How to Successfully Receive a Grant from Aave

[Music] [Applause] [Music] we are ready to move on to our last talk of the day so we've already spent the past few hours talking about how each of the different grant programs are structured and how everything has evolved so far and you've also even now seen a showcase of some of the incredible projects that the avi grants has uh has funded but to kind of really sum it all up i want to do this last panel on what does it mean to successfully receive a grant from ave and how do you actually go from applying to the finish line and uh having this discussion will be sharias and nimron we'll help out with the other events program and uh i'll let them jump in directly so we'll come back uh share some imran and i'll let you take it from here [Music] thank you kartik hey tris how are you hey man i'm good great um you know like you know we've been working with each other for quite some time now and there's just a lot of learnings um both from you know working with other dows and working with all of the new participants that are applying for avi grads and um and there's been many questions that come up at least for me when when i'm talking to the recipients and one one question i get very commonly is um what are the right ideas or what are the right opportunities for ave and other protocols and how should i be using my resources to help let's say ave is an example and so maybe we can start with that and then we can start to think about the design space then the process and then how we think about grants moving forward yeah it's a good question i think um the the number one thing is um it's just something that benefits avi and it seems simple but but because of the nature of um of open source contributions and and the types of projects that that can apply like you know this startups is um there's uh you know sort of a gender like public good type contribution uh there could just be a lot and and i think um at the very least this like your project should benefit me in some way and what that means is it can benefit other users um so you know like gennady network built something that saves uh you know use other users from costly liquidations it could benefit like sort of governance contributors and so you know making the governance interface easier or improving um yeah sort of streamlining the governance process in some way it could help um you know obvi protocol directly it's like increasing tdl uh bringing like sort of stable kind of critical way um uh or yeah it could it could have helped the general like dao so like setting up uh you know uh endowed a sub-dial that that focuses on on risk or treasury or uh or something else and so i i would say um to start off like you know um a bunch of projects kind of get ruled out because um because they don't seem to be benefiting avi in some way and and uh and you know like it doesn't mean that like the project should go on to do other things it's just it's just that um the benefits of it shouldn't be like a really small tangential thing it should be something that's kind of a focus with the grant um and so i i would say um uh you know i wouldn't over complicate like um you know just what like hey what's the best thing that ave needs and like you know where we of course have rfps in our site and there's some things we prioritize like like the governance ui and the developers now uh but i i would say that you know the problem is is more like basic than that where you know a lot of projects um are building something that that might be really useful and actually you know a valuable either probably good or a valuable startup but it feels like the the rv benefit is um is really forced to like non-existent or it's just like a side note mate um and so yeah that's probably how i answered it thank you um and you've touched on some interesting things um which i'll talk about in a bit but one point that i wanted to make earlier uh with our conversation with robert leschner stanley um was the fact that accessibility has been an interesting play into how grants are being processed um you know previously you know like web 2 you could think about these grants are effectively like venture funds or bench investments to see like new ideas now the rate of seeing new ideas is exponentially growing because of all the grants that that's out there and so accessibility and then you have um kind of the rate of speed of how we're supporting these newer foundry developers into the ecosystem um and so how are you seeing that landscape and are you talking to people from all over the world how what does your day-to-day look like from that perspective yeah it's a good question i i think there's definitely um i i i think there's a there's a lot of uh diverse like uh developer and other like contributor activity uh more so than i i would say you know an inter in the in the traditional like venture type custom and so um you know one one reason for that is just uh you know like the the the nature of crypt like crypto generally is is attracted like all sorts of people from from um sort of the non-traditionally credentialed uh backgrounds and that extends to these grants programs as well um the other element if crypto is like this pseudonymous component like um symphony finance uh that got an rv grant a fully pseudonymous steam and we we you know did some sort of kyc verification but uh but yeah that's sort of kept private and it's it's a fully surrounding scene that can apply that it's quite hard in in sort of in the traditional world um and uh yeah the the concept from pretty much all over like um you know i spoken to a bunch of teams um in uh across europe uh in in this vietnam team there's a bunch of teams in india teams in the us um in canada like so it's pretty much from all over actually not thinking if it would be cool to do some yeah like a pie chart of these applicants um and the folks were funding too uh but yeah i i i'd say it's pretty much from all over like i would say you know i would like to see um uh yeah maybe uh maybe more focused like maybe more like female applicants um and uh you know there's definitely areas maybe we can do a better job just in terms of uh outreach uh maggie's from c5 maybe maybe some collaboration there or something um but uh but yeah in terms of geographic um distribution i think it's it's like you know pretty much from all over the place maybe the the only restriction is you know you you do have to apply for the grant in english and so there's there's probably you know some areas that are restricted that way but um outside of that like you know we're quite uh we're quite open and accessible to like um you know pretty much all types of contributions and this includes like you know we're we're focused a lot on on developer um uh projects versus like more community oriented ones um um the though the the bunch of them they're really interesting i think as we um expand our budget uh you know pending like governance approval and everything uh we would like to you know focus more on this culture and community bit um but yeah i think i think for now the the focus has been on on these developer projects but there's of course like many more skills that you can apply including like certain analysis community you know culture like uh you know there's stuff you could do in the nft world um uh that we can fund throughout the grant so uh we'd like to do more of that um as we as we have more more money to fund these projects and um what's also very interesting is um i'm starting to see more and more of this within just like when we're interviewing applicants is the fact that some of them don't even have web through experience right and they want to contribute in in traditional sense like the web 2 world i know we've seen like the mobile app that's being proposed to build for ave i've seen dashboards risk analysis that are being proposed by web two founders um and that's very interesting because like i know cardtake and each global team has done a great job of bringing like high quality developers into the ethereum ecosystem and now we're starting to see grants playing a part in that which is you know which i thought was like an indirect effect so what are your what are your thoughts about that yeah it's really cool because i think i think it's actually a very good um onboarding for people uh in fact i would you know uh just like i would recommend someone uh who has some like web to experience to just like do a hackathon at uh eat global or get coin and and like you know make you make your way through i would i would include avigrances as one of them you know along with with um uni and comp grants like i think um it's it's really cool way that you can if you don't know if you don't know at all what to do just like look you know look at the rfps and there's something that you'll be able to filter with your skill set um and uh i actually recommended this to a few friends who have um who wanted to uh kind of just get their hands dirty and getting into crypto i actually think that's one of the advantages of a grants program it seems very simple and straightforward that you you have this application you can actually apply and you can you can you can like do something concrete and get funded for it um it's it's actually um it's very useful for like a lot of other people like most people actually aren't um sort of that uh comfortable just like getting in front of a dao and like you know just proposing what they want to do and uh you have to be a some type of person for which um uh you know quite quite forthcoming and extroverted uh and and you know willing to say what you know just just take initiative and even when you don't know what that like sort of just push something forward uh which i think is is a very useful thing too um but but i think grants are very useful for like a bunch of people who kind of want a more private i think uh application if you're rejected you're rejected privately it's not this like sort of public facing um uh that that's rejecting you there's also a way to um to just like you know like a lot of times the rejection is and um it's just something they can tweak or like you know maybe maybe maybe it's not a fit now because of what we're focusing on or something uh but uh it's it's the relationship is still there and can continue um and so yeah i would say um it's it's definitely you know one of those like really um uh uh one of those things i would say that that a web 2 person should um you know should consider applying for one of these defy grounds to get in uh i would also say like you know it's um uh you know what once you once you do one of these like it just um you know you can you can then go on to like work you know work for the developers that are like what you know work for other company you know it's a it's a really cool like like almost career path and it's not gonna i don't know how long it's gonna last because you know we're at the stage where you know we we know every every grant that's been funded it's not um you know it's not sort of that we have a lot of inbound but it's not that overwhelming and so each of these projects get a lot of i think attention and are noticed and you know um and so that that's really cool too and i i would like to i think expand our um uh like sort of reach inability to you know do this more where we can um you know actually be more targeted i was speaking to the blockchain and berkeley folks uh earlier today and you know there's probably ways we can we can coordinate with with some of the university groups to um you know to to sort of source uh sort of develop a work in talent that way uh there's definitely more we we can sort of um uh push from our side but from from the inbound perspective like i i definitely think um you know that there's there's a lot of people who fit that category of like you know they're not they're not like solitary devs with a lot of experience they they just like you know they're iterating and bringing their way out and and um and the grants is like a good safe space to do that yeah um and i want to touch on a very interesting point uh that's happened many times throughout just like the crypto like crypto history which is like high quality founders will or you know people that want to become entrepreneurs will find any way to get access to funding so they can exceed their idea and this is for all the developers are listening today i mean like i give you like a clear example of the one inch team and how they built uh the first iteration of one inch at an east global hackathon or sao may and and and team at eat san francisco and eat india and so like a part of like like you know for founder like people that are aspiring to be founders you know seize your idea right you have this great opportunity there's so many grants that are available to you and there's just a lot you could do with dave ecosystem and others and so like for potential founders this is like a great opportunity and maybe sri is maybe highlighting like have you like what were some of the success stories been like um for for those that received grants from from us yeah uh and i just wanna a comment down that i want to add in addition to um to like the the money to um yeah basically you know without diluting yourself you're getting uh some some capital to basically build something and and learn and iterate and experiment uh you also have like um i think a community that um that that's you're almost like taking along with your project and so if you're if you're if you're building something you know alongside um ah they are you you focus on one or two protocols and you're really like sort of tailoring or integrating with them um you you have the sort of uh support i think uh which is very useful especially if you you know you're you're a project without um uh sort of any um any visibility like it's it's cool to have that initial um backing and integration to like then do other things um and so that that's a that's i think a value add that i've seen um some projects comment on uh in terms of yeah the success um success stories like you know pretty much like a lot of the grants for funding are really useful and important things and uh the main the main thing is just to actually ship it and execute it and and if if like 100 projects do that like you know all of them would be you know really great and useful in different ways um and so in terms of the ones that have uh gelato comes to mind they ship very quickly and uh they built this this you know useful solution to um uh to to prevent users from these costly liquidations i think they um uh they they had a lot of background on the like solidity uh and smart contract side but but um i think they are using other groups have to build uh build a ui um and so you know they they were just like sort of hacky and quick and uh built something um the symphony finance did just um went public i think on uh launched the beta on polygon um and so you know they're equal too like they're building um you know basically a way to uh unyield with limit orders i think that there's um uh omni analytics was another one where you know they kind of like took over the uh the the sort of analytics uh function from some of the stuff that that ave company was doing and uh we we actually wanted um like in rv grants like human analytics kind that they're helping manage uh they they put putting out some really cool analytics on avion polygon on dune and and they're also i think building up a separate dashboard in r because um uh you know june is limiting in some ways um and so you know the way i describe success is honestly like completing what the the the the scope grant that these projects have laid out and and a few that they're definitely more that um that have completed it successfully but i'd say you know just just doing that is is a big enough step because uh because some of these projects are uh like ambitious uh but but all of them are like you know quite useful to the ecosystem um which is why you know why we're funding it so um you know there's a wide spectrum of of things from um sort of yeah analytics to uh some more ambitious projects say like um you know uh build bringing zero can actually loan star way or something like that that you know is more ambitious and will take more time and has more steps uh but yeah like our our approach from from avigrant side is you know if if the project has a higher you know grant size we just we just split into multiple milestones but we don't shy away from from funding those it's just that we need to make sure that the execution can actually be done and there's clear there's a clear road map to that and i guess we're almost at time but one final question is um how easy or hard is it to apply for ravi and get and receive a grant yeah it's uh very straightforward to apply it should be like 15 minutes to finish the application um and uh you know the um the you know there's no electric questions or something like it's quite straightforward just see what what you're working on uh what one like one thing to keep in mind is again like like clearly i learned that like why why are you applying to the to the rv grant like you know the benefit to rv the other customer or users or the community in some way um and then uh we'll um we'll get back to you with uh uh you know if it makes sense to schedule um an interview with one of the grand ws and then uh yeah and then you know after the interview um the interview basically you know if if there's any feedback to the other uh grandstand members we'll we'll um ask for feedback but then you know besides that you know we should we should get back to you um uh with the decision soon i i uh the the only question is we like to batch things together so um so you know we'd like to send sort of like maybe 10 uh decisions together so you it might just be a little weird to just batch them together but yeah besides that it should be quite straightforward to um you know apply um and yeah like we you know if for some reason we we think um you know the project can be tweaked tweaked in some way to uh make it better suited or maybe the grant amount is too exotic and there's some there's a smaller amount that makes sense like we will definitely let you know uh and it's not you know it's even even the interview like it's sort of meant to be a conversation to understand just uh you know what you're building like um you know it's some some evidence that like you know you you actually execute on this um and then yeah why it's why it's useful to the rv custom um and that's that's pretty much like you know a summary of things and you have maybe specific questions on on the direction you're taking or something oh well shiraz thank you so much um i'll pass it over to kartik um for the final yeah thank you so much [Music] [Applause]