I’m opening a discussion about Motoko Bootcamp, its role in the ICP ecosystem, and potential next steps. While I have my own ideas and plans, I’m currently reflecting and exploring options, and I want to hear the community’s thoughts.
Current Program Overview: Motoko Bootcamp is a one-week program designed to introduce participants to Motoko, familiarize them with the Internet Computer stack, and teach DAO development. The program offers a self-paced course featuring a comprehensive book, video tutorials, and seven practical chapters, culminating in a final project submission. At some point, there were weekly workshop and monthly editions of the camp, though this is option is not active at the moment.
Current Statistics:
1,251 registered candidates.
639 students who deployed and validated their first dApp.
159 graduates who completed the entire program.
Note: These numbers reflect only our current platform and don’t include participants from previous physical or online bootcamps. The total number of graduates including all the editions is approaching 500.
Background: Motoko Bootcamp launched in 2021 as the first community-led educational initiative in the ICP ecosystem, with support from the DFINITY Foundation. During 2023-2024, Code & State provided financial backing while I served as their Education Lead. The value added of the bootcamp for the ecosystem has been significant at a relatively low cost (over the 4 previous years I estimate the total funding received including grants and Code & State support, plus my personal salary, to be under 200K) if we compare to other initiative it appears that Motoko Bootcamp has been a largely positive return on investment for the ecosystem, and I’m proud of this fact.
Current Situation:
Since May 2024, the bootcamp has operated without financial support and relies entirely on my volunteer efforts. Given that fact, the last year I’ve mainly focused on maintaining what currently exists, and not developing new directions or efforts. I explored launching an SNS to raise funds but couldn’t validate a viable business model compatible with that approach, so I decided to hold this option in pause. This is still a direction I’m considering.
Future Directions:
Focus on AI and personal agent development. Since Motoko is the dedicated language of the Internet Computer, I believe there’s an opportunity to position it as a top language for AI development. This could also benefit from developments around Caffeine AI.
Leverage the bootcamp as the first step toward a community accelerator/incubator. This has always been a dream of mine and others, but I haven’t been impressed by existing incubators or programs. If Motoko Bootcamp were to take this direction, we’d need to clearly articulate why “this time” could be different.
Extend the program timeframe from one week to one month. This would allow us to tackle much deeper projects with bigger ambitions, but it comes with trade-offs - not everyone can commit for a full month, and we’d need teachers/organizers willing to dedicate significant personal time.
Modernize all resources and course content. Things move extremely fast in Motoko development, and content from 2021 is becoming outdated with all the rapid progress happening (kudos to the language team at DFINITY for that!).
My questions:
What’s your take on funding models that could work for Motoko Bootcamp? I’m still exploring options after putting the SNS idea on hold.
Do you think we should bring back the weekly workshops and monthly editions, or is the current self-paced format working better? I’m curious about your experience.
Looking at the numbers, we have good engagement but significant drop-off between students and graduates. What do you think is causing this, and how could we improve it?
How do you see Motoko Bootcamp fitting into the ICP ecosystem today? What role should it play moving forward?
Are there topics or skills missing from the current program that you think we should add?
Given that I’m running this solo without funding since May, what would you prioritize if you were in my shoes?
Im not smart enough to answer this, but i would start with a tip jar/icp principal on your website. I found your website useful, and id be happy to send you a coffee for your efforts and im sure others would too.
Yep, im not sure from the business side of things the best way to monetize.
From a pure user aquisition perspective, if you plan to continue developing the site, I would pivot the focus to “how to build effectively with caffeine” as this will appeal to a wider base.
You could of course keep the older material in an “advanced User” section.
Hi Seb,
I believe the ICP ecosystem would grow significantly if we could find a way to connect graduated bootcamp participants with real-world projects. It would be very practical and motivating if the bootcamp could become a hub where creative ideas are gathered, promoted for community selection and funding, and then used as the basis for organizing student groups to complete their graduation projects with financial support. This would give them the drive to bring their ideas to fruition.
I’ve observed that many long-time community members have great ideas but struggle to connect with the developer community. Similarly, many bootcamp participants lose momentum after completing the program because they lack ideas or motivation.
As someone who graduated from the 2022 bootcamp and mentored students in the 2023 bootcamp, I occasionally build and publish libraries on Mops, and I often look for opportunities in the forum’s bounty programs. The bounty program on the forum is also very interesting. Beyond project ideas, if the bootcamp could connect with existing projects and identify the demand for core libraries that need to be built, it could also attract resources for development. This would both help projects grow and keep developers closely connected to the ecosystem.
Hey, thanks for the answer and your participation in the bootcamp.
You’re totally right. This has been my desire for a long time to build a collaborative hub for builders, a place to share knowledge, opportunities and build up a network. How to achieve it has not been clear, but the future is there.
You could create a way for people to advertise their projects in banner ads or full page ads throughout the program. Charge a small fee for each view that ads get. There is about to be thousands of fresh made caffeine ai projects looking for ways to advertise. I am working on something similar. You should check out the readme in the git repo for a more in depth description of what I mean to give you some ideas. Then whenever people are visiting Motoko bootcamp you will be racking up a little bit of ad revenue.
Hi, this is an addition to what I think about the bootcamp.
The bootcamp consistently trains an impressive number of skilled individuals each year. If caffeine in its initial phase was intended for individual, the bootcamp can leverage its resources for large-scale projects and provide enterprise solutions. Each project has its own unique architecture, and in the Web3/blockchain environment, projects are constantly evolving their architectures to find optimal solutions for increasing speed and enhancing user experience. And if it’s an open-source project, everyone can participate in finding solutions. (In reality, through my role as a mentor, I’ve noticed quite a few solution architects participating in the bootcamp).
There are many unique ideas that will require copyright protection. The bootcamp could function as a project management hub, assisting founders and community investors (among bootcamp participants, there are quite a few project managers).
The successful organization of the bootcamp and its output of resources, proven by existing data, demonstrates its feasibility. Therefore, it’s very practical if the next step involves funding ideas and solutions, connecting developers, and enabling them to create and receive value. (Ideas and solutions can be obtained through advertising and expanding the team when resources are available.)
I believe the ecosystem would definitely benefit and grow if Bootcamp could increase a few key metrics:
Increase the number of developers year over year.
Retain developers (both bootcamp graduates and current participants) within the ecosystem.
Boost the number of ideas (for projects and libraries) flowing into the bootcamp and being brought to life.
Once the bootcamp’s business model is sustainable, Bootcamp can consider community fundraising and expanding human resources to help boost these metrics, ensure the bootcamp’s sustainable development, and deliver practical benefits to the ICP ecosystem.
have you thought of putting out a coursera or udemy or other type of lecture course. i realize you have a youtube but porting into a learning platform might also help
Responding directly to your questions. Hope this helps!
What’s your take on funding models that could work for Motoko Bootcamp?
You’re putting the cart before the horse. First tell me the revenue and ROI projections - the funding model is nearly irrelevant if the numbers look right (and believable) .
Do you think we should bring back the weekly workshops and monthly editions, or is the current self-paced format working better?
Do both. One can go self-paced (free) or one can pay to join a professional community that will include live meetings etc.
Looking at the numbers, we have good engagement but significant drop-off between students and graduates. What do you think is causing this, and how could we improve it?
The zero cost of entry makes it trivial for anyone to start - but it takes time and effort to graduate (as I did). I would not try to read too much into those numbers.
How do you see Motoko Bootcamp fitting into the ICP ecosystem today?
IDK about this - I’d have to get a map of competitors/peers, what space they are filling, and see what niche MB will handle.
Are there topics or skills missing from the current program that you think we should add?
Would be good to have common use cases illustrated, e.g. “how to build an X” or “how to build a Y” that would leverage existing Github repos and blend a bootcamp approach where the end result is fully functioning code.
Given that I’m running this solo without funding since May, what would you prioritize if you were in my shoes?
That’s a big question. I listed some bullets below to get this started. Reply if you want to discuss more.
Get clear on purpose and vision
What are you really building here? What purpose does this serve?
Hobby or business?
If it’s a hobby, then just start on what is the most fun. If it’s a business, treat it like one and be really serious about it.
(and if it’s a hobby you can stop reading the below because the bullets are based on running a business)
What’s the MVP?
What minimal product will people pay for?
What will they pay for it?
What’s the revenue model
How much gross revenue can you believably foresee this generating in years 1-3?
ty!