The Magnet DAO Invest-a-thon

Trader Joe
5 min readJan 8, 2022

Uncovering the best early-stage investment opportunities on Avalanche

Article published by Magnet DAO 8th January 2022

Trader Joe will be co-sponsoring this Investathon event hosted by Magnet DAO. Together we work, to grow the Avalanche Ecosystem 🔺

The high level

Compete for a chance to win your share of the $MAG + $JOE prize pool by joining the first-of-its-kind, DAO governed, “Investathon”, hosted by Magnet DAO — with the special judge and sponsor, Trader Joe.

What is an Investathon?

Hackathons have been an incredible way for developers to showcase their skills, form teams, and build projects. They are prevalent in the crypto world and a lot of the best projects are formed during Hackathons. As a decentralized VC/incubator, we decided to come up with a similar model, but focused on investing instead of building. In the Investathon, participants will team up to find the best early-stage projects building on Avalanche that Magnet DAO can invest in.

Note — we also plan to host traditional Hackathons in the future, with an emphasis on helping with funding, incubating, and supporting contestants.

🚀 Intro

Are you passionate about investing and working with early-stage crypto projects? Well, you are in the right place, and this could be your chance to shine!

Participants will form teams of 2–4 people in order to research and present to us an early-stage, pre-token project that we can invest in.

Here is a summary of the key events:

  • Form a team
  • Find a project to invest in
  • Research the project
  • Pitch the project

🛠 Pitch-deck requirements

  1. Project Overview — what it does, why it’s unique, what problem is it solving, etc.
  2. Competitors — does a product like this already exist? Who is the competition?
  3. Value Proposition — why is it unique and why will it generate a user base / income?
  4. Investment Stage — what stage is the project in? Have they raised funds? At what valuation?
  5. Summary — restate your vision and the business opportunity for this collaboration

⏰ Timeline

  1. Create your Team: Partner up with teammates to collaborate with. Teams will be a minimum of (2) members and a maximum of (4). For help finding teammates, check out #find-a-team channel in the Magnet DAO Discord.
  2. Pitch Deck / Google Form Submission: After finding a team, the next phase is for you and your team to do research and build a presentation. Completed pitch decks will be submitted through the following Google Forms link no later than February 8th at 5pm UTC: https://forms.gle/Zn5F5EHNQKpmcZar5
  3. Selection Process — The judges will review the pitch decks and select the 5 best teams for the final round
  4. Final Round — The top 5 teams will have their chance to pitch their projects to the judges, who will vote on the winners. Pitch day is TBD based on availability. See below for the breakdown of prizes!

👨‍⚖️️ The Judges

  • Dexx (Founder @ Magnet DAO)
  • Lazy Coder (Dev @ Magnet DAO)
  • Blue (Marketing Lead @ Trader Joe)
  • DaviDeFi (BD Lead @ Trader Joe)
  • One community member selected from Magnet DAO’s Discord!

⚙️ Rules

The following rules apply for the submissions:

☑️ If you are reaching out to projects, make sure to let them know that you are doing research on them for an Investathon, and see if they’d be willing to speak.

☑️ Project must be built on the Avalanche Network

☑️ We strongly believe in teamwork & collaboration. Teams should consist of at least two (2) members at a minimum and a maximum of four (4).

☑️ Only one entry per team will be accepted.

☑️ Submitted projects must be in their early stages and willing to accept funding from investors (projects that already have a token that is live and traded will be disqualified).

☑️ Each entry must include a complete description of its respective project, along with the material referenced in the Pitch-deck requirements section

📝 Evaluation Criteria

  1. Competency and thorough execution of pitch-deck
  2. Business value, market mapping and growth potential
  3. Level of innovation and originality
  4. Roadmap feasibility/probability of execution

🎳 Having Trouble Finding A Team?

To lend some support, we have created a dedicated channel in our Discord Server where you can connect with potential team members of various skill-sets and backgrounds. Head over to #find-a-team channel in our Discord and let the journey begin! (Please note, if you are still having difficulty pulling a team together after exhausting all resources, let the Magnet team know and we will do our best to help!)

Join the Magnet Discord to get involved

🎁 $22,000 Investathon Prizes up for grabs

🎁Pitch winners

Place in the top 3 for your team pitch and win the below rewards

  • 🥇 First Place: $4,000 MAG
  • 🥈 Second Place: $2,000 MAG
  • 🥉 Third Place: $1,000 MAG

🎁Bounty Prizes

  • Win $10,000 in $JOE For the Team that presents the first project that Magnet DAO Invests in from the Investathon
  • Win $5,000 in $MAG for any additional projects we invest in that come out of the Investathon

Note: Rewards will be equally divided among team members unless otherwise requested. A single team cannot have more than four (4) participants total. $ per token determined at the time of the judging round for the initial prize pool and at time of investment for the bounty prize pool.

Happy gem hunting!

May the magnets be in your favor

About Trader Joe

Trader Joe is a one-stop-shop decentralized trading platform native to the Avalanche blockchain. Trader Joe builds fast, securely and aims to serve the community at the frontier of DeFi. Maximize your yield generating activities under one fully integrated roof, providing you with a unique, innovative, and highly accessible DeFi experience.

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