Name
Bordumb
What interests you or excites you about this role
I invested in Radicle because I believe it will radically change the following:
- Funding of open source software
- Wage/labor in the software industry
- Corporate governance
I see a grants program sitting at the center of all 3 of these goals. Grants are the vehicle that will drive Radicle’s own open source development, all while doing it in a way that redefines how contributors are paid for their work and how decisions are made around that work. It will be a giant exercise in dog-fooding Radicle, on Radicle.
Any thoughts, ideas, or visions you have about the Radicle Grants that you’d like to share
I’ve shared some thoughts here previously.
An overarching vision I have is dog-fooding Radicle for the grants process, so much so that it becomes a model for any software/dApp based DAO (and possibly others).
This is especially with regards to the technology behind grants: steps after the application process can be driven by Radicle’s own UI in a uniquely transparent way.
In terms of concrete plans or ideas, I would rather learn more from the core development team to understand what is needed most.
But below are some high-level ideas.
Framework Ideas
- Applications: standard application for all grantees, with milestones clearly defined between grantees and grant program
- Prioritization: focused on the needs of stakeholders (Radicle Users, Core Radicle Team, Investors)
- Process: drive as much of the process through Radicle as possible (e.g. RFPs/brainstorming, concrete projects/tasks, grant funding streams, etc.)
- Deliverables: have all work open-sourced on Radicle
- Sustainability/Maintainability: prioritize grant projects that have a plan to maintain their work, likely by utilizing Radicle’s Funding features
Grant Ideas
1. Radicle Grants
User Onboarding/Adoption
- Grants/bounties for written + video tutorials for basic features, advanced features, migration workflows from other tools (GitHub, GitLab, etc.)
- Providing reimbursement/bonus to grantees to incentivize creating their own Orgs to dog food Radicle during grant project (optional)
- Gas refunding contract: perhaps airdrop an NFT to early supporters that lets them redeem gas refund upon registering an Org
- Referral program contract: simple growth hack idea whereby registered Org A can refer a new Org B, then Org A is airdropped a reimbursement for the gas costs of their registration. At worst, this creates a buy one, get one free mechanism.
Discovery Tool
- Assuming we will spin up subgraphs for each community token, metadata as well as transactions data could be used to create useful discovery tools (e.g. top projects ranking, recommender systems, Org categorization).
- Could help users learn about other Orgs discover useful software
- Could be used by investors (including Radicle Treasury itself) to discover investment opportunities
Backlog
- Running grants/bounties that Core Dev can nominate to help with any backlog
2. Ecosystem Grants
Web3 Network Effects
- Please see notes here.
Hackathons
- Allocate funds to sponsor hackathons, especially where Radicle might be used and/or developed on
3. Social Impact Grants
FOSS Donations
- Allocate funds to donate to open source projects that aren’t necessarily on Radicle (yet). For example, donating to FOSS that the Core Dev team finds indispensible.
Developing Developers Fund
- Allocate funds to donate to developers in developing regions or where the use of Radicle might be particularly useful, especially with regards to circumventing censorship
4. Community Grants
- Small allocation for retroactive gifts to community members who contribute in awesome ways (e.g. awesome blog posts, 3rd party hobby sites, etc.)
I’d be very interested to see what grantees come up with as well.
Background/Relevant Experience(aka why you’d be good for this role)
General format below is:
- (a) what does the company do
- (b) what I did
- (c) why it’s relevant to Radicle.
It is in reverse chronological order, so latest work at top.
Anon FAANG Company (4 years)
- Consumer apps (think subscription-based services)
- I’m working on data engineering and data science for A/B testing for growth and product marketing. This work is coordinated across many groups, from client engineers and server engineers to marketing and design groups.
- I’ve built a strong acumen for subscription business models, as well as an understanding of the software engineering (CI/CD, testing, software design, etc.) that is required to run A/B tests on software that is served to 100s of millions of people. This knowledge should be most helpful in understanding Radicle’s community of developers/users.
SoundCloud (2 years)
- Online music streaming website/app
- I worked on data engineering for the recommendations team.
- Here I gained familiarity with creating products built around data.
Twitter (1 year)
- Website for shit-posting (Find me @bordumbb)
- I worked in the office of the CFO, focusing on analytics for Investor Relations.
- Here I gained experience fielding tough questions from external partners rapidly and accurately.
Tableau (1 year)
- Data visualisation software company
- I worked as a sales engineer, where my job was to help close deals to sell software. My job was to technically prove the value of the software by building out documentation, tutorials, and meeting customers on calls and in person to show it to them.
- I became well versed in how to prove to people the value of software, scaling adoption by finding external champions, and finding solutions/work-arounds when software fell short.
I don’t have much web3 experience, which is another reason I’m excited about helping with the grants program.
Let me know if you have any questions/comments!