Please describe your proposed solution.
Shark Tank, Dragon Den, Silicon Valley, The Dropout etc. These shows have one thing in common, these are popular startup TV shows that have become household names and have created such a buzz around them that people subconsciously attach the phrases startup and entrepreneurship to these shows. This illustrates the power of national TVs, national TVs have the power to create unified and powerful rhetoric around a brand, such powerful rhetoric and reach are vehicles brands use to drive adoption by the masses. Take for example ABC’s Shark Tank opened Season 13 with 3.6 million total viewers(this is only in one station), The Dropout with a cumulative view of about 5.2 million yearly, these shows have proven to be of interest to the general public. Unfortunately, Cardano does not have a dedicated National startup pitch TV show for students, the closest pitch show we have is the Pitchfest which is of course limited to youtube and not on any national TV and is not curated for students only. As a result of this, we are missing out on potential thousands and millions of viewers who can get excited about the show and from there get into the ecosystem, but more importantly, we are missing an opportunity to create the buzz and excitement that will attract the next big student entrepreneurs to our ecosystem. This is what this proposal is seeking to address, creating a National TV Show where student entrepreneurs will pitch their ideas, and move from one stage to the next stage, with every stage being determined by a highly competitive and entertaining process, this show will be broadcasted by a top National TV station in Nigeria and also publicly available on Youtube. All students who make it to the final stages win prizes and grants in ADA, which go toward support for their business ideas. In summary, the show will have the following stages
(I) Preliminary stages
(ii) Incubation show Stages
(iii) Pitch Show Stage
(iv) Finals
(I) Preliminary stage: The stage involves screening and determining who the right fits and teams for the programs are, applications will involve both written and video applications where initial Blockchain ideas and teams will be reviewed to see how their ideas and team formation align or can align with Cardano, we anticipate more than 1000 applications from students at this stage. The focus of this stage is basically on the quality of the blockchain ideas and the team, its suitability for Cardano will be determined in another stage, to pass this stage the students need to come up with quality ideas and to convince us that the team has what it takes to execute the ideas. The judges will review this stage and streamline 25 teams who will make it to the show. From the preliminary stages to the finals, all participants will sign and agree to allow for public usage of their contents, images etc.
(ii) Incubation Show Stage: All 25 teams will be invited to participate in the show, each team can consist of 1-3 members and will have to be together for the period of the show. The incubation stage is where the teams rework their business models, ideas, etc, and also make it Cardano fit. During the incubation, the students are taught on general basics of blockchain and Cardano and will be tasked to make it Cardano fit. The core emphasis of this stage is to see how the students can quickly adapt as entrepreneurs to come up with features that need Cardano integration in their idea. That flexibility and agility of the entrepreneur are what this stage seeks to find in the ideal entrepreneur. It also focuses on making the team pitch ready, by cutting the crap from their pitch decks and making the pitch decks and pitches ready for presentation, both in style and design. To clear to the next stage the mentors need to clarify that the team idea has been worked on and is ready to pitch, all the processes, iterations, changes, and final ideas will be recorded and part of the TV show.
(iii) Pitch Show Stage: The 25 teams from the incubation who are pitch-ready will be going for the pitch show before 3 Judges. Here is the twist and fun of it all, not only the teams will be judged but their mentors as well, each mentor will have about 3-5 teams that they are mentoring and will each get extra cash rewards(in ADA) for each of their team that breaks into the finals.
The teams will present to the judges, who will raise cards from 1-10 for each team after their presentation, teams below a certain threshold will automatically not pass, and those who pass the threshold will have to wait to determine their fate if they will be breaking to the finals or not.
(iv) Finals: In the finals, we will bring all the 10 student teams who break to the final to present before the Judges and to investors, investors from both the ecosystem and outside the ecosystem will be invited to the event. All 10 finalists will automatically qualify for prizes, with a differing range of cash(In ADA)worth.
EXTRAS: To bring in the element of fun and excitement and to keep people glued to the show, we will be having elements of Cardano-related Trivias, games etc where the winners get some extra ADA to their wallets in addition to the Pitch Prizes.
LOCATION: To give the extra attraction to the show and the scenery we will be using a resort-like place for the camp, and an awesome event hall for the finals.
How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?
"The purpose of this challenge category is to support student blockchain startups and onboarding to the community" This is the first statement about this challenge clearly indicating that the challenge seeks to onboard student blockchain startups into the Cardano community. Our proposal will help onboard between 50-150(25 teams each having at least 1-3 members) students to the Cardano community and considering that we are anticipating more than 1000 applications we can succinctly say that our approach will enable more than 1000 student entrepreneurs to be aware of the Cardano ecosystem while actively onboarding between 50-150 students.
How do you intend to measure the success of your project?
Positive Student Perception of Cardano: In the course of this project the participating students will be forced to read about Cardano, its technology, model, community etc, and fall in love with the ecosystem, for some of the students this will probably be their first interaction with any blockchain community, and this will solidify and create a good perception about the community to them. I can personally speak of this because I came into his community through a pitch event for startups last year by Cardano X Seedstar and I have developed a fondness for Cardano more than any other blockchain community, this same experience is likely to happen with these Student entrepreneurs.
Mass Acceptance of the Cardano Brand by the Viewers: The other side of the coin is that this show will be on national TVs in Nigeria, we have already established a premise that shows on national TVs have high viewership and most of the time always bring positive outlooks to the brands involved this same goodwill will be extended to Cardano in the course of this TV show, and many will subconsciously get attached to the brand, and what it represents, it's very likely that some by just watching this show will go into researching about Cardano and probably getting their wallets, either way, these are all positive to the ecosystem.
50-150 New Students onboarded into the Cardano Ecosystem: These are the direct number of student teams participating in the show.
Early Discovery of New Use Cases and Potential Innovators and Ecosystem Builders: This TV show will help Cardano discover the next generation of builders and innovators in the space. The early exposure to the community means that these students graduate with only the Cardano ecosystem in mind, hence all their innovations and community building effort will be parallel here.
Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?
Phase 1: Planning and Review:
Duration: 1 Month
Output: Document Report of chosen Location, facilitators, moderators, TV Network for the show.
Phase 2: Call for Applications and Review
Duration: 1-2month
Output: Google Form with details of Applicants and those accepted
Phase 3: Pitch Show
Duration: 1 Month
Output: Pictures, Videos and event report