Continuing the discussion from Request for Proposal: Cayman Islands Administrator for the APE Foundation:
This is the formal bid form Lemma Ltd in response to the RFP.
The scope of this bid relates specifically to the Operations section.
Lemma will work with other providers such as Autonomous, Provenance and any others that are successful in their bids to service the DAO.
We feel that this will help in decentralization and accountability as all services are not provided by one party and service providers will keep each other accountable.
Lemma Operations Proposal.pdf (282.8 KB)
1. General Information:
AS the DAO industry matures and develops, there is a greater need for service providers who can work with DAO’s to manage their day-to-day activities. Lemma’s DAO services were created to fill this need. The Lemma team is passionate about DAOs and helping the team fulfill their visions for their DAO in an innovative and compliant way from the Cayman Islands.
In mathematics, a lemma is a helping theorem or a generally minor, proven proposition which is used as a steppingstone to a larger result. Lemma DAO services aims to be the same to your DAO, supporting it in what it wants to achieve.
All communication for the Lemma – APE relationship will be managed through ape@lemma.solutions which will be the primary contact point for all APE communications.
We are currently busy building our brand-new fancy website and you’ll unfortunately only get a landing page when you look for us. The initial mockups look awesome, so come back again in a month for a brand-new fancy website!
2. Scope:
Operations:
Facilitate Weekly Special Council Meetings:
Effective meetings are critical to the success of any organization, as they provide opportunities for collaboration, information exchange, and problem-solving. However, meetings can also be time-consuming and unproductive if not managed effectively. Lemma aims to address these challenges by suggesting best practices for facilitating weekly meetings that are efficient, productive, and well-received by all attendees.
Lemma will:
- Define the purpose and agenda for each meeting in advance.
- Encourage participation and input from all attendees.
- Establish clear roles and responsibilities for each meeting.
- Adhering to a strict time limit for each meeting.
- Fostering open and honest communication among attendees.
- Allow time for reflection and follow-up after each meeting.
- Tracking and coordinating action items.
By implementing these best practices, we believe that the special council meetings will be productive and efficient events that contribute to the organization’s success.
AIP Administration:
The AIP process is the most critical process in the APE DAO’s operations. The importance of this process lies in its ability to promote accountability and transparency, as well as allowing for more equitable decision making.
Lemma will:
- Ensure compliance with Cayman Islands law, KYC, AML, anti-terrorist financing regulations, and other relevant regulations by working closely with the Legal and Compliance teams.
- Distribute DAR package to special council for moderation.
- Post approved AIPs for vote on snapshot.
- Inform Treasury/Finance about successful proposals and request payments.
- Initiate next steps on approved AIPs.
Lemma will not:
- Perform the DAR for new proposals – as confirmed by Working Group Zero
Social Media Account Administration
Ape’s social media presence forms a core part of the DAO experience and expanding the reach of the community. Managing social media platforms can be a time-consuming and overwhelming task. Lemma intends to free up valuable time for APE in posting on social media accounts and maximizing their social media impact.
Lemma will:
- Administer and maintain social media accounts and keep custody of the keys to the social media accounts.
- Post pre-drafted, approved posts to the relevant social media platforms – this function will be handed over to a working group in future.
- Maintain the Social Media Accounts – this function will be handed over to a working group in future.
Lemma will not:
- Draft social media posts.
- Manage the community.
Social media is how we connect in the modern world and having an active presence on social media with regular posts keeps the community, updated, involved, and excited.
Website Administration
Given the Ape community’s active participation and skillset, Lemma will manage the website but rely on community members for technical updates and suggestions via AIPs for updates to the website and redesigns.
Lemma will:
- Maintain all accounts for website hosting.
- Ensure the required security is in place for the site.
- Assist any individuals assigned to make updates to the Ape website.
Discourse Account Administration
Discourse allows the APE community to engage, promote discussion and collaborate. Discourse is where the future direction of the community is decided and forms a corner stone of the APE community.
Lemma will:
- Maintain account credentials.
- Administer Discourse Enterprise Account, manage access rights and reviews – this function will be handed over to a working group in the future.
Email address administration
Effective email communication is critical to the success of any organization. However, managing email addresses and ensuring that messages are properly routed can be time-consuming and challenging. This proposal outlines a plan for email address maintenance and forwarding services, aimed at streamlining email communication and freeing up valuable time for businesses.
Lemma will:
- Ensure that email addresses are up-to-date.
- Streamline the email forwarding process.
- Provide a professional image for email communication.
- Minimize the risk of lost or misdirected messages.
3. Knowledge/Skill requirements:
The Lemma team is made up of passionate professionals with extensive experience in the blockchain & technology industry who have been focusing exclusively on DAOs and DAO governance for the past 2+ years.
The Lemma team, collectively, brings the following experience to the APE DAO:
Education:
- 9 degrees ranging between finance, mathematics, statistics, and publishing.
Professional qualifications:
- 2 Chartered Accountants,
- 3 Certified Bitcoin Professionals,
- 1 Certified Information System Auditor,
- 1 Accredited Director
Experience:
- 2+ years serving as director on Cayman Islands foundation companies and DAOs,
- 2+ years creating community guidelines, bylaws, and proposal processes for DAOs,
- 20 years of finance experience,
- 25 years experience working in professional services firms,
- 7+ years managing large teams using sprint, agile and other planning methods. These teams were based in various jurisdictions and time zones.
DAO specific experience:
We are currently engaged with one of the largest Layer 2’s in the industry. Working with them on their governance design and implementation - including the grants process.
The team has worked with over 25 web3 projects in various capacities.
4. Availability & Capacity:
Having team members spread out over multiple time zones can greatly improve a team’s ability to meet deadlines. Our team members work in different parts of the world, hence there is always someone available to work on the DAO, regardless of the time of day.
This allows for a continuous flow of work, reducing down-time and increasing productivity. The composition of the Lemma team is such that no one individual is a central point of failure. Where staffing changes occur, other members will be able to pick up the workload until such a time as we are able to employ an individual. Every function in the process has two employees allocated to it, one senior for oversight/management and one junior for execution of tasks. This ensures that even where someone leaves there was never only one person allocated to a project task.
From the beginning the team will not be based on the ability of any one individual to meet the requirements of this proposal, but as a collaborative effort where individuals assist each other and work together. The team also uses task board and detailed planning to manage tasks. Therefore, we always have transparency and know what tasks are ongoing and need to be completed.
In the event where additional support is needed, we have a network of consultants available for us to request support from at our own cost.
Readiness
Coming from a professional services background, the Lemma team is highly experienced in meeting very tight deadlines - having previously worked with listed companies. Through collaboration with other DAOs, we have honed our skills in managing emergency situations and fostering effective communication across functional teams. Our experience in these areas has allowed us to develop efficient and effective processes for resolving any unexpected issues and ensuring that we maintain a clear and open line of communication throughout the organization.
Our team is prepared for an immediate start and is fully dedicated to completing the work as outlined by the Community in a timely and efficient manner starting from the week of the 24th of February.
We anticipate an initial adjustment process in the first few months as we have the hand-over with Cartan and then get our processes in place. Once in place, we are confident in our ability to manage projects with the highest level of professionalism, efficiency, and reliability.
Hand-over:
Lemma will facilitate a smooth handover from the previous administrator for all functions mentioned above.
This includes:
- Taking over all account credentials controlled by the current administrator,
- Taking over the 30 AIPs that are currently in various stages of completion,
- Taking over all social media accounts,
- Taking over control of the website
Lemma will not be responsible for instances where the previous provider did not provide a complete hand-over or failed to give the required account access, information etc. to the team.
5. Pricing
As the operations role is very dependent on the activity in the DAO, it is hard to quote a fixed fee. We have therefore put a higher weighting on APE in our proposal as the assumption is that the value of APE will increase as the activity in the DAO increases.
| Service | Monthly Fee |
|---|---|
| Fiat fee | USDC 22,750 |
| Token fee | APE 3,700 |
Fiat fees are payable, monthly, up front.
We will provide a wallet address for the token element, which will be billed 100% in advance, be unlocked, and fully vested. The recurring quantity of tokens will be discussed on the annual anniversary of the service agreement.
We will review the fiat fee every six months, and mutually agree on a revised, equivalent fee for the next six-month period based on the expected volume of activity. This will help ensure we maintain a fair fee level for both Autonomous and the Foundation.
Our fees will increase on an annual basis based on the government published rate of inflation in the Cayman Islands after the anniversary of each one year of service.
Edit - Following the request to break out the collective $75k monthly cost between Autonomous, Lemma and Provenance, please see the below table:
| Breakout | |
|---|---|
| Provenance | 4,167 |
| Autonomous | 29,542 |
| Lemma | 41,292 |
| Total | 75,000 |