Annual Community Update
Why we’re excited about the uncomfortable year ahead ☀️
We've wrapped up 2022. A very challenging year, not only for us, Talent Protocol, but for the web3 ecosystem and everyone involved.
Throughout this year, we've managed to dodge a few bullets, grow and ship several produts that, we believe, will shape the way we look and use talent across the globe but we've also had a few misses on the bullseye.
A new year is the perfect time to do a retro but also to set the expectations for what's to come. 2023 will, most certainly, be a very challenging year for a lot of us. But we can't help but to feel excited to keep building, improving and working harder than ever. Take a look 👇
The party is over.
Almost everyone was able to raise capital in 2020/21 (good and not-so-good companies).
In 2022, despite the war and the crash of crypto, most startups were still able to withstand the downturn and keep operating.
If 2022 started to get uncomfortable for us, 2023 will probably be even more uncomfortable.
2023 will be hard for us too:
We’re entering one of the worst economic downturns in recent history, which means less potential sponsors for our community and less willingness to pay;
Faith and enthusiasm about crypto/web3 will fade even more, which will make it harder and harder to attract new users to our platform;
Our investors may start questioning decisions and putting more pressure on us;
Family and friends might start to worry about the fact that we’re working in a crypto startup and suggest a more stable job.
Surviving is thriving in 2023.
In 2023 we’ll see big pivots, adjustments on valuations and a lot of projects going under.
Startups are a game of who can survive the longest, and most fail because they give up.
In order to not just survive, but come out on top, we’re going to have to do more with less, and work harder and smarter than we’ve ever worked before.
Thankfully, we’ve been cultivating a frugal, lean and efficiency-driven mindset since the start.
2023 is going to be challenging, but to us that’s what makes this year exciting! And after we get through it, we will find ourselves in a much better place.
2022
🏆 10 Wins
Super talented people with great vibes joined the team as core contributors and as ambassadors. ⭐
We closed our last private round, raising a total of $2.65M plus $118K in grants, and $17K in sponsorships. 🏦
In Q2 we grew our user base by 15x, reaching +150k users. 🚀
Our innovative and safe token economic model translated into +$600K worth of $TAL staked in talented builders. 🤑
Talent House: something that started out as an experiment… impacted the lives of 60+ people and today it is our brand flagship! 🏠
Avoiding the impact of the Luna crash and saving 35% of our community treasury. 🙏
Finding a critical bug (reported via Immunefi) before any bad actor could exploit it. 🛡️
Launching on Polygon (becoming multi-chain) and the Talent Mates NFT collection
The bold idea of acquiring Agora Labs 🤝
The public sentiment and vibes towards Talent Protocol. Seeing how much other people believe in this project makes us both humble and proud. 💫
⚠️ 10 Misses
Shipping new features started to get slower this year (more legacy / maintenance work) and we delivered less product leaps.
Not focusing on a specific user need and experiment around it, specially after the Luna crash.
Casting mistakes: we should have decentralized more tasks and responsibilities sooner.
Responsibility gap: most pressure on founders, less pressure on other core contributors.
Not enough experimentation, with quick tests and iterations.
We need to improve our analytical mindset (measure, learn, improve).
Not bringing in an Operations person sooner. And we’re still missing a Product Manager.
Low quality user growth via Referral Races and Viral Loops, which meant a big churn rate.
The core contributors are not as active in the community as they should be.
The Hidden Talent Podcast required a lot of resources but failed to have a real impact.
🏦 Financials
🔦 Spotlight
Talk about Social Tokens at Celo Connect’s mainstage in Barcelona by Filipe Macedo 🎤.
Quick interview by Launch House in Los Angeles. 🌴
(In Portuguese) podcast and panel about web3 with Pedro Oliveira 🎙️
Filipe moderated a panel on DAOs at Celo Connect Salon in Paris. 🥐
Talk about Frugal Marketing @ Epic Web3 Summit.
Featured in the 10 super promising Lisbon-based startups 💫
Featured in the Web3 Startup Guide Portugal! 🇵🇹
Filipe was in several panels like Elétrico (Porto), Creative Mornings and WomenHack (Lisbon), and EIT Web3 Summit (online). 👏
Filipe was interviewed for DeNites in Lisbon. Here’s the video. ☀️
🏅 Community Wins
✨ Everyone has something special within them, a talent that deserves to be recognized. That's what Talent Protocol is all about: giving you the confidence to believe in your capabilities and the opportunities to bring them to fruition.
We want to reach those that have been overlooked and make sure that they've been given a chance. Because it's only when we risk reaching too far that we find out how far it's possible to go.
Simão Nogueira launched Web3Grad in October. In 3 months they completed 2 cohorts and helped 40+ people by giving them the tools to join the Web3 revolution.
Meiko Patton started a web3 newsletter, called The Daily DeSo.
Ralph Talmont is really excited about the startups he’s mentoring at Startup Malopolska (a southern region in Poland) in branding and communications.
Bautista Coronado is using the Talent community to find builders to interview and he’s delighted by the answer rate and the willingness to help. He’s trying to understand main pains when developing a blockchain product.
Tanjim recently started his university journey and is competing for the HULT Prize.
Alex got noticed due to his articles and became a core team member of the huge media project called "Sui Ecosystem" (more than 100k subs).
Nico Gallardo, decided to go full-time into web3, joined a blockchain incubator, started 2 IRL web3 communities in his city, received a scholarship from the Ethereum Foundation and raised funds through QF to bring an animal shelter into web3.
Liv Pasquarelli received her first full-time role in Web3 as the Social Media Manager for Interlay in April, won a grant for sexwork.io, published a ton of content about Web3, DAOs, NFTs, and completed Kernel Block 7, one of the most beautiful and enlightening experiences of her life.
Inês Bragança Gaspar passed the Bar Exam in Portugal (and is now a qualified lawyer) and it was accepted in the 6th edition of the Kleros fellowship, where she’s researching about decentralized justice.
Hans Marshalleck got 2nd Place and won $5,000 in the Airbus in the Metaverse Competition, participated in the Build with Celo Hackathon, and received a scholarship to attend Calm Company VC's Founder Summit in Ashville NC.
Despite the tumultuous market conditions, Global Coin Research (GCR) grew it’s community to over 7,500 members and remained disciplined in deploying capital across a plethora of high quality opportunities (Lens, Mysten Labs, Magic Eden, Gnosis Safe, Metatheory, Comm, Syndicate, etc.). They continue to be at the forefront of the investment DAO space through their mission to democratize research and investing.
🙏 Special Thanks
Every single member in the Talent Protocol community
Our sponsors: Celo Foundation, Protocol Labs and Utrust
All our Core Contributors, Advisors, and Ambassadors
All Talent House alumni