systematically. As a result, I couldn't stop once it unfolded, and it turned from an introduction to a complicated case analysis. So I stopped quickly and greatly simplified the written part. SeedClub's historical development process, personnel situation, organizational structure, governance and operation, and Tokenomics will be boring to introduce. I think not all friends are interested. I have limited energy recently and cannot support me in this way. writing. But if you have a strong interest in the SeedClub model and have your own understanding of DAO, welcome to communicate on Twitter (@cwweb3).