The Vintage mode Venture DAO operates very close to that of a traditional venture fund. As a result, it is suitable for Venture DAOs who tend to use the traditional venture fund operating model.

The Vintage mode Venture DAO has clear roles: Governor and Investor. You can apply these two types of roles to the GP + LP fund management model.

Simply put, Vintage DAOs operate around serial funds. That is, after a fund runs out, you can run the next fund in the same DAO without having to rebuild the DAO. However, a DAO cannot run multiple funds simultaneously.

This helps the operations of Venture DAOs who wish to achieve unified branding and performance management. Therefore, when you successfully deploy a Vintage mode Venture DAO, you need to launch a fund to start your investment journey.

Launch A Fund

When the Vintage mode Venture DAO is deployed or the previous fund is closed (Clear Fund), the Governors of DAO can initiate a new fund through the Fund Establishment Proposal. The Fund Establishment Proposal specifies parameters such as the term of the new fund, operating rules, fees, and others. The following are the new fund formation parameters provided by Fund Establishment Proposal:

• Information: The basic information of the new fund, including Tag, Description, and Link. This data is saved on Arweave.
• Fund: The fundraising currency and funding target of the new fund.
• Term: The duration of the new fund.
• Redemption: You can set a redemption period and associated fees for a new fund. Of course, this is not required option.
• Fee & Carry: If your new fund includes fees and reward rules such as management fees, Carry, etc., you can set them conveniently and flexibly in this section.
• Proposer Reward: In addition to the Fee & Carry charged at the DAO level, you can also set rewards for each specific investment provider (Proposer) here.
• Fundraise: Finally, set the opening and closing times of the fundraising window for the new fund, as well as the fundraising rules, such as fundraising type (FCFS/Free-in), priority depositors, minimum and maximum deposit amounts.

If you'd like to learn more about these parameters, check out the Start a New Fund - Fund Establishment Proposal section. When the Fund Establishment Proposal is approved, the new fund will be launched, and at the same time, all the above parameters will be written into the smart contract of the new fund and will act on the launch and operation of the new fund.

Life Cycle Of Fund

In the Vintage model Venture DAO, when a new fund is launched, it will go through four stages:

When a round of funds ends, the DAO will return to the fund vacancy status. The fund vacancy status means that no fund is being initiated and running.

Fundraising

When a Fund Establishment proposal is approved, the DAO will open a fundraising window for this new fund, during which eligible participants can deposit funds to the new fund.

During this period, the DAO can raise funds publicly or only from specific groups of people, depending on the settings of the Fund Establishment proposal. DAO can also set minimum fundraising target, maximum fundraising cap, participant eligibility, minimum deposit amount, maximum deposit amount, fundraising time and other parameters to serve DAO fundraising strategy. During this period, eligible investors can deposit funds into the DAO and thus become investors in the DAO (similar to LP of traditional venture funds).

At the same time, investors can also withdraw the funds they have deposited into the DAO during this period. Of course, it is also possible to deposit again.

After the fundraising period ends, the Governors of DAO can trigger the smart contract to judge the fundraising result through the "Execute" action, which is divided into two situations:

• Fundraising Successful: If the fundraising is successful, the new fund will be officially launched and move to the investment period. The start time of the Fund Term is equal to the successful execution time of the Execute transaction. Note that when the fundraising period ends, Withdraw will not be available even if Execution transaction is not executed. This means that once the fundraising period is over, investors can only withdraw funds during the Redemption period (if any) or the Refund period.
• Fundraising Failed: If the fundraising failed, there are two outcomes:
• If the fundraising amount is > 0, the Refund period begins. For details on the operation and specifications of Refund, please refer to the "Refund Period" section.
• If the amount raised = 0, the DAO goes directly back to the fund vacancy status.

Investment

When the fundraising period ends and the fundraising is successful, the fund will move to the Investment period. During the Investment period, DAO Governors have the right and obligation to find investment targets (Dealsource) and vote on investment decisions through investment proposals. Depending on the setting of DAO, there may be several Redemption periods between Investment period.

Redemption

DAO have the option to enable the Redemption function for a fund. If it is not enabled, Investors cannot withdraw their remaining deposits in the DAO during the investment period unless the investment period ends and the Refund Period is entered. If a Redemption period is enabled for a fund, the Investment period of the fund will include one or several Redemption periods, and investors may choose to withdraw part or even all of their remaining deposits in the DAO. Please see the Redemption Period section for specific rules.

DAOs can set redemption fees, which means that investors need to pay a certain fee to the DAO for each redemption (the fee category and rate depend on the fund settings). If the redemption fee rate is set to 0, it means that the redemption is free.

Refund

When the fund ends (Investment period ends), or the fund fundraising failed, the DAO will move to the Refund period. Like other parameters, the length of the Refund period is controlled by the smart contract of the fund (set via the Fund Establishment proposal). During the Refund period, Investors can withdraw all or part of their deposit balance in DAO through “Withdraw” in the Deposit/Withdraw module on the DAO homepage. There is no redemption fee during the Refund period.

When the refund period ends，

• If the balance of the DAO > 0, that is, there are still investors who have not withdrawn the deposit balance. The DAO will not automatically close the refund pipeline, but provide a Liquidate function that allows DAO Governors to escrow the DAO's fund balance into an escrow contract designed for refunds, thereby emptying the DAO fund pool so that the DAO can launch a new fund.
• If the balance of the DAO = 0, which means that all investors have withdrawn all the deposit balances, the DAO will automatically return to the fund vacancy state. The DAO can launch a new fund.

Until the Liquidate is executed, Investors can still make refunds in the Deposit/Withdraw module on the DAO homepage. After Liquidate execution, Investors need to go to My / Refund page for refunds.

Fund Life Cycle Diagram

On this page

• Launch A Fund
• Life Cycle Of Fund
• Fundraising
• Investment
• Redemption
• Refund
• Fund Life Cycle Diagram