Candidate for Incubator DAO Governor: River

Governance Incubator DAO
1

Hi everyone,

Please find below my application for the Incubator DAO Governor opportunity!

I guess it’s best to doxx myself so you guys know more about me (holy crap this is scary!)

Anyways, I’m River , a 10+ year entrepreneur within the UK tech community.

My background is in hackathons, accelerators, and tech.

I started off my career working for a charity helping student entrepreneurs turn their idea into a business.

During this time I also participated in several hackathons for fun, including:

I also organised hackathons as well, the main one at the time being Startup Hacks, which was Europe’s first invite only hackathon. It was at SH where I first learned about Bitcoin!

Through my work I was approached by a really well known entrepreneur, Lee Strafford, to run a startup accelerator in the UK called Dotforge.

Whilst at Dotforge I helped recruit 30 pre-seed startups onto the programme where they received angel investment, mentorship, and fundraising support. In total DF invested around $1m across these startups.

In 2015 I founded The HackTrain, a hackathon focused on driving forward innovation in the railroad industry. We brought together developers from all around the world to literally hack on a moving train travelling from city to city. The event was so popular I decided to spin it out into a full-time business which we called Hack Partners.

Whilst at HP I led the organisation of 15+ hackathons bringing together 800+ developers from around the world. We ran hackathons all around the world including in France, Germany, and Hong Kong.

Some sponsors included: Bloomberg, the NHS, Microsoft and o2.

The HackTrain, is widely considered to be one of the best hackathons in the world within the hackathon community. We ended up collaborating with major train operating companies such as Deutsche Bahn, SNCF, Network Rail and Hong Kong’s MTR.

I led Hack Partners to generate over £5m in revenue across 5 years and scaled the business to 30-staff. Over the years we achieved quite a lot on a policy and technology level.

As a typical startup CEO I did everything from sales and partnerships to marketing and product management.

I take pride in being a relentless individual that wants to be the change I wish to see in the world. And I firmly believe decentralised video games are going to become one of the most significant moments of change in the 2020s.

Why I’d be good for the Incubator DAO
I believe I’d be a great addition to the Incubator DAO because:

  • I have ran and scaled a startup
    – I learned everything from hiring to firing, sales to marketing, branding to operations, finance to planning, product management to execution and more. I think having gone through what I can only describe as ‘Hells Road’ as a founder will give me the ability to relate and empathise with fellow founders on their journey.

  • I’ve ran an accelerator programme
    – This experience has taught me how and when to advise startups, common mistakes founders make, and the importance of helping startups unblock problems at the early stages of their journey.

  • I’ve participated in 20+ hackathons and organised 15+.
    – This experience has allowed me to communicate with developers really effectively and I believe it is a critical skill in being able to mentor them effectively on their projects.
    – I also know what developers need when converting their hackathon projects into successful long-term businesses, something which I think is critical for the success of Harmony and the Incubator DAO.

If you have any questions - please feel free to reach out!

2 Likes
2

@Creation good to have someone else with hands on incubator experience!

3

Hi River, congrats on getting elected! What’s your Telegram so we can add you to the conversation / scheduling for meetings? Feel free to DM me.