Solana India Fellowship — Week 1
About
SuperteamDAO and DevFolio started a Solana Fellowship for folks in India. I saw the link in the 2nd week of Jan applied for the program.
The exact description was a bit cryptic but hinted towards learning rust and Solana contract development, getting talks & mentorships from experts, and a chance to raise funding at the end.
Despite working full-time to build the JointNFT platform, thought this would be a good opportunity to:
1. Join an Early Stage DAO actively focused on building in the web3 space.
2. Get into the Solana eco-system with support and mentorship
3. Brainstorm products, and possibly get some early adopters and investments
4. Last, the stipend definitely helps and this makes me learn rust/Solana development rapidly.
Selection and Onboarding
After 2 application forms and 1 short interview, I was in! So the selection process was pretty simple and smooth. At least from an applicant's point of view. On early 30th morning, I get the acceptance mail.
In the final registration form, I see 14 names totally. Good, I thought, at least we could get to know each other well this way.
The first week of Feb was actually week 0, we had a membership onboarding call to the DAO where Kash, very amicably welcomed us into the flock. They shared some resources to get started with rust language and understanding concepts of blockchain compute & storage mechanisms.
It ended with a brief intro, and introduced us to the various activities SuperTeam DAO undertakes, and how they could give a power boost in launching a product on Solana, getting early users, and raising funding.
Week 1
The week started with a formal kick-off on 7th Feb, with the Solana Developer Advocate, Chase sharing his thoughts and tips and making the most out of the available resources. Neil, from SuperTeam, orchestrating the whole show, shared the resources and exercised for the first week.
These include the video from Gnana Lakshmi T C, from Questbook, setting expectations and laying a detailed roadmap for the next 6 weeks. We also got introduced to our mentors, which for me was Dhrumil, creator of the Solvent protocol.
The remaining week is spent asynchronously learning and networking. I booked my slot with both Neil and Dhrumil and discussed my thoughts, preferences, their suggestions.
Also, connected with two folks from the Fellowship, rather slow IMO. Should work on this number in the next week on this.
Unfortunately, I had taken the exercises a bit lightly and kept them for the last two days. Not being familiar with Rust, took me a bit of time to actually implement without plagiarism. I ended up taking help from another fellow for one exercise and pretty much use the referenced solution provided for another. Will dedicate time proactively in the coming weeks so that I can build the product equally quickly and get other folks involved in its growth.
Side-Note
Like any good DAO, SuperTeam also has IRL meets. While that’s not possible every week, they have a very good system to meet a random member of the DAO every week as long as you’re up for it. I think it’s a pretty cool concept and people should try it out if not already.
Had a decent start with the program, though want to double down my efforts to build something. Only 7 weeks remain to get something out to showcase to potential investors. SuperTeam DAO members are readily available to test the product, so I guess distribution at the initial scale won’t be an issue.
That’s it for now! Will bring more details next time!
