Overview
This post is done in conjunction with the Nexus Hubs V2 Proposal. Below, members can find the proposed information for each team, their current priorities, and each hub’s 6-month budget breakdown. This information informs the Nexus Hubs V2 restructuring proposal.
Nexus Investment (formerly, the Investment Hub)
Nexus Investment works to serve members by evaluating potential capital pool investments and providing detailed analysis for members to make informed decisions about capital pool asset allocation through governance. In addition to their core mandate, Nexus Investment is proposing the addition of treasury management to their mandate, as well as overseeing the tokenomics working group.
Mission
The mission of Nexus Investment is to invest Nexus’ assets in a way that maximizes the return without negatively impacting the mutual’s ability to pay claims on a timely basis.
Top Priorities
- Invest more of the Capital Pool in ETH staking solutions. We believe that ETH2 staking remains one of the most appropriate investments for the Capital Pool. Nexus Investment will strive to deploy more of the Capital Pool into ETH staking solutions.
- Rebalance assets & liabilities. As the mutual matures and the capital/cover ratio decreases, it becomes much more important to ensure we are able to pay all claims in their respective currency. Therefore, Nexus Investment will propose a new currency split for the mutual and put forward any opportunities for stablecoin investment.
- Invest the Nexus Treasury (formerly, Community Fund). Nexus Investment will also take on management of the Nexus Treasury to ensure it generates an appropriate return. If successful, we should be able to fund the Nexus Hub teams in their current state from the returns alone. There is no intention to sell the NXM at a discount to the book value, so the first objective would be to find a lender who would use the NXM in the fund as collateral, then invest the loan amount to generate a return.
Team
This section is broken down by contributor status: full-time and part-time contributors…
Full-time
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Head of Investment (FT): Dopeee
- Description. Responsible for Nexus Investment operations, proposals, as well as the review of and approval of prospective Hub budgets before they are presented to the community. Dopee will also be responsible for coordinating the investment strategy proposals for capital pool and Nexus Treasury funds.
- Bio. Worked as an analyst in private equity, before transitioning to corporate operations. I’m an active special situations investor, with a particular passion for internet companies and SaaS, which led me to crypto. I’ve been an active participant in the community and have joined the core team in a business analyst capacity. Going forward, I hope to identify further investment opportunities for the Mutual and to maintain an active collaboration and open communication with our members.
- Salary. Payment comes from the Nexus Foundation. No funding request from the Nexus Treasury.
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Head of Tokenomics Working Group (FT), Investment Advisor (PT): Rei
- Description. Responsible for the Tokenomics revamp project, including leading on modeling, iterating on design, soliciting & incorporating feedback from the foundation team, hubs and wider community, governance processes and handover to engineering for implementation. Contributor to Capital Pool and Nexus Treasury investment advisory group. Contributor to Nexus Tracker project.
- Bio. Began working on Nexus in May 2018 as the first full time employee, covering economic design, legal set-up, actuarial modeling, documentation and early business development. Advisory Board member since February 2020. UK-qualified Actuary, held a variety of back-office and front-office corporate roles in reinsurance and brokerage.
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Salary. Payment will be $8,333 monthly for a 3-month total of $25,000.
- 75% in DAI and 25% in wNXM
Part-time
The following are roles and biographies for all the members of the Investment Advisory Group.
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Investment Advisor (PT): Nico
- Bio. I am the Chief Investment Officer of Prosight Specialty, a property & casualty insurer providing tailored insurance solutions for businesses. I provide oversight and strategic direction of their multi-billion dollar investment portfolio consisting of core, core plus, and alternative assets.
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Investment Advisor (PT): Aleks
- Bio. Partner at Blockchain Capital LLC—a VC focused on crypto investments. I bring a range of industry contacts and possesses a breadth of knowledge across various crypto protocols and businesses.
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Investment Advisor (PT): Gauthier
- Bio. Former M&A analyst, I have moved on to invest in Real Estate. However, during the first lockdown in 2020, I dived deep into the crypto rabbit-hole and have been investing with a strong focus on DeFi protocols ever since. I’m serving as a discord moderator in the Nexus community, and as a multisig signer for the Community Fund. I have been a very vocal advocate for Nexus on Twitter, and also wrote a guide about Nexus tokenomics back in January. I have a strong vested interest in Nexus and going forward, I aim to identify what are the best investment opportunities for the mutual.
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Investment Advisor (PT): Guillaume
- Bio. Business professional with more than 15 years’ experience, and with a good analytical and structured approach to all types of problems. My skills in project management and risk management can be complementary to the profiles of the initial team. Also a retail investor in both DeFi & TradFi (a long-time investor in insurance stocks). I’d like to keep contributing to the IH around both set-up/structure as well as the process to surface and implement direct DeFi investments in line with the strategy.
Budget and Payment Structure for Nexus Investment
6-month budget [August 2022 to January 2023]
Tokenomics working group budget (3-months)
- $5,000 of wNXM at market value
- $20,000 in DAI
Investment advisory group budget (6-months)
- $50,000 of wNXM at book value (at time of distribution to contributors)
Total 6-Month Budget Request: $75,000
Retroactive Compensation Request (i.e., backpay)
Backpay Budget Request
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Tokenomics backpay: $16,667
- $4,167 in wNXM at market value and $12,500 in DAI
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Investment Advisory Group backpay: $33,332
- 100% in DAI
Total Backpay Request: $49,999
Payment Structure for Nexus Investment
- Contributors’ time is valuable—ensure that there is some minimum level of reward for providing time and input to the bi-weekly call. $100/hr for each contributor is suggested, to be paid out in wNXM based on book value at the time of distribution.
- If we feel that not much work has happened during the bi-weekly period, we acknowledge that and don’t pay out the full budget, instead returning funds to the community.
Nexus Communications (formerly, Mutant Marketing)
Mutant Marketing is expanding its current mandate and transitioning to Nexus Communications, which will serve the mutual’s broader communications needs–including marketing. As we approach Nexus V2, Nexus Communications is preparing a launch plan, coordinating communications surrounding Nexus V2, and working toward our previous objective and key results. We believe that the successful launch of Nexus V2 is the most important way for the mutual to increase cover sales, allow members with risk expertise to build with Nexus Mutual, and expand into new risk markets.
Our hub will work to support a successful launch, as well as provide Nexus Syndicates with the resources necessary for success. We’ve already engaged with FrindleDAO to create the developer documentation for the Nexus V2 codebase, and we’ll support the syndicate network through the creation of an in-house marketing agency. This agency will provide base services to syndicates but will provide more comprehensive marketing services for an affordable cost. This will allow Nexus Communications to become revenue independent and reduce treasury spend over time.
Mission
The mission of Nexus Communications is to promote Nexus and provide tools to members, syndicates, DAOs and our wider community in order to expand coverage.
Top Priorities
- Branding refresh. Full branding project to produce visual ID, brand assets, templates and style guide as well as refreshing www.nexusmutual.io. We want our brand assets to reflect the vision, mission, and values of the mutual. An updated website that reflects the updates coming with Nexus V2 falls within the project.
- Channel analysis. Analytical review of current initiatives and channel marketing; proposal for strategy moving forward. We want our efforts to be data driven, so we can adapt and ensure we’re focused on initiatives that create the most value for members of the mutual.
- Syndicate resources. Promote and provide tools to syndicates by creating guides to launch syndicate, syndicate operations manual and route-to-market strategies. We want those that build with Nexus Mutual to be successful, and these resources will give members the tools they need to contribute to the on-chain risk marketplace.
- Publishing platform. Create a thought leadership platform to showcase our industry experts–starting with a blog hosted on the new website deliverable from the branding project. Through this platform, we can share our risk expertise with others and create greater transparency through regular updates and content.
Team
This section is broken down by contributor status: full-time and part-time contributors, as well as contractors.
Full-time
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Head of Communications (FT): Lee | BraveNewDeFi
- Description. Responsible for directing hub operations, developing the marketing strategy, writing and distributing content for the mutual, maintaining the Nexus Mutual GitBook, providing transparent reporting for Nexus Communications, drafting/posting proposals, creating a budget every 6-months and requesting approval through governance, and managing payments through Utopia.
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Salary. Payment will be $10,000 monthly for a 6-month total of $60,000.
- 75% in DAI and 25% in wNXM
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Analytics/Growth Lead (FT): Claudio
- Description. Responsible for analyzing channel marketing initiatives, understanding our digital presence, providing recommendations to optimize channel performance, and contributing to growth initiatives across marketing and communications. Will provide direction for analytics projects that improve transparency within the mutual, such as the overhaul of Nexus Tracker when Nexus V2 launches.
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Salary. Payment will be $8,333.33 monthly for a 6-month total of $50,000.
- 75% in USDC and 25% in wNXM
Part-time
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Creative Lead (PT): Chris
- Description. Responsible for writing, developing copy and helping shape the creative strategy for the website and thought leadership platform.
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Retainer. Payment will be $1,200 monthly for a 6-month total of $7,200.
- 100% in wNXM
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Social Media Manager (PT): Sem
- Description. Responsible for community management and content coordination across the mutual’s social channels, including content delivery and community growth in targeted channels.
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Salary. Payment will be $3,000 monthly for a 6-month total of $18,000.
- 50% in USDC, 25% in ETH, and 25% in wNXM
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Community Moderator (PT): Daniel
- Description. Responsible for moderating Reddit and Discord, answering members’ questions in a timely fashion, providing support where needed, and sharing updates, information with members across the mutual’s social channels.
- Salary. Payment will be $2,000 monthly for a 6-month total of $12,000.
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Nexus Community Ambassador (PT): Fungus
- Description. Serves as Ambassador to the Balancer Labs and mStable Discord servers, where he represents the mutual, holds office hours, educates users about Protocol Cover offerings and the mutual. Will help BraveNewDeFi create a commission-based model for Ambassadors once Nexus V2 goes live and referral links can be used.
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Payment. Payment is $1,296 monthly for a quarterly total of $3,888. After this quarter, this will transition to a referral link-based model.
- 100% in wNXM
Contractors
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Nexus Creative Agency (Contractor): Creative Agency
- Description. Responsible for the branding project, which includes creating an updated visual identity for Nexus Mutual, designing the visuals for the nexusmutual.io website, creating key visual assets, refreshing the logo, creating templates, and producing a brand style guide.
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Cost. The branding project will cost $21,700, of which $10,850 has been paid from existing Nexus Communications funding.
- Priority #1: Branding refresh.
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Website development (Contractor): Ben
- Description. Responsible for frontend development for the nexusmutual.io website refresh project, as part of the larger branding project.
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Cost. The website development project will cost $10,500, of which $3,025 has been paid from existing Nexus Communications funding.
- Priority #1: Branding refresh.
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Video production company (Contractor): Adam
- Description. Video series to support the launch of Nexus V2. The first videos will be focused on attracting members to build with Nexus Mutual and to invite protocols to integrate with the mutual to offer cover directly to their users at the point of deposit. The following series of videos will highlight the new features included with Nexus V2.
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Cost. The video series project will cost $20,000, of which $3,900 has been paid from existing Nexus Communications funding.
- Priority #3: Syndicate resources.
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Technical writing project (Contractor): FrindleDAO
- Description. Responsible for writing, creating Nexus V2 developer documentation that will be used by members who build on top of and integrate with the protocol; new hires to understand the Nexus V2 codebase; and anyone who wants to review the open-source codebase and understand the smart contract system behind Nexus Mutual.
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Cost. The technical writing project will cost $18,000, of which $9,000 has been paid from existing Nexus Communications funding.
- Priority #3: Syndicate resources.
Nexus Communications Budget Breakdown
The budget request included in the Nexus Hubs V2 Proposal can be broken down into the following categories:
- Contributor Compensation: $151,088.00
- Contractors: $43,425
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Discretionary Budget: $10,000
To be used for discretionary items, such as sponsorship opportunities, merch for conferences, advertising, etc.
Total 6-Month Budget Request: $204,513.00