Karma DAO Evolves Into DeFi & Crypto Project Pitching Forum for Builders and Angels
Hi friends,
It’s only been four days since the explosive launch of the Karma DAO social experiment which has now grown to 204 members at the time of publishing this blog post. I’m humbled by the amount of traction and positive feedback I’ve received from community members all around the world who resonated with the concept of being part of a value-add professional network community.
My philosophy for building products is starting extremely lean, making things leaner, and leaner from there. I’ve found it very difficult, almost impossible, to predict exactly how, why and what customer needs are from the get-go. Hypothesis, experimentation, and validation feedback loops are fundamental to iterating to the sweet spot.
In the methodology of observe and evolve, the creation of Karma DAO will be evolving to being both a networking group of value-add believing people and also serving as a pitching forum for people building interesting projects in DeFi and blockchain. The DAO has been seeded with a very broad global network of investors who are in the right position to refer interesting projects to the group for product presentations.
The plan is to have several teams present their products with 15 minutes of product presentation and 15 minutes of Q&A, because I think it’s important to encourage interaction and not just have a one-way pitch. Some of the projects will be in the process of fundraising, in which case Karma DAO members can form connections with the founders privately. There is no requirement on the lifecycle phase of the project. Some of the projects will have had closed rounds, may be bootstrapping, in ideation phase, or may have a liquid token asset. As long as they can provide insightful information value, they are encouraged to present what they’re working on to the DAO.
The focus is to bring in teams that are building new products that are at the edge of defining this evolving DeFi and blockchain startup space. DeFi seems to be changing by the second, and we all know the Total Value Locked in DeFi definitely is.
Also, please note that any investments made between DAO members and projects are the responsibility of those two parties, and should be conducted outside the DAO with proper legal processes, investor KYC and due diligence.
Reflections on Launch
The early formation of the Karma DAO community has been inspiring to watch. There has been generous volunteers donating domains, creating websites, giving thousands of $KARMA away to invite their friends, and the group is already designing t-shirt swag. It’s been amazing to witness.
Inspiration for Creating an Angel Forum
When I was in college, I worked part-time for Jason Calacanis and full-time in San Francisco after I graduated. Jason is famous for his seed investment in Uber, and other unicorn startups, and his well-esteemed book called “Angel.” Having lived through and seen first-hand Jason’s achievements, including podcasts, festivals, an incubator, syndicate, and angel investing bets, and so many more ways he adds value to Silicon Valley, I’ve always been really inspired by how much value being a facilitator of startups to capital can provide to both entrepreneurs and investors. In the 2000s, Jason created the Open Angel Forum which aided in connecting startups to angels. The legend says that it was at this event where less than one month old Uber pitched to 20+ investors and raised their seed round from Jason, Chris Sacca, Cyan Banister and First Round Capital at a $4m pre-money valuation. Having been inspired by Jason’s story and his success as an angel investor, I hope to create value with the creation of an open pitching forum in the emerging space of DeFi and crypto.
MetaCartel Venture DAO
I’m also excited to share that one of the holders of $KARMA tokens is MetaCartel Venture DAO, a pre-seed investment group investing in applications on Ethereum. I am part of MetaCartel Venture DAO. There will be synergies between the DAOs in how MetaCartel Venture DAO will be referring teams to present projects in Karma DAO.
CoinGecko
Thank you CoinGecko for listing the token here.
What’s Next
We’re inviting tons of great teams building DEXes, DeFi options, blockchain B2B, L2 solutions, NFTs, stablecoins, payments and tons more. If you have any projects that you want to suggest, please drop a message to @KarmaDAOva (t.me/karmadaova) on Telegram.
We have three pitches scheduled for the inaugural week that are operating in the space of DAOs, DeFi and blockchain B2B. The pitches as of now will be kept off the record and not published publicly.
As DeFi and the crypto space heats up in creativity and adoption, it seems the Karma DAO group will be really active in reviewing creative new projects in the coming months. I will be leading the process of reviewing the projects that would be a good fit for presentation, but I plan to be very open minded on the requirements for presenting. All presentations will be optional for DAO members to attend and they can attend projects that are most interesting to them by description.
Thank you all, and I’ll be updating learnings and progress as the DAO matures via Telegram, Twitter, and this newsletter and appreciate all of the early support so far in this exciting DAO social experiment.
Click here for instructions on joining Karma DAO.
Best,
