Public Nouns

INTRODUCTION B<>rder/ess is a Public Good building the next generation of Web3 talent from today’s universities. We raise the next generation of:

• Builders and Founders
• Developers
• Web3 Creatives and Story Tellers
• Web3 Contributors to Public Goods who build value, products, and communities to promote the sustainability of Ethereum in our local communities.

We build web3 physical hubs, web3 campus tech clubs, and learning tools that help students become Ethereum builders through builder development and real-world projects.

Since 2022, we’ve:

• Established Physical Web3 hubs at Nigerian universities for learning and innovation, one in the University of Nigeria and another in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State
• Created 14+ campus tech clubs for peer developer growth.
• Run 20+ Cipher Sessions and hackathons, onboarding 300+ developers into Web3 ecosystems like Lisk OPstack, Arbitrum, Base, Celo, and Filecoin.
• Reached 8,000+ students through educational programs.
• Raised funding for 50+ university projects with $33K during GG23 for web3 For Universities initiatives.
• Launched tools like ByteOnchain.xyz using attestations for Web3 education and credentials.

We treat builder growth as a public good, whether it’s a Developer, Entrepreneur, Creator, or Contributor: all our resources are freely accessible, forkable, and improvable, multiplying builder value across Ethereum.

Relevant Links To Our Updated Impact Reports 2024 1st Half of 2025

PROJECT DESCRIPTION - THE PUBLIC GOODS BUILDERS OP Most ecosystems offer incubation programs for startups, but there’s no dedicated framework for Public Goods or first-time builders entering Ethereum.

Many early founders struggle not from weak ideas, but from lacking essential skills in sales, marketing, team structure, financial management, and other areas, including resilience.

For Ethereum to scale sustainably, the ecosystem must nurture its young builder pipeline, helping contributors move from learning to building, and from concepts to products with real adoption.

The Public Goods Builders OP addresses this need by providing a structured pathway for new founders to launch meaningful projects and directly connect their growth to measurable ecosystem impact.

About the Public Goods Builders OP The Public Goods Builders OP is a bi-monthly incubation program designed for first-time founders, student entrepreneurs, and indie developers who want to take their ideas on-chain and build value as entrepreneurs.

Since traditional incubators focus on seasoned founders, this program is the first incubation model for Public Goods, equipping new builders with the technical, marketing, and business support they need to succeed.

Each cohort helps projects across four key areas:

• Public Goods: Open, community-driven solutions that strengthen Ethereum.
• Profit-Sustaining Products: Ventures with sustainable business models.
• Impact-Based Innovations: Social, economic, or environmental solutions.
• Regenerative Projects: Initiatives that replenish and create lasting positive cycles.

Our goal is to help builders go from Concept → MVP → Product-Market Fit → Go-To-Market with 100–1,000 active users per project, and the program will leverage the resources that the Physical B<>rder/ess web3 Hubs provide.

The Target Audience

1. First-time builders: individuals launching their very first on-chain project.
2. Student builders: university and early-career talents experimenting with public goods and Web3 entrepreneurship.
3. Emerging developers: technical contributors transitioning from coding to full product-building for the first time.

PUBLIC NOUNS TREASURY REPLENISHMENT STRATEGY

The Builders’ OP not only funds early builders but also creates a regenerative cycle in which successful projects contribute back to the Public Nouns DAO, sustaining future funding rounds and experiments.

It would have some housekeeping, like: Builder Agreements - selected builders would commit to contribute a small percentage of their revenues, token allocations, or grant inflows back to the Public Nouns Treasury as they grow and succeed.

Revenue Sharing - as a builder’s project becomes profitable and secures external funding, builders will donate a small percentage of the revenue or capital raised to pNoun treasury. This creates a sustainable loop; the DAO becomes both a catalyst and a stakeholder in future success stories.

Buyback & Treasury Growth - Projects may choose to buy back pNouns NFTs or deposit directly into the DAO treasury as a sign of alignment and appreciation.

Measured Transparency - Using on-chain tracking and attestations, the Builders’ OP can transparently display returns from successful projects.

Long-Term Impact - Over multiple cohorts, Public Nouns would have developed a portfolio of graduated builders and a pipeline of sustainable contributors who amplify treasury value through revenue-generating projects and measurable financial inflows.

Example Scenario If 10 early builders graduate from the Builders’ OP and just 3–4 of them turn into revenue-generating products or receive large ecosystem grants:

• And hypothetically, each contributes a small 2–5% return from revenues, raises, or grants.
• Collectively, this could generate recurring inflows to the DAO treasury, a model of Revenue-Generating Projects funding public goods.

THE PUBLIC GOOD’S BUILDERS’ OP PROCESS

Stage 1: Support Team Formation We’ve created a dedicated support team focused on three critical areas of builder success for any product being developed in 2025:

Technical Support – Covering the full product lifecycle, including product design, smart contract development, front-end engineering, and data analytics. Content & Marketing – Providing storytelling, branding, community engagement, and growth marketing to help projects reach and retain their audiences. Business Development – Guiding founders on product-market fit, partnerships, fundraising strategies, and long-term sustainability.

Stage 2: Builder onboarding and Idea Selection Entrepreneurs and developers apply with their public goods, impact-driven, profit-sustaining, or regenerative ideas. Selected builders are accepted into the program and taken through an idea validation process.

Using a lean experimentation approach, ideas are tested and validated through customer interviews, market research, and data-driven questioning. Final selections are made based on the evidence gathered, ensuring only the most viable and impactful ideas move forward.

This de-risks projects at the earliest stage, we not only save founders from pursuing unsustainable directions but also give funders confidence that resources are being channelled into solutions with the highest chance of real-world adoption and long-term impact.

(2 weeks) The Lean Experiment Approach: At the idea stage, every builder is guided to test assumptions quickly and cheaply before building, following four key steps: Identify Assumptions - Builders list the riskiest assumptions behind their idea, like this impact tool is needed, or users will pay for this function, or there’s nothing like this yet in web3 Design Experiments - For each assumption, builders design a small, fast experiment to validate the idea or ask questions. Collect Data - Run the experiments with potential users through customer interviews, surveys, early demos, or pilot campaigns to gather evidence. Decide: Pivot, Persevere, or Drop - If the data validates it, then build; if not, then pivot.

Stage 3: Incubation Sprint The incubation sprint comprises a 3-week session where builders are taken through sessions on;

• Product
• Impact Design
• Web3 Business Structure and Leadership
• Marketing and Building in Public
• Finance management and structure for startups
• Grants writing & Co-ordination for sustainability

Key Focus for the sprint is;

1. Build, test, and deploy on-chain MVPs.
2. Design Co-ordination and operations for sustainability
3. Develop a go-to-market strategy.
4. Align on adoption targets.

Stage 4: Marketing Sprint and Evaluation The marketing sprint is a 3-week adoption challenge designed to help Builders activate 100–1,000 real users during the sprint. Adoption is tracked through wallets, attestations, transactions, or active dApp usage, allowing projects to move beyond MVP and achieve real-world traction.

After the Sprint; Founders present their projects to the community and evaluators. Success is measured by:

• Product readiness (on-chain deployment).
• Adoption metrics achieved.
• Sustainability and impact potential.

Final Stage: Rewards & Continuity Prizes awarded to projects that meet or exceed adoption milestones, and high-performing teams are fast-tracked into:

Partnership opportunities.

• Hand-holding through applying to Public Goods Funding rounds (Gitcoin, Giveth, Octant, and other ecosystem grants).
• Handholding through builder programs like Buildathons, Ethereum Fellowship, Incubase, and more.
• Content / Marketing boost for 1 month.

BUDGET AND ALLOCATION STRUCTURE

Program Coordination & Operations – 20% This encompasses administration, program management, mentor coordination, and logistics for bimonthly cohorts, ensuring the smooth operation of the program and maintaining reporting accountability.

Builder Support Teams – 45% Technical Support (15%): Product design, smart contracts, front-end dev, and data analytics. Content & Marketing (15%): Branding, storytelling, community building, and growth campaigns. Business Development (15%): Product-market fit guidance, partnerships, fundraising strategies, community nd team building, monitoring and evaluation.

Adoption Sprint Prize Pool – 30%

• Incentives for builders who successfully onboard 100–1,000 users.
• Structured as milestone-based disbursements tied to verifiable adoption metrics.

Contingency / Buffer – 5% Reserved for unexpected costs or scaling opportunities during the OP.

Budget Summary:

• Coordination & Ops – 20%
• Builder Support Teams – 45%
• Prize Pool – 30%
• Contingency – 5%

EXPECTED OUTCOMES and IMPACT

Outcomes and KPIs We have 3 main expected outcomes and the following KPI’s for the Public Goods Builders OP;

1. Experimentation: Increased Public Goods experimentation and sustainability. 2. Builders: Steady flow of first-time builders growing into productive founders 3. Users: Tangible user growth tied to funded projects (wallets, attestations, deployed dApps, contributors).

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Builder Pipeline: No of founders/developers incubated per cohort. Retention: % of builders still active after 6 months. Adoption: Average No of users per project (target: 100–1,000+). Outputs: No of new tools, dApps, products launched. Public Goods Impact: No of projects aligning with non-rivalrous and open-source principles. Ecosystem Growth: On-chain attestations, wallet activity, community contributors engaged.

Impact I. Greater resilience for the Ethereum ecosystem through retained, collaborative builder communities in 2025. II. Reduced reliance on trial-and-error, equipping new builders with structured pathways to success. III. Faster time-to-launch for sustainable and impactful projects.

HOW DOES THIS INITIATIVE SUPPORT PUBLIC GOODS? Public Goods Builders OP strengthens Ethereum’s public goods ecosystem by: Nurturing first-time founders who otherwise lack access to incubation and funding and reducing builder development growth from trial by error to “first-take”, “first-success”, failure is good, but time wasting is worse.

If it takes two failures to learn, then it shouldn’t have to take ten failures. What we’re trying to do is reduce the number of failures and mistakes to accelerate builder growth and build the sustainability of builders in the next generation for Ethereum.

1. Sharing non-rivalrous knowledge covering sales, coordination, resilience, and financial management that builders apply across multiple projects.

2. Developing open-source products, attestations, and tools that benefit the broader ecosystem.

3. Cultivating collaborative builder communities that enhance Ethereum’s resilience. This program ensures public goods aren’t only funded but also actively incubated into practical, usable products.

WHY DOES IT NEED FUNDING RIGHT NOW?

Ethereum is at a stage in 2025 where:

• The builder pipeline is thin; most incubators focus on seasoned founders, leaving first-time builders underserved.
• Without structured guidance, many young founders waste resources through trial-and-error and ultimately abandon their projects.
• Public goods face a market gap: promising ideas fail during execution due to inadequate support systems.

Read my Sense Making Report on Builder Development as Ethereum’s biggest problems Funding this now, ensures the next generation of builders enters the ecosystem with proper structure, mentorship, and adoption-driven goals, preventing this gap from widening further.

HOW IS IT NON-RIVALROUS? The knowledge, resources, and support structures shared in the Public Goods Builders OP can be used by one builder without reducing access for another. Every cohort creates learning materials, case studies, and open tools that remain freely available for future builders and ecosystems.

HOW IS IT NON-EXCLUDABLE? Participation in the program and its outputs are not limited to one group knowledge, skills, and tools are shared openly with the Ethereum ecosystem. Whether or not a builder was in the program, they can still access reports, tools, playbooks, and open-source code that come from it.

5 REASONS TO VOTE YES FOR THIS PROPOSAL 1. First-time Builder Focus: It’s the only incubation program targeting new founders and student builders. 2. Replenishes the Public Nouns DAO in the long run: Creates a direct connection between successful products in the Builders’ Op and Eth Deposits or pNoun sales for the treasury. 3. Proven Track Record: B<>rder/ess has already built physical web3 hubs, launched byteonchain.xyz, trained 300+ devs, and raised/funded 50+ student projects in Gitcoin rounds. 4. Adoption-driven Model: Success is tied to 100–1,000 real users, ensuring measurable impact. 5. Alignment with Public Nouns: Supports experimentation, advocacy, and funding of public goods in practice.

FEEDBACK LOOP Adoption Metrics: Wallets, attestations, transactions, and active contributors per project. Retention Metrics: % of builders active after 6 months. Outputs: Number of new dApps, tools, and public goods launched. Community Reports: Open reports and storytelling pieces are published after every cohort for transparency and replication.

GRANT RATIONALE (PUBLIC NOUNS MANIFESTO ALIGNMENT) The mission of Public Nouns DAO is to support public goods through:

Experimentation: Public Goods Builders OP is an experiment in creating the first incubation program for public goods builders, not just startups. Advocacy: We’re showcasing the stories of first-time founders, students, and impact-driven projects, raising awareness of why public goods matter and how new builders can contribute. Funding: Direct support enables founders to test, build, and deploy public goods projects with measurable adoption goals, ensuring funding turns into results.

By funding this program, Public Nouns helps create a replicable model for public goods incubation, scaling Ethereum’s capacity to onboard, support, and retain its next generation of builders.

Thank You KarlaGod