Project Details
What are you going to build?:
A 14 day founder residency program focusing on African entrepreneurs building with Web3, and working on projects that drive mass adoption. This program is education, mentorship, and community oriented, and not selling/pitching them any products or services.
Cohort 1 working dates: 17 February - 1 March 2024 (Updated)
Cohort 1 is targeting 20-30 founding teams, comprising:
founders who are in the middle of building/scaling their ventures, raised capital
early stage founders who are developing their product/service
entrepreneurs in transition, figuring out what to work on next
We already have a list of 10+ founders who are planning to attend, including those who have raised VC funding and are in the top 5% of the founder talent pool. They are interested in building on Ethereum but lack the infrastructural support and access to the global Ethereum ecosystem. Selection takes place through a competitive online application process with interviews.
The residency focuses on these key elements:
In person 14 day gathering where everyone is present together
Fostering meaningful collaboration, knowledge sharing, and community building amongst African founders from different parts of the continent
Structured mentorship by experts from the Ethereum ecosystem, including:
Open fireside chats with experienced founders from around the world
Community building activities
Heads down building space
Demo day
Smart contract deployment
Security and risk management
Product building
Privacy
Go To Market
Token design, token launch, and game theory
ZKP
Analytics
Community and hiring
Fundraising
Several mentors from the Ethereum community have confirmed their participation and can cover close to half of the themes above.
Post residency / alumni community:
Online closed forums for alumni to share valuable insights and resources
Online office hours, ongoing mentorship, and fireside chats
Newsletters and resource centers
Alumni events + self organized regional residencies
Annual rhythm:
2 cohorts a year for the first year, to keep the momentum and talent coming through the program.
(this grant application is for the first cohort only)
Success from Cohort 1:
A collaborative community of African founders, and the foundations to keep growing across multiple cohorts.
African founders better equipped to build on Ethereum, and who are better informed on technical, product, and team choices.*
New and mutually-beneficial relationships forged that outlast this program between African founders and global mentors and partners involved.
*We will track which founders move to build on Ethereum and L2s, but that's not a KPI we are orienting towards as it diverges the focus away from education, mentorship, and community