Compound Growth Proposal[v3]
Thanks to the suggestions of all the compound community members and delegates including , @arr00, @pgov , @pauljlei, @JacobPPhillips, @ignaciorsg.eth, @michigan_blockchain etc. We are glad to present the revised and final version of the Compound growth Program.
An earlier version of the Growth proposal is also available on the forum. After conversating with more community members and taking into account the suggestions from community members @kevin, @joseph, @allthecolors, @robinnagpal. We made multiple revisions with the proposal and changed some focus areas and KPIs. With that in mind we believed it is best to post the final version of the proposal in a different thread. The earlier posts are linked below
Post 1:Draft for Compound Grants program
Post 2: Draft for Compound Growth program
Introduction:
The Compound Growth Program proposes to fill in the position of partner that enables the growth of the protocol. The program will secure dedicated personnel and resources for the Growth, BD related activities. The Key areas of focus of the growth program will include: increasing V3 integrations, users, wallets and TVL on the platform. Furthermore, there will be a focus on Marketing activities to enable the protocol to generate awareness and demand for the protocol products. The marketing and BD activities will be backed by robust research, which is also a part of the proposed program structure.
Compound DAO needs a growth partner. We have identified a couple of variables that can increase TVL and Users for protocol growth:
- Collabs & Co-Marketing with Partners
- Increasing V3 integrations
- New Assets research & process
- New Wallet integration research & process
Our focus will be on Marketing activities to enable the protocol to generate awareness and demand for the protocol products. Additionally focus will be on expanding V3 Integrations. The secondary focus of BD activities will be on emerging markets and new offerings that can create outsized risk returns. A recent example of this was Compound DAO moving quickly by launching on the new untested Base chain. The brave and bold insight is similar risk profile to an investor. For each expansion Compound will need to analyze whether or not the brand risk is worth the investment. The path for growth is 100% aligned with the partners, integration, assets, wallets that the Compound DAO decides to associate with.
Background:
Our initial intentions were to manage the next cycle of Compound grants program. However as we conversated with more delegates, it became clear that Compound needed a small grants program and a concurrent growth program to onboard new users with successive developments. A missing part in Compound’s operations is the focus on growth/ BD related activities. Compound already has other areas covered thanks to reliable partners in analytics, grants, and security.
- Security: Openzepplin
- Risk analytics: Gauntlet
- Grants: CGP
- Growth: ?
Usually ecosystems, and protocols have an internal BD team to manage the growth activities. Without a dedicated set of personnel and resources to focus on growth, Compound has not been able to keep up with its competitors, such as Aave. The growth program will ensure that Compound will keep up with the industry while still maintaining the conservative nature of the protocol.
Proposal Summary and Deliverables
The Growth program consists of 3 components - Research, BD and Marketing. Each of these components is crucial for the successful realization of the other two components. How we have devised the program, and research sets the stage for hyperfocussed BD and Marketing activities. BD helps identify the targets for marketing campaigns and Marketing helps multiply the impact of BD activities.
Research
Scope
- Initial Market research: Identify potential partners for dapp and collateral assets.
- Data analytics activities: to help support BD and Marketing
- Research on DeFi trends, suggestions to the community on incorporation
Deliverables
- Data research to enable a continuous and full pipeline for BD engagements.
- Identification of Key marketing channels to partner with.
BD
Alpha Strategy
AlphaGrowth Strategy heavily relies on Access. We have access to existing data, tools, projects and relationships. Part of what you are buying with our BD services is relationships and time. The time others would take to build such relationships would take 2 years of full time work in the industry.
With that being said we have a pulse on the Defi industry, what’s being built, what narratives are spicy and what investors both professional and retail are looking for. It simply comes down to what Robert Leshner recently said. Have the assets people want to trade. For Compound the future heavily relies on making sure it has pools of assets that users need and want to supply and borrow. If Compound does not offer the right assets users will simply go to competitors. We have to be the the winners.
Scope
- Outbounds: Campaigns to open conversations with potential partners, leads.
- Compound V3 Integrations: Targeting V2 integrated Dapps, getting conversations and conversions for V3 integration
- Getting more collateral assets and TVL
- Event presence: The team is present throughout major crypto/DeFi events. Better conversations on Compound integration through in person events.
Deliverables
- Compound V3 Integrations
- Wallet integrations
- Collateral assets
- TVL Increase
Marketing
Alpha Strategy
The aim of the Marketing activities is to leverage concentric circles of communities and partners in the DeFi landscape. Leverage other user’s communities and other communities users. A heavy focus for the marketing activities will be on co-marketing for every integration and collateral asset. Co-marketing is a strategy where you engage in marketing to your community and the partner community at the same time through event driven defi marketing- via Twitter spaces, KOL events, direct marketing, discord events and more. In DeFi you must advertise Events not Yield (Events here are integrations and partnerships and not in person events).
We will heavily use the marketing spend to co-market integrations to partners and communities that will drive the most adoption for existing Compound Pools and new integrations. Adding existing DeFi users to Compound user base. Onboard old users to Compound who have migrated to other protocols. Additionally, the Marketing strategy will also utilize ‘Quests’ to incentivize partner community to start using compound.
Scope
- Co-marketing campaigns for v3 integrations, wallets, assets
- Standalone marketing campaigns for new user features/integrations
- AMAs
- DeFi KOL Marketing strategies
- Integration marketing quests (Limited scope)
Deliverables
The Marketing activities will be measured by
- Total impressions on the campaigns
- Total link clicks and increase in DAU, MAU (daily, monthly active users)
- New user addition to Compound platform
Timeline
The original growth program was to span for a period of 6 months. But as discussions on the proposal continued, a consensus was reached on starting first with a ‘trial period’. We plan the BD program to run for a time period of 4 months, separated in two phases.
- Phase 1: Planning and Research
- Phase 2: Outbounds and Conversions
The Initial days will be heavily focused on Planning and research-related works with light outreach and discovery also being done in this time. For the remaining time, the team will primarily work on communications, conversions, negotiations and follow-ups. Between a team of 9 members, we will push nonstop to ensure the success of Compound’s expansion.
The additional phase which focused on retention and post integration continuity has been removed as the trial period time will not be sufficient to have any meaningful impact via the activities of that phase.
- Phase 3: Continuity and Communications
Funding and Budget
For the program, we have divided the budget into two parts. These are BD fund and the Growth fund. While marketing and BD activities of the program are closely related, we have kept these two funds separate as the growth fund is a returning fund. Any unused assets in the budget will be sent back to the Compound Treasury.
BD Budget
| Activity | Requirement/Month | Program Budget |
|---|---|---|
| Research | 120 Comp | 480 Comp |
| BD & Outreach | 725 Comp | 2900 Comp |
| Total | 845 Comp | 3380 Comp |
Growth Fund
The Growth fund is the external fund of the Growth program. While the internal activities, including research, BD, growth, outbounds, negotiation related activities are covered in the BD fund. The external activities are covered by the development fund.
| Activity | Description | Requirement/Month | Total Requirement | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | Fund used for Marketing. Includes direct marketing, KOL, AMAs, co-marketing, etc. | 785 Comp | 2900 Comp | Unused Fund will be returned |
| Developer fund | Paying protocols or developer teams to integrate products with Compound | 3000 Comp | Unused funds will be returned to Treasury | |
| Total | 5900 |
The growth fund is not a grant fund. We envision to resort to using this fund as least as we can. To promote Compound integrations, we currently have 4 routes for financing/boosting integrations
-
Bootstrapping: For majority of the protocols wanting to integrate Compound, the primary thrust will be to negotiate a contract where the full burden of integration falls on the counterparty.
-
Counterparty Grants: For bigger protocols like Balancer, the focus will be to get an integration from such protocols. The integration will be carried out by a partner developer team or anyone in the Compound Community interested in getting the grant and work on the integration.
-
CGP: For protocols not fitting in the above two criteria, the key blocker becomes the cost of integration. In such cases we will help the protocols to apply for the Compound grants program to seal the integration commitment.
-
Developer Fund: Should none of the above three methods provide a way forward for integration of the project. Most of the times we will not push ahead with the integration. But if we feel that a project has the capability of being a major asset as a partner with compound. We want to push ahead with the project and remove the financial bottleneck. For this we require a developer fund which will be able to provide small capital. This fund will be a reserve fund, used sparingly only in a few cases. The growth program will aim to be extremely frugal and conservative with the fund. Unused funds will be returned to the treasury.
Total Budget for the program: 9,280 (3380 BD in Services, 5900 Marketing and Development fund)
Why AlphaGrowth
We believe decentralization allows for meritocracy. That holds true in the Compound ecosystem as well. We have firsthand experienced the problems that chains and protocols face in their expansion and integration. Our learnings will be pivotal to identifying the risks and benefits associated in various growth strategies for Compound
Operating since 2018, AlphaGrowth has years of experience in DeFi and Crypto BD, We have successfully facilitated business development for multiple protocols including Kava, Sommelier Finance, NEAR, Aurora, and many others.
In our latest engagement with the Kava grants program, the Kava ecosystem witnessed integration with 78 projects and a TVL increase of $80+ Million. Our strategies have shown resilience and success throughout the crypto winter. Over the past year, our BD efforts have led to the deployment of over 150 projects on various blockchains. AlphaGrowth gets deals done, even in the bear.
We have interacted with over 100 ecosystems and 2700+ projects. To facilitate BD and grant deployment, our team built a crypto-native CRM and dashboard enabling us to efficiently evaluate and score opportunities, and report progress on all BD efforts.
Impact and Transparency
At AlphaGrowth, we like doing business in public. We welcome any input or feedback from the Compound community on the proposal.
To keep the community informed on the progress, AG will implement the following tasks to guarantee transparency
- Monthly reports on the progress of BD activities so far (6 reports)
- Quarterly Progress reports highlighting various deals in the pipeline, successful integrations, closed deals and learnings (2 reports)
- A database that gives all the program specific information to the community so that the members can come, verify and inquire about the process.
- Post program analysis and report about spends on Development fund.