Thanks to @M0nkeyFl0wer and the rest of the team raising the discussion around this!
One thing I’m not seeing being discussed is how Gitcoin found itself in this situation in the first place.
From my time as fundraising lead - I can say that Gitcoin historically hasn’t been able to hold up its side of the deal with partners.
Over time the high legitimacy + high $$$ partners have been burned due to lack of ROI and moved on to greener pastures.
The $$$ from partners by and large comes from their marketing budgets. Unfortunately - the ROI for partners on the marketing value side has been low:
- haphazard marketing efforts on behalf of partners on the Gitcoin side
- no clear distinction / incentive for partners to donate more
- little impact tracking on how partner funds were used (if any)
- virtually no other partner incentives that come included with their $$$
- little internal understanding of our target demographic and their needs = Grants program was hailed during cross-stream discussions as having found PMF when, in-reality, PMF on the partner side was simply not there
- partnerships team was overloaded having to close partners + fulfill marketing – without external marketing support (during my tenture)
- lots of scrutiny for partnerships contributors closing the deals and working overtime – defending the work became a major part of the role
We failed to acknowledge that the Grants Program that was a “sales-driven” product and without investing in that aspect of Gitcoin - we’ve found ourselves in the current situation:
- Partner churn % is very high
- In the increasingly rare cases where high-signal partners DO choose to work with with Gitcoin - personal relationship capital needs to burned in order to close partners deals - vs. the strength of Gitcoin’s offerings carrying themselves
- Partners literally saying “there’s no ROI” on a Gitcoin partnership
Because of this situation - Gitcoin has found itself pandering + reputation laundering to the Shells and the $$$Coins of the world - simply to keep the lights on.
My message to the current team is to rethink the partnerships offerings from the ground up and ask - “are we really adding value to our partners commensurate to the value they’re providing to us?”