This proposal aims to obtain a marketing budget of US$1 million to support Harbour Industrial Capital in raising a second Polkadot Ecosystem Fund, with a target size of US$100 million. The primary means of spending this marketing budget will be through sponsorship of approximately 20 Family Office summits/ traditional investment conferences, where we see the greatest opportunity for untapped capital.
THE BELOW IS JUST A SUMMARY. TO READ THE FULL PROPOSAL, PLEASE CLICK <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s-QBE6GYZh917bQC-b9GV2ffCVWkgwxRqks-uTiGQ5s/edit?usp=sharing">HERE</a>.
&nbsp;
Proof of Work: Who we are and what we have done so far
<ul>
<li>As per Q1 2024, Harbour Industrial Capital has raised a Polkadot fund with AUM of US$10 million from around 40 LPs Exclusively deployed this in the Polkadot Ecosystems; Invested in over 20 parachains and other Polkadot-based projects</li>
<li>Organisers of the Polkadot monthly meetup HK; speakers for Polkadot at many events including Sub0, ParisDOTcomm, Web3 Festival, WOW Summit, TeamZ and Polkadot PULSE</li>
<li>TradFi background (Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Bank of China) and proven ability of bringing non-crypto native investors into Polkadot.</li>
</ul>

Why We Need a New Large Polkadot Fund
The unfortunate answer is: Because many traditional VCs still ignore projects building on Polkadot. Ask any team that recently tried to raise money from generic crypto VCs, a frequent reply is &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got a good team and good idea, but why are you building on Polkadot?&rdquo;. Sure, we believe this narrative will change over time as other capital allocators slowly begin to realise the potential of Polkadot. But in the meanwhile, we need a dedicated Polkadot-only VC, that helps all the exciting new projects building on Polkadot get off the ground.
It is a chicken-and-egg problem: If Polkadot based projects are starved of capital vis-a-vie those building in other ecosystems, Polkadot will never get the liquidity and &ldquo;hype&rdquo; that ultimately attracts more capital. Having worked in the ecosystem for many years, it&rsquo;s sad to see quality Polkadot based projects migrate to other L1s/L2s, not because of the tech, but simply because they believe they have better opportunities to get VC funding there. We want to change that, and make Polkadot the place great builders go and access capital.
Why Harbour Industrial Capital?
Harbour Industrial Capital (HIC) is a private Polkadot VC fund, established by <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/maxrebol">Max Rebol</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marioaltenburger/">Mario Altenburger</a> in 2021. We are registered in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in HK. As of Q1 2024 we have an AUM of over US$10 million. We have raised this money from private investors such as Family Offices, and subsequently deployed it exclusively in the Polkadot ecosystem. Fund 1 held its final closing on 31 December 2023, and we are about three quarters deployed. The plan is to launch Fund 2 towards the end of 2024, with a target size of US$ 100 million.
Investment Strategy Harbour Industrial Capital aims to achieve the following four interrelated objectives:
<ul>
<li>Attracting Old Money to Web3 We currently have around 40 LPs, primarily family offices and HNWI in Asia and Europe. Our focus hereby lies on bringing in capital with limited exposure to the crypto space, and offer a one-stop-shop, for everything Polkadot. We observed that these investors like to place large bets on entire ecosystems, but then prefer to work with professional fund managers to pick individual projects within.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Polkadot Education Over the past three years, we spent a lot of time educating investors about the benefits of Polkadot, hosting events and meetups, speaking at Web3 conferences around the world and engaging in countless one-on-one conversations. Polkadot is a complex project, and needs good communicators to articulate its message.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Achieving Absolute Returns on Polkadot In Fund 1 our primary strategy was buying DOT, which we subsequently used in parachain auctions to support promising projects to win a parachain slot. We have so far successfully done this for over 20 parachains. For Fund 2, our primary deployment strategy will be classical token VC, meaning we will pay cash for tokens, typically in a seed round, but potentially also in a growth stage. In addition, we may run other strategies that benefit the Polkadot ecosystem, such as buying liquid parachain tokens which we consider undervalued, liquidity provision (on Polkadot-based DEXes) and coretime brokerage (on Lastic).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Supporting our Portfolio Companies Once invested in a Polkadot-based project, we support them in every way we can. Traditionally a central value add was helping them secure a parachain slot, which with the transition to core time is however becoming less important. We now help them access blockspace and set up collators, and introduce them to market makers and exchanges for token listing. Another important aspect of supporting our portfolio companies is getting them in front of investors at the Family Office Summits which we plan to organise (see next section for details), actively supporting their subsequent fundraising rounds.</li>
</ul>

Family Offices as LPs
Target LPs will primarily be institutional investors such as Family Offices (FOs) But why promote a Polkadot Ecosystem Development Fund, when people can just invest directly into Polkadot? There are at least three good reasons:
<ul>
<li>A familiar structure for FOs We will incorporate the fund in the Cayman Islands, as a standard GP/LP fund. This is the most common structure for VCs, and one that most FOs have probably used in the past for investment in VCs in different industries. They can wire cash to our bank account in the fund&rsquo;s name, and get paid out the same way. No need to set up exchange accounts, or remember private keys. For crypto natives this may sound trivial, but for traditional FO who we target here this still constitutes a high barrier to entry.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Entire Ecosystem A simple investment into Polkadot may involve the purchase (and possibly subsequent staking) of DOT. However, to identify promising startups building on Polkadot requires in depth knowledge of the ecosystem and extensive due diligence. It is also exactly these startups to which we want to funnel the capital that they will require in their growth journey. It is unrealistic to expect FOs who come from different industry backgrounds to do this on their own.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Active follow-ups This may be the most subtle, but also the most important reason. Nobody &ldquo;owns&rdquo; Polkadot, hence nobody is incentivised to follow up with potential investors from the conference, arranging calls and continuing the conversation until the investment is made. Harbour Industrial Capital will charge a standard carry, hence it will be in our very own interest, to follow up on every lead, and get them to invest.</li>
</ul>

Continue Reading
The above is just the short summary. To read the proposal in full, including graphics and additional links please click <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s-QBE6GYZh917bQC-b9GV2ffCVWkgwxRqks-uTiGQ5s/edit?usp=sharing">here</a>.

Marketing support to help raise a new  US$100 Million Polkadot Ecosystem Fund

For the description of Ref861 please refer to Subsquare:&nbsp;
<a href="https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/861">https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/861</a>
Also, feel free to comment on Subsquare, so that all comments are in one place :)

Head Ambassador Application: Max Rebol

This proposal aims to obtain a marketing budget of US$1 million to sponsor a series of ~20 major established global family office summits and traditional investment conferences, which is where we see the greatest opportunity for bringing untapped capital into Polkadot. If successfully executed, this US$1 million in sponsorship costs will be repaid to the treasury in full.
Background
This proposal is a revised version of <a href="899">Ref 899</a>, which was narrowly rejected during confirmation period on 19 July. We have received a lot of positive feedback and many people have voted in favour (7/10 DVs voted AYE). The primary reason the Ref ultimately failed is because of three whale accounts (16hZ, 156U and 12k2*), who in combination control ~40m DOT voted against it. We don&rsquo;t know who is behind these accounts, or why they voted NAY, but if you read this, please do reach out to us in the comments section or on TG: max462.
Regarding other community feedback, we have often heard suggestions that the event series should bring more direct benefit to the treasury. We have considered all comments and significantly revised our proposal, which we are excited to present below:
Key changes compared to Ref 899 
<ul>
<li>1% Revenue-Share: In this new proposal, 1% of the capital raised by Harbour Industrial Capital (&ldquo;HIC&rdquo;) at these investment conferences from new LPs will be directly returned to the Polkadot treasury. If we successfully raise the US$100m through these events as planned, the US$1m in event sponsorship costs will have been fully repaid.</li>
<li>Equitable Distribution: This 1% will be taken directly out of the management fee that HIC charges its LPs, thereby cutting directly into our bottom line, while bringing a directly measurable ROI to the treasury.</li>
<li>Risk Sharing: There is no limit to this 1% deal: If we manage to raise US$200m, US$2m will be repaid. If we only manage US$50m, it will be US$500k. Some people may argue that there is a risk that the capital will not be fully repaid. While this is correct, HIC will also only receive a fraction in management fees, if we raise a much smaller fund. (We don&rsquo;t take any salary out of the US$1m budget). Incentives for us to work hard and raise a fund as large as possible are therefore well aligned.</li>
<li>Fringe Benefit: We argue that this new Rev-share model with the treasury should be considered a fringe benefit to the treasury. Nice to have, but not the main reason to vote AYE. Instead, the key benefit to the Polkadot ecosystem &ndash; and therefore to the treasury &ndash; is bringing in fresh capital and creating a new large Polkadot ecosystem fund that otherwise would not exist.</li>
<li>Comparison with other Events: As the funds will be used for event sponsorship, this proposal should primarily be evaluated through the same ROI lens as other Polkadot events (Decoded, Sub0, Consensus, Token49 etc). These often have similar price points for a single event as our series of 20 events. We believe that introducing Polkadot to very wealthy investors, raising a $100m ecosystem fund AND offering a direct rev-share to the treasury, creates a much better ROI to the treasury than many of these other events.</li>
<li>Head Ambassadors: Since we launched Ref 899, Max and Mario have been voted in as Head Ambassadors of Polkadot. We are extremely grateful for this trust, and will use our HA title to speak on behalf of Polkadot at the investment conferences. Like the other HAs, we will be drawing a salary from the position. We would therefore like to emphasise that the present proposal does NOT INCLUDE ANY ADDITIONAL SALARY for ourselves, but that we will be organising these events at cost.</li>
<li>No Other Changes: Other than that, there are no changes compared to Ref899. We therefore believe that everyone who voted AYE previously, should vote AYE again. At the same time we hope the additional benefit to the treasury will win over many more people who were previously on the NAY side.</li>
</ul>
Proof of Work: Who we are and what we have done so far
<ul>
<li>As per Q1 2024, Harbour Industrial Capital has raised a Polkadot fund with AUM of US$10 million from around 50 LPs Exclusively deployed this in the Polkadot Ecosystems; Invested in over 20 parachains and other Polkadot-based projects.</li>
<li>Organisers of the Polkadot monthly meetup HK; speakers for Polkadot at many events including Sub0, ParisDOTcomm, Web3 Festival, WOW Summit, TeamZ and Polkadot PULSE.</li>
<li>TradFi background (Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Bank of China) and proven ability of bringing non-crypto native investors into Polkadot.</li>
</ul>
Why We Need a New Large Polkadot Fund 
The unfortunate answer is: Because many traditional VCs still ignore projects building on Polkadot. Ask any team that recently tried to raise money from generic crypto VCs, a frequent reply is &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got a good team and good idea, but why are you building on Polkadot?&rdquo;. Sure, we believe this narrative will change over time as other capital allocators slowly begin to realise the potential of Polkadot. But in the meanwhile, we need a dedicated Polkadot-only VC, that helps all the exciting new projects building on Polkadot get off the ground.
It is a chicken-and-egg problem: If Polkadot based projects are starved of capital vis-a-vie those building in other ecosystems, Polkadot will never get the liquidity and &ldquo;hype&rdquo; that ultimately attracts more capital. Having worked in the ecosystem for many years, it&rsquo;s sad to see quality Polkadot based projects migrate to other L1s/L2s, not because of the tech, but simply because they believe they have better opportunities to get VC funding there. We want to change that, and make Polkadot the place great builders go and access capital.
Family Offices as LPs When looking to bring significant amounts of new capital into Polkadot ecosystems, we believe that Family Offices are the most promising investors. But why promote a Polkadot Ecosystem Development Fund, when people can just invest directly into Polkadot? There are at least three good reasons:
<ul>
<li>A familiar structure for FOs: We will incorporate the fund in the Cayman Islands, as a standard GP/LP fund. This is the most common structure for VCs, and one that most FOs have probably used in the past for investment in VCs in different industries. They can wire cash to our bank account in the fund&rsquo;s name, and get paid out the same way. No need to set up exchange accounts, or remember private keys. For crypto natives this may sound trivial, but for traditional FO who we target here this still constitutes a high barrier to entry.</li>
<li>Entire Ecosystem: A simple investment into Polkadot may involve the purchase (and possibly subsequent staking) of DOT. However, to identify promising startups building on Polkadot requires in depth knowledge of the ecosystem and extensive due diligence. It is also exactly these startups to which we want to funnel the capital that they will require in their growth journey. It is unrealistic to expect FOs who come from different industry backgrounds to do this on their own.</li>
<li>Active follow-ups: This may be the most subtle, but also the most important reason. Nobody &ldquo;owns&rdquo; Polkadot, hence nobody is incentivised to follow up with potential investors from the conference, arranging calls and continuing the conversation until the investment is made. Harbour Industrial Capital on the other hand has a great track record of converting leads into actual investors for Polkadot.</li>
</ul>
Why Harbour Industrial Capital? 
Harbour Industrial Capital (HIC) is a private Polkadot VC fund, established by Max Rebol and Mario Altenburger in 2021. We are registered in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in HK. As of Q1 2024 we have an AUM of over US$10 million. We have raised this money from private investors such as Family Offices, and subsequently deployed it exclusively in the Polkadot ecosystem. Fund 1 held its final closing on 31 December 2023, and we are about three quarters deployed. The plan is to launch Fund 2 towards the end of 2024, with a target size of US$100 million.
Inclusive Representation of Polkadot 
While Harbour Industrial Capital will take the lead in organising these events, we will actively bring a diverse set of people from within the Polkadot ecosystem to these events:
<ul>
<li>Head Ambassadors: In early June the new Head Ambassador (HA) program was launched, and we are planning to involve the newly appointed ambassadors in all our events. HAs have been elected by the community to officially represent Polkadot, and speaking on stage at these investment conferences will be a great showcase for the HA program, as well as being a major driver for new capital inflows to Polkadot. We will select HAs based on their public speaking track record and their location, preferring to work with those who are based nearby the conference location.</li>
<li>Polkadot-based Projects: We will publish a Call for Speakers, targeted at Polkadot-based teams, two months ahead of each conference. We will put them up on stage to speak about their projects, which at the same time will be a testimony to Polkadot capabilities. If investors in the audience subsequently get interested in this particular project they can exchange contacts and invest directly. At Harbour Industrial Capital we take pride in facilitating conversations between Polkadot-based projects and independent investors, and have a strong track record of doing so.</li>
<li>Parity and Web3 Foundation: We will extend invitations to speak at these events to Polkadot&rsquo;s senior leadership team. Of course we would love to have Gavin at some of our events, but even if he can&rsquo;t make it, there are many other people we would like to involve. This could include Parity&rsquo;s Investor Relations team, or experts from the Web3 Foundation to speak on a particular topic relevant to the conference.</li>
</ul>
Budget 
Please find our proposed budget in the table below. Kindly note that this is still a draft, as the cost of many items are yet to be confirmed. Most importantly, the exact sponsorship fee will vary from event to event, and has to be negotiated with each event organiser. The numbers below are averages based on initial discussions we have had with different organisers. We have applied a discount of 50% for sponsoring an entire events series (rather than a one-off event), as all organisers prefer long-term partnerships and encourage them with such discounts. It is also the primary reason why we have decided to do this treasury proposal rather than go through the Events Bounty, which only supports one-off events.
Please also note that the amount between line items in this table may shift, depending on actual costs, so long as the total of US$1m is not exceeded. A key variable in this budget is the number of events we will organise. We propose 20 events throughout the fundraising period of two years. However, it may end up being 15 or 25, depending on the actual costs of the initial events.
This means, we will continue organising the fundraising events, until this budget is used up. We believe that this approach is well aligned with the interests of the treasury: The more events we are able to organise, the more commitments into the fund we are likely to get, and the more capital we will have available to invest back into the Polkadot ecosystem.
<img src="https://i.ibb.co/NSg9rYr/Screenshot-2024-07-25-at-8-04-09-AM.png" alt="" width="640" height="445" />
Revenue Share Model 
1% of all funds raised from LPs will be returned to the treasury. This money will be taken out of the management fee that HIC charges its LPs. It therefore has no impact on the net investment returns the fund generates for its LPs, but only narrows the profit margin of HIC. Funds shall be returned to the treasury on a quarterly basis following completed capital calls that quarter. A transparency report disclosing the amount of funds raised from LPs at each event will also be published quarterly.
Continue Reading The above is just a short summary. To read the proposal in full, including graphics and additional links please click <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C12sa_Rxkszs25OLobmXpIDTiH_vDNMJrwmHCW2BVc4/edit?usp=sharing">here</a>.

Investment Conference Series for Polkadot, with Revenue-share Model for Treasury

This proposal aims to obtain a marketing budget of US$1 million to sponsor a series of ~20 major established global family office summits and traditional investment conferences, which is where we see the greatest opportunity for untapped capital. The Polkadot presence at these conference series will be organised by Harbour Industrial Capital, but will be open to all Polkadot-based projects, ambassadors, VC funds and other ecosystem players who are interested in raising capital as part of this initiative.
The full proposal can be found&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oTgQ9Cd8jWm8NpTyCxm_xxTaisIHFeVaxs7oUHGIfjs/edit?usp=sharing">here</a>.
&nbsp;
Key changes compared to Ref 731
This proposal is a revised version of <a href="731">Ref 731</a>, which was narrowly rejected during confirmation period on 2 June. We have received 31 comments for the proposal, most of which were extremely positive. However, there were also a few more critical points, primarily relating to the question whether this events series benefits Harbour Industrial Capital disproportionally. We took these suggestions to heart, made significant adjustments, and are pleased to present the revised proposal below.
<ul>
<li>More Inclusive: We will open up the conference series to all Polkadot ecosystem teams who are interested in fundraising alongside us. We will put them up on stage to present in front of an audience of wealthy investors who will be able to invest in their project directly. We commit to bringing on a diverse set of speakers, who we will invite via public Call for Speakers, well ahead of each event. This may include established Polkadot based-projects, early-stage Polkadot startups, members of Parity/W3F as well as other independent Polkadot ecosystem funds who are looking to raise capital.</li>
<li>Head Ambassadors: In early June the new Head Ambassador (HA) program was launched, and we are planning to involve the newly appointed ambassadors in all our events. HAs have been elected by the community to officially represent Polkadot, and speaking on stage at these investment conferences will be a great showcase for the HA program, as well as being a major driver for new capital inflows to Polkadot. Max and Mario of Harbour Industrial Capital are currently also running for HA, and &ndash; if successful &ndash; will use the ambassador designation (rather than Harbour Industrial) to speak at these conferences.</li>
<li>More budget efficient: If an external marketing agency organised the same events series, they would charge a salary for their employees, overhead, as well as a profit margin. We on the other hand are proposing to organise it at cost with no salary for ourselves.</li>
</ul>
Some people may still argue that despite the changes, the events series still benefits the Harbour Industrial Capital ecosystem fund disproportionally. This may well be the case, but keep in mind that having a new large ecosystem fund is clearly in the interest of Polkadot. In the end, the primary purpose of sponsoring these investor conferences is to drive fresh capital into our ecosystem. Whether this happens directly (for projects we bring to the events), or indirectly via our fund, should not be the primary concearn.
Proof of Work
Who we are and what we have done so far
As per Q1 2024, Harbour Industrial Capital has raised a Polkadot fund with AUM of US$10 million from around 40 LPs Exclusively deployed this in the Polkadot Ecosystems; Invested in over 20 parachains and other Polkadot-based projects Organisers of the Polkadot monthly meetup HK; speakers for Polkadot at many events including Sub0, ParisDOTcomm, Web3 Festival, WOW Summit, TeamZ and Polkadot PULSE TradFi background (Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Bank of China) and proven ability of bringing non-crypto native investors into Polkadot.
Why We Need a New Large Polkadot Fund 
The unfortunate answer is: Because many traditional VCs still ignore projects building on Polkadot. Ask any team that recently tried to raise money from generic crypto VCs, a frequent reply is &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got a good team and good idea, but why are you building on Polkadot?&rdquo;. Sure, we believe this narrative will change over time as other capital allocators slowly begin to realise the potential of Polkadot. But in the meanwhile, we need a dedicated Polkadot-only VC, that helps all the exciting new projects building on Polkadot get off the ground.
It is a chicken-and-egg problem: If Polkadot based projects are starved of capital vis-a-vie those building in other ecosystems, Polkadot will never get the liquidity and &ldquo;hype&rdquo; that ultimately attracts more capital. Having worked in the ecosystem for many years, it&rsquo;s sad to see quality Polkadot based projects migrate to other L1s/L2s, not because of the tech, but simply because they believe they have better opportunities to get VC funding there. We want to change that, and make Polkadot the place great builders go and access capital.
Family Offices as LPs
When looking to bring significant amounts of new capital into Polkadot ecosystems, we believe that Family Offices are the most promising investors. But why promote a Polkadot Ecosystem Development Fund, when people can just invest directly into Polkadot? There are at least three good reasons:
<ul>
<li>A familiar structure for FOs We will incorporate the fund in the Cayman Islands, as a standard GP/LP fund. This is the most common structure for VCs, and one that most FOs have probably used in the past for investment in VCs in different industries. They can wire cash to our bank account in the fund&rsquo;s name, and get paid out the same way. No need to set up exchange accounts, or remember private keys. For crypto natives this may sound trivial, but for traditional FO who we target here this still constitutes a high barrier to entry.</li>
<li>Entire Ecosystem A simple investment into Polkadot may involve the purchase (and possibly subsequent staking) of DOT. However, to identify promising startups building on Polkadot requires in depth knowledge of the ecosystem and extensive due diligence. It is also exactly these startups to which we want to funnel the capital that they will require in their growth journey. It is unrealistic to expect FOs who come from different industry backgrounds to do this on their own.</li>
<li>Active follow-ups This may be the most subtle, but also the most important reason. Nobody &ldquo;owns&rdquo; Polkadot, hence nobody is incentivised to follow up with potential investors from the conference, arranging calls and continuing the conversation until the investment is made. Harbour Industrial Capital on the other hand has a great track record of converting leads into actual investors for Polkadot.</li>
</ul>
Why Harbour Industrial Capital? 
Harbour Industrial Capital (HIC) is a private Polkadot VC fund, established by Max Rebol and Mario Altenburger in 2021. We are registered in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in HK. As of Q1 2024 we have an AUM of over US$10 million. We have raised this money from private investors such as Family Offices, and subsequently deployed it exclusively in the Polkadot ecosystem. Fund 1 held its final closing on 31 December 2023, and we are about three quarters deployed. The plan is to launch Fund 2 towards the end of 2024, with a target size of US$ 100 million.
Inclusive Representation of Polkadot
While Harbour Industrial Capital will take the lead in organising these events, we will actively bring a diverse set of people from within the Polkadot ecosystem to these events:
<ul>
<li>Head Ambassadors: In early June the new Head Ambassador (HA) program was launched, and we are planning to involve the newly appointed ambassadors in all our events. HAs have been elected by the community to officially represent Polkadot, and speaking on stage at these investment conferences will be a great showcase for the HA program, as well as being a major driver for new capital inflows to Polkadot. We will select HAs based on their public speaking track record and their location, preferring to work with those who are based nearby the conference location.</li>
<li>Polkadot-based Projects: We will publish a Call for Speakers, targeted at Polkadot-based teams, two months ahead of each conference. We will put them up on stage to speak about their projects, which at the same time will be a testimony to Polkadot capabilities. If investors in the audience subsequently get interested in this particular project they can exchange contacts and invest directly. At Harbour Industrial Capital we take pride in facilitating conversations between Polkadot-based projects and independent investors, and have a strong track record of doing so.</li>
<li>Parity and Web3 Foundation: We will extend invitations to speak at these events to Polkadot&rsquo;s senior leadership team. Of course we would love to have Gavin at some of our events, but even if he can&rsquo;t make it, there are many other people we would like to involve. This could include Parity&rsquo;s Investor Relations team, or experts from the Web3 Foundation to speak on a particular topic relevant to the conference.</li>
<li>Other Polkadot Ecosystem Funds: As this event series will be a treasury funded initiative, we would like to extend the invitation to any other VC fund that is looking to raise capital for the Polkadot ecosystem. Their representatives will speak about Polkadot on stage, and will be able to promote their own fund to attending investors. From our perspective it does not make a difference which channel/fund is being used, so long as these conferences bring more capital into the Polkadot ecosystem.</li>
</ul>
Budget 
Please find our proposed budget in the table below. Kindly note that this is still a draft, as the cost of many items are yet to be confirmed. Most importantly, the exact sponsorship fee will vary from event to event, and has to be negotiated with each event organiser. The numbers below are averages based on initial discussions we have had with different organisers. We have applied a discount of 50% for sponsoring an entire events series (rather than a one-off event), as all organisers prefer long-term partnerships and encourage them with such discounts. It is also the primary reason why we have decided to do this treasury proposal rather than go through the Events Bounty, which only supports one-off events.
Please also note that the amount between line items in this table may shift, depending on actual costs, so long as the total of $1m is not exceeded. A key variable in this budget is the number of events we will organise. We propose 20 events throughout the fundraising period of two years. However, it may end up being 15 or 25, depending on the actual costs of the initial events.
This means, we will continue organising the fundraising events, until this budget is used up. We believe that this approach is well aligned with the interests of the treasury: The more events we are able to organise, the more commitments into the fund we are likely to get, and the more capital we will have available to invest back into the Polkadot ecosystem.
<img src="https://i.ibb.co/gjYFGfM/Screenshot-2024-05-10-at-10-58-59-AM.png" alt="budget overview" width="640" height="443" />
Continue Reading 
The above is just a short summary. To read the proposal in full, including graphics and additional links please click <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oTgQ9Cd8jWm8NpTyCxm_xxTaisIHFeVaxs7oUHGIfjs/edit?usp=sharing">here</a>.

Revised Proposal: Polkadot Sponsorship of traditional Family Office Investment Conference Series

This proposal aims to obtain a marketing budget of US$1 million to support Harbour Industrial Capital in raising a second Polkadot Ecosystem Fund, with a target size of US$100 million. The primary means of spending this marketing budget will be through sponsorship of approximately 20 Family Office summits/ traditional investment conferences, where we see the greatest opportunity for untapped capital.
THE BELOW IS JUST A SUMMARY. TO READ THE FULL PROPOSAL, PLEASE CLICK <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s-QBE6GYZh917bQC-b9GV2ffCVWkgwxRqks-uTiGQ5s/edit?usp=sharing">HERE</a>.
UPDATE 10 MAY: UPON REQUEST FROM SEVERAL REVIEWERS, WE HAVE ADDED A MORE DETAILED BUDGET IN THE TABLE BELOW. THERE HAVE BEEN NO CHANGES TO THE OVERALL BUDGET, IT JUST PROVIDES A MORE DETAILED BREAKDOWN OF COSTS.
&nbsp;
Proof of Work: Who we are and what we have done so far
<ul>
<li>As per Q1 2024, Harbour Industrial Capital has raised a Polkadot fund with AUM of US$10 million from around 40 LPs Exclusively deployed this in the Polkadot Ecosystems; Invested in over 20 parachains and other Polkadot-based projects</li>
<li>Organisers of the Polkadot monthly meetup HK; speakers for Polkadot at many events including Sub0, ParisDOTcomm, Web3 Festival, WOW Summit, TeamZ and Polkadot PULSE</li>
<li>TradFi background (Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Bank of China) and proven ability of bringing non-crypto native investors into Polkadot.</li>
</ul>

Why We Need a New Large Polkadot Fund
The unfortunate answer is: Because many traditional VCs still ignore projects building on Polkadot. Ask any team that recently tried to raise money from generic crypto VCs, a frequent reply is &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got a good team and good idea, but why are you building on Polkadot?&rdquo;. Sure, we believe this narrative will change over time as other capital allocators slowly begin to realise the potential of Polkadot. But in the meanwhile, we need a dedicated Polkadot-only VC, that helps all the exciting new projects building on Polkadot get off the ground.
It is a chicken-and-egg problem: If Polkadot based projects are starved of capital vis-a-vie those building in other ecosystems, Polkadot will never get the liquidity and &ldquo;hype&rdquo; that ultimately attracts more capital. Having worked in the ecosystem for many years, it&rsquo;s sad to see quality Polkadot based projects migrate to other L1s/L2s, not because of the tech, but simply because they believe they have better opportunities to get VC funding there. We want to change that, and make Polkadot the place great builders go and access capital.
Why Harbour Industrial Capital?
Harbour Industrial Capital (HIC) is a private Polkadot VC fund, established by <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/maxrebol">Max Rebol</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marioaltenburger/">Mario Altenburger</a> in 2021. We are registered in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in HK. As of Q1 2024 we have an AUM of over US$10 million. We have raised this money from private investors such as Family Offices, and subsequently deployed it exclusively in the Polkadot ecosystem. Fund 1 held its final closing on 31 December 2023, and we are about three quarters deployed. The plan is to launch Fund 2 towards the end of 2024, with a target size of US$ 100 million.
Investment Strategy Harbour Industrial Capital aims to achieve the following four interrelated objectives:
<ul>
<li>Attracting Old Money to Web3 We currently have around 40 LPs, primarily family offices and HNWI in Asia and Europe. Our focus hereby lies on bringing in capital with limited exposure to the crypto space, and offer a one-stop-shop, for everything Polkadot. We observed that these investors like to place large bets on entire ecosystems, but then prefer to work with professional fund managers to pick individual projects within.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Polkadot Education Over the past three years, we spent a lot of time educating investors about the benefits of Polkadot, hosting events and meetups, speaking at Web3 conferences around the world and engaging in countless one-on-one conversations. Polkadot is a complex project, and needs good communicators to articulate its message.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Achieving Absolute Returns on Polkadot In Fund 1 our primary strategy was buying DOT, which we subsequently used in parachain auctions to support promising projects to win a parachain slot. We have so far successfully done this for over 20 parachains. For Fund 2, our primary deployment strategy will be classical token VC, meaning we will pay cash for tokens, typically in a seed round, but potentially also in a growth stage. In addition, we may run other strategies that benefit the Polkadot ecosystem, such as buying liquid parachain tokens which we consider undervalued, liquidity provision (on Polkadot-based DEXes) and coretime brokerage (on Lastic).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Supporting our Portfolio Companies Once invested in a Polkadot-based project, we support them in every way we can. Traditionally a central value add was helping them secure a parachain slot, which with the transition to core time is however becoming less important. We now help them access blockspace and set up collators, and introduce them to market makers and exchanges for token listing. Another important aspect of supporting our portfolio companies is getting them in front of investors at the Family Office Summits which we plan to organise (see next section for details), actively supporting their subsequent fundraising rounds.</li>
</ul>

Family Offices as LPs
Target LPs will primarily be institutional investors such as Family Offices (FOs) But why promote a Polkadot Ecosystem Development Fund, when people can just invest directly into Polkadot? There are at least three good reasons:
<ul>
<li>A familiar structure for FOs We will incorporate the fund in the Cayman Islands, as a standard GP/LP fund. This is the most common structure for VCs, and one that most FOs have probably used in the past for investment in VCs in different industries. They can wire cash to our bank account in the fund&rsquo;s name, and get paid out the same way. No need to set up exchange accounts, or remember private keys. For crypto natives this may sound trivial, but for traditional FO who we target here this still constitutes a high barrier to entry.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Entire Ecosystem A simple investment into Polkadot may involve the purchase (and possibly subsequent staking) of DOT. However, to identify promising startups building on Polkadot requires in depth knowledge of the ecosystem and extensive due diligence. It is also exactly these startups to which we want to funnel the capital that they will require in their growth journey. It is unrealistic to expect FOs who come from different industry backgrounds to do this on their own.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Active follow-ups This may be the most subtle, but also the most important reason. Nobody &ldquo;owns&rdquo; Polkadot, hence nobody is incentivised to follow up with potential investors from the conference, arranging calls and continuing the conversation until the investment is made. Harbour Industrial Capital will charge a standard carry, hence it will be in our very own interest, to follow up on every lead, and get them to invest.</li>
</ul>
Budget
Please find our proposed budget in the table below. Kindly note that this is still a draft, as the cost of many items are yet to be confirmed. Most importantly, the exact sponsorship fee will vary from event to event, and has to be negotiated with each event organiser. The numbers below are averages based on initial discussions we have had with different organisers. We have applied a discount of 50% for sponsoring an entire events series (rather than a one-off event), as all organisers prefer long-term partnerships and encourage them with such discounts. It is also the primary reason why we have decided to do this treasury proposal rather than go through the Events Bounty, which only supports one-off events.
Please also note that the amount between line items in this table may shift, depending on actual costs, so long as the total of $1m is not exceeded. A key variable in this budget is the number of events we will organise. We propose 20 events throughout the fundraising period of two years. However, it may end up being 15 or 25, depending on the actual costs of the initial events.
This means, we will continue organising the fundraising events, until this budget is used up. We believe that this approach is well aligned with the interests of the treasury: The more events we are able to organise, the more commitments into the fund we are likely to get, and the more capital we will have available to invest back into the Polkadot ecosystem.
<img src="https://i.ibb.co/pn5tnd5/Screenshot-2024-05-10-at-10-58-59-AM.png" alt="" width="621" height="430" />
&nbsp;
Continue Reading
The above is just the short summary. To read the proposal in full, including graphics and additional links please click <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s-QBE6GYZh917bQC-b9GV2ffCVWkgwxRqks-uTiGQ5s/edit?usp=sharing">here</a>.

The full proposal can be found in a Google Doc <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DJ-298-0xv3fQsVp0dUnCfedFMTNy4x_3ah2FM19b3s/edit?usp=sharing">here</a>. For the sake of brevity, this post is in Q&amp;A format.
Q: Is this yet another resubmission of the failed <a href="https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/731">Ref 731</a>? A: No. The previous Ref asked for a discretionary budget of $1m for a much larger series of unspecified investor events. This Ref on the other hand has a much smaller budget for a clearly defined series of 5 events by a single organiser (Prestel and Partners).
Q: Why are you not applying to the Events Bounty? A: We tried! However, bounty curators rejected it on 9 November, arguing that since a similar proposal failed in OpenGov in the past, they are unable to fund it.
Q: Is the sponsorship for Polkadot or for HIC? A: For Polkadot. HIC will merely be the organiser of the events on behalf of Polkadot. (Similarly to WebZero being the organiser of the latest Sub0, for example).
Q: What investments will be promoted through the event series? A: Our presentation at the events will be primarily educational, not a sales event, and focused on Polkadot&rsquo;s technology and the application layer. We will not promote any direct investments or actively solicit investments for the HIC Polkadot Fund on stage.
Q: Who can be a speaker on behalf of Polkadot at these investor events? A: Anybody! If you would like to be considered, please email max@harbourindustrial.com.
Q: When and where will the 5 summits take place? A: 4-5th February 2025 (Riyadh), 18-19th February 2025 (Dubai), 29-30th April 2025 (Singapore), 28-29th May 2025 (Istanbul), 2-3rd July 2025 (London).
Q: How was Prestel and Partners chosen? A: Prestel and Partners is one of the world&rsquo;s premier organisers of traditional investor conferences. Their clients include some very prominent family offices who we want to expose to Polakdot at these conferences.
Q: Why are you doing 5 summits? A: Reducing the scope from 20 summits to 5, is in response to the most common request by voters in the previous failed Ref. 5 summits was the minimum package the organiser ageed on.
Q: Why should Polkadot participate in traditional investor conferences rather than focus on established crypto conferences? A: To get outside the crypto echo chamber and attract new traditional institutional capital to Polkadot.
Q: Why is HIC leading this? A: In a decentralised ecosystem, for something to happen, somebody needs to take the initiative. As a Polkadot-focused fund, we are well positioned to speak to traditional investors in a language they understand.
Q: Is HIC making any money from this? A: As a matter of fact, no! As can be seen in the budget breakdown, we are not requesting any treasury funds for our time and effort spent in organising these events.
Q: Why should the treasury fund this? A: Educating traditional investors about Polkadot is one of the easiest ways to attract new external capital to the ecosystem. This will benefit everyone through more funding becoming available for Polkadot-based projects, as well as increased external buying pressure for DOT.
&nbsp;

Prestel & Partners: Family Office & Investor Conference Series for Polkadot

I would like to propose a tip for Six, for his past work as Ambassador and Head Ambassador. I am doing so in response to his Call here: <a href="https://forum.polkadot.network/t/polkadot-s-path-forward-vision-for-entering-a-realistic-market/11471">https://forum.polkadot.network/t/polkadot-s-path-forward-vision-for-entering-a-realistic-market/11471</a>
Six has been part of the old ambassador program, long before Giotto proposed to link it to any salary. In this position he onboarded countless people to Polkadot, and also helped me get involved in the program.
During the messy early days of the new HA Program, Six has been a voice of reason, and in this divisive environment, managed to maintain a good relationship with almost everyone, avoiding taking sides and seeking to build consensus. Even through the Ambassador program ultimately went into a different direction, Six contributed greatly to the program&rsquo;s foundation.
As for the size of the tip, it is always difficult to put a number to these contributions, so this exercise will never be perfect. But to put it into context, these USDT 20k it is approximately half of the amount requested by DDS and Lucy each for their work in the ambassador program.
Six recently posted this article, reflecting on his journey in Polkadot, which is well worth a read: <a href="https://medium.com/@six_65870/polkadots-path-forward-vision-for-entering-a-realistic-market-7c4849e9842a">https://medium.com/@six_65870/polkadots-path-forward-vision-for-entering-a-realistic-market-7c4849e9842a</a>