Applicant
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Full Name: SpikeWatanabe.eth
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Contact Information: tg - @spikeWatanabe / X - @spikewatanabe
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Current Occupation: Stablelab - governance analyst
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Country of Residence / Time Zone: Russia / GMT + 3 / All monetary relations will be conducted with Singaporean legal entity
Domain: Corporate finance, Capital Allocation
I’m certain that my previous work experience has a perfect fit into the “corporate finance” track. I graduated from one of the top ranked universities in the UK for Economics. It was a very natural progression for Economics graduates to pursue careers in consulting, my choice was corporate finance within Investment banks. I was mainly involved in Mergers and Acquisitions deals, additionally I had exposure to special purpose debt and private equity situations. M&A can be considered as one of the most challenging products in IB, due to the high level of complexity of such deals - every company is unique and has its own story. To be able to excel in a corporate finance environment you are required to possess genuinely strong analytical skills, ability to form a high level view of the situation and always be on top of numbers as well as outstanding people skills.
It is safe to say that I have seen every facet of the industry - I worked in investment banks, advisory firms and private equity fund where I mainly focused on buy side type of deals.
Please find bellow my deal sheet:
- Otkritie bank
- Originated and executed M&A deal for “Lamoda” – major online retailer of clothes
- Execution of IPO “Russian Sea” – production of farmed salmon in Russia
- TNCapital - Family office of Techno-Nicol shareholders, AUM 1bn USD
- Sale of rockwool manufacturer Izovol to Techno-Nicol (100mn USD)
- Debt restructuring and acquisition of corrugated board and paper producer in CIS (30mn USD)
- Acquisition of corrugated board producer in Russia (50mn USD)
- Investment into debt collection agency (25mn USD)
- KPMG
- Sale of leading packaged foods producer (50mn USD)
- Sale of retail distributor of building materials (500mn USD)
- ATON
- Sale of regional ISP to a major Russian telecommunications company (20mn USD)
- Alfa-Bank
- Acquisition of Kazakhstan bank by a top Russian commercial bank (1bn USD)
My hands-on responsibilities included - conducting industry wide and product specific research, gathering and presenting various data sets and building presentations. On a more technical level I had to build financial models which allowed me to disentangle situations under various angles. One of the most common analyses is the Discounted Cashflow Model - which allows to value the company, however there are a lot of other various angles financial analysis can take, such as how much debt can a company carry, M&A model to show what a combined entity would look like and so on.
Intuitively my understanding of the situation around OpCo is that there has to be an “operational model” which would aggregate bottom up financial and operational data. Under the umbrella of the operational model, we’ll be able to track how our operations are going, is the capital being utilized efficiently, is Arbitrum DAO as an entity operating efficiently.
Before joining blockchain “rabbit hole” I covered deals with a total value of c. 1bn USD. It is considerable experience which allowed me to acquire such key hard skills as budgeting, development of financial strategy and capital allocation.
Describe your network and reputation within the blockchain/technology industry. Have you previously represented a crypto brand and/or navigated DAO governance
In 2016 I came across Ethereum, and instantly “fell down the blockchain rabbit hole”. I was developing my understanding of the sector ground up from building mining rigs to conducting research into mechanisms of consensuses. In 2018 I decided to leave the field of investment banking to pursue my interest in blockchain. Together with a group of likeminded individuals we endeavored to set up a fund, which would invest into blockchain based assets. This work was the main pivot driving further research – from attending conferences to exploring blockchain analytical tools.
Further on I got involved within ENS protocol. I have witnessed the development of ENS DAO since the very first steps in 2021. I’ve been an active contributor raising important issues throughout ENS DAO matters. I was gradually growing within ENS DAO and my involvement was recognized in the form of considerable delegated voting power. To date I’m holding c. 92K votes within ENS DAO, being top-10 by voting power.
Detail your experience in advisory, governance, and/or oversight roles
The corporate finance department within the investment bank is effectively an advisory business. Normally you’d be presented with quite an ambiguous case and your role would be to synthesize it in such a way so that it would be understood by a variety of stakeholders and provide clear actionable scenarios. Pipeline of potential projects was fairly chaotic, new deals would either be fed through senior bankers or directly via brand awareness. Normally you wouldn’t know what kind of industry you are going to have to deal with, until you get your hands on the case. To be able to work in such a volatile environment is a very useful skill, as you’ll never know what the next challenge within the blockchain environment would be.
Have you previously contributed to the Arbitrum DAO? Describe any relevant experiences through which you’ve gained an understanding of the DAO’s current structure, contributors, and programs
Previously I worked for Avantgarde finance as DAO relations manager, I got exposure to the Arbitrum ecosystem advancing the business interests of my employer. Specific context was that Avantgarde is the asset management firm, as such I was exploring possibilities to apply our expertise within the DAO. That required fundamental and pretty wide research of the ecosystem. I currently work for Stablelab as a governance analyst. In that capacity I follow Arbitrum very closely. I support my team by drafting proposals, and voicing our opinion on various issues by participating in forum discourse and voting.
Given the scope of OpCo is relatively broad in its current form, describe how you view OpCo’s role within the DAO and what it should accomplish to deem the entity a success over the next 3-5 years
This is the most challenging question on this application. I’ll be honest - in my opinion it is difficult to forecast anything on a 3-5 years horizon even within the universe of large cap public companies with perfect IFRS reporting and stable capital markets, let alone within the universe of blockchain protocols. It is always a great idea to have some abstract North Star to follow, however I would like to avoid going for such notions as decentralization, freedom to transact and other core high level principles we stand for as a community. Instead in my statement I would to highlight some of the general issues we are facing but focus on a much shorter horizon - these include among others:
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Align OpCo’s work with current service providers. One good example of such an entity would be R3gen, they are doing outstanding work in terms of delivering integrated financial and operational statements. It is OpCo’s responsibility to build on existing relationships and operations.
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At the moment Arbitrum has many moving parts to the extent that it’s difficult to find your way around, one of the challenges OpCo should be able to tackle is to brush the ecosystem up. That way any curious individual will be able to quickly dive into the DAO.
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Seeing how initially the idea is that OpCo will be focused on Ecosystem Support and Financial management domains, establish effective lines of communication with people running other key initiatives.
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OpCo should very actively help new individuals / teams join the DAO, in other words there has to be a very simple mechanism for external agents to discover opportunities within DAO and apply their skills with appropriate compensation.
Disclosures
Please disclose all of the applicant’s/nominee’s actual and potential conflicts of interest, including but not limited to financial, personal, DAO governance, and professional
I don’t believe that there are any conflicts of interests, however for the sake of transparency I would like to disclose all of my engagements.
I’m a large delegate within ENS DAO, this is an unpaid position, and effectively is voluntary engagement, there are no CoI between this position and OAT member responsibilities.
I’m currently employed by Stablelab as a governance analyst, there are no CoI with any of the prerequisites to joining OAT.
Please disclose all active contributor roles and payment streams related to the Arbitrum DAO that the applicant/nominee, and entities that they have a professional or financial relationship with, has and is receiving
Stablelab is an active member of Arbitrum community and diligent delegate, as such Stablelab was recipient of fees via delegate incentive mechanism.
Declarations
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The applicant/nominee understands that any offer to join and hold a position in the OAT is contingent on:
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Successfully completing as well as maintaining updated all relevant non-disclosure agreements, KYC requirements, and other necessary documents
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Not being a direct representative or full-time employee at network competitors (e.g., Solana, Polygon, Optimism)
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The person as well as any companies with which the person maintains a professional or financial relationship to relinquish any and all contributor roles within the Arbitrum DAO that were obtained through an official election or ratification process conducted via Snapshot or Tally
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The person as well as any companies with which the person maintains a professional or financial relationship to abstain from becoming an internal employee for OpCo, entering into service provider contracts with the entity, or applying for any contributor role within the Arbitrum DAO that requires an official election or ratification process through Snapshot or Tally
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The person as well as any companies with which the person maintains a professional or financial relationship to relinquish positions on other DAO initiatives’ or DAO-adjacent entities’ oversight committees or any other positions comparable in nature
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Being aligned with the community values listed in The Amended Constitution of the Arbitrum DAO, following the Code of Conduct for delegates, being committed to prioritizing the Arbitrum DAO’s needs, and acting in absolute good faith and utmost honesty to fulfill their duties to the best of their abilities.
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If nominating someone else, the nominator confirms that the nominee is aware of their nomination and the essential details related to it
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I confirm that I have read and understood all the content within this form and that the information submitted is accurate and complete: Yes