Stellar Community Fund

By BiGGER - Startup Camp 2.0

Startup Camp 2.0 - Round 2 & 3

SCF #28

$100.0K

Legacy v5.0 Community Award

Awarded

Continue to facilitate & refine the Stellar Startup Camp to make it self-serve and replicable globally.

Products & Services

Following the Stellar Startup Camp relaunch and in consultation with the SDF, we ask the community for approval to run the next two Startup Camps. The Stellar Startup Camp is a program that provides the guidance and building blocks needed for startups looking to launch their projects on Stellar. Bigger ran the first Startup camp with 34 companies. For the first iteration of the Stellar Startup Camp, we developed the Startup Camp Gitbook and the Figma file, which is what founders use to turn their vision into a well-crafted application. The Figma file containing the design sprint has been thoroughly tested in beta with a select number of founders (previous to the Startup Camp), and we will continue to tailor it with each iteration. Important: The Stellar Development Foundation can use the resulting startup camp materials and knowledge independently of Bigger, meaning the SDF is not vendor-locked. Besides the direct value we bring to the community in the form of new projects and helping reviews be of higher quality, we are also able to provide value by gathering insights from seeing the entire funnel, from companies hearing about the Stellar funding opportunities (with little to no prior Stellar knowledge) until they apply to the SCF and how they receive and act on the feedback given by reviewers.

Key learnings: The technical aspect of Stellar remains a challenge for newcomers. Here is where a dedicated team of mentors makes a difference. By clarifying concepts and ensuring the technical solutions make sense, companies gain clarity on leveraging the Stellar network and give reviewers confidence that the team knows what they are doing and is ready to build. Go-to-market strategy needs to be more prominent. There is a notorious shift in the reviewer’s preference for projects that bring (existing) users to the community. Some “unwritten” rules for projects need to be included in the SCF handbook and cascaded to the Startup Camp. For example, Anchors will not be funded without an existing attestation of reserves and active userbase. The Startup Camp was more intensive than anticipated. We should start earlier by giving people access to the basic Stellar resources and setting some expectations around what they should acquaint themselves with before starting. It needs to extend beyond the deadline to support people with resubmissions, where eligible.

Key metrics: 122 companies pre-registered. 34 companies selected. 29 companies finished the Startup Camp (~85% of participants). 26 companies submitted (~90% of those who finished). 7 companies funded (~27% of submitted). 10 participants gave us feedback (~30%); the average score was 4.9 out of 5.

What was our initial objective and how did we do? The objectives of our initial application were to turn the Startup camp process into a self-serve process that attracts fresh talent from diverse demographics more frequently and sets them up for success. Self-serve process: The first iteration of Startup Camp 2.0 set the baseline for where we stand today. The two most highlighted aspects of the Startup Camp were the clarity we brought participants on how to submit a project to the Stellar Community Fund (self-serve) and the technical support we offered throughout the process (still manual). Fresh talent: 122 participants. Diverse demographics: We selected teams from South and North America, Africa, Europe, Oceania (AU & NZ) and Asia. More frequently: This startup camp will run in July (the last one was in April), which is already 1 month sooner than the previous version. We aim to keep streamlining this process so it can run every month. That sets participants up for success: 90% of participants presented their project to the SCF, 73% asked to resubmit, and 27% funded projects. The biggest challenge was that people weren’t sure who would build the solution.

To wrap up, some unfiltered feedback: "I am surprised by the careful thought you guys have been giving during this entire time. We can see that every step was considered and we are doing our best to learn the tools, through the daily meetings and mentors. I will overshare a little here: I was recently fired from a company that was very hard to work with, had many many problems and I felt just a number there. And I fall here, in the SCF Camp with all this love, respect, and kindness to each other. Just makes me try even harder because that is the life I want. Those are the people I want to be next to. Thank you guys!" "Invaluable feedback and insights from every team member!" "Figma file could have been more defined and ready to be used as a first time user. But loved the experience."