I’m open to either a full-time position or a limited engagement. In either case, I agree with @thisisalex that we need a job description. I think drafting a job description will help us answer the question as to whether the duties require a full-time, open-ended position or a limited engagement.
Initially, I think the list of duties include:
Create a mission, vision, values statement that encompasses the ideas from the community
Draft guidelines for the types of projects that should be approved from community funds, taking into account the mission, vision, and values
Analyze other CC0 projects to determine where partnerships might help us achieve our mission, vision, & values
I’m sure everyone else will have several other things to add to the list.
One thing to keep in mind is that I don’t see this as solely a marketing role. Could CrypToadz benefit from that? Sure. I’d love to see us break into the mainstream one day like BAYC.
That only happens when you ship features and products related to your project. Someone with a background in brand management and marketing doesn’t really fit that mold. They could if they’ve product managed teams to ship features and products, but they would also have to be able to build up a team.
Just something to keep in mind. We need someone with a proven track record of delivering results in the NFT space. They need to understand what the market is like now and have an idea of where it’s going. I imagine there are some who would love to be given a budget and the framework of the CrypToadz project and told to run with it.
@thisisalex Do you have anyone specific in mind? Let’s start looking on Twitter for potential candidates, or maybe ask the CrypToadz twitter handler to broadcast a message
I thought about this more. I think CrypToadz could benefit from having an advisory board. This is not to be confused with people who work on CrypToadz. In fact, if you’re on said board, you can’t work on CrypToadz. You’re not “staff”. This board would be five or so individuals who own the most CrypToadz. Anonymoux (if he’s open to it) would likely be on it, perhaps 4156 from Nouns as well.
This board would conduct the interviewing and hiring of this role. This role would report to the board and the board represents the toadz holders (given they have so many toadz).
A board makes sense to me, but I don’t think it should strictly be based on the number of Toadz held. Board members should definitely be Toadz holders, but I think we better serve the interests of the community at large by holding some form of election.
There are some interesting thoughts in here. Here’s my perspective as a founding team member and a person who’s successfully grown multiple web2 startup brands at a large scale in the recent past.
The first thing that’s apparent to me is that many people here:
A) Believe the brand is currently such as it is by accident or as a result of inexperience
and
B) Want the brand to be something else entirely
Our intention has never been to emulate brands like BAYC. It has been and continues to be to create something true to web3 and CC0, for the community and by the community. We are not an equity, we are not a financial instrument, and we have never had any interest in taking actions contrived to influence the secondary market value of CrypToadz.
Our brand identity has been almost anti-corporate by design, not by accident. We are creating a cultural github repository together, not a fashion brand. We are not hype beasts, we’re geeks, enthusiasts, and builders. We’re not pursuing instant gratification, we’re playing the long game. We don’t plan to win by cranking up the volume, we plan to win by planting seeds together and watching them slowly grow over time.
I think it behooves one who wants Toadz to become something fundamentally different from this to consider exploring other brands and communities that may be more consistent with a conventionally capitalistic web2 ethos.
That being said, if there are specific actions or initiatives that we want to undertake as a community, in service of promoting Our Brand rather than emulating the brands of fundamentally different products, then it’s something we should consider. And I believe we should make those considerations based on specific, actionable recommendations rather than broad requests for something different.
When I started this topic for discussion, I wasn’t trying to suggest that the brand be something different from what it is.
Instead, I think it would be helpful if we were able to clearly articulate elements of the brand (that likely exist already).
If someone suggests launching a Toadz token, that doesn’t quite seem to align with the project… but it’s hard to say exactly why.
We all know toadz are about !vibes… but what does that mean when we’re evaluating projects for the treasury? What projects align with a vibe vs. which ones don’t?
To me, that’s why a consultant role feels more relevant at this point in the project lifecycle. Someone who can engage with the community and leadership and help articulate the brand elements that have started to coalesce.
Hiring a full-time marketer to build awareness is a very different prospect from documenting the core toadz values and helping the community better understand how to amplify them.
I would disagree that a toadz token doesn’t quite align with the project. Check out the recent Toadzgotchi grant proposal. This is a well-thought-out example of how a toadz token might work.
I agree with HEEE in that we should be careful not to try to steer Toadz in any particular direction. By design, I don’t think there is anything that doesn’t really align with what can come out of toadz. It’s all about what the community makes. The only thing I could see that doesn’t align with the toadz ethos is attempting to centralize the brand, which I think hiring a brand manager is beginning to move towards.
Your intention when you shipped toadz was that there was no intention. There was no roadmap. If the community wants to propose a solution that drives more deliverables (which the market clearly wants) then I don’t see what the problem is.
Anyways, this thread is great for discussion but at this point I think a proposal should be drafted, submitted, and then voted upon. If holders want it, then they should make their votes heard.
I agree that you’re confused. Not having a roadmap was part of an intentionally constructed brand identity, not a thing we randomly did without careful thought or intention.
The market is fickle and wants whatever has most recently made money. In my opinion if our fixation shifts to what the market wants then we will have lost the essence of what CrypToadz were in the first place, which is the very thing that motivated people to become so excited about them last August when we launched.
The community can create and build the most valuable aspects of the Cryptoadz project.
I think what Heeeee said was great. I love the idea of us building a cultural GitHub out in public together with each of us contributing to making the brand what it is going to be ultimately.
Adding seasoned execs to the centralized team can help us build faster and be market leaders.
The team has been building already with the Mistletoadz drop, animation previews as Moti has shared, Gremplin working his magic to help us get exposure from Arizona and Budweiser. If not for Gremplin’s drawing and reaching out publicly to Budweiser I don’t know that they have an nft related ad for the Super Bowl nor would they be members of the Nouns Dao. Of course it took more than the drawing but it’s a sign that we can make major dents in the space when we push for it and a bigger team focused on the brand and building official tools for the project could help us make bigger dents at a faster rate.
I think both can happen simultaneously but we would need these execs to understand that this is a project that embraces, encourages and rewards what the community is building.
For now the community building aspect is here already and we have the best builders in the space already as holders. We’ve had amazing derivative projects already but sometimes I wonder how incredible would it have been if those projects were built as community driven extensions of the Toadz where we each contribute to. I imagine instead of having Flyz and Croakz maybe we would all have had croakz styled flyz also and maybe some of us would be pitching additional ideas to those teams. This is not a knock against those teams by the way. I love what they built and our treasury was not available back then to even give them this option.
I love the idea of us building together. If we take the example of what is probably my favorite Toad project so far (the Toadz sticker app by Alex) it was built solely by him and is a free app. We can all contribute to making it better though by providing custom stickers to him that he would add into the app. Imagine seeing the mutant toadz as stickers in the app for example or the flyz. Or if we look at the proposed game. Maybe someone in the community has experience with getting retailers to carry their toys and they can help with that. The possibilities of community driven projects are endless here.
Yeah I think ultimately I’d want to refuse any ‘wild marketing tactics’ - a lot of innovation has already taken place with little to no interference by the main team.
There’s a lot of grey area that needs to be more defined before something like this can go to a proper proposal. Job description is upmost important, amount to be paid through each of the milestones, how we are determining their milestone achievements (what metrics other than ‘floor’), who are proper candidates/what qualifications are we looking for, are just the few questions, many more to be thought of. Especially surrounding the web3 ethos that I’ve set as precedence. Building things that are native to the space is something that I’ve worked on and have been working on. The few things that are ‘native to the space’ goes with On-Chain Toadz, Toadz Marketplaces. Editing this one more time**
Determining the difference between ‘leadership’ or ‘brand marketing/brand representative’ is very important wording as well
I shouldn’t speak for anyone else, but my personal feeling is I don’t think people here are unhappy with what the CrypToadz brand is or has become.
Conversely, my observation has been that a large amount of CrypToadz holders believe it would be beneficial if there were a person (or small group of people) in place to craft a long-term vision or plan that supports the CrypToadz ethos and ideologies. It can help guide and inspire our builders and the broader community at-large to create products or services that align with the our brand identity:
I don’t believe it’s “corporate” or playing into the “web 2 ethos” to hire someone to lead such an effort. There is a fine line between hiring an influencer to pump our bags and an experienced professional that can empower us to grow and learn together by organizing and executing on a mission statement.
The matter of fact is, CrypToadz is a brand. And every successful brand that has stood the test of time has done so because they:
build emotional connections
are consistent in providing value year over year
are persistent/enduring
vocalize and make themselves heard/seen
Yes we have smart builders, yes we have !vibers in chat, but is it enough? It’s hard for me to imagine building a long-lasting product or brand without strong leadership.
That said I definitely agree we should stay away from current hype trends/marketing tactics as it’s not what CrypToadz is about.
This also isn’t about toadz vs BAYC vs Cool Cats or being “the best” or “number 1” or whatever. It’s easy to get caught in this mindset when looking at numbers though – I do it myself sometimes. This is about making sure toadz stay relevant over time. I see nothing wrong with bringing someone in to focus and effectuate a plan to help us achieve this.
In the spirit of pushing this towards a proposal, here’s a small chunk of funding that could go a long way:
Main concept: what will you do or produce?
– A simple and accurate explanation of CrypToadz !vibe (cc0, anti-corporate, builder-focused, etc.)
Current status: is this an idea, proof of concept, MVP, or established project?
– idea - this thread is all we have
Requested budget: How much total ETH are you requesting?
– 0.69 eth as a reward for a community contest - best articulation of !vibe and how CrypToadz embodies it (any medium)
Roadmap: beginning point, end point, milestones and anticipated challenges. This will need to include funding milestones so we can monitor your project progress. For example, you could have a design stage milestone, a prototype milestone, and final project milestone.
– Milestone 1: CrypToadz official twitter tweets about the !vibe contest
– Milestone 2: Top twitter submissions (curated by CrypToadz core team) go to toad holder vote
– Milestone 3: Winner is chosen. Eth dispatched
Value: What value will this project provide to grow the Cryptoadz ecosystem?
– More clarity on !vibe. More awareness of !vibe + cryptoadz grant funding on twitter
– Foundation for future work (e.g. brand consultant)
Team: Who is working on it and what are their roles? What are their qualifications? Do they have any evidence of previous completed work? Provide below.
– CrypToadz twitter + community
I totally agree with the thought here. And love the GitHub analogy. The core of what Toadz are about is brilliant…My thought is - how do we tell that story?
Can we simplify that message into something clear, that resonates and helps us define our philosophy?
We can probably try to find someone with experience from the Ethereum Foundation. I think cryptoadz is a lot closer to the Ethereum Foundation that it is to BAYC. But I also think it wouldnt hurt to get some insight/feedback from Lisa