TL;DR

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 Challenges

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

Think INSIDE the box!

Our Solutions

PropBox will aim to solve the above pain points in the following ways:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

The PropBox Value Prop

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:

• Current builders in the ecosystem who are looking for feedback and help navigating the proposal process.
• New builders who need extra help onboarding into Nouns, writing proposals, and making the right connections to be successful.
• “Uncut gems” from Prop House and Discourse to fund proof of concept projects and prepare the teams for potential larger on-chain proposals in the future. We aim to find builders with the highest potential and help them fulfill that potential. Ideas from this category should have at least 10x potential from the amount of initial funding.

The Origin Story

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.

The Timeline

This proposal will support the PropBox team for a 3 month period to do the following:

• Actively locate builders in the ecosystem to help drive their ideas forward and guide them through the proposal process that is most appropriate to their ideas and building stage.
• Create an active Builder’s Guild in the PropBox Discord, where those who are creating tools and proposals can do so in the open, and together. This well help create consistent startup energy in the Nouns community.
• Review every Discourse, and various Discord community posts, making sure everyone submitting proposal ideas gets quality feedback and the best possible Nouns experience when they first arrive in the community. One of our greatest desires is that new, talented builders would not leave the community discouraged after getting negative feedback, simply because they didn’t understand the funding process or the culture of what it means to be a part of Nouns.
• Create a website to house a toolkit of templates, best practices, tips and tricks, and contact information giving builders a toolbox to maximize success.
• We will also spend the next three months exploring several ideas, which we will present to the community at the end of the proposal funding period:
  • 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.

The Budget

75ETH Total

• 60 ETH - In our trial, we were able to achieve a great deal of success with people who were just volunteering their time. We know that with DAO funding, we will have much more capacity to onboard talented builders and incubate many more proposals.
  • 20 ETH per month as a payment to team members, to be paid retroactively based on work completed and builders helped. This work will include engaging builders at every stage of the proposal process, guiding them, and helping to write effective and media-rich proposals. These team rewards will be distributed via biweekly Coordinape rounds (Nouncil model.) All payment data will be publicly available to the DAO.
  • Our team goal will be to engage with a minimum of 30 builders about their proposals over the course of a 3 month period.
• 10 ETH for a pool to fund some small projects, as an experiment in additional targeted flexible funding for the DAO: Taking small ideas that we encounter through the process of our work and helping those teams to execute small ideas or create MVPs of larger ones.
• 5 ETH of retro funding for what has been done to build this system already.

The PropBox Team

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. ⌐◨-◨

• Lead: Andrew Laddusaw
• Core Team: BradQ ProfWerder SuperTightWoody Toady Hawk

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.

The Bottom Line

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.

Think INSIDE the Box, vote YES for Prop 175!