Where Are DAOs the Best At?
However, I've been wondering which would be the best use case for DAO model. A few organizational types I think would benefit from a transfer to DAO a lot:
- *Mission-driven organizations:* This is kinda non-brainer, right – your org can advance its mission better if it has more engaged community that is driving its goals, right? And engagement is typically higher if you can actually influence to the org's direction! - *Social platforms reached their maturity:* This is a bit of a no-brainer too, isn't it? What would be a better defensible moat for a large-scale social network than a way to also economically incentivize all participants to interact with the platform? - *Non-profits:* For organizations without a built-in business model, it makes a lot of sense to embed a financial component as a part of governance. You can finally provide your volunteers with a decent reimbursement for their effort (and costs!) they bear for your cause! - *Clubs:* Wouldn't it be fun to be part of a global pastime club that would be properly organized around their own token? As an extreme example, Krause House ([https://krausehouse.club/](https://krausehouse.club/)) has a mission to purchase an NBA team, how cool is that... - *Investment organizations:* Proper incentivization for bottom-up deal sourcing and collective decision-making should be beneficial for any investment org. After all, lone geniouses are extremely rare and a vast mass of community members (potential clients!) should be able to collectively know better. And certainly many DeFi protocols leverage this model extremely well :)
One model that is missing is *Organization Developing New Products*, meaning startups and other rapidly growing companies that are still actively building their products. While I understand the benefits of bottom-up development and community incentivization, startups and other product development teams must be quick and nimble. It sounds like much to always ask for a permission from the community – instead, you need to ensure rapid iterations via short feedback loops. It's a different thing when you hit maturity – then, better to ask form the community than engage with corporate politics. But in a situation in which you can be extremely lean, shouldn't that be preserved?
What do you think about this? I may be wrong about this – I have vast background with different Web2 orgs after all.
What would be the best product-led protocols (preferably still in an early phase!) to learn from?