Please describe your proposed solution.

Background:

Part of the gap we identified is the need of projects & companies active on Cardano to raise external funding and we often get requests for support. To attract more investors, our approach will be to collaborate and build the ecosystem database of companies looking for investments and make it easily searchable for investors looking for next opportunities.

Many/most investors have an investment thesis and the opportunity needs to match it to follow their investment mandate. For example one VC could have a mandate to invest $200k, pre seed, in Defi related to Africa so the company profile and funding need to match it to increase chances for funding.

The aim of this proposal:

The goal of this proposal is to better connect companies building on Cardano with investors. We will create a deal flow process that will make it easier for investors to see the opportunities within the ecosystem. Matching between the right opportunity with the right investors will increase chances of funding.

We will develop the database structure, build a user interface for it, promote it to companies to register & keep updating it, and once populated we will promote it to venture investors.

About Bridge Builders

Bridge Builders is an aligned team of highly engaged and committed Catalyst Community members coming together as a community driven Assembly to provide value to their environment through building bridges to corporates and investors.

We sensor and identify gaps within the ecosystem to co design and initiate required solutions. Bridgebuilders already created a bridge between many companies and the Cardano ecosystem including Ledger, Goodwall, Seedstars, Digifarm to name a few.

Many of the Cardano/catalyst projects, mainly bootstrapping, need support with investor & business development mentorship and channels.

In Fund 10 we have therefore presented 5 proposal covering different gaps that we have identified

• Fundraising support: Helping companies to create investor pitch decks and have a pitch event to venture investors
• Venture capital dealflow: Preparing a deal flow of companies to connect to investors
• Investor Conference: Promoting the ecosystem in a leading investors & tech conference
• Connecting tech 2 business: Supporting companies with business development activities
• Cyber security & Cardano: A collaboration with a leading cyber security company with the goal to make the ecosystem more attractive to corporates and investors

We look forward to continue collaborating with the community and try to fill up some of the gaps we see to promote the Cardano ecosystem

How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

Key related points from the challenge brief:

How do we equip and support developers with tools and working infrastructure? How do we make Cardano their first choice when it comes to building dApps, innovating and collaborating?

• How do we attract developers from outside of our current community to participate in Catalyst?

• What are enterprise dev managers looking for in order to be able to build out enterprise projects - either internal or commercial?

Access to funding will be very important to attract more projects and developers. We often hear that the Polygon network is very strong in supporting the developer community with funding and it will be important to create support mechanisms also to the companies building on Cardano.

Potential directions

• Knowledge base & Documentation

• Dashboards

• Support structures

• Incentivization structures

• Collaborative structures

The proposal is aligned with those potential suggested directions.

Why is it important? Beyond tools and infrastructure, we need to nurture a growing developer community with incentives for ambitious infrastructure projects.

How does success looks like? Accelerated dApp development and aligned strategic goal of Cardano which is increasing the number of open source projects on Cardano.

Access to funding & impact funding will be very important to attract more open source projects and developers and help to scale the projects.

How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

Key Metrics to measure:

Number of companies registered in the database

Number of investors registered

Number of match between investors and companies

Number of calls initiated between companies and investors

Number of investments with 6 and 12 months of matches done through the platform

A key matrix for success is making sure the companies will keep information updated, for example when they have a new deck or re their funding objectives.

Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

The platform will be public and therefore available to all to see the results.

Per request of the companies we are supporting, some information might stay private.

We will do regular reporting and community sessions such as after town hall sessions and swarm session.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

The Bridgebuilder team is active on the Cardano community and Ecosystem for over 2 years, including on project Catalyst. The team has a strong track record of contributing to the community and successfully completing funded projects. This specific proposal is highly related to the core activities of the team and we are already providing this support to a range of companies in the ecosystem. One public example is Goodwall.io who received funding from Emurgo Africa and from other sources.

What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

Main Goals:

• Provide support to companies working on Cardano to raise funding
• make it easier for venture investors to find great investment opportunities.
• We will to bring also investors who are aligned with investing in open source projects such as Floriventures.com and seedstars.com, those are normally impact origent investors which match many of the projects building on Cardano

The approach is very feasible as the team has a strong experience with fundraising, connection to investors as well supporting companies in the ecosystem.

Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

The work for this proposal

• Phase 1, Week 0-4:

• Design the database structure

• Have several iteration with 3 companies and 2 venture investors to fine tune the DB and build their profile

• Phase 2 week 5-8:

• Frontend development for companies to upload/update their profile

• Frontend development for investors to upload/update their profile

• Phase 3 week 8-16:

• promotion through the community channels and support for companies to upload to the system

• Phase 4 week 12-20:

• Promotion to Venture investors

• Direct

• Through network

• Through events (i.e. https://www.noah-conference.com)

Future plans:

Based on the success of the proposal we will evaluate how to continue and maintain the service for the ecosystem. Several models to further finance it could include a small fee by the companies, small fee by investors to support their dealflow or/and commission based on investment success.

Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Deliverables:

• Companies and investors database
• Frontend access to companies and investors
• Promoting the companies to investors

KPIs:

• 50 companies on the platform
• 20 ventures investors
• 100 connection/interactions between companies and investors within 6-9 months

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Phase 1 - system design and sessions with companies and investors:

• Project lead: 10 hours x 300 ₳ = 3,000 ₳
• Tech lead: 10 Hours x 300 ₳ = 3,000 ₳
• Investors lead: 5 Hours x 300 ₳ = 1,500 ₳

Total 7,500 ₳

Phase 2 - development:

• Project lead: 10 Hours x 300 ₳ = 3,000 ₳
• Tech lead: 10 Hours x 300 ₳ = 3,000 ₳
• Database developer: 15 hours x 400 ₳ = 6,000 ₳
• Front end developer: 20 hours x 400 ₳ = 8,000 ₳
• Design & graphics: 10 hours x 400 ₳ = 4,000 ₳

Total 24,000 ₳

Phase 3 - promotion to the community:

• Project lead: 10 Hours x 300 ₳ = 3,000 ₳
• Tech lead: 5 Hours x 300 ₳ = 1,500 ₳
• Community lead: 20 hours x 300 = 6,000 ₳
• Tech support: 10 hours x 400 ₳ = 4,000 ₳

Total 14,500 ₳

Phase 4 - promotion to venture investors:

• Project lead: 10 Hours x 300 ₳ = 3,000 ₳
• Community lead: 10 hours x 300 ₳ = 3,000 ₳
• Tech lead: 5 hours x 300 ₳ = 1,500 ₳
• Tech support: 5 hours x 400 ₳ = 2,000 ₳
• Investors lead: 20 hours x 300 ₳ = 6,000 ₳

Total 15,500 ₳

Admin, reports & others 4000 ₳

Total budget: 65,500 ₳

Total amount with 10% buffer: 72,050 ₳*

*The rates are calculated based on the current ADA value of 0.3 USD. We strongly believe ADA will go up overtime but it is important to have some protection for personal needs in case of volatility. Additional buffer of 10% is added in order to protect from decrease of ADA value. In case of increase in value we will adjust payments accordingly and use the additional amounts to provide the service for a longer timeframe.

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Yoram Ben Zvi – project lead

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoram-ben-zvi-446836/

Yoram has 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship, management, and business development, working with multinational teams. Since 2018, he has focused on helping impact-driven companies adopt technology solutions for community engagement, new business models, and social and environmental impact. Yoram is a cardano ambassador, active at Cardano4climate, New member onboarding challenge team, CA/VCA and overall very active in creating partnerships and onboarding companies to the Cardano ecosystem.

Dean Taylor – investment advisor

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rdeantaylor/

With over 25 years in the tech sector, Dean is a seasoned marketing executive with a deep understanding of "pre-chasm" marketing and partnership activities. He played a key role in the open-source movement as VP of Marketing and Channel Sales at Caldera Systems during the '90s, contributing to the company's IPO and market growth. Dean has been active on Cardano and Catalyst since 2022.

Nori Nishigaya – tech advisor

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishigaya/

Nori has 30 years of experience in software development, agile methodologies, management, and organizational systems design. Nori is dedicated to foster inclusiveness and community, building and exploring decentralized governance models, and enabling collaborative decision making in complex and emergent environments. He is also a co-founder of SAN₳ , Cardano Ambassador and stake pool operator (SAMON pool). Nori also served as a Member of the Catalyst Circle Admin Team, Cardano4Climate, and Rapid Funding Challenge Team. He is also a Cardano Ambassador, CA, and Funded proposer.

Felix Weber – community lead

https://www.linkedin.com/in/felix-weber-339590209/

Felix has a strong track record of leading and implementing community governance, infrastructure, and innovation funds, demonstrating his passion for driving constant progress in the field. He is a Cardano and SingularityNET Ambassador, co-founded Catalyst Swarm and has initiated numerous grassroots projects and networks in the DLT ecosystem. Within Cardano and Catalyst Felix is also the initiator and Coordinator of the Ambassadors Guilds, Initiator and Coordinator of of Catalyst townhalls around the world, Elected Member of the Catalyst Circle version 1, Community Advisor,Challenge Team Member and Proposals Mentor.

Juliane Montag – executive advisor

https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianemontag/

Juliane has 15+ years of experience in the professional service industry with focus on strategic planning, governance, stakeholder management, business development, PMO and talent in Latin America and Europe. Since 2020 she fulfilled several roles in the Cardano community, is actively involved in Blockchain community innovation and collaboration, as well as a Co-founder of Gimbalabs, dedicated to Blockchain Education.

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

This proposal aims to make it easier for investors to invest in the Cardano ecosystem. We see it as a needed tool to support the growth of the companies working on Cardano through venture funding. Onboarding investors will have a multiplier effect as they will exposed to more companies in the ecosystem as well as share their investment with other investors (co investment is a common practice) The budget is moderate for such objectives and represents a small % of the challenge budget.