To The Builders of SC05

Communities express and communicate culture through practice; at Seed Club, the Accelerator is our practice. Here are a few things we want our builders to know.

We wrapped Week 1 of the Accelerator. After a session of onboarding and welcoming, the cohort attended a workshop called, “SC05: How I Built This FWB Story” with Alex Zhang and Patti Houseman. The cohort then ends every week by completing an Insights & Actions reflection. To officially close out this incredible first week, co-creator Nicole d’Avis and Accelerator lead Merna Makar offered this evergreen letter to the cohort, which we hope will inspire other builders as well. Enjoy.

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From the Desk of Merna & Nicole

Communities express and communicate culture through practice; at Seed Club, the Accelerator is our practice. Working with builders, supporting their success, asking the big difficult questions, and bonding over this unique path we’ve all chosen: this is what we do and who we are. 

Now you, SC05, are who we are as well. 

Welcome.

You are our most diverse cohort to date, including teams building in DeSci, beauty, marketing and psychedelics. You are also our smallest cohort since SC02. With the first week behind us (11 to go!) it feels right to be back at it. 

We intentionally reflected and iterated on our programming to create an immersive experience that will not only challenge founders, but create long-lasting relationships and partnerships among builders in our network. We’ve planned for you since April 1, the SC04 Demo Day, and now that you’re here, there’s a few things we’d like you to know.

We’re in this together.

The path forward might not always be clear, but you’re not alone. You’re now a part of the leading network for DAO builders & operators. There is no better place to be to find the answers you are looking for. 

What you get out of any experience is a reflection of what you put in. 

The Accelerator is an intense 12-week experience where you are expected to make dramatic progress toward launch and milestones. That takes time, focus and consistent dedication. Fully immersing yourself in the experience is the best way to make the most out of the network and resources. 

We’re all still early; stay curious, nimble and value experimentation.

While we’ve learned a ton from the past 2 years building tokenized communities, we’ve only scratched the surface of the possibilities that the intersection of digital assets and communities can offer. Stay open and curious with your community, prioritize experimentation, and remember to stay nimble and learn fast. 

New Adventures in Accelerator Design

The SC05 accelerator structure is a culmination of the learnings and feedback from running 4 prior Accelerator cohorts, and reflects meaningful changes. Most notably, the Accelerator will run for an additional 4 weeks, our programming is now limited to 3 sessions/week, and we’ve introduced interval learning into the structure of the 12 weeks, meaning the cadence and & intensity of programming will vary across the program to optimize for both learning and building. We are introducing more presentations, workshops, and learning resources into the curriculum. We’ll also be pushing our founders to explore a variety of mediums to propagate their thought leadership & POV - especially using media and written long-form content. 

Our community is more eager to participate than ever before.

Our growing community is eager to play an active role in the Accelerator curation process. They’re looking to us to make participation clearer and easier as Seed Club grows and iterates on its processes and products. We’re excited to thoughtfully expand our network to bring in the best collaborators to support our founders alongside our team. Having a network of people who are exploring at their own edges, and coming back to share their insights and update their learnings in a community/network environment is the only real way to get to meaningful answers in a fast enough way to increase the chance of success for teams doing new things.  

Wen SC06?

As we prepared to kick off SC05, we realized that it was also time to start opening interest forms for SC06. As we did with SC05, we intend for the SC06 selection process to advance our exploration of community curation and decision making. 

SC05 taught us that social tools open the way for unexpected user behaviors. 

We’re excited to gather feedback from the community & projects on the Accelerator Portal process and experience, and to build an even better pathway for SC06. 

Notably, the Accelerator portal drove a 30% increase in members with 50% of $CLUB holders boosting, leaving 473 comments. 

Seed Club continues to be the place that attracts the best DAO teams. While this doesn’t come as a surprise, each time we open applications we’re still blown away by the quality of projects and teams that want to be a part of the Seed Club network. We’re excited to be on this journey, and to continue highlighting the brilliance emerging from the Seed Club team, projects, and broader community in the months & years to come. 

When things get hard, as they inevitably will, remember: You are one of the most promising DAO builders in web3. LFTG!