We interviewed thirteen potential domain operators to understand their business models and support needs as Gitcoin shifts from direct grant distribution to empowering domain specialists.
Economics
Domain operators need a median annual income of $80,000. Standard operational fees (10% of the round funding) provide $30,000-$ 40,000 at realistic volumes. With $100,000 rounds yielding $10,000 fees, operators would need 8+ rounds annually.
This gap creates three operator types:
- Professional Service Providers (46%) need $80K-150K annually, developing hybrid revenue through consulting and tools
- Supplementary Income Seekers (31%) target $20K-50K to complement other work
- Mission-Driven Volunteers (23%) operate from secure positions, prioritizing impact over compensation
Time Allocation
Operators spend 40-60% of their time on marketing and fundraising activities that are often redundant across operators. Their domain expertise gets squeezed into the remaining time.
During active rounds, operators report that 80% of their work is operational and 20% is strategic. The operational burden includes:
- Securing co-funding from stakeholders
- Attracting applicants
- Managing compliance and administration
- Coordinating disconnected tools
- Producing documentation
Patterns from the Data
- 77% prefer collaboration over competition. Operators want to share evaluation frameworks, pool marketing, and create knowledge networks.
- 85% would work across multiple ecosystems. Operators see themselves as domain specialists serving Arbitrum, Optimism, Celo, and othersānot exclusive partners.
- 62% have prior fundraising experience but still struggle securing round funding, indicating structural rather than skill issues.
- 69% need marketing support and 62% need fundraising helpāthe two highest leverage points for centralized assistance.
What Would Help
Based on operator feedback, four interventions would address most pain points:
- Central Marketing Channels: Eliminate redundant outreach by providing established paths to reach applicants
- Fundraising Support: Maintain funder relationships and match them to appropriate domains
- Administrative Services: Handle compliance and reporting to save operators 20-30% of their time
- Shared Tools: Provide standardized infrastructure for application management and evaluation
The Bottom Line
The current model requires operators to be fundraisers, marketers, administrators, and domain experts simultaneously, while compensating them for only one of these roles at a time. Three paths forward emerged from interviews:
- Accept volunteer dependency: Rely on mission-driven individuals who donāt need a sustainable income
- Support hybrid models: Help operators develop consulting and tool revenue alongside grants
- Centralize non-core functions: Let operators focus on evaluation while Gitcoin handles marketing, fundraising, and administration.
The data suggests that option 3 would unlock the most value. Operators want to evaluate and fund projects in their domainsānot spend 60% of their time on activities others could do better.
With this in mind, it is prudent to consider that Gitcoin has recently scaled down significantly in terms of size and internal resources. Ownership of all these functions by Gitcoin alone is not feasible for a scaling model.
This would require continued support from other funders and organizations that share the same interest in addressing Ethereumās most significant challenges. The centralization of support functions might need to come from a coalition rather than a single entity.
Full Analysis: Domain Operator Ecosystem Analysis - Public
Interactive Data: https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/0ec3931c-3cf7-404b-9a03-9fc81c3e7b25
This analysis synthesizes patterns from thirteen interviews while maintaining complete anonymization. The goal is to understand ecosystem dynamics, not evaluate individual operators.