$80M Fund Backs OrangeDAO's Revolutionary Plan to Mentor and Invest in Web3 Enterpreneurs (cringely.com) 25
An anonymous reader shared this report from long-time tech pundit Robert X. Cringley. "A Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO) called OrangeDAO is cooperating with a small seed venture fund called Press Start Capital to establish the OrangeDAO X Press Start Cap Fellowship Program for new Web3 entrepreneurs.
"Successful applicants get $25,000 each plus 10 weeks of structured mentorship plus continued access to the more than 1200-member OrangeDAO network. In exchange, OrangeDAO and Press Start get to invest in the resulting companies, if any, produced by the class." Cringley likens it to the American tech startup accelerator Y Combinator — but on steroids.
Cringley also explains why he thinks this "middle class VC" model "will replicate and grow unconstrained," ultimately exporting itself from Silicon Valley to cities around the world. There are many DAOs around and hardly anybody understands them or knows what they are good for. Mainly they have seemed to be involved in the NFT market. But OrangeDAO is different. It has 1200+ members and every one of those members is a graduate of the Y Combinator startup accelerator. They are verified Y Combinator company founders, so they've all had similar entrepreneurial experiences and see business much the same way as a result. OrangeDAO seems to have big plans and to make those plans happen in August the DAO, itself, raised $80 million in venture capital, with their first use of that capital being these Fellowships.
I think this will change forever venture capital and the world economy.
It represents a new stage in the evolution of venture capital. In many senses it is the democratization of VC....
The DAO members all have similar backgrounds, similar values, and similar risk tolerances. THERE ARE MORE OF THEM, so they can do bigger deals. And — here's the important bit — THEY ARE ALL Y COMBINATOR-EDUCATED and connected globally through the blockchain. They not only know many of the same things, they have a sense of where this knowledge comes from and why it is useful.... In the YC-based DAO we have people who want the next generation of entrepreneurs to be even better-educated. It's not some egalitarian goal, either: they see it as key to success for the whole thing.
Smart people with good ideas will self-identify, be funded at a subsistence level to allow them to develop those ideas and prove their worth, then they can participate on a truly level playing field for the first time.... Gone is the Tycoon, gone is the professional VC who doesn't understand his tech, gone soon will be the angels (subsumed into the DAO model), and gone for the most part are the asshole VCs whom entrepreneurs grow to hate (not all of them, but a lot).
Done correctly, this model is essentially Meritocratic VC. If the idea is good, the market is ready, and the people know what they are doing, the capital will be there.
"Successful applicants get $25,000 each plus 10 weeks of structured mentorship plus continued access to the more than 1200-member OrangeDAO network. In exchange, OrangeDAO and Press Start get to invest in the resulting companies, if any, produced by the class." Cringley likens it to the American tech startup accelerator Y Combinator — but on steroids.
Cringley also explains why he thinks this "middle class VC" model "will replicate and grow unconstrained," ultimately exporting itself from Silicon Valley to cities around the world. There are many DAOs around and hardly anybody understands them or knows what they are good for. Mainly they have seemed to be involved in the NFT market. But OrangeDAO is different. It has 1200+ members and every one of those members is a graduate of the Y Combinator startup accelerator. They are verified Y Combinator company founders, so they've all had similar entrepreneurial experiences and see business much the same way as a result. OrangeDAO seems to have big plans and to make those plans happen in August the DAO, itself, raised $80 million in venture capital, with their first use of that capital being these Fellowships.
I think this will change forever venture capital and the world economy.
It represents a new stage in the evolution of venture capital. In many senses it is the democratization of VC....
The DAO members all have similar backgrounds, similar values, and similar risk tolerances. THERE ARE MORE OF THEM, so they can do bigger deals. And — here's the important bit — THEY ARE ALL Y COMBINATOR-EDUCATED and connected globally through the blockchain. They not only know many of the same things, they have a sense of where this knowledge comes from and why it is useful.... In the YC-based DAO we have people who want the next generation of entrepreneurs to be even better-educated. It's not some egalitarian goal, either: they see it as key to success for the whole thing.
Smart people with good ideas will self-identify, be funded at a subsistence level to allow them to develop those ideas and prove their worth, then they can participate on a truly level playing field for the first time.... Gone is the Tycoon, gone is the professional VC who doesn't understand his tech, gone soon will be the angels (subsumed into the DAO model), and gone for the most part are the asshole VCs whom entrepreneurs grow to hate (not all of them, but a lot).
Done correctly, this model is essentially Meritocratic VC. If the idea is good, the market is ready, and the people know what they are doing, the capital will be there.
"democratization of VC" (Score:2)
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but, but, they are "connected globally through the blockchain" you insensitive clod!
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So it's globally organized crime?
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No AI?
Hard pass.
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Sounds like something Cringley would promote, if he thinks something is good you can be pretty much be assured it's crap.
I can understand (Score:2)
... why this was posted by "an anonymous reader". Someone was a late joiner to the Ponzi scheme; is in the hole; but is hoping they can manage to pull in at least a few more gullible people so they can perhaps recoup their losses.
"Enterpreneurs" (Score:2)
Hopefully they can invest in a spell checker too.
Re: "Enterpreneurs" (Score:2)
Indeed. They meant to type âoeentwerpreneursâ.
Mentorship (Score:4)
Typically the word mentor is reserved for a highly successful and trusted experts in the field to advise others. The entire crypto market, especially DAOs is so young that these "mentors" are themselves still wearing nappies and crapping themselves.
How about we actually have a successful example of a crypto currency that works as a suitable financial tool and is stable and mature in the industry before we talk about mentoring.
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"Mentor" in the crypto business just means "people on top of the pyramid looking for dupes".
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looking for dupes
Oooh we could employ them at Slashdot!
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Slashdot would be a crypto goldmine.
You had me at.. (Score:2)
also, so much pretentious jargon. DAO. Nicely done. A touch of Eastern philosophy. Makes it look authoritative yet mysterious. Other-ish.
web 3 is con (Score:2)
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I interpret the title as the fund having 80M, which it is going to invest in this crap.
"Revolutionary" is the new "demented" (Score:2)
Web3 is just a money grab by some assholes, nothing else. It cannot work. It is not needed. It is part of the crypto'"currency" scam complex.
what in the press release is this? (Score:1)
Why is it called Web3 (Score:1)
Wrap it up and sell it (Score:2)
It's a classic stage in the lifecycle of any scam: wrap it up and sell it. Instead of spamming, sell spamming services. Instead of defrauding people, sell "leads" to people that can be defrauded. Instead of the lottery, sell lottery systems. Put as many layers as possible between you and the get-rich-quickers.