State of the Raid 🔥 June 2023
What were you doing during the Bear? Moloch, be damned.
Once upon a Bull Market…
So there we were, deep in the depths of the pandemic lockdowns, with DeFi summer upon us.
As one of the first service DAOs, it was pretty much just Raid Guild and a handful of others (shoutouts to dOrg, Flex, IndieDAO, Upstate Interactive) doing any sort of reliable Web3 development, and we were all overwhelmed with demand.
In that wild time, as much of the world was just grasping the concept of liquidity pools - we were akin to a two sided marketplace, balancing the client side demand with our supply of talented developers.
One quick realization set in: Raid Guild needed more members to build for our increasing number of clients!
And our enjoyment of self sovereignty, truly dabbling at the fringes of cutting edge technology while solving the challenges of human coordination, needed to be shared, Moloch be damned.
All organizations know the challenges of recruitment - and in the clutches of the Bull, we not only had overwhelming demand for Web3 design, development, and DAO consultations but also an impressively long line of applicants wanting to join the Guild.
This served as a forcing function to consider how a DAO qualifies talent (especially if some of that talent is anonymous) and onboards a large number of people, not just into Web3, but also into a decentralized and autonomous service based organization?
The RaidGuild Apprentice Cohort, season0, was born as an experiment to address these issues.
From all across the globe, with various skills and talents, potential apprentices meet in the Raid Guild Discord. The cohort entices these apprentices down a pathway, with challenges at intervals along the way. It’s not intended to be clearly prescribed tasks (that’s more akin to a JOB - this is WORK), but more of an exercise in creativity, cooperation, and ingenuity - with some goal posts and the scattered legos of web3 tooling. And of high importance: seeing how well you work with others.
Not all will complete the program, but it gives you the opportunity to see what you can produce when no one tells you what to do, and the challenge to motivate a team when they aren’t required to comply. You also get access to a network that includes MetaCartel, DAOhaus, MetaGame, LexDAO, Buidl Guidl and more.
In 2020, season0 was a response to an immediate need for more developers and designers. Since then, we’re proud to see many apprentices and Guild members go on to contribute and found projects throughout our expanding ecosystem. The strength of the RaidGuild network is our layer0 advantage - and by extension we help secure the broader network by practicing good stewardship.
This June, Raid Guild will begin the 7th iteration of the Apprentice Cohort, season6. The attraction for many is potential membership in Raid Guild, although the benefits extend well beyond that.
Just like past cohorts that were scheduled around events like EthDenver, this cohort is scheduled right before EthCC and MetaFest. While Raid Guild works remotely, we all recognize the enormous value of meeting IRL. If you’re in Europe this summer, we look forward to connecting.
One of our goals is to help foster the next generation of Web3 pioneers, settlers, and explorers.
The Raid Guild cohort based approach aims to onboard a rich ecosystem of talented individuals in a uniquely collaborative way. If the mission of Slaying Moloch stays with some of them, then we’ve been successful. And if we onboard just one more solidity dev, help bridge one new community manager, or find a mercenary designer their next gig - then at least we are doing our part.
What were you doing during the Bear?
If you’re ready to start your Raid Guild Apprentice journey, head over to the Join Us page and complete your application. Most importantly - if you know somebody that might find some value in learning more, please forward this note to them ASAP.
Invitations to the info sesh are out now! Say hello in the Discord.
