[RFC] PTBR-8: Growth Q4 2023

Governance PT Budget Requests
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PTBR-8: Growth
Start Date October 1st, 2023
Duration of Work 3 months
Requested Budget $22,700

With a strong commitment to innovation and expansion, Growth drives the PoolTogether protocol forward through content marketing, community engagement, partnerships, and outreach. In this new quarter, the Growth team aims to align closely with the “Big Head Growth Strategy” recently outlined by Generation Software.

Growth consists of dynamic and experienced poolers who have consistently contributed to the ecosystem across multiple phases of development.

Contributors:

  • Darby, Lead
  • Denicio Del Toro, Podcast Producer
  • Thumbs, Content
  • McFamz, Content Design

Scope of Work

Motivation
The continued success and growth of PoolTogether necessitate active development, promotion, and strategic planning. Growth is dedicated to nurturing these efforts and ensuring that the PoolTogether Hyperstructure reaches its full potential.

Mission and Focus Areas:

  • Asset Curation Promotion: Create and disseminate content on new, curated assets to attract new users interested in these assets.
  • Liquidity Provision Promotion: Create and disseminate content on liquidity incentives for popular AMMs, attracting liquidity providers and creating new pathways for user engagement.
  • Safety First: Develop marketing campaigns that emphasize PoolTogether’s safety features to attract security-conscious new users.
  • Innovation-Led Growth: Conduct online events and create content that drive home the innovative aspects of PoolTogether, particularly new releases and features.
  • Strategic Partnerships: Pursue new integrations and foster existing relationships to enhance the PoolTogether ecosystem.
  • Advocate Empowerment: Support community members in their endeavors to contribute to PoolTogether’s growth.

Goal
Our primary objective is to ensure the successful launch and adoption of the PoolTogether Hyperstructure. This entails a holistic approach, working closely with Generation Software and the Community Team, aligning marketing strategies, and engaging the community and potential partners.

Milestones & Deliverables

  • Produce 12 weekly podcast episodes, including highlight videos and educational Shorts Video Content (Denicio & McFamz).
  • Release a combined amount of at least 4 educational long-form blog posts & 2 tutorial videos to keep the community informed and engaged, and introduce new users to the ins & outs of PoolTogether (Thumbs & Darby).
  • Conduct 6 ecosystem-focused, bi-weekly Twitter Spaces and 1 Twitter meme contest (Darby).
  • Organize at least 4 Discord webinars/live demo workshops to educate and build community cohesion and excitement around PoolTogether V5 (Darby).
  • Initiate at least 6 potential partnership conversations in coordination with Generation Software (Darby).
  • Strategize and effectively execute marketing campaigns in collaboration with the Community Team and Generation Software as V5 rolls out, starting with Optimism (Team).

Q3 Stats can be found here.

Budget Requested

Amount Token
22,700 USDC

Budget Surplus

Amount Token
743.19 USDC
1222 POOL

Our budget request reflects the investment needed to meet our ambitious goals for the quarter. It will enable us to create high-quality content, foster partnerships, and execute community engagement initiatives.

Coordinape will not be used this quarter and instead the 23443.19 USDC will go towards projected work. The surplus of 1222 POOL will be used for V5 bounties and contests meant to engage the community and attract new users. Any amount of unallocated USDC & POOL will be rolled over to the next budget request or returned to the treasury.

Your support and feedback are crucial to our success, and we look forward to sharing regular updates on our progress.

Appendix

Major Q3 marketing efforts for V5 were pushed back due to the delays of the public launch and focus on the beta launch. In addition, V4 deposits were not pursued in preparation for V5. Because of this, researching and pursuing partnerships, integrations, and incentives programs were prioritized for Q3 instead.

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As I stated in several comments Here I am not in support of this budget.

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Revisions to the team structure, a standardized compensation approach, a reduced overall ask, and a plan for last quarter’s surplus. Bravo! :clap:

To be opposed to this revised PTBR at this point is, in my opinion, to be opposed to the continued production of quality PoolTogether content. After all, if this PTBR is to go unfunded, the growth team would have to dissolve, leaving at best volunteers and Generations existing staff to pick up all the slack.

I, as part of the Growth Team, won’t be voting, but I’m hopeful that there are enough members of the community who see the value in what we do. Here is what I believe should be motivating voters to vote in favour of this PTBR.

There is very little content beyond what the Growth Team produces, and what does exist, at least on the user-generated side, has mostly seen worse reach and worse results. Furthermore, some user-generated content we’ve seen is completely incorrect about what the protocol is and how it works, risking creating negative opinions or expectations of PoolTogether. And, the assumption that this could all be produced by Generations (Tjark, Tim, and the devs) is unrealistic, and would, at the very least require that their own PTBR be increased. That’s the thing, you see: when people do work, they need be paid.

I know some want to invent arbitrary numbers that they see as the value of our work, without comparing those numbers to similar products, periods of time, or budgets from other DAOs/protocols. Not only do I wholeheartedly disagree with these critiques, I disagree with the entire premise. As @Loitering_Gorilla pointed out in this excellent discussion post, PoolTogether is actually getting quite good value for the services rendered, and the results being expected would normally be correlated to the work and budget of a larger coordination than our humble Growth Team alone.

I recommend everyone read’s Sean’s post :arrow_down:

Thanks everyone who took the time to read through all of this and, again, great work @poptones! I’m hopeful that we can continue working together to help grow PoolTogether. It will only be possible if people support our PTBR though. Fingers crossed the signal can get through the noise :crossed_fingers:

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I really appreciate all the effort and motivation that is being put in here as well as the general passion the Growth team showcases. However, just looking at the pure stats, I dont think it is a good investment. I would rather dismantle the lump-sum proposal and identify the most effective elements that should then receive an overproportionate focus.

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hi gabor, thank you for the response. the q3 stats are due in part to the delays of the V5 public launch and the beta being private. the podcast and twitter spaces next quarter aim to be ecosystem-focused, which will have much more community support. however, podcast and spaces stats won’t be the focus next quarter. the focus will be on bringing in tvl, liquidity, and new users to V5.

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Do you know what the webinars themes will be? Some coverage of the bots would be interesting imo.

For the 6 partnership conversations. Safe to assume these are new talks, in other words not counting the existing chats that are occurring. Is there any current targets?

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gm taliskye, thanks for your questions. i plan to have the webinars be part live demos covering the cabana app, cabana factory, and the like (co-hosted w/ devs from g9 software), and part onboarding/ethos-focused sessions for new users interested in contributing and looking for guidance (something i had a hard time coming across when i was first contributing and trying to be more involved myself). i believe some mentorship will help ensure more high-quality contributions from new community members who may not be familiar with our core values.

i agree bot coverage for the webinars would be great (although probably not as beginner friendly)! i already have plans for bot coverage in the twitter spaces & podcast for greater outreach. recorded bot webinars would be even better.

and yes, the 6 partnership talks would be new, of course :100: i’ll refrain from being overly specific in order not to nerf potential partnerships, but considering how important liquidity providers will be for V5 i hope to target incentives programs and more wallet/interface integrations.

hope this answered your questions :blush: if not lmk!

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PTBR-8: Growth is live! please ensure you are voting on the CORRECT one