# 🛡️ Raid Guild Cohort VII: Case Study

**Forging Web3 Builders through Lore, Code, and Community**

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## 🔥 Overview

Raid Guild’s seventh cohort was a bold experiment in decentralized onboarding. Hosted by core guild members and designed to be radically open, the cohort welcomed over 1000 applicants from across the web3 landscape. With a focus on education, contribution, and creativity, Cohort 7 served as a proving ground for aspiring builders to level up, ship projects, and become part of the Raid Guild network (and wider web3 space).

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## 🧱 Structure & Process

The cohort was open to anyone and ran for several weeks with lightweight coordination across Discord, GitHub, and async-friendly rituals. Core elements included:

* Weekly themed sessions (Episodes 0–Demo Day)
* Open bounty board with real Raid Guild tooling needs
* Demo Day showcase of completed projects
* Side quests for community participation and non-dev contributors
* Lore-building and internal memes to foster culture (e.g., “Hamsterverse”)
* Final rewards and recognition shared with all Demo Day contributors

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## 👥 Participation Stats

| Metric | Approximate Count |
| ------------------------ | ----------------- |
| Total Applicants | 1000+ |
| Day 1 Attendees | \~70 |
| Active Participants | \~30 |
| Demo Day Presenters | \~20 |
| Final Projects Demoed | 10 |
| New RG Members Recruited | 3–5 |

Participants spanned a wide range of skills, with many non-technical contributors playing key roles in design, community support, AI prompt engineering, lore development, and testing.

Applications sourced from website Join Us form and email blast

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## 💰 Investment & Resourcing

| Item | Value |
| --------------------- | ------------------------------------------- |
| **Bounties Paid Out** | \~\$10,000 USD |
| **Host Compensation** | 2 ETH (1 ETH per host) |
| **Demo Day Rewards** | 1 ETH (shared across contributors) |
| **Funding Source** | Raid Guild internal proposal (DAO treasury 20k total) |

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## 🛠️ Projects Shipped

### 🎮 Demo Day Highlights
https://app.charmverse.io/raidguild-cohort-season-7/teams-and-projects-08049467342995009

1. **Slay the Moloch** – Turn-based game themed around battling centralized bureaucracy
2. **The Epic** – Narrative series documenting cohort lessons through hamster lore
3. **Hamsterverse Staking NFT** – NFT wrapper for staking governance tokens
4. **Token Info Dashboard** – Real-time dashboard for tracking token data
5. **Social Media Chronicles** – Learnings retold through X/Twitter storytelling
6. **Hats Tree** – Visualizer for Hats Protocol on-chain roles
7. **Commemorative NFTs** – Custom hamster avatars for cohort contributors
8. **CohortViewer.eth** – Flashback explorer for cohort events and projects
9. **Expensive Message** – Playful smart contract experiment with gas pricing
10. **Hamsterverse Comic/Game** – A creative crossover media project

### 🧪 Bounty Track Projects

* **Smart Invoice** – UX improvements, frontend updates, new documentation
* **Dungeon Master** – Internal RG contributor management tool (CRM)
* **AuktionHaus** – Multi-auction smart contract + frontend design
* **Cookie Jar** – UX, UI, and helper improvements across multiple chains
* **Character Sheets** – On-chain RPG profile system for RG members
* **Proof of Drink** – Fun social proof identity tied to off-chain rituals
* **WrapETH** – Utility site for wrapping/unwrapping ETH and xDAI
* **Yeeter** – Permissionless crowdfunding tool for DAOs
* **STEM** – On-chain voting module
* **Valhalla** – Discord archive and raid history tool

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## 📺 Cultural Artifacts & Knowledge Archive

### 🧠 Speaker Sessions

A robust speaker series ran throughout the cohort, offering insights into DAOs, onchain identity, governance, law, AI tools, and the spirit of decentralized work. All talks were recorded:

* **Spencer** – [Intro to DAOs](https://youtu.be/ogQWVk1o6Z4?si=HY0gNtgfNthfrrc-)
* **RaidGuild Intro** – [Episode 0](https://youtu.be/7RCvlfdf9Eg)
* **TheKerp** – [Future of Work](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSb9MVRrFQU)
* **Short Silly Workshop** – [MEME Driven Dev](https://youtu.be/Dql2uy2A5UA)
* **Sasquatch** – [Non-technical roles in RG](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0V3-wSZ48s)
* **St4rgarden** – [AI Tools to Become a Developer](https://youtu.be/S-o1-59yiwU)
* **Golden Lady** – [Network States and Law](https://youtu.be/YaMsLubSWIk)
* **DAO Operators Jam** – [Open Panel](https://youtu.be/7V1Ke8Qu0oY?si=hEpAWG2Zcu-0VtPt)
* **DAOhaus + RG Governance** – [Walkthrough](https://youtu.be/isaaPlU8J1Y)
* **MUD Playtest** – [Fully On-Chain Game](https://youtu.be/ZCIHqoAzabI)
* **Nuke** – [Intro to Zero Knowledge](https://youtu.be/djztMFWyxFk)
* **Bennivictus** – [DePIN Overview](https://youtu.be/Cic0k0er9EE)
* **Cup0Joseph** – [Spirit of the Builder](https://youtu.be/qeuZlwNdsf0)
* **0xRowdy** – [The Juice](https://youtu.be/3hF9F1ASgz8)
* **BorrowLucid** – [Story Game Mechanics](https://youtu.be/7JOaBujfJEA)
* **E2T** – [Farcaster + Accelerator XP](https://youtu.be/yxzv-IYxfzc)
* **Sky** – [Why Decentralization Matters](https://youtu.be/ffT4JktTClM)
* **Jord** – [STEM Voting](https://youtu.be/rVCXjP6rKqM)
* **Sero** – [BizDev & Identity](https://youtu.be/QVGLPN9cV68)
* **Demo Day Raw Video** – [Watch here](https://youtu.be/ZWROdMXdJtI)

### 🐹 Lore & Culture

* **Hamsterverse** storytelling and avatars
* **Cohort-specific memes**, Discord bots, and emoji sets
* **Artifacts**: project branding, custom avatars, and profile themes
* **Personalized cohort tokens** and proof-of-attendance assets

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## 🌱 Outcomes

* **New RG Members**: 3–5 contributors invited into the guild
* **Tools Adopted Internally**: Smart Invoice, Dungeon Master
* **Community Impact**: Strong cross-pollination with MetaCartel and DAOhaus
* **Momentum for Future**: Clear appetite for more structured async projects and lore-driven onboarding

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## 🔍 Follow-ups / Missing Info

| Section | Needs Attention |
| -------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| 🎥 **Edited Demo Day Video** | If available, link final version with timestamps or summary |
| 🔗 **Project Repos** | Link final GitHub repos or demos for all 10 Demo Day projects |
| 🗣️ **Participant Testimonials** | Gather 2–3 short quotes or feedback blurbs from members or hosts
| 📈 **New Member Outcomes** | Who and how many new members? |
| 📈 **Alumni Outcomes** | Did participants go on to found projects, join other DAOs, or continue contributing? |
| 📅 **Exact Timeline** | Cohort kickoff date, key sessions, and Demo Day date for completeness |
| 📸 **Visual Assets** | Add 1–2 images, art pieces, or slide screenshots for flavor |

## Feedback and Retrospective Notes

### Retro Workshop
https://www.figma.com/board/86W2naPGubO6a1B3IFaVBV/RGs7-retro?node-id=0-1&t=2mx0kyaQfTmp842n-1

### ✅ **Participant Feedback (Direct or Implied)**

**1. Interest in Non-Technical Roles**

* Participants expressed a desire to contribute without being developers. There were ideas like:

* Designing agent workflows (e.g., onboarding, client relations)
* Creating lore/persona bios, Q\&A sets
* Doing UX and interface work for chat agents
* Crafting social media content (e.g., Twitter banners)

**2. Enjoyment of Meta Projects**

* Multiple people were interested in building tools *for* the cohort or RaidGuild itself (e.g., onboarding bots, AI-powered proposal generators, public goods dashboards). This suggested they enjoyed "eating our own dogfood."

**3. Openness to Creative Output**

* Participants were energized by projects that included:

* Lore-building
* Agent design
* Character-based UI
* Using public domain content as inspiration (from archive.org)

**4. Appreciation for Light Structure**

* There were mentions that having:

* A list of side quests
* A host/guide figure
* Optional workshops
…provided helpful scaffolding without being too rigid.

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### 🎤 **Host / Facilitator Feedback and Observations**

**1. Need for Cohort Continuity**

* There was discussion of *side quests* post-demo day to sustain momentum.
* Questions about how to keep people engaged after the core season.

**2. Onboarding and Discovery Tools**

* Feedback loops from hosts indicated a desire for:

* Better onboarding UX
* Dynamic cohort dashboard
* Token-gated content and recorded sessions

**3. Participant Engagement Patterns**

* Some members showed up strong early and then disappeared—suggesting a need for:

* Lightweight accountability
* More ways to re-engage drop-offs
* Time-zone-flexible async interaction

**4. Value of Rituals and Culture**

* Hosts noted that things like:

* Demo day
* Building theme and lore united participants and gave direction

**5. Importance of early comms**

* Starting the email blast to applicants early and continuing often with updates was important.
* In general more notification across socials is important

**6. Most Overhead**
* ~8hrs Speaker cordiantion and scheduling
* ~8hrs Bounty Board Management, reviews and payouts (need more involvment of bounty owners)
* ~8hrs Comms of start time notification and applicant emails
* 1-3hrs daily hosting of sessions
* 4-6hrs Video editing and uploading