Using lessons from a Nouncil trial program, we will set up a robust incubator that will help the best builders in the ecosystem smoothly navigate the Nouns DAO proposal process.
Our goal is to leverage the breadth and depth of skillsets within UglyDAO to help nounish builders communicate well and find pathways to funding, so that they can keep doing what they do best:
BUILDING.
Click to watch a 3 minute video summary of this proposal.
The Nouns DAO Proposal Process Can be Daunting to New Builders.
Writing a proposal is difficult. Conveying a good idea in a way that voters can understand and relate to is even more difficult. With the increased number of proposals and ideas coming in weekly, it’s more important than ever to effectively communicate one's idea and value proposition. For some builders, proposal writing may not be a core strength. So their proposals may fail on-chain, even if the core concept is valuable.
Effective Communication with DAO Voters is Difficult
One of the most difficult challenges for builders in the Nouns ecosystem has always been figuring out how to have open dialog with voting Nouners and Delegates. These challenges will only increase as the DAO grows. Now, with the Official Nouns Discord closed, this is an even more pressing issue.
Constructive and Honest Feedback is Rare
Very few people within Nouns are giving truly honest and constructive criticism to proposals that need work. Discourse and Nouncil feedback sometimes can be “soft”, as people may not want to publicly discuss the potential pitfalls of a fellow community member’s idea or hurt their feelings. We see this occurring more frequently with on-chain proposals, and it doesn’t help anyone in the long run.
PropBox will aim to solve the above pain points in the following ways:
Ugly Dao has a talented roster of builders, many of whom have experience writing successful proposals for Prop House, NSFW and on-chain. We also have professionals with experience in the legal, marketing, education, and communications fields. With our combined training and experience, we can help builders create proposals that make an impact. Additionally, sometimes the most difficult part of seeking funding from Nouns is knowing where to go. We can help proposers understand if their idea is best suited to a Prop House round, an NSFW pitch, a discussion with the newly minted DCS Pod, or a full on-chain proposal. Finally, we believe that proposals should lean on multimedia content to achieve maximum impact in an attention-scarce environment. We want to help builders integrate engaging videos and visuals into their proposals.
We know the Nouns community like the back of our Ugly hand, and can help new builders navigate the difficult task of amplifying the message of their proposal. From appearances on The Noun Square, discussions in Nouncil or other Nounish discords, as well as conversations on Twitter, Discourse, House of Nouns and elsewhere, we know how to help builders with the most difficult part of getting funded for a proposal: Communicating directly with the people who ultimately will vote yes or no.
The DAO needs more well-intentioned people who are not afraid to give would-be builders The Ugly Truth, and we are prepared to do so.
Our goal is to become the premier resource to help builders create great proposals and find pathways to funding in the Nouns ecosystem. We plan to find and incubate teams and projects from multiple sources, including:
This project began as an initiative by Andrew Laddusaw, through Nouncil, following the Combinator Round in Prop House back in July (aka “the before times.”) Andrew saw a lot of talented teams that submitted great proposals, but of course the round only had one winner for the 25ETH prize.
He began contacting builders and building a system within Nouncil Discord to give these teams feedback to prepare them for an on-chain proposal, or to help them secure alternative funding sources. When they began reviewing proposals publicly as a group, other builders asked for help as well.
During this initial trial, the Incubator team gave feedback to 9 proposals. Through that process: One secured funding through NSFW. One pursued another Prop House to fund a proof of concept, won, and later joined Nouncil. One ended up abandoning the initial idea, but moved on to other projects during the incubation process, and has now been funded for multiple other projects within the DAO (shout out ripe0x.) Two other proposals ended up with on-chain votes, one narrowly being defeated and one securing funding for 40 ETH (Prop 144 for One Click Bots).
Click to watch a 2 minute PropBox testimonial video from Andrei (BotFrens)
We learned a lot through this experiment. We’re continuing to follow up with the builders as they hone their ideas, and expect to see even more fruit from these efforts in the coming months. We’re also continuing to improve our feedback process and we believe we’re ready for the next phase of growth.
This proposal will support the PropBox team for a 3 month period to do the following:
How to potentially make an incubator like this self-sustaining in the future.
A system to temperature check proposals and gather feedback from as many sources as possible, including from those with the most likelihood to swing vote outcomes.
How to create efficiencies in the proposal process, so that new community members can transition from their first interactions to building as effectively as possible within the DAO.
Exploring systems of trust-building to make sure that scammers are not able to abuse the treasury through gaming or fraud.
Decisions about what form this group should take in the future; how to incorporate new members, ideas, and processes to maintain the highest degree of quality feedback, help, and value to the DAO.
All of the above is to serve the ultimate goals of PropBox:
To help builders write high quality proposals, and to make decision-making simpler and less time-consuming for DAO members.
75ETH Total
We are a group of Nounish builders that have created and executed successful proposals at every funding level. We are consistently active in Discourse, offering constructive feedback and working privately with builders to help them formulate effective proposals and seek funding. We are passionate about great ideas, effective communication, and robust proposals that drive the nounish meme forward. ⌐◨-◨
Support: Other UglyDAO Members
18 super builders and counting with diverse skills and talents who are passionate ambassadors for Nouns inside and outside of the community
Multisig:
Funds will be transferred to and held in a 3/5 Gnosis Safe (propboxvault.eth) with the 5 trusted Nouns community members above.
We believe the DAO needs to attract more awesome builders, and needs teams of diligent people finding good ideas and helping them to bloom into full-fledged, effective Nounish initatives.
We are uniquely qualified to help these builders write awesome proposals, strategize ideal funding paths, and facilitate DAO communications, and we are asking for a mandate to do exactly that.
I want to encourage the team to rework and resubmit based on the feedback.
As an onboarding and upstreaming platform for Nouns, SharkDAO has experienced the need for this type of service first hand and think it's worth experimenting with how to reward community members for this type of work.
This is a passionate group that has been successful so far and want to support the continued exploration.
Seneca:
While I like the enthusiasm and appreciate the team's effort to put this forth, the proposed outcomes feel vague. If the end goal is to get builders funded - I'd much rather see the team pursue a small amount of funding to run their own grants program. This way, it is much easier to measure success while also allowing the team to find/consult with builders.
9999:
The team is passionate and well placed to execute on this idea. I think it’s reasonable to get funds to test out a consultancy/incubator on a small scale, but I dislike subsidizing this entirely for 3 months when there’s an obvious business model.
In general, I am for the consultancy model and believe it can bring qualified builders to the DAO. To that end, the market has the ability to signal whether the PropBox idea/team/approach works and funding to the extent requested would distort this process.
In addition to reducing the timeline and funding amount, I would recommend voting for this proposal if it had target metrics: 1 month, interface with 10-15 builders, target 1-2 amazing on-chain proposal, include a “finders fee” to subsidize the funding gap.
devcarrot:
I agree with the other Nounders that there should be a market for this type of advising that takes the form of a "finders fee" or "tip". I would like to see this proposal changed to either include more discrete objectives or, as Aubtoshi mentioned, expanded to be a source of earlier funding. During the Agora debate it was brought up that a place for builders and proposal authors are able to gain some clout, PropBox could be a way to incubate those with potential and build better proposals along the way.
full disclosure: i'm ugly.
one of the main reasons i decided to stick around the nouniverse after striking out with my first few prop house entries is the reception i received from the people on this team. they welcomed me into the community and invested in me as a builder by helping me work through my original proposal.
i'd never had an experience like that in a community before. and it made me want to dig in and keep building cool shit here. i don't know if i'd still be working in the nouniverse if it wasn't for this team.
i'm voting yes on this because i believe new (and old) builders will benefit from having this team focused and dedicated to guide them through the proposal process. which in turn will benefit the dao with better and more successful projects.
it's in this team's best interest to have the projects they touch become successful and accountable. and i know they'll go above and beyond to do that.
There is immense value in this proposal. The amount of people looking for help with creating/editing proposals is huge and the ecosystem will benefit from a skilled crew stewarding them.
I personally haven’t had the time to help all the people that ask. So it will be great to have a place to send them.
Navigating prop creation and DAO governance isn't a core competency of most potential contributors. An effort like this should make DAO funding more accessible to competent builders.
Andrew, Prof Werder, Brad and Woody have been working hard for months to help builders on discord and discourse, and help them navigate the sometimes-labyrinthian corridors of Nouns DAO funding. Anyone who doesn't think there is a need for helpful, skilled people to empower would-be builders and plug them into nouns DAO ecosystem, I would argue probably do not spend much time on the front lines of the DAO. Because those who do, will have their DMs full of exactly these types of requests on a daily basis. I would like to see this team get funded and either prove the thesis wrong or right over the next quarter. If they are able to unlock the nounish potential of 30+ builders and get them funded by one of the funding sources within nouns, I think the outlay will be well worth the cost.
Abstaining due to being a member of UglyDAO who is not working on this specific prop. This is not saying prop builders should avoid voting on their own props, just personally want to steer 100% clear of any potential conflicts of interest in this specific instance
Nouncil is overall in favor of 175. Nouncillors voted 34 YES, 7 NO, and 2 ABSTAIN (using the new anonymous Discord voting powered by Nerman Bot.)
Some excerpts from the discussion thread:
"There should be multiple options for builders to choose as partners for their props. These things are our babies and we want them to be handled by people who share same values and care. If we don't have these options I think that we will drive away many ... the only people that have interacted with my requests for help there are the same people putting this prop together so I am all in to support this prop which I think will help so many"
-Klim
"I have voted yes because I see this as a pilot and a building block for growth. The team includes some of the smartest, strongest communicators and most well meaning people in the ecosystem. I trust the intentions, durability and consistency of the team. "
-Cheffo
"Prop discussion is a very valuable service that people in Nouncil have been providing without any clear reward in sight, and the people in this prop have all been actively providing prop feedback without compensation for months." -Joel
"This (reads) like a request to allocate 10 ETH with an overhead of 65 ETH to fund the team, which is roughly ~90% overhead" -Juan
I'm not convinced that it's a good idea to create an intermediary consulting team that tries to increase the quality of props.
In theory, there should be sufficient incentive for the proposers to already do that given the fact that they receive grant funding at the end. Gathering attention, community buy-in, writing a great proposal should all be a part of the proof-of-work required to get a prop passed.
Having said that, I'm all for making it easier to communicate your prop (by adding functionality to clients etc.)
https://twitter.com/0Hindsight/status/1597224514714505216?s=20&t=MpS_QmTZBFgfPegGk8VpLQ
I think this group of high potential and diverse builders will offer a warm but constructive landing place for builders to seek guidance and get personalized help to making a good prop idea great, helping it get proper attention and ultimately sponsoring it on chain.
I like the prop and the team. But have some issues with it:
Not sure this does anything more to promote nouns. Nothing stoping folks from asking the community to engage and get better proposal crafting completed.
I struggled with this prop. While I love the team, I don't believe this effort will lead to an optimal outcome for the DAO. Given my recent posts on scaling small grants, I believe Prop 175 takes us in the opposite direction.
Inefficient capital allocation
The prop asks for 65Ξ to allocate 10Ξ, a ~90% admin overhead.
Non-scalable approach
The approach appears to revolve around "consulting" services that are very manually intensive and do not scale, unless we want to employ a small army of consultants at the DAO like a Deloitte, Ernst & Young, PwC, KPMG, etc.
Unnecessary creation of static website tools
We should lean into automated tools like Prop House or AddressBoard. Information repositories already exist in the form of Nouns Center, which is already linked to from the main Nouns website.
Unclear outcomes or measurements of success
How is success being measured here? What benchmarks would need to be hit so we can decide if we want to fund an effort like this again (or clone it in other areas)?
I encourage the team to discuss this with the builder community and come back with a prop that addresses the broader concerns raised on their efforts.
You can read more on the reasons here:
https://discourse.nouns.wtf/t/on-scaling-small-grants-at-nouns/3080
Using lessons from a Nouncil trial program, we will set up a robust incubator that will help the best builders in the ecosystem smoothly navigate the Nouns DAO proposal process.
Our goal is to leverage the breadth and depth of skillsets within UglyDAO to help nounish builders communicate well and find pathways to funding, so that they can keep doing what they do best:
BUILDING.
Click to watch a 3 minute video summary of this proposal.
The Nouns DAO Proposal Process Can be Daunting to New Builders.
Writing a proposal is difficult. Conveying a good idea in a way that voters can understand and relate to is even more difficult. With the increased number of proposals and ideas coming in weekly, it’s more important than ever to effectively communicate one's idea and value proposition. For some builders, proposal writing may not be a core strength. So their proposals may fail on-chain, even if the core concept is valuable.
Effective Communication with DAO Voters is Difficult
One of the most difficult challenges for builders in the Nouns ecosystem has always been figuring out how to have open dialog with voting Nouners and Delegates. These challenges will only increase as the DAO grows. Now, with the Official Nouns Discord closed, this is an even more pressing issue.
Constructive and Honest Feedback is Rare
Very few people within Nouns are giving truly honest and constructive criticism to proposals that need work. Discourse and Nouncil feedback sometimes can be “soft”, as people may not want to publicly discuss the potential pitfalls of a fellow community member’s idea or hurt their feelings. We see this occurring more frequently with on-chain proposals, and it doesn’t help anyone in the long run.
PropBox will aim to solve the above pain points in the following ways:
Ugly Dao has a talented roster of builders, many of whom have experience writing successful proposals for Prop House, NSFW and on-chain. We also have professionals with experience in the legal, marketing, education, and communications fields. With our combined training and experience, we can help builders create proposals that make an impact. Additionally, sometimes the most difficult part of seeking funding from Nouns is knowing where to go. We can help proposers understand if their idea is best suited to a Prop House round, an NSFW pitch, a discussion with the newly minted DCS Pod, or a full on-chain proposal. Finally, we believe that proposals should lean on multimedia content to achieve maximum impact in an attention-scarce environment. We want to help builders integrate engaging videos and visuals into their proposals.
We know the Nouns community like the back of our Ugly hand, and can help new builders navigate the difficult task of amplifying the message of their proposal. From appearances on The Noun Square, discussions in Nouncil or other Nounish discords, as well as conversations on Twitter, Discourse, House of Nouns and elsewhere, we know how to help builders with the most difficult part of getting funded for a proposal: Communicating directly with the people who ultimately will vote yes or no.
The DAO needs more well-intentioned people who are not afraid to give would-be builders The Ugly Truth, and we are prepared to do so.
Our goal is to become the premier resource to help builders create great proposals and find pathways to funding in the Nouns ecosystem. We plan to find and incubate teams and projects from multiple sources, including:
This project began as an initiative by Andrew Laddusaw, through Nouncil, following the Combinator Round in Prop House back in July (aka “the before times.”) Andrew saw a lot of talented teams that submitted great proposals, but of course the round only had one winner for the 25ETH prize.
He began contacting builders and building a system within Nouncil Discord to give these teams feedback to prepare them for an on-chain proposal, or to help them secure alternative funding sources. When they began reviewing proposals publicly as a group, other builders asked for help as well.
During this initial trial, the Incubator team gave feedback to 9 proposals. Through that process: One secured funding through NSFW. One pursued another Prop House to fund a proof of concept, won, and later joined Nouncil. One ended up abandoning the initial idea, but moved on to other projects during the incubation process, and has now been funded for multiple other projects within the DAO (shout out ripe0x.) Two other proposals ended up with on-chain votes, one narrowly being defeated and one securing funding for 40 ETH (Prop 144 for One Click Bots).
Click to watch a 2 minute PropBox testimonial video from Andrei (BotFrens)
We learned a lot through this experiment. We’re continuing to follow up with the builders as they hone their ideas, and expect to see even more fruit from these efforts in the coming months. We’re also continuing to improve our feedback process and we believe we’re ready for the next phase of growth.
This proposal will support the PropBox team for a 3 month period to do the following:
How to potentially make an incubator like this self-sustaining in the future.
A system to temperature check proposals and gather feedback from as many sources as possible, including from those with the most likelihood to swing vote outcomes.
How to create efficiencies in the proposal process, so that new community members can transition from their first interactions to building as effectively as possible within the DAO.
Exploring systems of trust-building to make sure that scammers are not able to abuse the treasury through gaming or fraud.
Decisions about what form this group should take in the future; how to incorporate new members, ideas, and processes to maintain the highest degree of quality feedback, help, and value to the DAO.
All of the above is to serve the ultimate goals of PropBox:
To help builders write high quality proposals, and to make decision-making simpler and less time-consuming for DAO members.
75ETH Total
We are a group of Nounish builders that have created and executed successful proposals at every funding level. We are consistently active in Discourse, offering constructive feedback and working privately with builders to help them formulate effective proposals and seek funding. We are passionate about great ideas, effective communication, and robust proposals that drive the nounish meme forward. ⌐◨-◨
Support: Other UglyDAO Members
18 super builders and counting with diverse skills and talents who are passionate ambassadors for Nouns inside and outside of the community
Multisig:
Funds will be transferred to and held in a 3/5 Gnosis Safe (propboxvault.eth) with the 5 trusted Nouns community members above.
We believe the DAO needs to attract more awesome builders, and needs teams of diligent people finding good ideas and helping them to bloom into full-fledged, effective Nounish initatives.
We are uniquely qualified to help these builders write awesome proposals, strategize ideal funding paths, and facilitate DAO communications, and we are asking for a mandate to do exactly that.