if you ask five people what a subDAO is, you are going to get five different answers. The point is that we would do well to consider the subDAO as an option for exponential growth unencumbered by centralization and bureaucracy. Doing this will protect us from the next bear and position us for explosive growth in the next bull. subDAO's as a hedge against centralization and DAO bloat. What is a subDAO? When should you subdDAO? Risks of the subDAO?

1. Let's talk subDAO
@shawn16400
https://twitter.com/shawnlgrubb
https://medium.com/@shawnlgrubb

2. A subDAO is just another way of organizing people and work:
Autonomous working groups and projects that
are economically & relationally aligned to the superDAO
What is a SubDAO?
superDAO
subDAO
subDAO
subDAO
subDAO
IRL: ~Parents & subsidiary affiliate vendor

3. What is different about the subDAO?
The subDAO
can serve more
than 1 aligned
superDAO
The subDAO
may have its
own token /
income
The subDAO has
its own address*
The subDAO has a
lighter link to the
superDAO
The subDAO is
severable
superDAO
subDAO
subDAO
subDAO
subDAO subDAO
superDAO
0xb9EDE6f677133d483249
5. 4.
3.
1.
2.

4. Why should
you subDAO?
• SubDAOs create new value by allowing DAOs to
scale
• Maximize superDAO treasury (subtokens & ext.
revenue)
• Allow for a smaller (decentralized) central function
• Encourages greater degree of entrepreneurship
• Allows for non-core expansion
• Attract local talent - DAO-ing in your own language
• Risk - “easier” to turn off a subDAO (vs. a function)
• Legal Risk - superDAO <> subDAO****

5. When should you
subDAO?
• Profit - Is this working group generating revenue?
• Function - can superDAO survive w/o subDAO?
• Sustainability - Can the subDAO survive on its own?
• Staff - Are there full-time contributors?
• Novelty - Are the deliverables unique from the
parent?

6. What are the risks of a subDAO?
• Confusing action & progress “leading DAOs are doing it”
• Keeping incentives & principles aligned
• Failing to plan for turning off the subDAO
• Divestiture causes a loss of superDAO capability
• Reputational risk to the superDAO
• ROI Failure: missing / undefined OKRs = drain on resources

7. Sample subDAO:
subDAO Community Objective Responsibility Decision Making
Ops Providing guidance and support to
enable smooth DAO operations.
*People (onboarding, compensation, etc), *Quarterly Budget deployment, *Formally
add/remove signers from other teams, *Reporting - communication DAO information
(DAO activity, spending), *Communication standards (discord, notion)
2 of 3 social
Treasury Advance the treasury * Farming, *Meta-governance *Quarterly report 3 of 4 social
Partnership Developing and supporting strong
partnerships across the ecosystem.
Executing liquidity mining rewards.
*Partnerships (growth mechanism within protocol), *Implementing/supporting
partnerships (biz dev + technical), *Liquidity Mining Committee Ensuring that
liquidity mining rewards are decided upon each week, a snapshot vote is run & and
updates are pushed to the github repo on time each week, *Biz Dev - partnership
(due diligence)
2 of 3 social
Marketing Activating and educating the DAO
community.
*Marketing (education, awareness) *Events *Content creation 2 of 3 social
Grants (existing) Providing funding for project
development to support protocol
growth.
*Evaluating proposal, *Supporting projects, *Technical support 4 of 6 social
DAO Multisig
(existing)
Decisions made by teams that
require on-chain execution will be
performed by the DAO.
*Deployed using Gnosis Safe, *Guardians of the DAO 6 of 10 multisig
#with clearly defined decision making powers

8. Sample subDAO:

9. subDAO in three steps:
1. Educate: help stakeholders understand the pros/cons & flavors
2. Proposal: The subDAO is proposed via proposal
3. Migration: (after vote) the subDAO executes the plan**

10. subDAO in three steps: the template
2. subDAO IIP proposal template:
● What problem will the subDAO solve? or What opportunity does it create?
○ What services will the subDAO deliver? (accountability & reporting)
● Usual proposal questions (deliverables/KPIs, budget, staffing, etc.)
○ Human capital req. (compensation, priority hires, DSM+, work split)
● What services will it need from superDAO?
○ cNest, gNest, pNest, gNest, tNest
○ notion, discord, discourse, gsuite, snapshot, twitter, youtube, etc.
● What decisions will it / wont it make?
○ How will it make decisions? (BDFL? - 2 of 3 - snapshot?)
○ Who will be on the multisig? Who changes the multisig?
● Is the subDAO intending to work externally
○ What is the proposed revenue sharing?
○ Will there be a subtoken & what is the timeline?
● Who is the proposed subDAO DRI and the IC DRI?
● What is the transition plan to subDAO

11. Sources:
https://forum.balancer.fi/t/proposal-commission-quarterly-financial-reports-through-the-messari-hub/2318/19
https://forum.balancer.fi/t/blabs-x-community-update-january-12th-2022/2472 Jan 12
https://snapshot.org/#/balancer.eth/proposal/0x26bba9a2dbe293c88d7e6f1de7849a5c96f8376a7a7eac713bc5da0c35276a66 Jan 17th
https://forum.balancer.fi/t/draft-proposal-balancer-subdaos-formation/2428 Dec 21
https://boardroom.io/mstable/overview
https://twitter.com/_exeuntomnes/status/1518614708395253761
https://vote.mstable.org/#/proposal/0x94d14ba9751de865c4c9a71e48e5afc649b3c654619b20a0d6b5298ee91a0afa
https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/whats-a-subdao?s=r
https://pet3rpan.mirror.xyz/5nsl1Xnr-BwmNAPoNeMlghPiTFMhxNg4zE7suaR0sXc
https://forum.bankless.community/t/subdaos-classification-and-templatization/2681
https://forum.bankless.community/t/banklessdao-subdaos-and-subtokens/1481
https://coopahtroopa.mirror.xyz/7bfK9st2mvhxlla4XKotRjetq5-YhaiwqRwS8DhkD-o
https://twitter.com/0xfrehml/status/1518619825005805571?s=20&t=4yczArv_DtEXFaYwCDI5LA
https://twitter.com/0xfrehml/status/1518599753780674566?s=20&t=Qrt5McsNZc4H-lxBejib4Q
https://snapshot.org/#/balancer.eth/proposal/0x26bba9a2dbe293c88d7e6f1de7849a5c96f8376a7a7eac713bc5da0c35276a66
https://balancergrants.notion.site/balancergrants/Balancer-DAO-Super-Hub-7428019d324241669194060e57875815
https://docs.yearn.finance/contributing/governance/governance-and-
operations#:~:text=Since%20YIP%2D61%3A%20Governance%202.0,a%20sufficient%20level%20of%20decentralization
https://forum.sushi.com/t/sushi-dao-restructure-proposal/6282
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/affiliatedcompanies.asp
https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en/knowledge/publications/b304a31f/united-states-cross-border-guide-to-parent-company-liability-for-foreign-subsidiaries
https://casetext.com/case/city-of-long-beach-v-total-gas-power-n-am-inc
https://discord.com/channels/942575405607559178/961708214146199672/963056549171961856
https://governance.aave.com/t/proposal-aave-risk-dao/4729
https://governance.aave.com/uploads/short-url/qTpNfmL15D96bDHF8u8sDITra3u.pdf
https://governance.aave.com/t/arc-aave-community-grants-program/3642
https://gov.gitcoin.co/t/3-layers-to-a-dao-to-dao-partnership/10657