# Practical Lessons from Building a DAO By [Odyssey](https://paragraph.com/@odyssey) · 2022-05-20 --- Let’s talk about what it’s actually like to build a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) from scratch. We’ve been building [**Odyssey DAO**](https://www.odysseydao.com/) over the past six months as a community of 5,000+ members. Together, we have: 1. [Created web3 learning paths](https://www.odysseydao.com/learn) that have been viewed 200,000+ times. 2. [Built an audience](https://discord.gg/tAxca5KkPh) that reaches 15,000+ members. 3. Secured top web3 sponsors and Product Hunt’s best education award. In this post, I want to share **7 practical lessons from building a DAO**. By the end, you may realize that “decentralized autonomous organization” may not be the best name for what actually happens. * * * 1\. Define a clear mission and set of values -------------------------------------------- > **DAOs can attract quality contributors with a clear mission and set of values.** Odyssey’s contributors are united by our mission to onboard 1 million people to web3. Our growth lead [Adrie](https://twitter.com/Aequio_), for example, is a single mom who wants to use education and on-chain proof of work to help people find the best web3 jobs. Having shared values is also important. Odyssey values “quality over quantity” in our content and a community that “pays it forward.” These values apply to everything that we do - from keeping our guides concise to organizing free community bootcamps. * * * 2\. Build a strong core team ---------------------------- > **DAOs can execute better with a strong core team (at least in the beginning).** Although Odyssey’s community has 5,000+ members, a core team of 10 people drives most of the work. Think of it this way - If you’re leading a startup with limited resources, would you hire 5,000 part-time contributors to work on 20 projects at once? I didn’t think so. Whether at a startup or a DAO, it’s hard to build shared context and forward momentum without a core team. I think other DAOs are similar - that’s why many have [full-time job listings](https://www.fwb.help/jobs). But wait, you may be wondering, how is this decentralized? [https://twitter.com/chaserchapman/status/1524779582032957443?s=20&t=B01ccIevRPxFcGR2HVMMrA](https://twitter.com/chaserchapman/status/1524779582032957443?s=20&t=B01ccIevRPxFcGR2HVMMrA) * * * 3\. Decentralize through small, empowered teams ----------------------------------------------- > **DAOs can decentralize through “two pizza” teams that have clear charters.** Some DAOs have a bounty board with a list of tasks that any member can work on to earn tokens. I don’t think this actually works in practice. Consider a task to write a blog post. If any member can take this task: 1. It’s unclear if they’re actually qualified to write about the topic. 2. They might put in work only to have their post be scrapped. Instead, I think DAOs should decentralize slowly through empowered “two pizza” teams. Consider this example from Odyssey: 1. [Mark](https://twitter.com/marktanft) is Odyssey’s community lead. Based on the community’s feedback, Mark kicked off a free 3-week bootcamp using our [intro to web3 guide](https://www.odysseydao.com/pathways/intro-to-web3). 2. Mark announced the bootcamp in our community and a team of 7-10 contributors volunteered to teach the sessions. 3. Over 300 people joined the bootcamp and a subset of them are now our most active contributors. This bootcamp couldn’t have happened without Mark’s leadership and a small team of contributors stepping up to do the work. [https://twitter.com/thattallguy/status/1482036657528324099?s=20&t=SMnTATcOXWzh6BwoNE9g1g](https://twitter.com/thattallguy/status/1482036657528324099?s=20&t=SMnTATcOXWzh6BwoNE9g1g) * * * 4\. Choose your owners wisely ----------------------------- > **DAOs should take the time to find the right people to own their tokens.** Odyssey’s [first crowdfund](https://odyssey.mirror.xyz/crowdfunds/0x10DaE06DB64DF7624E5A3AA6Af313d235De4343e) sold out in 24 hours and raised $100K+. That success was quickly clouded when token owners started showing up to ask “when liquidity?” In hindsight, we should’ve prioritized finding owners who: 1. **Care about the mission**. It’s fine to not sell out for weeks if it helps weed out people who only want to make a quick profit. Tools like [Premint](https://www.premint.xyz/) help founders use allow lists to avoid speculation. 2. **Are active contributors.** We reserved 80% of our governance tokens to reward people who contributed to the DAO instead of only those who can afford to buy the tokens. * * * 5\. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel ---------------------------------------- > **DAOs don’t need to reinvent the wheel in how people get work done.** In some ways, a DAO is like a company that’s more open, remote-first, and flat. Therefore, many company best practices are even more relevant for DAOs: 1. **Great written communication.** Since DAOs are remote, they need people who can write clear and concise updates to keep people aligned. 2. **Influence without authority.** Since DAOs are flat, they need people who can inspire others to work on a project together. 3. **Effective decision-making**. Since DAOs are open, they need people who can balance decision-making speed with accuracy. In particular, type 2 decisions (those that can be easily reversed) usually don’t need a governance vote. At Odyssey, we reserve governance votes for major decisions that cannot be easily reversed (e.g., how much compensation each contributor gets at the end of a quarter). * * * 6\. Do everything you can to retain talent ------------------------------------------ > **DAO onboarding mostly sucks so do everything possible to retain great people.** One of the promises of DAOs is that they can democratize access to work. Someone from Indonesia could join a DAO, design a website, and earn crypto while building an on-chain resume (true story for [Wenda](https://twitter.com/wendalewis), Odyssey’s product lead). In practice, DAO onboarding is hard. At Odyssey, we’ve tried: 1. Dedicated Discord onboarding channels 2. Personally replying to people’s comments 3. Weekly onboarding calls and bootcamps I’d be lying if I said that we’ve figured it out. Because DAO onboarding mostly sucks, it’s even more important to reward and retain great people. For example: 1. [Alan](https://twitter.com/OatmealAlan) joined Odyssey’s Discord and started sharing quality writing on DeFi. 2. We convinced him to draft our entire [DeFi path](https://www.odysseydao.com/pathways/defi) and teach the DeFi sessions of our bootcamp. We compensated him using our DAO treasury. 3. Alan is now part of Odyssey’s core team. * * * 7\. Remember why your DAO exists -------------------------------- > **DAOs shouldn’t let processes get in the way of delivering value to the customer.** DAOs, like companies, should exist to: 1. Create useful products and services for customers. 2. Be a great place to work for community members. 3. Build a sustainable business. Everything else - tokens, governance votes, treasury management, etc - should simply be a means toward the goals above. [https://twitter.com/cavalier\_eth/status/1526694051072069632?s=20&t=BO02jBTgQTU9uY\_OUASIHg](https://twitter.com/cavalier_eth/status/1526694051072069632?s=20&t=BO02jBTgQTU9uY_OUASIHg) * * * To recap, here are my 7 lessons from building a DAO: 1. **Define a clear mission and set of values** 2. **Build a strong core team** 3. **Decentralize through small, empowered teams** 4. **Choose your owners wisely** 5. **You don't have to reinvent the wheel** 6. **D everything you can to retain talent** 7. **Remember why your DAO exists** I still have much to learn myself but I hope you found this list helpful. Visit us at [Odyssey DAO](https://www.odysseydao.com/) if you want to support our mission to onboard more people to this space! --- *Originally published on [Odyssey](https://paragraph.com/@odyssey/practical-lessons-from-building-a-dao)*