Gm foxes!
It’s time to start methodically introducing automation to ShapeShift DAO’s internal operations processes! Doing this will allow contributors to spend less time on the tedious and repetitive tasks required to keep the DAO running and more time building ShapeShift into the incredible organization that will help billions of people achieve financial sovereignty.
Why is automation important?
With the bear market upon us, weathering the storm is of the utmost importance. In most large DAOs, the single biggest expense is paying contributors. This simple fact by itself is not concerning, however, it presents a question: What are those funds paying for? In a perfect world, those funds go directly to investing in the ShapeShift product and growing revenue, however, in reality, it’s often seen that contributors wind up with their days mucked up with activities that while necessary keep them from doing the creative work they enjoy.
So what is the answer? How can you improve the ROI of the contributor expenses?
The solution isn’t in cutting out the necessary activities–no, you can’t just cut necessary activities, that’s what makes them necessary–but instead in removing the need for human beings to complete those tasks. The solution is in remembering the “A” in DAO: autonomous – “denoting or performed by a device capable of operating without direct human control.”
When DAOs become autonomous, they become less bogged down in the tedious and menial, and more able to focus on the exciting and energizing tasks of actually building.
How do we do this?
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Great question, fren! There seem to be two clear options:
Ask existing contributors to take time out of their already exceptionally busy schedules to start experimenting with introducing automation into their job functions.
- Bring in a third party to (1) interview key stakeholders within the DAO, (2) embed themselves into the ops processes of the DAO, (3) find the greatest inefficiencies, (4) build custom software, and (5) train the ShapeShift team on the new system.
Okay, but who would we even bring in to do this?
The startup that I work for, Barracuda, is developing a new product called Workflows–think of it as the automation of Zapier meets the CRM organization of Hubspot meets the data collection capabilities of Typeform. Our focus is on helping glue together the web2 and web3 technologies that DAOs use to help them spend less time on repetitive, manual tasks and more time doing the building that they love!
Barracuda is rolling out a tiny beta program to work with a handful of the best and brightest web3 organizations to custom-build the first workflows and automations for these DAOs’ specific use cases. Barracuda has invited ShapeShift to be part of this beta program and help them shape the face of the product.
That all sounds great, but what’s the cost?
Another excellent question, anon. There are limited spots available in Barracuda’s Beta Program, so Barracuda is asking for a deposit of the first month’s payment upfront to lock in ShapeShift’s spot ($1,000). The monthly fee does not kick in until Barracuda delivers meaningful benefits to ShapeShift. Upon successful delivery of said meaningful benefits, payments start monthly but can be canceled at any time. And since the deposit goes towards the first month’s payment, ShapeShift will not be charged again until one month after delivery. On top of that, the deposit for the Beta Program is fully refundable (more on that below).
Okay, but why should we trust Barracuda?
Experience: Barracuda is a venture-backed, US-based startup, and the team behind Cuda, the Link-In-Bio tool used by over 300 web3 organizations today, including the Twitter account for ShapeShift Brazil and ShapeShift en Espanol, as well as SushiSwap, BanklessDAO, Shiba, WOO Network, and many others. The Barracuda team is comprised of builders who have spent years building internal operational tools for startups and organizations of varying sizes.
Custom: Barracuda isn’t just building automation software and asking ShapeShift to find a use case for it. Instead, they’re building with ShapeShift’s needs in mind from Day 1. They’ll be solving the problems that you ask them to solve and taking your feedback along the way so that they can deliver something that will add value to ShapeShift DAO and help your team spend less time on the worst parts of their jobs.
Risk-free: It’s Barracuda’s intention to make this service risk-free for Beta partners. After taking the deposit, the onus is on Barracuda to identify workflow optimization opportunities within ShapeShift DAO and deliver the software. You do not start paying until they deliver the first meaningful optimization to your organization (and here “meaningful” is defined by you!). If you don’t like what they deliver, you can ask for your full deposit back, no questions asked.
This is where you come in, anon!
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What opportunities do you see for automation and operational optimization within the DAO?
- What gets you excited about introducing more automation?
- What worries you about working with Barracuda?
Please share any feedback on this forum post and/or in this Discord thread which the Barracuda team is monitoring. We’ll also be conducting an AMA with after this goes through incubation!
WDYT, should we work with Barracuda to streamline internal operations?