[DAO:ba7a607] Decentraland Studios (aka Verified Partners Registry) — Grant Renewal

Governance
1

by 0xd11a019a70986bd607cbc1c1f9ae221c78581f49 (Yemel)

Should the following $74,800 grant in the Platform category be approved?

Abstract

Grant renewal to maintain studios.decentraland.org. Previous grant proposal here.

We are the team that created and maintains Decentraland Studios (previously known as Verified Partners Registry). Our mission is to facilitate connections between brands and creators, and generate new business opportunities for them.

Over the past 7 months we onboarded 150+ studios and helped them create portfolios in our platform to show their capabilities to potential clients. We are looking to renew our grant to continue creating job opportunities for creators and to improve the visibility of their work.

Grant size

74,800 USD

Beneficiary address

0x256874B9FD26cBf11a4E2DE5CFFE5a877603044d

Email address

metaverse.studios@decentraland.org

Description

The first grant of this project had the objective of setting up the website, creating the verification processes to ensure that only qualified creators are listed in the registry, and building connections with the Decentraland creators.

This renewal has the main focus of creating business opportunities for the members of the registry. To accomplish this, we will work on three key areas of the business growth of Decentraland creators:

Streamlining Job Opportunities for Decentraland Creators

We are working on a feature through which brands can post job openings for Decentraland creators. Any brand can create a job indicating the type of project they want to develop (along with a description, skills needed, budget and timeline), and all Decentraland Studios will be able to apply. We expect this feature to remove friction for brands to hire Decentraland creators. The user flow for creating a job and applying to one will be similar to how Dribbble implemented it.

Lead generation

Create performance marketing campaigns in web2 platforms such as Linkedin, Twitter, Google, and Instagram targeted to brand owners and marketers interested in building a presence in the Metaverse. The ads campaign will direct users to our landing page collecting their emails in exchange for an onboarding guide. After that point, the leads will be followed up by emails introducing interesting content and calling them to start a new project (see point above).

Maintenance and improvement

We will continue onboarding and verifying studios to our platform while listening to our community and taking their feedback. Right now, we are looking to:

  • Add search, filtering and sorting features to projects, studios and resources
  • Keep improving the resource section, adding case studies and more scenes
  • Keep updating the “Guide Into The Metaverse” and translating it to other languages
  • Featuring projects to highlight skills and talent
  • Having a dedicated section for Decentraland Studios in decentraland.org

We are looking to grow the following metrics:

  • Visitors to our website
  • Brands connecting with studios through our platform

Budget Specification

Salaries:

  • $12,200 USD per month or a total of $48,800 USD
  • Total Hours: ~360 monthly hours or ~90 weekly hours.

Marketing Budget:

  • $200 USD per day, $6,000 USD per month or a total of $24,000 USD.
  • Paid marketing campaigns at Instagram, Linkedin, Google, Twitter targeted to brand owners.

Operations:

  • $500 USD per month or a total of $2,000 USD
  • Subscriptions to Calendly, Typeform, Sendgrid, Digital Ocean, Plausible, Figma.

Personnel

  • Alejandro Escoda — Operations and Communication Linkedin
  • Francisco Crespi — Product and Design Linkedin
  • Omar Bobrow — Software Development Linkedin
  • Open Position — Performance Marketing (ad creation, budget placement, and monitoring)

This team has been successfully working together since December. We are opening a new strategic position to overview and manage the marketing budget. This position is key to generate business opportunities and reach to new brand owners and marketing agencies.

Roadmap and milestones

Month 1

  • Set up Instagram and Linkedin ad campaigns.
  • Design a content strategy to follow up leads with
  • Design and development of Job Opportunities feature.
  • Implement search and filtering of profiles, projects, and resources.
  • Translate the Metaverse Guide to Spanish.

Month 2

  • Set up Google and Twitter ad campaigns.
  • Launch of Job Opportunities Flow.
  • Improve visibility of Studios in Decentraland home.
  • Translate the Metaverse Guide to Portuguese.

Month 3

  • Evaluate alternative distribution channels (eg. Magazines, Blog, Reddit)
  • New release of the Metaverse Guide with improved content.
  • Improving the resources section of the site.

Month 4

  • Review the results of the marketing campaigns.
  • Featuring projects to highlight skills and talent.
  • Propose a follow-up project roadmap based on the results.

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO

View this proposal on Snapshot

2

Thank you for the work you do… If I may make just one request. I really like the page and the purpose it serves, but I feel that some of us are left out of the market, although we are very much needed. Could you also make a section for Community Managers? I would love to submit my credentials and find work within Decentraland. Thank you!

3

Hello @CheddarQueso. Thank you for your kind words about the platform and your suggestion.

We agree that Community Managers play an essential role in promoting and building engagement for various activations and events in Decentraland. We will consider adding a new category specifically for Community Managers and Entertainers (such as DJs) to promote their work and give them more exposure to brands trying to access to these services. We will have to develop a verification process to ensure all members listed are legitimate community managers and entertainers to maintain the integrity of the category.

We value the community input and feedback.

Thank you for your support!

1 Like
4

I have a question. There are several links to BnV on the studios page and those links show no relevance to DCL. They list Sandbox as a party but not DCL. Yes there are a couple NFTs G1s for wilderness and Metakey but those are not wearables and they are not listed as a linked wearable. None of the projects have anything in relation to Decentraland. I’m also curious how it is decided on placement of some of these locations. Like Web3Women The Future is Meta (which their HQ is not in Decentraland. Looks the Facebook Meta world. Please explain. Thank you.

1 Like
5

Hello Existential14

Thank you for bringing the BNV links to our attention. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused, and our team will review the situation and communicate with the studio as necessary. Also, we want to let you know that we have added a report button to every studio and project tab for situations like this. This feature allows users to report bad behavior, conflicts, and violations of intellectual property among the studios. Once you file a report, our team will investigate the situation as soon as possible.

Regarding your question about the “placement of these locations”, we are not sure we completely understand what you mean by this. If you are referring to the order of the list of studios on the platform, to provide further clarity, we currently sort the list based on the number of categories the studios have applied to. Studios with more categories are given a higher position on the list, and if two or more studios have the same number of categories, the order is randomized each time the page is refreshed.

Lastly, we understand your concern about Web3Women by The Future is Meta, the external link on their project page takes you to coordinates -23, -55, their HQ. However, we acknowledge that the pictures used on their page are renders and not actual pictures taken from Decentraland.

I hope this answers your questions and thank you again for your interest in Decentraland Studios.

1 Like
6

It does answer my questions. Yes that is what I meant was the placement as in the order of they appear. My main concern is that we are not advertising for people not invested in Decentraland or may have abandoned DCL. Businesses come in 1 time for some big event then tend to disappear while others that may have less do so much more. Will there be a monitoring and updates to the website to remove or at the very least alter a that is not currently doing anything in DCL? I recognize most of the names first on the list DappCraft, Polygonal Minds, Parcel Party etc. but there are some still I do not and not investigated yet. I’ll admit this is first time of having visited this site and like it overall.

7

Sure yes, you doing great work

1 Like
8

Hello @Existential14

I’m pleased to hear that my response was helpful. Regarding your concerns about monitoring the members of the registry, we want to assure that only studios that have completed the challenges and the verification process, which requires time and effort, are published on the platform. This ensures that only committed studios are listed.

We also encourage studios to keep their portfolios updated with their latest work, and we only allow for projects done in Decentraland to be published on our platform. If a studio publishes a project that is unrelated to Decentraland, we reach out to them and resolve this issue, as we did with the two studios you brought to our attention. Both studios have already committed to solving the issue as soon as possible.

Looking ahead, we are exploring the idea of implementing annual challenges to ensure that studios remain committed to Decentraland. This will help us maintain the quality of our platform and ensure that we continue to showcase the studios that really provide services to the Decentraland community.

Thank you!

1 Like
9

Thank you for looking into that and appreciate the infromation. I can vote now

1 Like
10

How many jobs have been generated as a result of the registry? How many companies and individuals have gone to the registry, found an individual, team, or company and hired them? What’s the total amount of revenue generated from this service?

4 Likes
11

Hello @AwedJob,

During the first grant, Decentraland Studios project achieved its main objectives of setting up a user-friendly website, establishing verification processes, and connecting with the talented creators of Decentraland. Our goal was to support the growth of the creative industry, facilitate valuable connections and give more exposure to the creators.

However, at that time, we did not have the necessary tools to effectively track job generation, the number of brands that found and hired a studio through the registry, or the total revenue generated from our platform. As a result, we were not able to report on these metrics during the initial grant period. Nonetheless, we published a final update on the grant page that summarized our key performance indicators (KPIs) and milestones achieved.

Now that our platform is up and running, we can focus on lead generation tasks that will help bring companies and brands to our platform, making Decentraland creators visible to them. By doing this, we will be able to track the success in terms of job opportunities generated, and studios hired through the registry. To achieve this, we will be working on three key areas of the business growth named in this proposal.

Thank you for interest in Decentraland Studios.

1 Like
12

Thank you for this. I will go check it out.

1 Like
13

I heard that creators have to dox themselves to be a part of this. Can you shed any light on what this means, and if it’s an accurate statement? Thank you.

Also how do brands in the registry come up in your search results? Just wondering if it’s based on activity, history, or relevance? I’m wondering why brand A comes up in the search before brand B. Thank you!

1 Like
14

Hello @Canessa

Thank you for your interest in Decentraland Studios. Regarding your first question, creators who want to be listed on our platform are required to complete a form that inquires about their history and current activity in Decentraland. This allows us to get a first impression of the studio. However, it is not mandatory for creators to use their personal information, and we don’t require any government ID. After receiving the form, we arrange a call to review and validate the submitted information, during which we also request them to showcase some of the projects they’ve done in the past. However, we don’t necessarily require them to use their camera or real image during this meeting. Some members of the registry, such as Tangpoko, have chosen not to reveal their identity. Therefore, the statement that creators need to “dox” themselves to be part of the platform is inaccurate. Nevertheless, some studios may choose to provide accurate information to present themselves more professionally to potential clients.

Regarding your second question, the brands in the registry come up in search results based on the number of categories they have applied to. Studios with more categories are given a higher position on the list. If two or more studios have the same number of categories, the order is randomized each time the page is refreshed. This is the current method we use to sort the studios on the list. We will review this method soon to make sure all studios are granted similar visibility

Thank you for your interest!

1 Like
15

Yes please, community is at the heart of most every project in DCL and almost every one, especially the games and experiences have a community and folks who are in charge of building, growing and maintaining those spaces. I work with two grantees!.. but there isn’t a place for us on the list… event managers as well… like @Djtraxnft… very important. Thank you. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

1 Like
16

I wanted to take a moment and say, as a person helps market two of the vendor teams on this list… I very much appreciate the work that has been put into being fair. Yes you have to prove yourself in each category it takes a little time, but it protects you the Vendor(s) and the brand/agency.

The backend UI is very easy to work with. The page itself is well run. My only wish is that it was more prominent from the DCL main page.

I hope you get your grant!

1 Like
17

Thank you Aleescoda, this is very helpful information!

1 Like
18

During the past grant, I’ve seen the team grow a lot and increase their performance and efficiency enormously. I hope you continue to do such awesome things! And congratulations for the superb communication!

2 Likes
19

Hello @Nicole,

Thank you for taking the time to share your positive experience with Decentraland Studios. We are committed to fairness and transparency for all creators involved in our platform, and we are glad that our efforts are being recognized and appreciated.

We’re glad to hear that you find the back office platform UI is easy to work with. Regarding the visibility of the platform from the Decentraland main page, we are working closely with the Decentraland Foundation to improve the exposure of the registry.

Thank you for your support and kind words about our platform!

20

Hello @esteban,

Thank you very much for your kind words and for supporting our project. We truly appreciate you taking the time to acknowledge the growth of Decentraland Studios. Our goal is to continuously improving our processes to make a positive impact on Decentraland creators and provide them with job opportunities and greater exposure.

Your encouragement means a lot to us, and we are excited to continue doing awesome things for Decentraland Studios.

Thank you again for your support!