Mapping The LAO Venture Capital Firm

By Crypto Cartography | Mapping Crypto | 2 Dec 2020

TLDR: All-in-all, it appears the DAO VC firm seems to be a raging success. The DAO is a US LLC, is governed by smart contracts, operates in $ETH and has attempted to automate Dealflow through their "Scout" program. The LAO provides a wonderful framework for how any group of individuals can create a venture firm in the 2020 decade.

OVERVIEW
This morning on our Community Research Call, we discussed a cutting-edge venture capital firm called "The LAO", which launched on April 28th, 2020. We went through the numerous investments The LAO has made as well as their unique structure as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Here is that discussion written out, accompanied by my thoughts.

The LAO is officially a "member-directed venture capital fund organization in the United States, with an aim to be compliant with U.S. law." The organization, which is legally structured as a Delaware limited liability company (LLC), was initially capped at 100 members, who contribute Ether (ETH) to the organization by purchasing LAO Units", or units representing an ownership in the organization. There is currently a proposal to accept new members to LAO (1). Membership is unfortunately limited to accredited investors. This is something I hope DAO's change in the future.

From their homepage, we can see they have 12,177.08 ETH contributed ($7.25M) and 7,084.57 ETH deployed ($4.2M) or approximately 58%.

INVESTMENTS

If we look to their Investments page, we find 31 investments funded and 2 currently being voted on. 12 of these investments are publicly shown on their website. Commendations are in order, as The LAO has one of the most-informed reads on their portfolios companies (PortCo's) of any VC firm.

PUBLIC INVESTMENTS

Boardroom (https://www.boardroom.info/)
- TLDR - Project Management, communications and governance software for your decentralized organization through their "Boardroom Portal".
Idle Finance (https://idle.finance/)
- TLDR - Digital asset management, including auto-rebalancing, across different DeFi protocols. They aim to maximize your interest rate of return.
- Token - $IDLE as well as pool tokens IdleDAI, idleUSDC, idleUSDT, etc.
BrightID (https://www.brightid.org/)
- TLDR - "A social identity network that allows you to prove that you’re only using one account". Solving digital identity.
Swarm (https://swarm.ethereum.org/)
- TLDR - A network of nodes creating a decentralized storage and communication system.
PieDAO (https://pools.piedao.org/#/)
- TLDR - Provider asset management in the form of cryptocurreny ETF's and cryptocurrency Indices
- Token - $DOUGH
Aavegotchi (https://www.aavegotchi.com/)
- TLDR - Crypto-collectible NFT website
- Token - GHST
Abridged (https://abridged.io/)
- TLDR - A technology stack to build and manage decentralized organizations and communitites
dHedge (https://www.dhedge.org/)
- TLDR - "Decentralised non-custodial asset management platform on top of Synthetix."
- Token - $DHT
Gelato Network (https://gelato.network/)
- TLDR - A tool for developers to automate smart contract executions on Ethereum
Transak (https://transak.com/)
- TLDR - "A developer integration to onboard global users from fiat to crypto and back using local payment methods."
Shell Protocol (https://shellprotocol.io/)
- TLDR - The Shell Protocol’s purpose is to create an internet monetary system starting with an automated market maker optimized for stablecoin-to-stablecoin trades.
Pods (https://www.pods.finance/)
- TLDR - Non-custodial American options protocol where users can participate as sellers or buyers of either puts or calls.

The 2 organizations pending vote are:

Charged Particles (https://charged.fi/)
- TLDR - DeFi NFT's that earn interest
IdeaMarket (https://ideamarket.io/)
- TLDR - Create a social token and monetize your community or decentralized organization

GOVERNANCE

On the Governance page we can see they have had 10 proposals, of which 8 have passed. The only public proposal is the proposal approving the acceptance of new members to the LAO.

PROJECTS

On the Proposals page, we can see they have 67 outstanding Projects that have submitted to the DAO and been made public. Many names are public and provide us with great insight into the cutting edge of decentralization and crypto.

Public Names include:

PoolzDeFi(https://poolzdefi.com/)
Texochat(https://texochat.com/)
weiWard(https://www.weiward.org/)
YIELD(https://www.yield.app/)
Community Gaming(https://communitygaming.io/)
Ortier Capital(https://ortiercapital.com/)
DFAME(https://www.dfame.app/)
DeepDAO(https://deepdao.io/#/deepdao/dashboard)
Prysm(https://beta.prysm.xyz/home)
DeBank(https://debank.com/)
Digitible(https://digitible.com/)
Meter.io (https://www.meter.io/)
ADORS(https://adors.org/)
M31 Capital(https://www.m31.capital/)
meTokens(https://stakeonme.com/)
Vyper(https://github.com/vyperlang/vyper)
Idena(https://idena.io/)
Emerald Ledger(https://emeraldledger.com/)
FairSpin(https://fairspin.xyz/)
LTL Maps(https://livethelife.tv/)
Black Digital Dollars()
Decentral Games()
Zora(https://store.zora.co/)
Async Art(https://async.art/)
Shenanigan(https://she.energy/)
88mph(https://88mph.app/deposits)
Otoco(https://otoco.io/)
BUIDLHub(https://buidlhub.com/eventflow)
Lovecrypto(https://www.lovecrypto.net/)
The POP! App(https://xd.adobe.com/view/ef2e133c-63fc-456f-70f3-3a5190bae8b7-991f/)
CrowdFounder(https://crowdfounder.co/)
Blackbeard Capital(https://blackbeard.fund/)
Affogato(https://affogato.co/)
Real E Chain(https://www.realechain.com/)
Crypto to Cards(https://cryptotocards.enforsys.vercel.app/)
CopyCattr(https://copycattr.com/welcome)

SCOUTING PROJECTS

The Scout page could be the coolest part of the whole DAO. As a social experiment, the DAO is attempting have the community organically create a continuous list of the best crypto projects. They are trying to automate something called Dealflow (high quality investment opportunities continuously coming through the door). We are trying to do the same thing with our Crypto Research Community.

The DAO has created a Token Curated Registry (TCR). "A token curated registry (TCR) is a list that is managed by a public group of token-holders". You can see a list of the Top Projects on the Scout page in the link above. Most were added about 7 months ago, so it does not appear the social experiment lasted in the short term (although we did have a project added 7 days ago).

The current list includes 35 projects. Here are a lo of their Twitters. Check the names after https://twitter.com/

APPLICATION FOR FUNDING

Per the Apply page, organizations can apply for funding between $50K-$100K (if not more) and funding if provided in ETH. Members can put up organizations for the LAO to vote on.

MENTORS

Checkout the Mentors page for a list of, presumably, Members of The LAO who would also be wonderful follows on Twitter.

BECOMING A MEMBER

Based on their Verify page, new members can contribute anywhere from 310 ETH (approx. $185K) to 2,790 ETH (approx. $1.6M).

CONCLUSION

All-in-all, it appears the DAO VC firm is a raging success. The DAO is a US LLC, is governed by smart contracts, operates in $ETH and has attempted to automate Dealflow through their "Scout" program. The minimum investment amount of 310 ETH is too high for the retail investor, but The LAO provides a wonderful framework for how any group of individuals can create a venture firm in the 2020 decade.

Here is the start to making your own DAO VC: https://github.com/openlawteam/TheLAO

LINKS

Homepage - https://www.thelao.io/

Investments - https://www.thelao.io/investments

Proposals - https://www.thelao.io/proposals

Apply - https://www.thelao.io/apply

Scout - https://scout.thelao.io/

Mentors - https://www.thelao.io/mentors

Governance - https://www.thelao.io/governance-proposals

Documentation - https://docs.thelao.io/

(1) - https://www.thelao.io/governance-proposals/QmYWyqesuVTvngwKFhhmAzDrLbJTJYav4d3P21swF4HiYd

Github - https://github.com/openlawteam/TheLAO

You don't need to be a VC to have a research community.

Join us on YouTube weekday mornings between 830ish-930ish (PST - US) for A.M. Crypto Research Call.

Crypto Cartography YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe-HvJnTz6qUkxrYvJXofFA

Join a Crypto Research community: https://discord.gg/dEbktgxZbH

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Please note: The material presented in all articles is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be investment advice. Do not invest in the organizations I provide analysis about. This is not investment advice. Crypto Cartography, including its principal, is not a financial advisor. Please seek professional investment & tax advice before investing.

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