The relaunch of the Stellar Startup Camp has been in the works for some months with the SDF directly, and it was decided that the best way to put this proposal forward was to submit it to the community fund.

ScaleMote understands this is not a traditional application as it does not request funds to develop software but rather to develop the startup camp itself.

Finally, we acknowledge that ScaleMote recently got funded for Planet Pay, one of our ventures. We want to reassure the reviewers and community that ScaleMote has sufficient resources (our team is 90+) to tackle these projects simultaneously.

Executive Summary

Stellar seeks to draw in builders and projects, focusing on Soroban. The Startup Camp aims to equip applicants to create high-quality projects ready for SCF funding.

ScaleMote will turn the Startup Camp into a self-serve program that attracts fresh talent from diverse demographics, more frequently and sets them up for success.

Fresh talent: Get 100+ applicants through targeted activities such as LinkedIn outreach, Reddit ads and X(Twitter), and a highly compelling value proposition: 'Join the Stellar Startup camp and get a chance to build your MVP for free and apply for equity-free grants to scale your startup!' The marketing efforts will be meticulously focused on the right avatar, defined together with the SDF, to achieve the best ROI on the marketing spend.

Diverse demographics: Global marketing activities in APAC, EMEA and AMER.

More frequently: Modify the format of the Startup camp so it’s self-serve and more automated, meaning it can run more frequently, at a lower cost. We aim to move from one event every four months to one event monthly, aligned with the SCF submissions.

Sets them up for success: Our reimagined process aims to make finalists stand out as one of the strongest contenders in every round of the Stellar Community Fund.

ScaleMote will provide the core team of mentors to ensure a smooth operation and will open up participation to community mentors, similar to the SCF-verified panellists.

The Stellar Development Foundation can use the resulting startup camp materials independently of ScaleMote, meaning the SDF is not vendor-locked.

The process

Step 1: Marketing

With our reimagined self-serve process, the Startup Camp will be able to allow more projects to participate (currently limited to 30-40), therefore we must increase the number of applicants.

Focusing on the top of the funnel will allow us to attract more projects:

• Define the right target market (in collaboration with the SDF), and 
• Leverage the most cost-effective marketing channels to drive applications (e.g. builders from other chains).

Step 2: Project Review

The objective is to improve the quality of the projects by filtering the applications against well-defined selection criteria made available to applicants beforehand. The criteria must be aligned with the defined avatars.

All evaluations will be recorded and shared with the SDF for transparency and dispute purposes.

Step 3: Pre-bootcamp: Welcome & Checklist 

The objective is to ensure that teams are adequately prepared to make the most of the Startup camp.

ScaleMote will:

• Conduct an onboarding meeting with all selected projects to provide an overview of the Startup camp, after which we will:
• Provide teams with a Lean Canvas and other tools to refine their idea and audience.
• Give teams a week to complete a Lean Canvas to clarify their thinking and conduct at least three customers.
• Share the pre-recorded masterclass series: 30-45 minute videos with a subject matter expert to explain the key concepts of the Startup Camp. These will be pre-recorded so they can be reused in future iterations of the Startup camp or used as a reference.
• Distribute Masterclass summaries & cheatsheets for quick reference.

During the pre-startup camp week, the mentor roster will be available for 15-minute ad-hoc meetings booked using Calendly. We can also provide Discord or Slack channels.

Step 4: Startup camp

The objective is to ensure teams are ready to submit their application to the next SCF, along with a working prototype. The Startup Camp structure is mapped to the SCF submission structure and uses best practices from Google Ventures.

The deliverables are a complete SCF application and a prototype that can be fleshed out in 1.5 months of development, in line with the SCF Activation Award timelines.

Participants can meet with business, UX/UI, and tech mentors throughout the day to address any doubts in Blockbuster sessions, designed to get participants unstuck and back on track.

Day 1: MVP definition & Stellar/Soroban validation

The masterclass for this day teaches participants:

• How to cut through the noise and select only what’s needed to launch their minimum viable product.
• How to create User Stories, size them, and attach a risk profile to them (Zombie, Crocodile, Poodle) and concrete steps to de-risk them.
• How to tailor their solution around the necessary particularities of blockchain-based solutions.

The final deliverable of the first day is a well-defined idea and the user stories required to launch an MVP.

User stories that follow the industry-standard template:

As a (who wants to accomplish something)

I want to (what they want to accomplish)

So that (why they want to accomplish that thing)

This is the list of features that inform the risks, development roadmap, development budget and timelines.

By the end of this day, teams will be able to fill out the “Product” section of the SCF application.

Day 2: UX/UI

Participants now have a clear idea of what they’re building and a prioritized list of features. 

It’s now time to design them.

The masterclass of this day shows a UX/UI expert discussing general concepts that will help participants avoid common pitfalls and ensure a good user flow.

The final submission is the design for the MVP user stories.

Because design skills will vary between teams, user flows, mockups, low-fidelity designs or high-fidelity designs are all acceptable.

Throughout the day, UX/UI experts are available to help teams.

By the end of this day, teams will be able to upload screenshots to their application.

Day 3: Tech

The masterclass includes a tech expert explaining key Stellar and Soroban concepts and how to create C4 L1 and L2 diagrams and UML sequence diagrams.

The final deliverable is a technical architecture document containing a high-level architecture design that supports the MVP. If a Soroban Smart Contract is part of the project, its operating mechanism must be described.

Participants can leverage the mentors and ScaleMote team to create the technical architecture document based on their MVP definition and UX/UI.

Throughout the day, tech experts are available to help teams.

Day 4: Wrap-up

This is an 'unblock' day to work on any pending tasks and finalise the SCF application. It is also an excellent opportunity to build a pitch deck.

The masterclass of this day shows participants how to write a robust SCF application and seek feedback.

Mentors are available to review applications throughout the day.

Step 5: Ask for feedback & Incorporate learnings

As the new Startup Camp is a self-serve program, ScaleMote will send out a feedback form and facilitate a retrospective meeting to process that feedback and incorporate learnings.

Pablo Seoane, CEO

https://www.linkedin.com/in/p-seoane

15 years of experience in marketing and business across multiple industries and geographies. Experience includes P&L ownership, managing large cross-functional teams, new product development, brand strategy, sales, and marketing mix optimization

Former General Manager of BYJU'S Australia (BYJU'S is the largest Ed-tech company in the world) and founder of three start-ups in the dating, relationships, and software space.

Fabricio Sodano, CTO (fsodano on Discord)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fsodano/

15+ years of experience in Software Engineering, including managing teams of 100+ around the globe across Product Engineering, QA, Platforms, Mobile, Data and Security, with experience managing multi-million dollar tech budgets, currently working in the FinTech industry.

Former Director of Engineering at THE ICONIC and Head of Engineering at Wisr (ASX:WZR). Founder of argentinaprograma.com, a free online course for people in Argentina with an active community of ~7k+ students who regularly connect on Slack.

ScaleMote has secured the services of a leading agile consultant (experience @ THE ICONIC and Atlassian amongst others) to review and refine the Startup Camp materials.