Welcome!

DASH needs no ventures. It needs development. Please read the roadmap to Evolution and the comments of the Core Team regarding the current Marketing Efforts. Ty

1. I have known Mark for 30 years.
2. Although not as active as I'd like to be, I'm not exactly new here.

That is to say, my remarks are clearly biased, but hopefully they also carry some credibility.

It seems likely that this isn't going to pass, but I'd like to point out a few things, and hopefully generate a little more discussion.

1. I think I understand the voting thus far.
Mark isn't a man of many words. He favors a "speak in sentences, not in paragraphs" approach. So there may not have been enough detail to know what you are voting for. In venture, it's much more about people than projects details -- pick the right people and things work. I think because that's what he looks for, that's what he presented. He presented himself, but he didn't present budgetary details. Was this the main problem? Something else?

2. Mark and Jared are not scammers, in any way.
As mentioned, I've know Mark for many years. Mark and Jared are highly respected and valued in their communities and profession. Hell, the guy who basically started the entire venture capital industry (Don Lucas senior) works personally with these two. Does that mean nothing? Contrary to some suppositions, they have no intention of scamming Dash. Skepticism is important, but I don't think it's wise to treat new comers as scammers by default.

3. Dash may not need capital, but it needs ventures.
Mark isn't one to lobby for himself, so perhaps the value proposition wasn't strong enough. As I see it, the best thing for Dash is to get the highest quality individuals interested in the project. Mark and Jared, aside from fitting that condition themselves, know how to both sniff out and attract high quality people and teams. That was the value proposition.

4. What is the role of MNOs?
Masternode operators are basically mini venture capitalists. Is not that role to send money in the right direction, thus attracting top talent to the project? Recognizing the need, many individuals have offered to help MNOs in their VC role. What kind of person would be ideal for this role? Perhaps highly experienced VCs who are also MNOs? Mark and Jared.

5. What is the goal of MNOs?
Masternode operators are basically members of a board of directors. Is not the main goal in that respect to raise the price of Dash? The term fiduciary responsibility comes to mind. How do you raise the price of Dash? You get people to buy it. Wouldn't it be nice if we knew some people with strong connections to some very rich, very influential people who may as a result of some outreach buy into Dash? Mark and Jared.

I've slipped a bit into campaign mode, but that wasn't my original intention. I don't expect this to turn around at this point (although it would be nice if it did). My purpose is more of an autopsy. What killed this proposal before it began? What can be done in the future to prevent good talent from slipping through unfunded? What are our priorities? Sponsorships for circuses, pole sports, boxers, jet planes, racing yachts, skaters, and burnt hamster minestrone (whatever that is)? All have or are doing better than this proposal. I don't mean to disparage any of those proposals, but it's interesting to see what is getting funded and what is not.

(as a side note, I've voted for some of those proposals I mentioned because I think it's better to give funds to any non-scammer than to not create it. The potential inflation is negligible at best, and the potential upside is considerable when you get people excited for dash by employing them.)

Mark would probably be embarrassed by this long-winded endorsement and I've probably overdone it. I tend to speak in paragraphs, not in sentences. It's just a shame to see this at the bottom rung of the proposal docket, when I thought this would pass even without my personal endorsement (which, again, I'm not certain means much to you all).

Thank you for those of you who read this, and I welcome responses. Really trying to gain some insights here.

You need to sum this up in a sentence or two explaining your long term goal.

If I understood all of that correctly you intend to pursue venture capitalism through donated funds, basically making your operation risk free. If any of the startups make it you'll profit greatly, while the Dash network will most likely see none of that action.

Most ideas aren't Dash specific. Very few things can only be applied to Dash, and as a venture capitalist it makes sense to diversify income channels. Almost any project that comes up will under profit seeking management turn out to benefit other cryptos at least as much. Many projects might even go fiat. I don't see the benefit to the dash network. (except active development of dash, which I'd rather see core expand)

It seems you are seeking a donation for your own future profits. If this wasn't a donation, but rather an investment and we could see some form of kickbacks on your future profits then it would make perfect sense. I just don't know how that would be possible since the dash network isn't a legal entity.

Sorry for being negative here, I love the screening idea and having a team evaluate and pay proposal fees for new ideas. But I simply don't understand how your long term goal is of anyone's interest but your own.

75D to give you time to get of the ground?

How much for a prototype of your site?

Hi Paul, just posted a response here below.

We need more details. 75 Dash is too much for a 100 word proposal that has no specifics.

Voting no for now.

Absolutely, happy to share more (below). Are there specific questions you have?

A few things to expand on from the plan:

One quick note, perhaps not obvious in the plan is that yes, we are venture guys but we are really entrepreneurs. We started both venture firms where we have worked from scratch so know what it's like to start something and bring it to life.

In terms of Dash Venture Capital, we are long term in our approach and want to start small and simple. Between sponsoring a handful of proposals and putting up a site, 75 seems like a modest start and what we arrived at after vetting this with some MNOs. The number isn't magical in terms of launching this but we wanted to use it to open the conversation.

When we started University Venture Fund, we raised a seed round of 500k from a local entrepreneur which covered our expenses to get things off the ground and led to a fundraise later of 18M. The 75 is that for us now; it's our way of saying, 'hey everyone we are going to start working on making Dash Venture Capital a real thing, which means put up a site, start sponsoring plans and then iterate based on experiences and needs.'

Open sourced projects for years have relied on people doing things for free or for community cred and while that is great, one of the great promises of blockchain and DASH especially is the ability to compensate directly those people who are creating value. And not for just one kind of talent, for all kinds of talents and abilities. We think Amanda Johnson is a prime of example of this, someone being compensated for the time and contribution of their unique talent.

That said, I like that this community is careful and thoughtful about the DAO, whatever the amount. As MNOs we would be more concerned if it were the other way around, the questions and rigor are absolutely welcomed.

So while, this initial grant is about sponsoring plans and getting a site up, the longer term objective is about carving a riverbed out of a the startup economy mountain to increase the flow of high quality deals and entrepreneurs to DASH. We want great entrepreneurs to start considering DASH as a source of support and place to spend their time. So, the small and simple start aside, executed well and grown over time we think this idea has huge potential to serve the DASH community by engaging the best and brightest entrepreneurs to either come innovate.

A key here worth mentioning also is that our plan is not just to give advice and sponsorship but to help steward and monitor a project to success. That has been our ethos all along.

We anticipate proposals will come from two places initially. First there will be people who already know about the DASH community and either want venture advice and/or want their proposal fee sponsored. No good ideas should slip away.

We think the sponsorship is a great bar for the signal to noise ratio at a DAO level but it's weird to us to think of asking a entrepreneur to pay to ask us for funds. Curious what you think here, our sense is that creating a space for anyone to pitch is solving an existing pain point.

The second source of deal flow is where we maybe bring the most value. It's inviting deal flow from people who do not yet know about DASH or maybe just don't know DASH could fund their great ideas and talent. It's astounding and fabulous that DASH can support entrepreneurs. It needs to be doing more of it. It will benefit the ecosystem and spread the word.

One last thing on the note of spreading the word. We have in the works is a 3 day peer-to-peer conference at Powder Mountain in January. Announcement of that event will be coming soon, it's basically a weekend dedicated to a conversation about the business and social impact blockchain.

Hopefully this offers more color, feel free contact us if you have any other questions, our emails are on our peer site or in the forums.

please integrate this on the proposal also make sure to have the most specific data, either lined up, on a list, or with bold letters to make it easier to identify.

I would also be interested in a list of start ups and projects that Peer has been involved in. I'd rather not join linked in to get information that way. They generate too much spam for my inbox. Thanks in advance. solarguy on the forums.

Here's a few things we invested in over the years: Omniture (OMTR), Infinera (INFN), Experticity, Advent Solar, Kaazing, Tela Innovations.

It doesn't seem like this proposal will be funded on this round.

As 'money men' is there anything you can do upfront to demonstrate your commitment to Dash and your ideas?

The budget funding system has been open to abuse in previous funding rounds and there is a an understandable sense of mistrust amongst MN voters.

Can u do something for Dash and then trust in the concept of reciprocity?

Please see the comments I have made today on the Dash Bus proposal, and the Grass Roots Funding proposals.

I have voted YES for all three of these proposals as they currently stand.

Please don't lose heart in Dash funding system and come back with some evidence of work commenced.

Thanks.

Upon further reflection I've changed my no votes to yes.

Great, thank you! Absolutely, we think building trust is the key

At first, I read Venture Capital, and I thought NOOOOO! LOL, then I realized you want to be one of the grass roots project managers. I like that you will create an autonomous entity with it's own website. I still have to take the time to read about you and your plan, but good start.

The more I read about this and your past story the more I like it. I think you will make a few waves in the community with it, and its not expensive. I'm voting yes. Its a big world and the more waves we make the better.

I've stumbled upon an inspiring 12 years old article about you: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/600104371/U-students-work-their-own-venture-capital-fund.html

So if you are who you say you are (please prove it), I believe that you qualify to accelerate the growth of numerous Dash implications in the global cryptosphere.

However, I miss more information about Peer Venture Partners (homepage is basically empty). According to Crunchbase, $36.6 mln. were raised 4 years ago, correct? How is the fund performing up to date? What experience do you have with the blockchain projects?

Also, please shed some light on the vision of the Dash VC. Do you see it as an independent fund, incorporated under the Peer Venture Partners or otherwise?

Hi Uppercut, here are our LinkedIn profiles:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-hutchings-99b87b13a/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-campbell-4b3236/

The Dash Treasury runs a monthly surplus. There are not yet overly many proposals for masternodes to vet. Tell us more about the value you are bringing to the process?

Hi ghowdy, the value we hope to add is to make Dash attractive to more entrepreneurs. We would like to see the monthly surplus in part allocated to great entrepreneurs who currently don't know about Dash or would value our experience refining their business plans. Our experience is analyzing business plans and working with hundreds of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. We want to see Dash succeed with that community and growing the Dash entrepreneur network is one of the best ways we know how.

Hi everyone, yes that is accurate about the deseretnews article from 12 years ago. That is how we started and then later formed PEER in 2008. As we mentioned in our proposal, we partnered with Donald Lucas in '08 and invested capital as well as helped steward his portfolio. Some of our investments over the years include, Omniture (OMTR), Infinera (INFN), Kaazing, Tela Innovations, and others. We have been investing in blockchain technologies personally since 2014. We are masternode operators and have a long term interest in the success of Dash. Our goal in starting Dash VC is to create more value for the protocol by making it more attractive for entrepreneurs. We are starting small and simple which means we are just offering advice to entrepreneurs and sponsoring proposals. Later that could mean organizing a fund perhaps if the deals merited it but at this time that doesn't make sense but perhaps this effort will help create the conditions for attracting more entrepreneurship to DASH. Again, this exercise now is an experiment to see if a DAO would value venture advice and is also simply about starting a conversation and building trust with the group.

Clearly a scam but scammers wouldn't make money if it was a scam everytime so maybe we should just say what the heck and take the plundge. Its probably a scam...I don't know...but yeah not saying that's always a bad thing.

>This initial DAO grant covers our time and expenses getting this off the ground.

What expenses? Please provide more details.

It is an interesting organizational concept I don't understand what you need 75 Dash for. Going forward, is your plan to finance your VC investments through the masternodes? If so, and you're not bringing the money to the table, what are you bringing exactly?

Hi mikenewhouse, the 75 Dash would in part be used to cover proposal fees that we would support and sponsor. Another portion would cover our time and website development. What we are bringing to the table is years of investing, analyzing startup companies, and a network in the startup and venture community. We would help analyze markets, financing options, business plans, product market fit, term sheets, technology, IP, and help refine a product/service to get it ready for funding from any source.

The objective is to find projects that support and grow the Dash community.

these guys arent even trying very hard to steal our money anymore


do we look that stupid to everyone else??

There are already proposals covering this. Evaluators and sponsored proposal fees.

Yeah, there are...it's clearly something the community is thinking about and a problem looking for a solutions (as opposed to a solution simply inventing a problem). Compared to other efforts in this space, we are more venture capital/start up focused. Tracking and increasing the accountability of the entire universe of applications is not the highest and best use of our talents but focusing on adding more oxygen to the air for entrepreneurs is what we're trying see if we can bring to DASH.

a venture capital company with no capital and no ventures.







sounds legit /s

Hi peon, thanks for starting the dialogue. Our background is a combined 30 years in venture investing. We have invested in enterprise software, healthcare, semiconductor, and other industries. We have managed funds since 2004. Happy to send you some information on some of our investments over the years if that would be helpful.

I would also like to take a look at your investments, please share.

Here's a few: Omniture (OMTR), Infinera (INFN), Experticity, Advent Solar, Kaazing, Tela Innovations.

so how much money are you putting up?