Growth Working Group - Season 2 Proposal

Inverse Finance DAO
1

Growth Working Group Season 2 -180 Day Plan

  1. Summary

Proposal for Inverse Finance DAO to cover operations of the Growth Working Group (GWG) in Season 2, running for 6 months from May 1, 2024 to October 31, 2024.

  1. About The Growth Working Group

The GWG manages a wide portfolio of responsibilities including business development, marketing, design, community, and capital raising. In addition, the GWG engages in day-to-day risk-related activities including serving on Fed Chair and Policy multisigs.

The GWG today consists of one contributor, @patb, who joined Inverse as head of growth in 2021 and brings deep experience in enterprise and consumer software marketing, business development, product development, and operations, including previous web3 marketing & business development experience at Index Coop.

  1. Season 1 Lookback

Season 1 was important for the DAO as the launch of sDOLA, improved market conditions, and strong DOLA liquidity on Base contributed to an improved competitive environment going into Season 2. FiRM lending capacity was flat for much of Season 1, delaying cross-chain expansion and other plans. sDOLA’s cross-chain expansion is also proving more time-consuming than expected. Stil, Season 1 laid the groundwork for great things for the DAO. A brief review of the GWG’s Season 1 accomplishments across all functional areas:

Business Development - Liquidity Partnerships

  • sDOLA and DOLA expansion to DEX partners on emerging L2 chains was/is a major business development focus for the GWG with multiple partners on-deck pending cross-chain (CCIP) availability… There is no bigger advocate for L2 expansion for DOLA and sDOLA than the GWG. On Base, the DAO’s partnership with Aerodrome soared and reduced the urgency for more DEX partnerships on Base.
  • We added new yield aggregator partners Dyson and Harvest, with more pending.
  • We added a new fiat on-ramp, Stably, now in test.
  • Our pursuit of an additional top-tier CEX listing continued despite our no-pay policy for CEX’s, save for one top CEX where discussions continue.

Business Development - Strategic Growth Initiatives

  • The most important DOLA demand sink initiative in Season 1 was and remains sDOLA, where GWG was a key driver in launch. With competitive headwinds, sDOLA has been slower to gain traction than expected but with new emerging L2 liquidity partnerships and the use of sDOLA as collateral on third party protocols, we should expect accelerated sDOLA TVL growth during Season 2.
  • GWG launched multiple proposals using a new approach to add new third party DOLA lending market partners including Compound and others on Base that are likely to go live in the next 30-60 days and potentially also on Ethereum mainnet. GWG is also driving development of a Redstone price feed for DOLA to serve these partners.
  • GWG is currently drafting a whitepaper in collaboration with other contributors for an Inverse “sister project,” stemming from the GWG’s Inverse Federation proposal.
  • GWG posted a draft proposal for the Inverse Developer Grants program, a pilot program for partners seeking to offer a “white label” fixed rate lending service to their users. Our first prospective grant applicant, Skyline Digital, plans to launch its fixed rate lending product during Season 2.
  • We delayed discussions targeting DAO treasuries pending the release of sDOLA, with more aggressive marketing planned for Season 2 based on informal feedback suggesting better timing when sDOLA liquidity improves along with cross-chain availability.

Marketing

  • sDOLA was our top marketing priority in Season 1 where GWG built a marketing plan, produced and executed a well-received launch campaign and co-authored the sDOLA whitepaper. GWG also authored blog, docs, and other long form content and hosted a Twitter spaces event while avoiding injuries in the development of the sDOLA logo.
  • GWG drove multiple product management deliverables including requirements documents for sDOLA and an upcoming product, sINV. GWG is also driving the updated product roadmap for the DAO.
  • GWG expanded the DAO’s day-to-day social media presence from Twitter to also include Warpcast and DeBank.
  • GWG supported partner launch events throughout Season 1
  • The DAO’s newsletter, The Recap, was increased to weekly distribution and reaches notable DeFi users and influencers.
  • GWG published other long-form Twitter and blog content. GWG also launched an Inverse presence on mirror.xyz and continues to experiment with cross-posting blog content there.

Design

  • As a cost-savings measure we ratcheted down our creative design spend and experimented with lower-budget approaches to solving for visual content to support our marketing efforts. We scraped and called in favors from creatives in a true spirit of marketing spend austerity. Some of our creative efforts, like this one, received public and private accolades.
  • Visual content, when used, continues to outperform, on average, text-only content on Twitter, our primary vehicle for reaching our audience.

Community

  • Also as a result of additional cost-savings measures, the GWG also picked up some responsibilities formerly held by the CWG which led to an overhaul of Inverse docs, launching an sDOLA meme contest, hiring and managing a part-time Discord mod, and revamping our Discord channels.

Capital Raising

  • GWG played a central role in discussions relating to formation of an entity as well as discussions regarding the potential sale of treasury assets.

GWG didn’t hit all its Season 1 objectives as the DAO made mid-season strategy shifts (sDOLA) and lending capacity on FiRM did not justify expanding to an L2, affecting GWG objectives. Our Q1 target date for bringing sDOLA to new chains moved out, too, which affected DEX partnerships and also our campaign to DAO treasuries. We didn’t get a legal entity during Season 1 despite best efforts though we seem to be close to a solution. Our work on segmentation is still in process and shifted to analyzing LP attributes and behaviors. We also had to make do without a full-time design resource to assist with things like homepage design and explainer assets.

Season 2 180-Day GWG Objectives

We outlined the DAO’s 12-month objectives in August 2023 in this post and our “north star” objective of reducing bad DOLA debt – which is essential to returning greater value to INV tokenholders – remains intact after a decent Season 1 repayment performance.

The GWG directly impacts three of the four success levers mentioned in that document:

  1. Increase product adoption
  2. Increase product profitability; and
  3. Raise external capital;

In support of these three levers, the GWG has identified 180-day objectives across its functional areas of responsibility:

  1. Business development
  2. Marketing
  3. Design
  4. Community: and
  5. Capital raising.

Where possible, deliverables are reduced to measurable objectives.

Business Development Objectives

Business development objectives impact product adoption and profitability. For Season 2, business development objectives are grouped into three categories:

  1. Liquidity partnerships,

  2. Third party lending partnerships; and

  3. Strategic growth initiatives;

  1. Liquidity Partnerships.

In support of objectives laid out in our forthcoming product roadmap, liquidity partnerships help create demand for DOLA and sDOLA, help to expand lending capacity, create veNFT assets, generate treasury ops revenue where Feds are deployed, help manage the DOLA peg, and reduce our reliance on INV for liquidity incentives. New liquidity partnerships also help drive higher volumes which get us closer to a Chainlink oracle for DOLA, which is a hard requirement for certain leading lending markets.

Emerging L2 DEX’s

Perhaps the most significant liquidity partnership opportunity for the DAO centers on a growing number of Ethereum Layer 2 chains, where DOLA’s success on Base/Aerodrome is creating real demand for DOLA liquidity partnerships elsewhere. Many of our competitors have already begun to deploy liquidity in this way and Inverse can similarly take advantage of these opportunities with minimal risk (using native bridges and no feds) and expense.

For sDOLA, this L2 expansion lays the groundwork for partnerships with lending protocols and even perpetual futures markets keen on adopting new yield bearing collateral. Similarly, for our upcoming sINV product, the same partnerships can help drive demand for INV on new chains, bringing INV ownership to new segments.

We are currently in dialogue with well over a dozen potential L2 partner DEX’s. GWG analysis of emerging L2 opportunities takes into account current or likely TVL, community, partnership terms, team, and other attributes. While data is being updated on an almost daily basis, the GWG currently recommends - subject to RWG and TWG signoff - the pursuit of new DOLA, sDOLA, and sINV liquidity partnerships on:

  • Berachain
  • X Layer (OKX)
  • Mantle
  • Linea
  • Fraxtal

Season 2 objective: close a minimum of three new DEX partnerships on emerging L2’s, subject to RWG and TWG signoff.

CEX’s

INV liquidity and volume on centralized exchanges remains light and our policy of paying zero fees for CEX listings has limited our recruitment of new CEX partners. However we remain in discussion with multiple CEX’s including among the top 5, who show some indications that INV could be added durings Season 2. The DAO should continue to seek out no-pay CEX listings and we are prepared to offer bounties of up to 5,000 DOLA for members who help us close no-fee CEX listings.

Season 2 objective: close one new CEX partner.

  1. Third Party Lending, Perpetual Futures, and Yield Aggregator Partnerships

Also supporting DOLA Everywhere and INV Everywhere, we can build new relationships with third party lending and perpetual futures market protocols. DOLA’s success on Base is creating multiple near-term opportunities to add DOLA as a lend/borrow-only asset on lending markets without the requirement of a Chainlink price feed. GWG recently put forward a proposal, now passed, to acquire a Redstone price feed which is increasingly accepted as an alternative to Chainlink.

Today, we have one public proposal viewable on the Compound Finance forum and other proposals in the discussion stage, primarily on Base where DOLA liquidity is deep but also on Ethereum mainnet. Emerging L2’s are also likely sources of both lending and perpetual futures market partners. We have an active discussion with one perpetual futures market partner on an emerging L2 and preliminary discussions with two others, though sDOLA liquidity may be a gating factor in rollout. Also with our L2 expansion we have an opportunity to recruit new yield aggregator partners replicating our success to-date with Beefy and others.

Season 2 objective: close a minimum of three third party lending market partners.

  1. Strategic Growth Initiatives

Strategic growth initiatives (SGI’s) represent partner-driven new product, distribution, or business model opportunities designed to catapult Inverse forward in our industry. SGI’s are ideally partner-driven and leverage partner ecosystems or installed bases, where the GWG provides leadership in drafting requirements documents, business model analysis, proposal development, or in the case of DAO treasuries, outbound business development.

  • Inverse Developer Partner Program. We are in the early stages of testing a program to enable “white label” access to fixed rate lending to partner users without directly surfacing today’s FiRM UX. We will provide an abstraction layer to assist developers who want to help bring FiRM everywhere. Draft proposal here. Season 2 objective: launch the Inverse Developer Partner Program with at least two grant applications.

  • Inverse Federation “Sister Project.” A draft whitepaper for our first Inverse “sister project” keying off last September’s Inverse Federation is underway. This and/or another Inverse Federation concept - whose goals include paths for faster DOLA bad debt repayment - will be presented to the DAO during Season 2.

  • New business model concepts. SGI’s may include formulating and analyzing longer-term business model concepts which may require longer incubation timelines. All have the “north star” of DOLA bad debt repayment as a priority.

  • DAO Treasuries. Diversification of DAO treasuries into sDOLA represents an excellent opportunity for increasing sDOLA demand, albeit with typically long sales cycles. The GWG recommends identifying a part-time resource to help penetrate this opportunity on a pay-per-performance basis. Alternatively, we could identify a partner seeking to assist DAO’s in this regard. Compensation for this role, when a resource is identified, will be subject to governance vote. Season 2 objective: identify a part-time resource or partner to help penetrate DAO Treasuries to close at least $500K in DOLA or sDOLA treasury diversification.

  • Grants. Two paths for grants are a) deploying FiRM (or other Inverse dapp) on a new chain with a grants program and b) apply for a grant on a chain where projects not deploying a dapp and only liquidity are eligible.

  • Other Season 2 SGI objectives: GWG will put forward a minimum of one new strategic growth proposal during Season 2.

Marketing Objectives

The GWG is also responsible for marketing and communications functions for the DAO, with goals of driving awareness, trial, and adoption of DOLA, sDOLA, FiRM, and the INV token. Note: GWG is limiting requests for additional marketing and promotional resources, including events, pending further improvements in the DAO’s operating runway.

  • Increasing Awareness.

    • We begin awareness raising by crafting narratives to support DAO priorities like sDOLA, new collateral on FiRM, and other product launches. These are often supported with formal marketing planning and coordination with working groups, partners, creatives, and community members.
    • Moving sDOLA and sINV onto emerging L2’s with new DEX and other partners in Season 2 will provide high-visibility awareness opportunities across new user segments and with partners keen to promote ecosystem growth. Certain new partner-driven collateral like sFRAX also have high potential to boost awareness.
    • For major product launches like sDOLA, we craft low-budget, high-intensity marketing campaigns to break through in a loud crypto marketplace. We will execute a “major” campaign for sINV with smaller, partner-driven campaigns for cross-chain sDOLA deployments. The sINV launch will also provide for compensating third party YouTube and long-form Twitter content writers who provide compelling or high traffic content. GWG recommends a total of 1,200 DOLA for third party content to support the sINV launch during Season 2.
    • Twitter/X remains our primary channel for reaching new users. We engage current and prospective users on Twitter/X on a continual basis, with an emphasis on partner-driven events, new Inverse product launches, and DOLA yield farming opportunities. There is now a high likelihood that the @inversefinance account will receive a “blue check” during Season 2, allowing for long-form content and better performance vs. Season 1 for our posts due to the X algorithm design.
    • For Season 2 we will expand our presence on Warpcast and offer one or more promotions to build our audience there, which today has a heavy concentration of Base users.
    • GWG also creates blog and newsletter content which are useful for both awareness raising as well as retention but also serve as due diligence tools for prospective users and potential partners. GWG also works with publishers like Coingecko and Coinmarketcap and now engaging Token Terminal along with AWG to improve our presence there.
    • To bring a new layer of “expert” reference content to our marketing, in Season 2 we will do a low-budget test with an outside analyst firm to support our sINV launch, support cross-chain sDOLA, and generate coverage of Inverse on an ongoing basis. GWG recommends a up to 100 INV for a test with a third party analyst firm during Season 2.

  • Increasing Trial and Retention

    • A large opportunity for inducing trial of sDOLA and sINV in Season 2 are new partnerships on emerging L2’s where via partner co-marketing, partner-led incentives, and grants help us induce trial across segments we are likely not reaching today.
    • Until a date is set for FiRM availability on an L2, for Season 2 GWG will focus our overall trial efforts on sDOLA and sINV. We also achieve trial via users joining liquidity pools and lending markets which incorporate either of these products.
    • Increasing trial on FiRM mainnet is impacted by DBR prices, lending capacity, collateral options, and other factors driven from outside of the GWG. We will continue to focus our trial efforts around messaging new collateral like sFRAX, long-term lending use cases, and as market conditions permit launch promotions to encourage variable rate users to migrate loans to FiRM.
    • In Season 2 we will continue the work with the AWG to provide cohort analysis among DOLA and, soon, sDOLA holders in order to help us form better approaches to segmenting the DOLA LP and sDOLA markets which also informs our L2 expansion strategy.

  • Other communications. The DAO requires ongoing communications leadership both for routine DAO communications but also during unusual events and the GWG continues to work to ensure a high level of professionalism in all our outbound communications. For Inverse this function is particularly important as in addition to the DAO’s commitment to transparency, the DAO’s bad debt adds extra importance on trust building within the community. High transparency, high impact communications are essential to strengthening the Inverse brand.

Design

  • The DAO will continue to rely on freelance creatives who can fit our budget since visual assets improve audience engagement. We will continue to experiment with AI tools, which are powerful in terms of generating baseline content but the editing process for quality animated output is still fairly time intensive.
  • In light of upcoming product launches and other initiatives, GWG recommends a total of 7,200 DOLA in ad hoc design spending during Season 2.

Community

  • GWG will continue to manage a part-time Discord moderator and also recommends additional low budget community meme contest(s) in support of new product launches. Total Season 2 DOLA budget for mod and contest expenses: 3,000.

Capital Raising

  • Treasury Asset Sales. The DAO’s veNFT portfolio is increasingly attractive as a vehicle for more quickly retiring bad DOLA debt. GWG has already led discussions in this regard and we should expect veNFT’s to become more marketable later in 2024 when they become splittable. GWG will continue to work with TWG to qualify these opportunities before bringing to a governance vote.
  • OTC Sales. The uptick in treasury ops revenue and the likely increase in DAO lending revenue is making the need for outside capital to repay DOLA bad debt less urgent. Despite the lack of a legal entity, the DAO may still seek to do an additional OTC sale for purposes of retiring bad DOLA debt or funding a sister project. GWG will facilitate discussions with potential OTC buyers during Season 2.
  • Inverse legal entity. The prospects for a legal wrapper or similar entity for the DAO appear unlikely today, however at least one Inverse contributor is likely to form an entity which can help us achieve some of the goals of a legal entity. The GWG will continue to support this effort.

Other GWG Activities

  • Fed Chair. Like other Fed chair members, @patb is on standby 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
  • Policy Committee.

Budget

GWG Contributors to be paid at the following rates:

Name FTE Pro Rata Monthly Salary Total For Season 1
patb 1.0 14,500 87,000

Ad Hoc Expenses

The GWG multisig currently has 32,800 DOLA designated for a DOLA Redstone price feed and 120 INV remaining in its multisig from its Q2 2022 budget proposal. The GWG requests an additional 11,850 in ad hoc DOLA authorization and 10 additional INV authorization for Season 2.

Expense Type - DOLA Description Estimated Monthly Expense Estimated 6-Month Total Expense Available in GWG Multisig S2 Budget Request
Marketing YouTube and other creator content in support of product launches 200 1200 1,200
Marketing Tools & Subscriptions 75 450 450
Design Freelance design services 1,200 7200 7,200
Community Discord Moderation 300 1800 1,800
Community Contests & Promotions 200 1200 1,200
Total DOLA 11850 0 11,850
Expense Type - INV Description Estimated Season 2 INV Expense Available in GWG Multisig S2 Budget Request
Business Development Spot rewards for community members assisting with BD & Marketing objectives 30
Marketing Analyst Research 100
Marketing Other 100
Total 230 120 10

Budget Request Summary

Expense Total Season 2
Salaries 86,400
Ad Hoc - DOLA 11,850
Total DOLA 98,250
Ad Hoc- INV 10
Total INV 10