DeFi Analyst Final Round Explained!
Level 2 - Virgin Defi Analyst
Welcome Avatar! This one will be quick but it is needed for transparency. We’ve selected six people to come into the final round for the DeFi analyst role. Here is our logic and why we chose the people we did.
Three Clear Standouts
There were three stand out responses. If you look at the Twitter you can also tell that the feedback had similar “vibes” to it (ie. they agreed). We ranked the top three as follows:
The Best - Clear Winner: We ranked this one the best. Why? Pretty simple. The explanation of DeFi was straight forward and it even had a similar tone/writing style to this website. This proves the person does read our site and understands the brand/messaging. The matrix display of valuation was a lot easier to follow. And. The final part about risks suggests the person has some technical background as well. Very good fit.
The bad side. Need to make sure the individual does have enough time to dedicate and need to see if a slightly more educational feel can be made in the final round. Always hire slow.
The Second Best: While it looks like a Wall of Text, you can simply tell this person has a high-finance background. It is obvious based on writing style and thoughts around DeFi. The problem? It was a bit too much text so it was not as easy to digest.
This is generally a problem for people in high-finance. If you have worked on Wall Street before you know that *most* analysts/associates just process stuff. They spread the comp table, go to the 10-K get the schedule put in the exact share count and go to the next comp. While this is great for robots, DeFi requires some out of the box thinking especially with all the rugs/scams/ways to value to protocol.
If you want more proof this person is in finance you can tell by the use of arrows to describe chain of events —> and the classic “~” line to represent approximately instead of writing it out.
The great news? We are near certain this person can make a presentation that is good because of the background. Hence. It was a no brainer to move to the next round. Presentations are bread and butter in high-finance.
The Third Best: This person appears to be highly mathematical and technical. The reason we chose this person is we want to see if they can make it a bit easier to digest for non-Sonic Autists. This person is likely VERY busy. You can just tell by their knowledge base of math. Worst case scenario, we can come up with some sort of consulting role for him/her if the presentation is too technical
Big risk here is it’s just too hard to understand as you can see the math background immediately. Big upside? This person teaches with a “visual” style which is a lot easier to digest for many people.
High Transparency
With the major three out of the way we have a few other things to note: 1) some of the other finalists admitted to us privately already that the top three were better. There are still three other people in the final but at least you can see the quality was certainly standout for the top three, 2) some applications were *over* qualified. Yes this can happen. If someone runs a business generating large sums of money… They shouldn’t be doing the DeFi Substack as it isn’t worth their time - also no way we can afford them!, 3) this brings us to one last point. We asked for a rough range of compensation in interview one because we don’t want to waste their time. That was also a factor in deciding who to bring on.
Flushing out point 3: If you were one of the finalists… we looked at the quality of the Submission vs. Payscale. So. If you had a 6/10 submission but we think it was worth 10x more than you want… We may add you to the team. Wait what, why?
Value is a *gradient*. If someone is extremely young (say 22) but we can tell the quality of their work is worth more than they are making at their day job, we will happily find a way to make it work. We’re not fools. If someone is talented we’ll try to find a way to make it work (if not now, in a few months etc.)
As a point of emphasis, we may end up hiring 2-3 people. However. The main role will be the Senior Person. The senior role “quality” has to be similar to the top 3 we posted here.
The Final Round and Hiring
Not to be ominous but one of the rules of hiring is this “Hire Slow, Fire Fast”. So here is our strategy. Again. In plain english no frills.
Final Round - Applicants are Paid! We will pay each person $750 in BTC to submit their final presentation. That is right. You’re being paid to apply for a cartoon animal job! Have you ever been paid to interview at XYZ bank or XYZ fund? No.
Why we are doing this? The chances are high that the presentations will be *very* good. So. We don’t want them to feel “abused” if some of it is blended into the content later.
Example. If someone does the presentation and 3-4 slides are good and 5-6 are bad, there is no way to “undo” the send button. So. If we give everyone some money for their time, it is a lot more fair and no one goes home empty handed. Worst case? You made $750 for helping contribute to DeFi education.
Presentation (MAX 10 SLIDES): Each finalist will be given a *different* token for evaluation. Since it is DeFi you know for sure that it will be something like Uniswap, YFI, Sushi etc. The chances are high that it is something we already own (so that’s a free hint right there).
The presentation needs to be 8-10 slides. PowerPoint is best, but if you’re a Mac person, use another presentation product and simply convert it to a PDF (no need to buy new materials). Remember. This is educational/informative so it shouldn’t be a Wall of Text. Some sort of mix between text/picture/chart/table is best.
Questions to Answer: Rank the project on a 1-10 (10 being best) scale on the following items: 1) potential for growth, 2) valuation on sales/earnings, 3) rank project relative to closest peers - defined by you, 4) value of the team and 5) risks associated with the project.
The second part of the slide deck will be creative: 1) highlight something special/different about the project that is important to know, 2) would you invest in the project yes or no, 3) if you could change one thing about the project what would it be and 4) how much do you think it should be worth in 5 or 10 years?
Fairness: One last item. Some of the finalists have 10-15 hours a week to dedicate. Others have 30-40 hours. So on and so forth. Here is the deal.
When the email goes out on Sunday *DO NOT* work more than your allotted time. This makes the competition fair. If someone only has 15 hours a week to spare and they spend 80 hours on it… That’s going to create a lot of issues later on. So please be honest.
Final Item: At this time our best guess is as follows. In the end we will hire 2-3 people (probably three). Based on the agreed upon comp range we will run it for 3 months first (with three new people). At the end of three months we’ll see if each individual wants to do it long-term (we need a minimum of 2 years). Our guess is one drops off and we’re left with two.
The above is a just a guess but you get the idea!
Some Random Substack Stuff
If you are on the free Substack if you convert to paid you get all the content (yes all prior articles)
If you are a college student and want our *old* books from 2016/2017/2019 we will give it to you *for free*. You need to respond to this email with one of two things: 1) a .edu email address or 2) proof that you’re a college student (ID blurred out or some other proof of being a student in 2021)
The old website we ran is entirely archived and backed up, old content will eventually appear on a new website. It just isn’t a priority right now.
Comments: *Generally* speaking, while it is cool to say “thank you!” we prefer high quality comments. Again. Not trying to discourage happiness we’re simply trying to make the comments section a trove of good information.
If a new post comes up please try to add value if you can. Otherwise no need to comment (we won’t be offended!!). This will help people in the Jungle as many of them are doing interesting things already.
Over the long-term if the comments section is good… someone will eventually make a small side hustle as well. We want that to happen so someone else can make a few US Tokens. Winners help winners win!
On that note, while we think the application is fair go ahead and leave a comment if you think we missed something!
Canceled Netflix to buy this substack. Best. Decision. Ever.
The content of all 3 combined would be worth more than any of my old college lectures. Glad to see this is a possibility.
source: went to a top 5 CS university