Accelerator Strategy Outline:

Programming Enhancement

● Segment Enhancements short and long term impacts: mentorship, learning sessions, tracks, community engagement

The Admissions Process:

CUSTOMIZED CURATION: Customized curation should be an integral aspect to our accelerator program. Unlike most competitors that provide funding in exchange for equity, we should focus on a much more tailored approach. Typical applications are cookie cutter focusing on the same success metrics and require a video presentation to gauge personality. While these traits are important, what differentiates Horizon should be our emphasis on identifying weaknesses and learning from failures. Accelerators exist to rapidly improve companies, and this can be best achieved by addressing foundational weaknesses from the onset. We gather information about weaknesses upfront to customize our programs accordingly.

Many accelerators claim to offer “curated” programs and support, but they often provide limited one on one assistance. Horizon can stand out by designing a comprehensive curriculum based on proactive feedback right from the beginning. By understanding the founder's weaknesses and failures along with strengths and goals before the program starts, we ensure that our cohort’s content resonates with them. We should aim to avoid creating identical back to back cohorts and recognize that many founder’s face similar challenges. We must admit cohorts based on common themes so the Horizon team can custom curate already set session topics. Horizon can serve as a servant leader in the web3 world, offering in-depth discussions, diverse subtopics, and tailored content that goes beyond what’s readily available online. This approach leads to more engaged founders who are more likely to participate, strengthen their weaknesses and skyrocket their success.

In the short term, forming cohorts around specific themes will make the program more engaging for founders as they can relate directly to the subject matter. Instead of focusing on the “what ifs” they can pull from real experiences and ask “how else”. We want to collect feedback at the admission stage rather than waiting until after the program ends, this gives us a benchmark to work off of, yet ensuring that founders reviews are positive and focused on their expectations rather than disappointed at missed opportunities at graduation. Going through the program with peers who share similar struggles fosters authentic relationships and engaged conversations. Ideally, in the long term, founders will experience faster growth and success. This will equip them with positive experiences to share with their network post graduation, naturally contributing to future higher refer rates and ultimately enhancing our reputation.

ENHANCEMENTS TO THE APPLICATION: To streamline the application process, we aim to collect as much relevant information upfront to avoid burdening founders with additional forms later. We must avoid survey fatigue throughout the entire journey. I propose using tools like Typeform Video for short video responses to specific questions, allowing an alternate way for founders to communicate but also for us to better analyze and collect data. This can also be used to make the application and feedback mobile friendly.

Based on the current application questions and responses I see in the airtable of applicants, I suggest the following changes for the admissions process:
-The current application asks very broad questions. We need to guide them to dig into what they actually need out of this so we can customize topics. The applicant responses to “tell us about your journey” are very broad and surface level. Let’s ask what we want to know!
-We need to understand what the “other” lead source is so we can determine if we should add this as a focus to the recruitment funnel or allocate budget for marketing
-We need to track who is referring internally and externally because that gives us insight into who are the champions and how we can get them more involved. Again, this funnels into the recruitment strategy as a very low acquisition cost source.
-We need to understand how much revenue and/or profitability the founder’s currently have so we can determine how to price future monetization outlets. This also gives us a success benchmark for revenue growth.
-We need to understand if they have already raised funds, from who and how much? Investors can funnel into the recruitment track and we need to consider different segments of founders to determine success at different stages
-We need to understand founders' own KPIs and OKRs at the start so we can customize cohort topics and match with the appropriate mentor accordingly. This also gives us another success benchmark. Did they hit these goals or not?
-To close out the cohort, we should share the initial application with the founders and have a reflection session that encourages conversions around their satisfaction and disappointments. We should have mirroring questions from the start to compare to the end so we can measure on the baseline of expectations and if those were missed, met or exceeded. This is the purest form of feedback and consider having a one year reunion event to extend success timelines.

Mentorships from the Alumni Network:

MENTORSHIP SUCCESS is crucial to our ecosystem. Graduated founders should join the alumni network not because that’s what is expected of them to do, rather with the purpose to maintain networks and to continue fostering relationships. Alumni engagement starts with the mentorship program. This should be treated as an essential part of the founder’s journey, not just as a post-graduation retention tool for Horizon. Mentoring is a specialized skill, and Horizon should shape and prepare mentors adequately. We need to set clear goals and outcomes, and support them in achieving those goals. Mentors and alumni play vital roles in our overall engagement funnels, networking sphere and retention. In the short term, a brief mentor training program with recorded training sessions and live check-ins during the accelerator cohort will ensure founders receive the expected value. For mentors, this will give them a roadmap of conversations to focus on while also giving them an outlet for them to practice their partnership and leadership abilities. Mentors will be a plug to foster additional connections for founder’s to expand personal networks, and enhance their skills in providing feedback and communication skills to others. In the long term, this creates a cycle of engagement and recruitment: student founders->alumni->mentors->referrals->new founder referrals and/or expanding our audience reach.

Mentors provide valuable external feedback and will also influence cohort topics and promote Horizon publicly. Sustaining alumni and mentor engagement is essential for tracking success metrics such as funding rates, exit rates, and time to market as they provide critical insights for our data strategy. We want them to remain active in our community so we also have better access to this critical data in the future. We need to foster an environment where postgrad founders want to come back to share their wins with us. We should leverage alumni and their network as industry leaders to participate in a review of the curriculum year after year to be sure topics are staying relevant with the changes in the industry.

Designing a Metrics Dashboard for Founder Success

Designing a concise metrics dashboard to evaluate the program.
Focus on
Metrics Selection: 3-5 key metrics that will effectively measure the success of the program. Considering both the outcomes and problems
Integration into Operations: Outline a plan to integrate these metrics into Horizon's regular operations

There’s already an impressive array of quantitative metrics listed in the data strategy, but it’s vital that we keep our ears to the ground. We need to also think in terms of “open-ended” quantitative metrics that can be seamlessly transformed into qualitative insights. We need to expose the whole picture, beyond the statistical numbers and percentages for us to enable strategic conversations with founders. These quantitative benchmarks should be subtly embedded and camouflaged into conversations to prevent survey fatigue and administered at times when founders are actively engaged or immersed in the subjects. Platforms like On24 offer in-session engagement tools such as polls and link clicks that can help provide real time visual feedback. Here is a list of key KPIs we should consider:

1.Rapid NPS surveys (net promoter score): Would they recommend specific learning paths/ live sessions/speakers/ or the overall program? We need to pinpoint founder’s who are detractors, neutrals and champions to delve deeper into their feedback. We can frame these surveys as conversational feedback and then dig into the feedback in one on one sessions or in group discord channels.

2.End of the week founder effort score: Did they invest more effort than anticipated? Was it driven by personal drive or did we mis-calculate time commitments internally? Are our expectations for time commitments realistic? We need insights into what consumes the most time so we can fine-tune our curriculum and session scheduling. Perhaps we might find that founders WANT to contribute more time and maybe we should enhance the overall program, or maybe not. We need to find out!

3.Affiliated tags and sources for support tickets: While our current technical support strategy is strong, it’s essential to understand the sources of user difficulties. Do we have unclear documentation, bugs, or human error? We should consider establishing a separate technical developer relations community to foster open-source collaboration. Identifying and

addressing issues is the first step towards automation and scalability. Are these issues simply missing from FAQs? Do they require video walkthroughs? Are these isolated incidents or common problems? Can we deploy an AI chatbot to address these queries? (AI chatbots can serve various roles to move the funnel including directing prospects to the application.) This data can significantly contribute to so many other areas including Tech Tree’s success or the overall NEAR blockchain product.

4.Sentiment vs Engagement: understanding the correlation and identifying factors that boost or hinder engagement is paramount. Low engagement doesn’t always signal negative sentiment and vice versa. High engagement might indicate positive sentiment due to valuable sessions or negative sentiment due to increased questions. We must actively listen and contemplate the type of questions and polls needed to clarify our assumptions. This is a perfect metric to highlight that quantitative numbers do not necessarily show the full picture.

5.Anonymous submissions: Founder’s are often stereotyped as extroverted and confident, which isn't always the case. Particularly for early stage or first time founders, it’s important to give them outlets to voice their opinions. Providing a channel for anonymous feedback can yield invaluable insights. People may be hesitant to be candid out of fear of judgment. Public rejection can also breed negativity in the community. An anonymous outlet allows for a full spectrum of feedback, potentially boosting the founder's confidence when they receive positive consensus on their input. It’s a powerful tool for shaping individuals without direct coaching and allows Horizon to proactively engage with the community.

Operationally, we should maintain ongoing engagement with founders throughout the curriculum day by day. Transparency is key; sharing this data with cohorts demonstrates that we’re attentive to their input and are actively implementing and acknowledging their suggestions. This information should also be shared across the entire NEAR and Horizon team to foster a culture of customer focus, accountability and diverse ideation. Everyone at NEAR and Horizon should proactively use these metrics to identify areas for improvement cross functionally and make gradual adjustments to the founder journey. I’ve found that end of week round ups work extremely well for cross company updates. Small pivots along the way are easier for everyone to adapt to rather than frequent total reinventions of the wheel.

Strategy Development

Building the recruitment function for HZN2 and subsequent cohorts, building a pipeline of web3 founders to join the program; acquisition channels, resources, measuring success

I approach new projects with a dynamic strategy involving all levels of stakeholders in a collaborative brainstorming process, “throwing spaghetti onto the wall”. I believe that any idea, regardless of its source, has the potential to spark innovation. Some strategies may demand more resources than others. I’m a firm believer in the flexibility of roadmaps and that they can be minorly readjusted or expanded upon as needed. My approach revolves around prioritizing initiatives that focus on the highest ROI based on our current resources and scaling them accordingly. Prioritizing tasks effectively to build on the next iteration of goals is key. Be aware

and know when you’re attempting too much, yet always keep hyper focused on the outcomes, results and deliver value at scale.

Horizon is also a startup. We need to begin constructing a recruitment pipeline from the onset, starting with organic and cost effective acquisition sources. The team has already laid out a strong foundation for referrals within Notion. Recognizing that referrals represent the highest converting and most cost-effective lead source is necessary! To enhance this effort, we should generate referral links within our existing ecosystem, allowing us to track referrals through our metrics dashboard as part of our data analysis.

However, let's think creatively about how to reach a more diverse audience that can contribute to our founder discovery and our brand recognition. While our primary focus is on web3, I encourage the team to explore opportunities for strategic partnerships in web2. Also, we should consider engaging with non-founders and individuals outside of the immediate network including university partners. Although our current strategy emphasizes direct NEAR and Horizon channels and SEO-boosted blogs and content, we should adopt a multichannel approach that integrates monetization potential and retention strategies. Building brand recognition and creating champions who advocate for NEAR and Horizon’s offerings are vital components of our growth strategy.

Here are some impactful distribution, acquisition meshed with potential monetization ideas in terms of both b2b, b2b2c and d2c models:

1. University and technical high school partnerships: Offer our program as an extension to business or technical programs. Match our alumni with other mentorships opportunities within this realm or their own alma maters to expand on projects for research studies or to help with cohort applications. This allows alumni to give back and also provides an avenue for web2 ideas to explore web3 infrastructure.

2. Get listed on reputable accelerator lists: Enhance our reputation by ensuring our name appears among other notable programs such as Hackernoon, StartaVC, Startup Wise Guys and Failory. We should also aim to show support for other accelerators during their application periods or graduation ceremonies to demonstrate our commitment to the web3 community. This can also attract their audiences to consider Horizon as another option. Afterall, the BOS is EVM compatible.

3. Create a supportive cause: Organize auctions or unique offerings such as 1 on 1 sessions, custom NEAR swag, premium badges, event tickets, podcast spots, etc., with proceeds benefiting the accelerator founder’s that lack the means or budget for travel or marketing packages.

4. Go viral with gamified social media buzz: while this one sounds like a big task, I think it could be done with low bandwidth leveraging social media. Plan an in-person scavenger hunt for broad audiences, utilizing QR codes and collaborating with recognized brands (the Disney Store, Macy’s, Nike, Supreme etc) for co-marketing and to drive foot traffic. This creates social media buzz and introduces NEAR and Horizon to new audiences.

1. Alumni DAO: form an alumni DAO for post-graduation engagement, allowing alumni to contribute to events and networks, gathering valuable insights empowering alumni to manage and contribute to their own events.

2. Recurring revenue model: Implement a recurring revenue model by offering premium badges, content, and experience for upfront payments of 3-6-9-12 month periods. This includes monetizing parts of our Discord channels with priority access. These offers should be tailored to founders, contributors and investors. It is important to have a steady stream of revenue for more accurate budget forecasting and projections.

Measuring success for each of these ideas would involve their own set of KPIs. This would require developing a communication strategy to ensure we are keeping potential candidates warm. But, success as a whole would ultimately be reverted back to the north star: volume from lead sources, how they contribute to an increase in applications and starts along with an increase in contributors and investors category. All this ultimately leads to revenue with purpose to grow and retain our ecosystem. Once audiences discover us, we have to consider the entire customer journey. Between discovery and conversion, we have to keep them interested while they are deciding to actively join the network. Some of the above ideas can contribute to this, but we need to be aware of the persistence level. We want them to feel like they are already a part of the community and connected to the brand rather than being burned out from seeing us everywhere. We need to remain approachable and keep an open channel for those “on the fence” audiences to communicate with us. Including having conversations, asking for their opinions, understanding why they decided they don’t want to be a part of NEAR. Negative feedback is just as insightful as positive. I love being guests on podcasts, webinars and attending online networking events around the industry speaking about big wins with the goal of driving top of the funnel through social outlets such as Linkedin and Twitter/X. I’d love to host a HZN podcast or Twitter/Linkedin lives where we could leverage short clips as teasers or on-demand and live webinar content to gain curiosity and drive organic traffic.

I understand some of these ideas will take more lift. To make all this happen, first, I’d need to focus on Horizon team buy in and commitment to the success of these projects. We’d need a CRM and marketing automation tool to track the strategic pipeline and partnerships to segment target audiences for follow up and customized engagement including emails and text messages about newsletters, upcoming events, feature releases, market trends, bootcamp and webinar dates; a project management tool to drive OKRs along with efficient marketing and on time campaign efforts; an analytics tool that helps us measure and visualize quantifiable KPIs including access to social accounts. All these outlets would contribute to tracking which events and projects have the highest ROI so we can allocate the budget accordingly. Eventually to scale, we would need a customer experience team that would be delegated duties focusing on business development, marketing and data analytics. With this team, we could focus on a full funnel pipeline and keep our interested prospects hot with curiosity and retain them once they’ve become a part of the NEAR and Horizon ecosystem and networking sphere.