Startup Ideas: Web3 Community & Ownership Economy

Future of the Internet & Online Community

Zoe Chew
7 min readJan 13, 2023

Note: This Venturescale Trends report is part of the Startup Ideas & Trends Library, which covers topics such as 🤖AI SaaS, ✍️Creator Economy, 🔵Web3 Startups, and the 🚀Unbundling of the Internet.

DAOs are decentralized communities with a shared Internet bank account.

This type of online community is transforming the way we collaborate, create, earn, fundraise, and work in the metaverse.

‍Section 1: Key Market Trends

(1) Decentralize online education:

  • DAOs are the new universities, colleges, and trade schools. New types of learning organizations are emerging to help users upskill their knowledge across various domains.
  • DAOs have therefore made learning inclusive for all participants. Community members are becoming lecturers and earners. Students are becoming owners and contributors. Educators are no longer authority figures.
  • Odyssey DAO offers free Web3 education at the intersection of DeFi, blockchain, and NFTs.
  • MetricsDAO helps you learn Web3 analytics skills.
  • Ed3DAO helps educators break into Web3 and host metaverse conferences.
  • RabbitHole allows users to contribute to decentralized apps while also helping them to earn tokens for their on-chain activity.
  • Invisible College turns students into owners of the educational platform where they co-create course syllabus and host community-based workshops.

(2) Venture capital on the blockchain:

  • VC investing is becoming a team sport. The rise of Web3 investment DAO is allowing investors to participate in early-stage startup investments without going through traditional venture capital firms.
  • VC3 puts its money into the most promising Web3 startups from around the world.
  • Orange DAO is a collective of 1,300 founders of YC-backed companies investing in the future of Web3 startups.
  • Komorebi Collective DAO provides funding for women and non-binary individuals who are founders in the cryptocurrency industry.
  • MetaCartel Venture DAO focuses on investing in early-stage decentralized applications.

(3) Turning movie lovers into film producers:

  • Movie DAOs are turning fans into film producers. Fans now have a bigger voice in the filmmaking process. By owning film tokens, moviegoers can influence the direction of storytelling, scripts, production, and casting. Independent filmmakers can pitch their film ideas, and DAO members will decide which ones are chosen.
  • Film.io put Hollywood’s decision-making into the hands of creators and fans.
  • Movie Studio DAO is building Kickstarter with NFTs to help filmmakers raise crowdfunding through fans.
  • Mogul Productions allows participants (STARS token holders) to vote on which film pitches will be funded.
  • NFT Film Squad empowers movie creators with ownership, utility, funding, and distributions.

more… !

(🔒 MEMBERS-ONLY) +5 more key trends, backed by real company examples:

🔑 (4/8) Platforms that turn sports fans into asset owners (4 examples)

🔑 (5/8) What is the “Co-Earnership” model in Web3 (4 examples)

🔑 (6/8) How DAOs can help gamers invest and earn (4 examples)

🔑 (7/8) How to leverage the “Co-Investing” model (5 examples)

🔑 (8/8) Direct-to-Fans model in Web3 communities (4 examples)

🔥 Unlock Full Post : : :

Section 2: Market Players & Company Databases

  • 🏢 Total 108 market players
  • 🔖 Total 8 niche segments
  • 🗃 Company databases: value proposition, website, stage, total funding raised, year founded, company size, location and LinkedIn
  • 👌 Easily filter, sort and customize the display

(🔒 MEMBERS-ONLY) Access the full database:

Section 3: Problems & Market Needs

(1) Lower the cost of NFT ownership:

  • The high cost of NFTs discourages small investors who lack the capital to begin investing. Collector DAOs enable individuals to own a fractional share of an NFT or co-own digital assets by pooling capital as a group.
  • Shark DAO is a collective that acquires Nouns, a generative, code-driven collection of NFTs.
  • JennyDAO helps individuals afford rare NFTs through acquisition and fractionalization ownership via the Unicly platform.
  • PleasrDAO collectively bought the “Doge” meme NFT for for $4 million and then fractionalized (divided 1 NFT into multiple pieces) so that fans could acquire a piece of the NFT.
  • DavinciDAO is an art collector DAO on the Solana blockchain.

(🔒 MEMBERS-ONLY) +4 more insights to find customer needs:

🔑 (2/5) How to democratize medical research and help participants earn (4 examples)

🔑 (3/5) How to tackle incentive misalignment in Web3 communities (4 examples)

🔑 (4/5) Who’s building Y Combinator for Web3 (5 examples)

🔑 (5/5) Solutions to tackle the severe lack of funding (5 examples)

Section 4: Predictions & Startup Opportunities

(1) DAOs will get REAL:

  • Real estate DAOs are emerging to lower the cost of “real” property ownership. By tokenizing real estate, anyone can own a smaller portion of it instead of purchasing the entire property. This could broaden the range of individuals that can possess real estate and generate individual wealth.
  • As blockchain is bridging the gaps between physical and digital (known as “phygital”) realms, startups may offer Web3 real estate crowdfunding services that enable blockchain-based real estate investments.
  • City DAO democratizes land ownership on-chain.
  • Balcony DAO is building the OpenSea marketplace for real-world estate.
  • Indaod is tokenizing vacation rental properties and maximizing profit potential for DAO members.

(2) DAOs will be the new book clubs:

  • A DAO can be used to help facilitate web3 book clubs and help the community learn and earn. This can be done through a smart contract that rewards members for taking part in book clubs, such as reading a book, attending a meeting, or leading a discussion.
  • The DAO could also manage the book club’s finances, such as utilizing NFT memberships and distributing funds for resources and events. This would enable the community to learn and earn cryptocurrency by taking part in events or activities associated with the book club.
  • ComicsDAO unites comic fans to raise money collectively to purchase rare comics.
  • PageDAO is a decentralized publishing platform owned by its membership comprised of writers, readers and lovers of literature.
  • Junto is building Decentralized Autonomous Libraries.

(3) DAO management platforms will rise:

  • DAO management tools are becoming increasingly important as the trend of Web3 native communities grows. These tools give power to the community managers and members of the community, providing them with the ability to vote on important decisions and determine the direction of the organization as a whole.
  • New Web3 startups could provide SaaS solutions for DAOs. These solutions could offer users the ability to quickly create a DAO, and provide operational efficiency by streamlining the various functions of a DAO, such as governance, decision-making, fundraising, and fund management.
  • Gnosis Safe helps DAOs manage crypto assets on Ethereum, treasury management, and DeFi wallet security.
  • DeepDAO is an analytic platform that collects quantitative and qualitative data about DAOs.
  • OpenLaw helps DAOs create, access, and execute legal agreements via smart contracts.
  • Juicebox is a fundraising protocol that helps Web3 projects that uses public smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain to manage community-led funding.

(🔒 MEMBERS-ONLY) +5 more startup opportunities:

🔑 (4/8) Platforms that turn fans into creators and earners (3 examples)

🔑 (5/8) No-code tools for Web3 communities (4 examples)

🔑 (6/8) Who’s building Notion for DAOs or Trello for Web3 (4 examples)

🔑 (7/8) Niche online marketplaces for Web3 you can start (6 examples)

🔑 (8/8) Niche Web3 communities you can start (3 examples)

Section 5: Product Strategy & Recommendation

(1) Build a community MVP (minimum viable product):

  • Start with the web2 community. Before launching a blockchain-based community, you can initiate your DAO through existing web2 communities such as Telegram, Discord, Slack, or Whatsapp groups. This will help attract users, build awareness around the project, and create opportunities to discuss and ideate on the project.
  • Gather feedback as early as possible. You can use these web2 communities to share information, get feedback from users, and create a sense of community before the blockchain-based platform is launched. This will also help you understand the members’ needs and how to incentivize the DAO members.
  • Start from open, then transition to closed. Initially, you might consider onboarding people with similar interests, values, and goals. As you move toward your DAO creation, you can narrow it down using a vetting process. For example, new members will go through a sorting process in which DAO members vote on who will be accepted.

(🔒 MEMBERS-ONLY) +4 more action ideas and recommendations:

🔑 (2/5) How to apply Curate-to-earn model (3 examples)

🔑 (3/5) How to apply Learn-to-earn (L2E) model (4 examples)

🔑 (4/5) Identify a niche category for the DAO (6 examples)

🔑 (5/5) 4 strategies for DAO funding (4 examples)

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Zoe Chew
Zoe Chew

Written by Zoe Chew

Sharing my journey as an entrepreneur, creator, and lifelong learner. Building Venturescale.to and Rapidmvps.com . About me whizzoe.com

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