Building a "regular" biz using DAO principles. Join me.
A socio-economic project/experiment where everyone is welcome to contribute.
How could non-crypto biz built on DAO principles look like?
A socio-economic project/experiment.
DAOs are used by many crypto biz and communities. But I’m curious about how other industries and products can use those principles. This is an open project as a thesis on how could be DAO principles used to build a profitable non-crypto business. Everyone is welcome to contribute.
The ideas below hopefully just scratch the surface of what would be possible. Please share your ideas and join the project. Links at the bottom.
DAO principles
From the perspective of this project, the main principles of DAO are decentralised and autonomous. There’s no boss, board, CEO, team leaders or employees. And every member of the team takes autonomously care of their part of the biz. If there’s a bigger obstacle (financial, strategical, etc) a voting system is used to make a decision.
Why would one do such a thing?
Community
It might be the biggest thing bc I am building the product and brand together with the community from day 1. It’s not just about feedbacks, consulting, hiring. It’s actually co-building stuff. If I use DAO principles I am not the boss, it’s not about ego, it’s 99% about community, 1% about me. Given the open nature, I share both the data and the profit.
What would I do?
Note: This is just to hypothesise. We’ll have to find an actual biz idea.
Let’s say I am a founder of 3D printed shoes for teenage basketball players biz and you are one of those players (or just a curious community member).
I would do everything publicly and if you are a part of the community (you have tokens) you will have also access to all data. If you think you can improve something, you propose a vote. Other community members (token owners) vote. If your proposal goes through, you’ll get a share of profit for 3 (6,9,12) months.
I would ask you for design ideas and make a poll. The 3 best selling designs will be rewarded with a share of profit. Forever. I will repeat this regularly. It will be a DTC brand with a smart contract. Every sale of your design is $$$ to your account.
You can get tokens in various ways. You can be an ambassador, input your skills/effort/time, be active on comm’s Discord, help others in the community in some way. Any part taking on the brand, its products and community come with a token reward.
I will actually have hundreds or thousands of “shareholders” collaborating with me. The brand and product de facto belongs to the community. I am just merely a glue holding it together. The community decides by voting about product price, geographical expansion, deals with other entities and our north star, etc. All the bigger things. The community has access to all past data and predictions.
Employees (sort of)
I don’t hire employees, people ask to join the team because they have a passion for the community, it’s fun and meaningful. They can join temporarily if they want to work on something in particular (website, app, etc) and they’ll get a share of profit for a limited time. Or they can join long term. In both cases, the community decides if they are a good fit or not. The community “hires or fires” them.
Financing
You have tokens, you have access to information. You like the mission, have passion for the community, you like the numbers (whatever is your motivation) and you have money, you buy investor tokens. Actually, it’s crowdfunding based on SEAL. Given your access to all data, it’s simple and fast. Investors have a share of profit and a share on exit.
Exit
What if I would like to sell the business? Given that tokens represent the shares, I can sell my tokens to the community (exit to comm). It’s a self-governing entity, it will be more than fine without me. It has a passionate community, great product (thanks to the community), great marketing (also thanks to the community). I can keep a couple of tokens so I can vote in the future and have a decent income for my effort and time I’ve put into building the biz.
Co-founders
My assumption is that if you would like to start or join such a company, it would be because you have a passion for the community, you like the DAO principles in general and you would like to be a part of it. I also assume you have a fresh approach, don’t need to prove your ego and want to build something cool, have fun and make decent money. You don’t need/want to be a boss, you rather tap into the collective wisdom and let the community contribute, vote and decide.
You should have a substantial share of the profit and exit. You should appreciate a symbiosis between you and the community.
Hi, my name is Voytech. If you would like to participate in this project, send me a DM on Twitter or an email to voytechp@nicheconomy.com I’m also happy to just have a quick virtual coffee to talk about your ideas on how to make it better. This is the notion link, feel free to add anything.