The WLD Show
Jon Yan: VectorDAO. How Builders become the Kingmakers. Forming a Superteam of Elite Web3 Design Talent | Will, Lee, & Andrew Learn Web3: #44
Episode Summary
Jon Yan is the founder of VectorDAO, a collective of designers on a mission to improve how designers are employed and to make web3 more accessible. He was previously a designer at Coinbase and a YC founder. We discuss DAO’s, growing DAO’s via minimum viable governance, the history of work in America, VectorDAO’s new employment model & its impact on workers, how liquid super teams could change work and VC investing in the future.
Episode Notes
Jon Yan is the founder of VectorDAO, a collective of designers on a mission to improve how designers are employed and to make web3 more accessible. He was previously a designer at Coinbase and a YC founder. We discuss DAO’s, growing DAO’s via minimum viable governance, the history of work in America, VectorDAO’s new employment model & its impact on workers, how liquid super teams could change work and VC investing in the future.
Learn more about Jon and VectorDAO
Episode notes:
- What is a DAO?
- What the simplest form of a “DAO” can be
- Why a “DAO” for VectorDAO
- How and why VectorDAO was started
- Books that inspired Jon
- The history of work in America
- How happiness dropped once the industrial age hit
- How workers trade off happiness & freedom for a consistent salary
- How capital has become more abundant and skilled workers are the scarcest asset
- VectorDAO’s Season 0 goals
- How VectorDAO negotiates new employment terms
- How VectorDAO negotiates for equity
- How the day to day lives of designers have changed in the new employment model
- Doing less of what doesn’t give you energy
- Providing more project diversity with much less effort
- How Jon was inspired by Packy McCormick’s write up on Liquid Super Teams
- Evaluating which protocols are most likely to succeed based on who the founders are and what talent they’ve attracted
- How VectorDAO allocates payment if some people contribute differently
- The roles on the cap table of a new deal
- Deal lead (BD)
- Project lead (senior designer)
- VectorDAO designers
- How equity is calculated and shared
- How VectorDAO ensures new members are a good fit and immediately impactful
- A thorough interview and voting in process
- Not adding new designers unless there is definitely something for them to do
- Invest in tooling and the onboarding flow:
- Sharing the DAO’s rules
- Teaching new members what the key channels are and asking them to rais their hand
- Writing a clear mission and purpose
- Make Web3 a lot more accessible
- Empower best talent to get best terms possible
- How VectorDao is iterating and working towards automating organizational logic
- Why Jon tells everyone to “decentralize slower”
- Minimum viable governance
- The biggest differences designing for web3 vs. web3
- Web3 is much more inter-disciplinary
- What some good principles in web3 are
- How VC investment models might change due to service DAO’s
- How DAO’s will exist to serve member needs
- How Jon thinks about creating the best possible experience for talent
- The future of work
- People opting in as owners
- Shifting employment goals away from not getting fired
- How we need to shift how employees and employers think about work
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