As we know all good things must come to an end, Polygon <> Devfolio Fellowship is also at the turn where we have to bid farewell. I am writing this blog to give you a sneak peek at my Fellowship experience, what to expect, why you should apply and how to apply (If it happens next year).
What is Polygon <> Devfolio Fellowship?
It is a sponsored 8-week mentor-led program for you to take the next step in your Web3 development journey. You can apply to two tracks based on your experience level in web3, Beginner Track & Buidler Track. 25 fellows were selected for both tracks. I was selected for the builder’s track.
The beginner track was for students still in college and early in their web3 development journey. The cohort was much more organised and filled with structured coursework, weekly lectures, and tasks. Not only they had a tight schedule, but they also had access to dedicated mentors from the industry.
Buidler Track was more on its own in terms of schedule as each one of them had proposed a different project that they wish to work on before getting selected. While we were to plan our day & work, we were connected with mentors from the industry-specific to our project. I was for instance connected with Yash from Biconomy, who was working on EIP-4337 as well. The project-related pairing meant I could go as technical as I wanted and also ask as many architecture questions as I wanted. Kudos to the team for finding project-based mentors for all 25 builders.
Hacker House?
Hackers? House? What is that? What is a house doing in the midst of an online fellowship?
Before I try to explain it in my words, I would suggest you watch this recap video made by the Devfolio team
Hacker house gave us the opportunity to meet every fellow in person and make bonds that will last forever! We had in-person talks from web3 founders, engineers, community managers, and VCs. We were given a holistic experience to help us launch our product on web3. There were also surprise visits from the founders of Redbus, Dunzo, Builders Tribe, The product house, Router Protocol, Transak, and many more. After the sleepless nights of the building during hacker house, we got to present our products to VCs, including** Builderstribe, Lightspeed, Accel Partners** and many more.
Those 7 days of hacker house have given us access to people a lot of us would only dream of and friendships we will cherish for the life ahead.
How to become a Fellow?
While I don’t know if Polygon will have another Fellowship program next year or not but if they do, I would recommend every web3 enthusiast who is at the start of their career in web3 to apply for it. It is one of the life-changing experiences that would change your career trajectory completely.
Everyone who was interested to be a part of the fellowship had to apply on Devfolio’s website. Upon selection of your application, there was another interview aligned with Devfolio’s team. I have already published my application at mirror.xyz/plusminushalf.eth, feel free to take inspiration.
What all the fellows had in common was that all had done a lot of research about their projects, had a plan on how to execute them and were looking for the fellowship as a catalyst to 10x their product development through feedback from mentors and industry experts.
I think it’s time I say goodbye and add this experience to the list of memories I will cherish in future.
PS: I wanted to share that we recently won the Unfold Hackathon, you can see what we built in that hackathon here: https://devfolio.co/projects/cupcakes-0027/
PPS: EIP-4337 is getting ready to disrupt the Ethereum wallets and coming faster to you than you imagine ;)
Until next time, WAGMI 🚀