Draft for Compound Grants Program 3.0

Proposals
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Draft for Compound Grants Program 3.0

Preface

Compound Grants Program 2.0 is reaching towards its conclusion. AlphaGrowth took the initiative to review and analyze CPG 2.0. The question to answer is “how can we help the Compound protocol” with Grants and Ecosystem Growth. Over the last 2 months we were very thankful to meet and engage with @adam , @arr00, @pgov , @pauljlei, @JacobPPhillips, @ignaciorsg.eth, @michigan_blockchain. All the community members who gave feedback on CPG 1.0, CPG 2.0 and areas of focus for Compound, thank you again. What we found is that Compound needs a small grants program, but also needs a growth team. Grants to build are good, but execution and expansion is better. We know this will help the Compound protocol and ecosystem.

Framing the Conversation

With eyes on the next chapter of Compound Grants program, AlphaGrowth conducted and will continue to conduct discussions with Compound community members and delegates to understand the needs of the ecosystem. Our aim is to help the Compound protocol grow by implementing a detailed plan for expansion and RFPs.

For protocol expansion there are 2 high level ways to scale Compound, vertically and horizontally. For vertical expansion this includes more products & pools with a concentration on helping existing users to further engage with Compound protocol. For horizontal expansion, the concentration is around growing the pie. With specific concentration on tooling for new users and a multi-chain expansion plan.

After Initial positive feedback from multiple delegates who have experience in contributing to the Compound grants process, we are proud to start a discussion on CPG 3.0 with the extended Compound Community. Below we have created a draft list of RFPs that CGP 3.0 will be focussing on. We are putting this discussion in the compound community to get more feedback and possible points to be added to the RFP list. The goal is to discuss with the community and make the RFP list as detailed as possible, so that CGP3 is able to attract the best projects to the Compound Platform. Once the RFP list is decided, AlphaGrowth will follow up with a draft Proposal for Compound Grants Program 3.0 and get the community feedback on moving forward.

[Draft] Request for Proposal for Compound Grants Program 3.0

Vertical Growth

  • Facilitate user growth to current compound products

    • [Business Development] Embedded DeFi: help apps that integrate existing markets and embed into apps with large communities. i.e. GMX
    • [Business Development] Partner with lending platforms and lending aggregators to create the most efficient markets.
    • [Business Development] Grow the quantity of Compound money markets with high quality projects.

  • Grow User awareness: Marketing, Outbound and Events

    • [Content] Education for Compound’s existing products
    • [Marketing] Incentives for influencer to deep dive on Compound’s current products
    • [Events] Twitter spaces and AMAs with existing projects & partners
    • [Content] Community education about latest launches and features
    • [Content] Textual, Visual, Audio content creation for technical, professional, prosumer and retail users
    • [Content] Key opinion leader initiatives to introduce whales onto Compound and get them locked
    • [Events] Hackathon sponsorship for Developers to see Compound as a liquidity platform.

  • Alternative UI/UX for traders using compound

  • Delegate engagement program / Governance Enhancement initiatives

    • [Research & Build] Tools, processes and activities that rejuvenate participation and voting in the community; i.e participation NFT, etc

Horizontal Growth

  • Ease the onboarding of Web2 users/capital into Compound

    • [Research] the tooling to ease onboarding for Web2 lenders into compound
    • [Build] APIs Integrating and facilitating hedge fund/institutional capital flow into Compound
    • [Build]SDK kits - create software kits to help developers create applications on top of Compound and integrate Compound

  • Multi-chain Expansion

    • [Research] Bridge integrations for Cross chain communication & integrations
    • [Research] Create a plan for multi-chain expansion to EVM based chain understanding risk return profiles
    • [Business Development] strategic Initiatives that support onboarding of whales from other chain DeFi projects

  • Regulatory outreach: The major factor inhibiting DeFi is the possibility of Regulation. The grants program will aim to promote research and activities that make it easier for Compound to grow with possible regulations in DeFi

AlphaGrowth

This is a draft list, the list will be finalized once we have inputs from the compound community.

Departing from the domain based strategy of CGP2, we are returning to the tried and true strategy of RFP based growth (As well as taking on some of the tasks ourselves):

  • Facilitate user growth to current compound products
    • [Business Development] Embedded DeFi help apps that integrate existing markets and embed into apps with large communities. i.e. GMX
    • [Business Development] Partner with lending platforms and lending aggregators to create the most efficient markets.
    • [Business Development] Grow the quantity of Compound money markets with high quality projects.
  • Multi-chain Expansion
    • [Business Development] strategic Initiatives that support onboarding of whales from other chain DeFi projects

Differentiation

Our main value proposition over other grant administrators is that we are not only processing inbound grants, we will also hunt through outbound campaigns to find the best resources to deliver on our promise of helping Compound grow. But first we need a shopping list.

The idea of RFPs is akin to a shopping list. Heading out for shopping, many of us have the shopping list with us. Shopping lists may sound basic, but they help us stay organized. With the list our needs are prioritized, and it saves time and money by preventing us from spending money on unnecessary shiny things. The RFP list ensures that the CGP3 Marketing and outbound are highly targeted and the Compound Grants program supports the projects which are poised to make the greatest impact.

About Us

Founded in 2018, AlphaGrowth has helped strategize, fund, and market hundreds of blockchain projects. Our mission is to help the next top 1,000 crypto projects get funding and go to market. Our team is led by data experts, economists and computer scientists with deep blockchain experience.

Previously, the founding team built a computer matching algorithm to match 80,000 fintech companies with 7,000 investors and private equity firms. AlphaGrowth is now applying these same principles to match crypto projects to corresponding ecosystem criteria and desires.

During our management of the Kava Grants program, the KAVA ecosystem witnessed a surge of 78+ projects integrating with the ecosystem along with a TVL of $80 Million in the ecosystem brought by the grantees. As mentioned before, having a “shopping list” is a key factor to pair with a growth mindset. We aim to make CGP3 a major success for Compound in terms of TVL increase, integrations boost and activity within the ecosystem. We are excited to get more of the Compound Community feedback as we move forward.

Moving forward
Once our discussions and discovery phase about the grants program requirements are over and we have received feedback from the community, we proceed with putting a proposal for the Compound Grants Program 3.0 and present it to the community.

Alphagrowth Website | LinkedIn | Twitter

11 Likes
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Highly recommend Alphagrowth. Been working with them for about a year now and one of the very few companies in the blockchain space that really seem to care about the success of the clients they work with.

Their insight and recommendations have been spot on and valuable.

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I have worked with AlphaGrowth multiple times before. We won’t find a more tenacious, determined and hard working team than this group. I can’t recommend them highly enough. We should seriously take a very close look at this proposal.

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Thanks @sharp!

We have reviewed your draft proposal and appreciate the direction you’re taking to support the growth of the Compound protocol and ecosystem. However, we would like to request more detailed conclusions on the analysis conducted for the previous CGPs.

Understanding the pain points and successes of the previous grants program is crucial in shaping the future strategy. Could you provide us with insights into the challenges faced during grants programs? Similarly, it would be valuable to learn about the successful aspects as well.

These aspects will help us better understand the areas that need improvement and the areas that we can use as a foundation to build upon for CGP 3.0. It will also help us recognize the strengths that should be retained and potentially expanded.

Having a more comprehensive understanding of the analysis and its outcomes, will help us to collaboratively refine the proposals and ensure that CGP 3.0 will have a positive impact on Compound’s development.

We look forward to receiving additional details about the analysis and are excited to work with you on further developing this promising proposal.

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Thank you for the kind words. @Bunga_MPC is head of Dev Rel at the Partisia Blockchain, we look forward to exploring the growth opportunities for Compound

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Many thanks for the support. @SPH is the CEO of Findora, we are excited to get more involved in the Growth of Compound

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Thank you for the valuable feedback @ignaciorsg.eth. We are having conversations with Compound community members to understand the needs of Compound, we are very thankful to get your suggestions which have provided actionable insights to move forward.

In this direction we also have analyzed the past Compound programs, their strengths and possible areas of improvement. With this post aimed at getting feedback on focus areas for Compound Growth/grants programs, we aim to put the detailed research in our next discussion where we also explain the possible suggestions and action points that focus on growing the Compound Community and platform.

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Our team at Meter.io has been working with Alphagrowth for almost 9 months. Really impressed by their data-driven methodology. The team was really friendly and hardworking. Most importantly they kept our internal BD team really busy as well for intros. You would not be disappointed.

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Thank you @xiaohan for the support, we are confident that our engagement with Compound community will bring the best opportunities for the Compound ecosystem as well.