in Convertible Grants disbursed in 15 days
For 250 founders in 2022
Contributors:
Polygon
Apply for BeliefDAO Grant
We bet on the buidler instead of the project
Mentoring sessions
post selection
Buidler has
full control of grant
No Company
Incorporation required
Frequently Asked Questions
What else do you get apart from the money?
Exclusive access to our partner VCs / angel investors, a gated Discord channel with other builders, and a group of mentors to guide you. You can also apply for a follow-on funding of up to $300,000 from our VC partners. The support system from chains.
What is a convertible grant?
This is a grant that is given to a buidler, instead of an idea/project/name. This is based on the belief that a buidler will succeed, sooner or later. Whenever this buidler gets this grant, they are free to use it as they please. No contracts, no entity incorporation required. If you fail, you do not need to return the money. If you succeed, this grant is converted into your project token at the first round valuation and fully unlocked. These tokens go back to Belief DAO treasury to issue further grants.
How does this work for the DAO?
Since we give out grants this early, the failure rate is very high. But we want to keep growing the DAO treasury. So the math has been worked in a way that even with a high failure rate, the DAO treasury keeps increasing.
How does this compare with other grant programs?
Most grants are given for a particular project, after a lot of evaluation, and are disbursed after certain milestones are achieved on the product / market side. We give this out just based on our belief in the founders.
How does this compare to incubator deals?
Outlier takes 6% of your company for $50,000. YC takes 7% equity at $125,000. Even if your company does really well and raises at a higher valuation. For good founders, this is a bad deal. Belief DAO does not cap your valuation.
Why do the tokens have to be unlocked?
Because this is the only way the math works. With such early-stage startups, our failure rate is very high. We want to increase the DAO treasury, not drain it in a few months. At an early stage, this could be a make-or-break deal for most founders. So the impact of this small amount of money is very high. A small $10k chunk of the token is not going to affect your token price on launch. See it as a way that you pay it forward to 10 other buidlers.
Do the profits from the DAO go to BuidlersTribe?
No. DAO treasury is for supporting builders. We do not take any of the money.
If there are multiple founders how is the grant given?
It is given to a multisig wallet where the founders/co-founders are the key holders.
Our Thesis
The Builder is at the heart of BuidlersTribe. Web3 is an engineering movement and fundamental value in this space is created by the builder and supporting this ecosystem is our mission.At BuidlersTribe, we work with the best founders to help them go to market quicker, with the right cap-table. The 9 startups we work with have over 150 people from our tribe batting for them and supporting them through mentorship and capital.We also realise that this is a very small proportion of builders and there is a huge pool of new builders that will take a long time to make the cut for BuidlersTribe.This segment is completely underserved from a capital support standpoint and the existing ecosystem grant disbursal mechanisms are complex and fragmented. As this one tweet put it really well, builders are motivated by not having to deal with this BS –
Enter Convertible Grants
Many Web3 angel and early stage investors are known to back the founder by providing them a very small cheque to go out and build the basic things that will help them get started with their project.These early stage cheques are very important. Builders can use it to hire a few people to help them ship a basic MVP, put some money in awareness or at the least for some basic needs (ramen money) the would afford them to quit their jobs to give their project a full time shot.This is the guiding tenant of the Belief DAO.If you’re a Web3 builder, you can apply for a grant between 5k – 25k USD based on the maturity of your project. This, along with the support of the tribe at BuidlersTribe, will give you a real shot at making your project a reality.This grant, if your project becomes a public network, gets converted to equity/tokens of your project, owed to Belief DAO. This capital is then again redistributed to more builders like you, so they can have the same success as you.
No matter how big a network gets, this belief capital that helps kickstart the process goes a long way. Our investors took this call on us to start BuidlersTribe. Sandeep Nailwal and the Polygon ecosystem did the same for Belief DAO. This virtuous cycle makes for a better Web3 ecosystem on the whole.So, apply today, find your tribe that believes in you and armed with a little capital, take that plunge and bring your project to life. We are with you till the end of the line.