Polkadot Relayers Incubator 2023
Proponent: Tribe/AngelHack 13Ghf2T883ZobjngC1BAgR1BWvK2P7qP37gGxHDVFf3fjbmw
Requested DOT: USD$175,000 | 35,277.535 DOT
We are proposing to run the next iteration of the Polkadot Relayers for 2023, in collaboration with Astar, HydraDX, Interlay, OAK Network, Moonbeam, Zeitgeist and Unique Network.
The Polkadot Relayers is a community-first early-stage incubator programme that seeks to grow talented builders in their endeavour to build dApps on Polkadot’s parachains. The inaugural launch of the Polkadot Relayers took place last year in 2022, and was successful in accomplishing its initial objective of bringing together developers and entrepreneurs, as well as providing individuals with a platform to actualise their innovative ideas. This year, the Relayers program seeks to focus on nurturing committed project teams looking for mentorship, investment, and ecosystem support whilst they build on Polkadot. The 2023 edition seeks to improve on the learnings from the Relayers program in 2022, building on participant feedback and working very closely with 7 dedicated parachain teams to create a cohesive initiative that gives back to the Polkadot ecosystem.
We are submitting this proposal for a total treasury funding of USD$291,400, with our first milestone requesting for US$175,000. This includes the budget required to operate this program and travel grants (see Appendix A for full budget breakdown). We are also looking to split funding up into different milestones, as seen in the Budget Proposal below. The funding requested will cover operating expenses as well as both the virtual and in-person logistics costs to launch and execute this program.
Our full proposal can be found here.
Highlights for Relayers 2022 can be found here.
Comments (8)
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Proposal Passed
Summary
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Hello! We invite a member of the team to join AAG next Thursday at 3:30pm UTC to help us better understand this initiative! Please reach out on Matrix @ jay-chrawnna:matrix.org Thanks! 🙏
GM! I was hoping that you'd come on AAG to discuss the Polkadot Relayers with me :D
I have reached out to some people who participated in the last Polkadot Relayers session, and just wanted to share my findings and those people's feedback – hopefully it can be useful for both the organizers and the overall community!
These are not my own opinions, this is what was relayed (heh) to me by people who attended last years programme
Target Audience is entrepreneurs – getting them to build on web3 (probably they have some web2 background)
Positives from last year:
Main goal was to let entrepreneurs learn what is possible on Polkadot, let them know why they would want to build here
Education about how to be a founder, how to design a project, business model, go to market, etc.
Focusing on real business models and use cases, not hype
What could be better
Organization was quite poor especially at the start, even one of the main managers got replaced. This lead to teams not being aware of what to do, and actually resulted in Hashed Network sort of leaving / not participating in the scheme due to poor organization
Management team were not knowledgeable about Polkadot to answer peoples questions
Showcase day needs to be better organized - last year there was hardly any VCs that showed up, in fact it was just BitGreen and Parity so I'm told
Is it really possible to go from 0 to VC funding in 3 months?
Wasn't promoted effectively, participants weren't sure if this was an official programme
If your project doesnt get funding, it's hard for you as an individual to get a job in web3, unlike the Polkadot Dev Academy for example - so a lot of it rests on the showcase day
Thoughts about how to improve / questions
You state that you have worked with with Parity and W3F before - get a focal point there who can ask / delegate engineering & tech questions
Have it be marketed by Polkadot accounts – let people know what is going on – get them to participate
Make it very clear as to the purpose of the Showcase day – do you really think it's possible for people to start from 0 and get VC funding after 3 months? Projects i spoke to said they weren't very well prepared for Showcase day. The market doesn't have appetite to fund early stage idea start ups, it needs MVPs as a minimum. Maybe make it clear that the Showcase day is for getting feedback from experts, which then can help you to go on and work on your project after the course is over
If VC turnout at showcase day is something that is planned - then which VCs? How are you approaching them?
Hi @leemo,
Thank you for taking the time to compile and share the feedback from the previous Polkadot Relayers session. We appreciate your efforts in gathering this valuable information, and we would like to address the points you raised and provide an overview of the key differences between the original program and this year's iteration.
First and foremost, we want to assure you that we have conducted an internal After Action Review (AAR) with Parity and incorporated feedback from the participating teams of the previous batch into our planning process. The program for Polkadot Relayers 2023 has been carefully designed based on the lessons we learned from the previous session, aiming to address the areas of improvement identified by the community.
Overview of Key Differences
Focus on Teams with Functioning MVPs
One of the significant differences in this year's program is the exclusive focus on teams rather than individuals. Unlike Polkadot Relayers 2022, which was open to both individuals and teams, this year's program is solely centered around teams with functioning MVPs being admitted. The rationale behind this shift is to ensure that all participating teams are operating at a similar stage, thereby reducing the variance between their progress levels.
Increased Involvement of Ecosystem Teams for Dedicated Support
To provide more dedicated and tailored support to the participating teams, we have increased the involvement of ecosystem teams. In fact, half of the program has been designed by these ecosystem teams, who will also be responsible for incubating the participating teams. This approach allows for a closer relationship between the ecosystem teams and the participating teams, ensuring they receive more focused guidance to accelerate their product development and go-to-market strategies.
Enhanced Mentorship Approach for Each Team
In terms of mentorship, we have made significant improvements compared to the previous session. While participants were encouraged to reach out to the mentor network in the past, this iteration assigns dedicated mentors to each team. These mentors will come from both the ecosystem teams and investor networks. Ecosystem team mentors will support teams in product development and go-to-market strategies, while investor mentors will assist in tracking and evaluating the teams' investment readiness throughout the program, leading up to Showcase Day.
Addressing What Could Be Better
Organization and Program Management Concerns
Yes, unfortunately there was indeed a change in program manager during the program due to an unforeseen circumstance. Regardless we strived to keep participants updated to minimise any impact on their experience. However, we do recognise that communication could have been more effective during this period of time. Moving forward, we have set in place processes to ensure that if any unforeseen circumstances arise, however unlikely, the experience for participants will not be compromised and communications will be done through clear and effective channels.
Knowledgeable Support and Mentorship
This is unfortunate to hear as we have always strived to provide solutions whenever participants raise questions or issues. When there were questions that we were unable to provide answers to, especially questions related to technical specifics, we would try our best to connect the participants with experts from the ecosystem.
To reassure the community, the team managing the program is very familiar with the Polkadot ecosystem given that we have run 3 hackathons over the past 2 years under the Polkadot Global Series. Furthermore, we also have a representative from the team who graduated from the Polkadot Blockchain Academy in 2022. Additionally, as mentioned above, this batch of Relayers will contain direct involvement from 7 ecosystem teams who will be taking projects under their wing to accelerate their growth within the program duration.
We do hope that the above will address the concerns that have been raised with regard to this.
Showcase Day Organization and Clarity
We do recognise that there were definitely some shortcomings with regard to the organisation of the showcase day last year. Unfortunately, there were certain scheduling conflicts with other ecosystem activities during the showcase day period and we did not get the turnout that we hoped for. Regardless, we actually had recorded attendance from investors representing VCs such as Blockchain Founders Fund, Arcane Group, Golden Gate Ventures and Genting Ventures beyond Parity and BitGreen.
To further address the feedback provided, given that for the new batch, there is a deeper focus on getting projects invested, we have planned for increased involvement from investors early on during the program in the form of dedicated investor mentors for each team. On top of this, we also have investor networking events planned for the participants as part of their participation in Token2049 Singapore 2023. This will deepen the connection between investors and participants throughout the program.
Effective Promotion and Clarity of Purpose
Communications with participants were primarily kept on Slack and external promotions were done via mailing lists for Batch 1. We will work to provide more visibility to participants for Relayers 2023, especially with the exposure through in-person events. Additionally, we will look to work with Parity and ecosystem teams to provide more visibility on the progress of project teams throughout the program as well.
VC Funding Concerns
As mentioned above and in the proposal (link), this year’s program will feature deeper involvement from ecosystem teams similar to Polkadot Dev Academy which will provide more opportunities to participants. However, the main focus of the program will be on incubating and accelerating the growth of project teams rather than focusing on individual developers.
Suggestions Incorporated into Program Planning
Knowledgeable Support from Ecosystem Teams
To address this, we will have dedicated representatives from ecosystem teams to work with teams. Each team will have a dedicated mentor from the ecosystem team that they are intending to work with who will be able to address any questions.
Enhanced Marketing and Communication
Yes, we are working with our contact from the Parity marcomms team and respective marketing representatives from ecosystem teams to provide more visibility for the program and participants. Our marketing and outreach plans are detailed in our proposal (link).
Purpose of the Showcase Day
As mentioned in our proposal (link), for this run, we will be focusing on onboarding teams with functioning MVPs such as finalists and winners from previous runs of Polkadot hackathons. This will create a more even playing field and less variance with regards to the stage that participants are operating at.
This will also allow us to have a deeper focus on getting teams invested at the end of the program.
Engaging VCs and Investor Mentors
We have an existing network of investors from the web2 and web3 space based off our past 5 years running incubator and accelerator programs within the web3 space. Our network includes: DeFiance Capital, Sequoia, Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, Spartan Group, QCP Capital, Arcane Group, Bybit Ventures, Bixin Ventures.
Additionally, we are working with the Parity team to reach investors that they are in contact with. We will also be bringing in some of these investors to work directly with the teams in the capacity of investor mentors throughout the entire program. We believe that this will ensure that teams are better equipped for demo day and also give investors more skin in the game to get to know teams and track their progress throughout the program.
Once again, we thank you for your feedback and support. We have carefully considered your concerns and suggestions, and we believe that the measures we have implemented in Relayers 2023 address those issues effectively.
If you have any further suggestions or questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We look forward to creating a program that meets the needs and expectations of both entrepreneurs and the Polkadot community.
Cheers,
Polkadot Relayers Team