Talent House - From 70 applicants to 11 high-potential Web3 talent in Barcelona
We launched Talent House aiming to grant the opportunity to high-potential individuals to attend their first Web3 conference - Celo Connect in Barcelona.
The first edition of Talent House received more than 70 applications from people around the world who couldn't afford a flight to Barcelona, accommodation and a ticket to the conference that took place on April 4th and 5th.
When we launched this initiative together with ARI Swap, Celo Foundation, Flywallet and Nom.space, we were hopeful it would become a launch pad for individuals who wanted to take their first steps into Web3. We knew that there was potential out there and also in the initiative but, the fact is, we were happily overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of the applications we’ve received.
After a thorough process, we selected 11 young talent, coming from London, Toronto, Vancouver, Moscow, Salvador, Curitiba, Madrid, Lisbon, Amsterdam, San Francisco and Tel Aviv.
These grant winners were able to travel to Barcelona, share a space together, attend the conference and also hang out with the great minds and impact innovators that are part of the Celo ecosystem. We could go on forever talking about how incredible these days were but it’s much better to learn from those who participated. Here are their testimonials.
Andrés Kaminker
“Talent House's grant to attend Celo Connect will certainly be a before and after in my journey through web3 and technology in general. I was able to connect with other peers who are building incredible apps or businesses while also learning about blockchain in general and Celo in particular. Talent Protocol's program not only enabled my participation but it was also a way for me and fellow grant winners to have a "support system" in what was for some of us our first web3 conference.”
Camellia Yang
“I joined Talent Protocol and launched my social token early this year. As an active community member in their discord channel, I got a chance to apply for the Talent House program and receive the grant prize to come over Celo Connect. It’s a great pleasure to meet two co-founders and fellow community members IRL."
During the event, I met many like-minded founders and chatted with staff from Celo Foundation and cLabs. I much appreciated this opportunity to networking with speakers, entrepreneurs and investors and learn from each other. My time stayed in Talent House with other winners was full of joy and excitement. We exchanged our learnings in web3 and send each other POAP and community badges.
Thanks again for Talent House and hope I get a chance to participate in more programs like that in the future :) Don’t forget to support me on Talent Protocol!”
Evan Zukal
“I had the opportunity to be one of the first ‘talented individuals’ sponsored by Talent Protocol. I am a new project builder within the space, and therefore have had a hard time making a name for both myself and my project. Talent Protocol provides a uniquely amazing experience which aids small projects to have a voice within Web3. I can attest that without the help of Talent Protocol, I would have never had such an opportunity to meet influential people within the space or even have had the chance to share my project with such a big audience in a live setting.”
Ewerton Pereira
“I had the pleasure of attending the Celo Connect event in Barcelona, and I was absolutely blown away by the whole experience. One of the highlights for me was the Talent House, which is an initiative by Talent Protocol, I was truly impressed by its concept. I was also really impressed by the way that Talent Protocol is using blockchain technology to create a more efficient and fair talent ecosystem. Overall, it was an amazing event and I'm already looking forward to next year's edition!”
Si Jia Wen
“This was my first web3 conference and it’s safe to say that it blew all my expectations out of the water. In a span of just a few days, I talked to hundreds of creators in the crypto space, discovered dozens of cool new companies disrupting the status quo, and met a handful of young builders that I now call my friends.
One of my favourite events that weekend was attending the Womxn in Web3 breakfast. I got the opportunity to meet other female leaders and bond over some of the challenges they faced breaking into the crypto space.
My favourite thing about Celo is their focus on social impact and their vision to bring “prosperity for everyone”. I feel like crypto often gets a bad rep for its negative environmental impact, particularly with NFTs, and it was refreshing seeing how companies were flipping that on its head.
Talent House was an extremely diverse group of people. It was so inspiring to meet other young builders and learn about how they wanted to change the world. It was also everyone’s first web3 conference so it was exciting being able to experience it for the first time together.”
Sarah Roff
“Events like Celo Connect are incredibly valuable for young builders like myself to explore current innovations in the space, meet and collaborate with like-minded people, be a part of and add value to a vibrant community, and discover opportunities to contribute to web3 projects, however, they're not always possible due to financial constraints. Talent Protocol is making it possible for ambitious and talented individuals to get involved where they wouldn't have been able to before. Through the Talent Protocol grant, I was able to attend talks and workshops, further developing my understanding of the Celo network, meet with potential employers and find plenty of opportunities to contribute, and connect with people who can help accelerate my career in software engineering.”
Simon Puebla
“Being part of the Talent Protocol partial grant allowed me to enjoy Barcelona in a way that almost makes me want to move there. From day 0 we had a place to meet, wonderful people to be surrounded with, and an enthusiastic environment where everyone wanted to share ideas and build new concepts.
We can happily say that the group that was formed during these days in the Talent House will remain together as friends for a lifetime. Some of us are already chatting about meeting up somewhere else in the world, surely to keep chatting about what is the future of web3 and how we want to contribute.”
