Team: Unified Business Development Team -
(dApps & Platforms BD, Enterprise BD & API/Data Beacon BD)
Operations cycle: #6
Period: 1 February 2022 – 30 April 2022 (3-months)
Amount: 98,353 USDC
Destination: Gnosis Safe (Multi-sig wallet)
address: 0xE2279B907f027CC89fE744B2b5cf46F978e502d3
signers:
Dave - dav3.eth
Gio - 0x3afB3530Da3CBa4d8B278Af63872FAA80F1fC87D
Alex - 0xDF3801FBf19C1Bd0af6D24C483A3781129Eee65d
2/3 Multisig
1.Scope
The Unified Business Development team drives holistic organizational-wide value within the DAO. Sub-teams consist of Enterprise Development, dApps and Platforms and API / Data Beacon focused Business Development teams.
Each sub-team is self-driven, targeting various elements of business development as it translates into the achievement of quick-wins through smaller actions and accomplishments on the micro level. This is done while zooming out and aligning on the greater unit’s collective goals on a macro level. The team cross pollinates ideas which also leads to greater coordination and utilization of resources while synchronizing areas of overlap.
The main mantra of the team is ‘synergism’ while closing gaps in both consumer-use and provider uptake. API3 vision is to be the first choice in open software infrastructure as it pertains to data oracles and data feeds as building or “lego” blocks for Web3. Thus, achieving ubiquity in the API3’s product use remains critical in achieving similar industry standards to QWERTY keyboards, USB, Bluetooth etc but for Web3.
In consolidating the Unified BD team from Proposal #5, resource burn was reduced while performance remained in line with expectations.
There was no need to scale the team in the previous cycle and growth of the team will be scaled in-line when required. This can be primarily through the addition of new business developers or integration engineers on a grant basis without success commissions.
For the purpose of this proposal, the Business Development Teams responsibilities encompass prior tasks and outcomes from merged BD sub teams. In addition to these customer-specific tasks, the team will have added overarching responsibilities that relate to:
Sales process
- Outreach
- Continuous improvement of outreach processes
- CRM structure
Recruitment & HR (In-line with product growth)
- Onboarding
- Training
- Practice
- Ongoing support
Reporting
- Accounting processes
Coordinate with the marketing sub team
- Projects in the ecosystem
- General networking
- Articles, blogs and content
- Liaising with account managers and other relevant API3 sub teams
- Attend conferences and workshops
R&D
- Tech side feasibility of integrations
- Business side feasibility assessment
- Internal workshops and meetings
- Attend mandatory sub team and team meetings
- Knowledge dissemination and internal knowledge workshops or materials
1.1.BD- Enterprise Focus:
The Enterprise team has the following responsibilities in addition to general business development activities. The business development scope of the project will expand over time, and this list represents the current state.
- Meet the general business development framework, outlined above
- Oversee and support the team sales funnel
Host Enterprise workshops:
- Enterprise consortia technical integration workshop to explore Airnode integration feasibility across consortia members
- Product demo of Airnode-enabled product developed by Technical Integration Engineer
- Enterprise use case workshop with Enterprise prospects
Proof of Concept development with Enterprise client(s)
- Enterprise Airnode integrations
- Open Bank Project Tech Sprints
- Custom solution development
- Link enterprise customers with implementation partners for any smart contract or dApp development
Completed Deliverables (Cycle #5)
During operations cycle #5, the Enterprise BD team hosted successful workshops and hackathons. The partnership with the Open Bank Project (OBP) saw a state level hackathon take place in El Salvador with Banco Hipotecario. The Enterprise-OBP lead also visited El Salvador for the in-person and virtual bank hackathon event which was a success. The LATAM bitcoin movement is an area of opportunity which the Enterprise-OBP lead is exploring further.
The Enterprise team in close coordination with the technical team hosted two workshops and delivered two proof of concepts (PoCs). The first proof of concept was for a large publicly listed company in which we needed to demonstrate the application of a request-response protocol Airnode in executing on set parameters. This pilot was a success and hopefully soon, we can disclose this large well-known provider once commercials have been set in motion and next steps discussed.
The other PoC related to the integration of a shopping cart, where one could select and check-out the desired data set and pay the provider in fiat or crypto. This PoC is still on-going and we also hope to disclose the provider soon.
There are two other PoCs at the requirements building stage. The one is from a 6-month requirements engagement with a very large market data provider and the other with a medium size firm focusing on loyalty-points.
We have also hosted workshops and use-case presentations in order to aid large enterprises who are still navigating Web3.0 and DeFi entering this space with confidence.
The Enterprise and dApps and Platforms teams secured Amberdata.io for our new product, data beacons. Data beacons have been a core focus in cycle #5 due to their demand and importance to DeFi and Web3. See the following article related to Coinmarketcap outage. The Enterprise team has also been assisting closing the loop with the dApps teams on users and providers. We already have a few existing API providers who are waitlisted in connecting to the data beacon product! This will also be a priority focus for some part of cycle #6 as we look to provide PoCs around data feeds/beacons to large enterprises in addition to the Request-Response Protocol of the Airnode.
We are excited to disclose that a large weather data provider and household brand that we all know, has joined the API3 Alliance. We are enthralled with this company’s excitement for Web3 and look forward to working alongside this innovative enterprise. The marketing team will disclose further details when they are available!
In cooperation with the Operations Team, the outcome of the previously mentioned ISO27001 standard, has led us to make a go or no-go decision. Even though this is a great certification to have, with some standing in the traditional financial and technology space, we have opted to place this on ice. The reason being that the certifications cost-benefit payoff is too low given other competing priorities and the timelines of its implementation. We will revisit this at a time where there is excess capacity or the need arises.
Finally, the team has ongoing efforts on researching and outreaching other relevant industry associations, enterprises and consortia. The API3 team focused on lead generation and more strategic areas building out pipelines for Q2, 2022 during the December slow-down festive season.
You can also view the quarterly progress report here, for further insights. We will also endeavor to update the community, as soon as large deals are signed and legally possible – due to some of these large interactions are also of strategic importance or brand reputation aspects.
Deliverables (Cycle #6)
For business development cycle #6, the enterprise-facing business development team’s goal is to focus on growing data beacon usage among large data providers. Additionally, it is to follow-through with one of the world’s largest market data providers in a PoC which we have been negotiating and creating requirements for. The Enterprise team will further focus on market data providers as key target sectors for data beacons.
The OBP-team-lead will also be reinforcing the relationship with LATAM institutions, national banks and OBP. The goal of which would be to run more bank-themed hackathons around bitcoin adoption in LATAM. Additional synergies will be explored and developed to unlock new areas of opportunity.
We have a scheduled interaction to meet with a nation state government department (in the EU) to showcase some use-cases related to their needs. Very exciting times ahead already for Q2!
The enterprise approach and strategy has been working well and we will continue this method speeding up the pace for cycle #6. This is through email interactions, virtual and face-to-face conferences and venture capital networks. In this way, we will continue to showcase PoCs and live Airnode use to large partners.
We are picking up on previous engagements that slowed down during the holiday season and aligning interactions with our technical team for Q2,2022. Given our membership to the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, EEA, we will make the most of this affiliation attending monthly events for networking as well as scoping current users and partners on an enterprise-level.
During cycle #6, the Enterprise team will be attending (virtual and/or face-to-face) events and finding opportunities to partake in various Industry-focused conferences as delegates or as speakers: ETH Denver, Blockchain Africa, Ethereum Enterprise Alliance (EEA) and Consensus Austin are currently on our schedules. If you will be there, we would love to meet you. Please send us a discord DM or follow Forum for live updates!
We will also endeavour to work with a top 10 consultancy or implementation partner (McKinsey type) to add more credibility to integrating and implementing data oracle solutions powered by the Airnode.
Cycle #6 will be focused on driving data beacons with the development of additional POCs and Airnode integrations in which we can showcase to the community. This will tangiblize our data oracle infrastructure while demonstrating our ability to deliver!
1.2.BD – dApps and Platforms:
In addition to the above business development responsibilities, the Platform/dApps BD team will focus on building out the dApp and Platforms ecosystem. The overarching aim is to improve the options for developers looking to use API3 data by deploying on as many platforms as possible, and reach out to the projects being developed on these to find consumers for our data beacon, dAPIs and Airnode-enabled APIs.
Outreach (Platforms & dApps)
- Communicate with projects and platforms identified through R&D
- Identify areas for collaboration
- Propose a deliverable and mutually beneficial solution
- Establish integration potential and discuss marketing to developers
Communicate with development team and integration team for integrations
- Smart contract platforms
- dApps
Communicate with Marketing sub team to raise awareness among the general community
- Co-author blog posts
- Ensure technical content of posts correct
- Schedule announcements, verify content and timing with partners
- Discuss and align publicity requirements with prospective partners and marketing
Completed Deliverables (Cycle #6)
Cycle #6 led to the Platform and dApp focused business development team taking a more involved role in protocol development for Beacons, as well as providing technical support to participants of the Bitcoin Bankathon. The technical development side of these was also aided by the dapp/platform team.
A partnership with Near and Aurora was announced this cycle.
Similarly to the last proposal, a lot of the work of the core BD dapp/platform team was diverted away from outreach and partnerships, towards helping develop the products we intend to reach out about. The BD Platform/dapp team has also been working on processes with the account managers to facilitate more user onboarding, and materials to aid outreach to potential users.
Deliverables (Cycle #6)
The newer, larger BD team will enable increased dapp and platform outreach. We again aim to have partnerships as a deliverable, as it is easy to measure, and the net result of other work (like conference attendance, product development etc.). The aim of creating good product-market fit should also be viewed as a way of improving this metric in future proposals.
Another metric we aim to report on this upcoming cycle is dapps using API3 in production/testing (where the testing aspect can be shared publicly).
1.3. BD - API Focus:
In addition to the above general business development responsibilities, the BD-API team responsibilities relate to growing the number of relevant API’s and data beacon within the API3 Alliance through the lead generation cycle.
Customer Relationship Management and growth
- Liaising between account managers and sub teams
Qualifying API opportunities
- Researching and lead generation
- Following up on open or not outreached interactions within the database
- Aiding other business development teams through the sales funnel
Completed Deliverables (Cycle #5)
During cycle #5, the API team signed four additions to the API3 Alliance. These providers were in verticals of: the metaverse, open banking, and random number generation which will be disclosed during cycle #6.
The API team also pivoted to focusing on data beacons providing assistance across BD verticals. The next cycle’s focus will be on re-honing in on open interactions and inbounds related to APIs and data beacons.
Deliverables (Cycle #6)
During this cycle will see a continued focus on open banking, general financial data, and the metaverse, NFT, and gaming spaces. The API team is already in ongoing talks with a number of API providers from the previous cycle.
There will be a focus on working with dApps and Enterprise sub-team to target APIs and data beacons seen to be of strategic importance in closing ecosystem loops between providers and consumers of Web3 data.
2.Business Development Budget
| Amount (USDC) | |
|---|---|
| Grants | 97,875 |
| Expenses | 40,000 |
| Grant Sub Total | 137,875 |
| Total Credit Roll over from last cycle (UNI-BD) | -39,522 |
| Grant Total (Less Roll-over) | 98,353 |
Team and Grants
The team is composed of Business Developers and Technical Integration Engineer personnel.
| Core tech team | Role | Focus | Monthly Grant (USDC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| *Dave | Team Lead & Business Developer | dApps & Platforms | 2,000.00 |
| *Gio | Team Lead & Business Developer | Enterprise | 4,375.00 |
| Rob | Business Developer | Enterprise-OBP | 7,500.00 |
| Jacob | Integrations Engineer | dApps & Platforms | 5,000.00 |
| Joeri | Business Developer | Enterprise, dApps, APIs | 3,750.00 |
| Mo | Business Developer | dApps & Platforms | 5,000.00 |
| *Alex | Business Developer | Enterprise, dApps & Platforms, APIs | 5,000.00 |
** The destination will be a multi-signature wallet address managed by Dave, Gio & Alex .*
Requested compensation levels are as per the API3 DAO Compensation Guidelines
2.1.Expenses
The team will be recruiting new business developers or integration engineers in line with the organization’s growth rate in order to stem any unnecessary grant expenses.
The business development team will also be attending events as indicated as critical to drive new partnerships and ecosystem growth. Conferences and events that fall outside of large Marketing team sponsored events will be funded by the business development teams grant budget as per the Travel Reimbursement schedule.
In addition to the conference expenses, the team will potentially need access to tools to help streamline the BD pipeline. Some specific examples (not an exhaustive list) are:
- Hubspot
- Docsend
- LinkedIN Premium (Prospecting or Job Posting)
- Hunter.io (Prospecting)
- Trello / Notion (Kanban Boards)
When tools or features are chosen, receipts will be kept for production at the end of the cycle. Any remaining expenses will be rolled over to the next cycle.
The final category of expenses is for on-chain transactions in disbursing grants payments and such as creating proposals in other DAOs. Transaction IDs will be retained for these and produced at the end of the cycle.
Any unspent amount will roll over to the next cycle. A supplementary proposal will be made if we end up being able to make more hires than expected or see a larger-than-estimated number of business development outcomes generated.
Explanation of Proposal Parameters:
Target contract address is the USDC token contract address, which is 0xa0b86991c6218b36c1d19d4a2e9eb0ce3606eb48
Target contract signature: transfer (address, uint256). This is the function to call on the target contract, which triggers a transfer of USDC tokens.
The parameters stated include the address these USDC are to be sent to, which should match the proposal address, followed by the number of USDC. USDC has 6 decimal places, and solidity is unable to deal with decimal places - hence we add 6 zeros after the proposed USDC number. The number of decimal places can be verified on the USDC contract page of Etherscan - https://etherscan.io/token/0xa0b86991c6218b36c1d19d4a2e9eb0ce3606eb48