View all

RnDAO x Arbitrum CollabTech Incubator Program

Written by
RnDAO
Published on
December 23, 2024

Are you building technology that helps people work better together? RnDAO and ArbitrumDAO are partnering to invest in and support promising CollabTech projects from recent Ethereum ecosystem hackathons.

What is CollabTech?

CollabTech represents the evolution of traditional B2B SaaS, focusing on tools that enhance human collaboration and the functioning of organizations. If you're building products that help people work better together—whether through improved communication, coordination, or shared workflows—you're creating CollabTech. This is a $350bn+ market, growing rapidly at 18,6% p.a., and being transformed with blockchain and AI.

More Than an Accelerator: A Venture Builder Approach

We're not an accelerator program. You won't be one of 12 teams in the same workshop nor part of a program where mentors advice from afar. 

Our approach is what we call a Swarm, and it combines:

  • A specialised venture support team, that's been building CollabTech since Web1, working 1-1 with you across every dimension of the business.
  • Becoming part of an ecosystem of CollabTech projects that are incentive-aligned to support each other (cross-selling, integrations, best practices, talent referrals, comarketing, and more).

Learn more about how we support projects here and how the investment agreement works here.

Program Structure

The program is divided into two phases. We'll select 4 teams for Phase 1, and up to 2 teams will also be invited to join Phase 2.

The program requires a bare minimum of 20 hours per week per founder, ideally 40. During that time we'll work 1-1 with you in focused work sessions, host trainings, and expect you to engage with potential customers, research and develop your pitch, run validation experiments, promote your project by building in public, and in Phase 2 build an MVP and sell it.

Phase 1: Customer Discovery & Foundation (3 months)

  • $2,000 monthly per cofounder (maximum $4,000 per month per team).
  • Focus on clearly defining your customers and value proposition to demonstrate viability and investability.
  • The goal: develop an exciting pitch, backed by customer development and market research.

Phase 2: MVP Development & Market Testing (3-6 months)

  • $38,000 in additional funding.
  • Focus on developing an MVP and market-testing.
  • The goal: generate customer traction to unlock funding and/or revenue.

In this program you'll work with:

Drea: Research lead at RnDAO. Has been building CollabTech since Web1. Led research for products such as Google Suite ($16bn revenue), Asana ($183mn revenue), and Aragon. Also was an innovation catalyst at Innuit (Quickbooks).

Gokhan: Venture support lead at RnDAO. Led product and tech at Keyper, Ogram, and Vezeeta (collectively raised $100+ million). Also led product at WeBuild Ventures's five portfolio companies, deploying $4.5 million as a member of the investment team

Daniel: Instigator at RnDAO. organisation designer and 3x founder (1 exit, undisclosed), ex-Head of Governance at Aragon and supervisory council SingularityNET. Trained BCG consultants on system design and innovation methodology, visiting lecturer Oxford U, HBR author.

Mario: Tech strategy and due diligence lead at RnDAO. cryptographer, one of the first hires at XX Network (raise $26M, founded by David Chaum). Head of Research at Parfin (raised $38M). R&D funded by Dfnity, Algorand, Worldcoin, SEI, Polygon, and Starknet.

Cori: Marketing lead at RnDAO. Co-Founder and Event Organizer at Regens Unite, ex Head of Comms at Giveth, partnership lead at The DAOist and 9 years in sales and marketing.

Roso: Economics graduate, in crypto since 2020. Core member at RnDAO for the past 2 years—manages talent and startup onboarding, hosts events, and coordinates projects (eg. Arbitrum CollabTech Hackathon).

Who Should Apply?

  • CollabTech projects that participated in Ethereum ecosystem hackathons during Q3-Q4 2024
  • Founders committed to the program and building at least 20-30 hours a week, full-time preferred.
  • Keen to collaborate and be part of an ecosystem.

This Program is Not For:

  • Projects outside the CollabTech space
  • Those seeking only capital without interest in hands-on support

Ready to Build the Future of Collaboration?

  1. Join us on the RnDAO's Discord.
  2. Introduce yourself in the #introductions channel stating you want to join the program, and our team will guide you through the next steps.

Let's build the future of collaboration together!

FAQ

Q: My hackathon project is part of a larger project. Can I still apply?
 Yes, but you must apply with the entire project. We prioritize teams with focus and commitment, as success requires a lot of work. We're unlikely to select partial projects where value accrues to a separate entity.

Q: When and in what time zone will the program operate in?
The program will operate primarily in the afternoon UTC times (afternoon for Africa and Europe, morning for America). We'll start at the end of January and run throughout Q1 and Q2.