
We believe we have the right mix of people and experience that will lead us to success. Most of the time research in web3 doesn’t take into account the nitty gritty of grant programs, the difficulties that the grantees have, the principal agency issues of the grant managers and also the ecosystems that fund the programs. ZER8 has extensive practical experience in and around web3 grant programs(managing, reviewing, sourcing, etc). Mashal has proven experience in research and impact evaluations, along with first-hand experience in developing and running programs such as accelerators, fellowships, and grants programs.

ZER8: Solo managed grant programs for Thankarb Milestone 1 and distributed over 500k $, Ex- eligibility team lead at Gitcoin DAO: reviewed over 3000 grant applications and helped save over 1m$. I’ve spent my last 3 years in web3 full time involved in managing grant programs, launching Qf rounds, reviewing grants(>3000) and studying friction points & inefficiencies.

Past Work:
Gitcoin S13, S14, S15
Arbitrum DAO via ThankARB: Arbitrum Domain Round, Arbitrum Grant Funding Fest, Arbitrum Citizens, Arbitrum on Gitcoin Matching Fest
Ongoing:
1Hive core member and contributor
Gitcoin Community Council Member
Thrivecoin Ecosystem Reviewer(when time allows)
Twitter: @zer8_future
Linkedin: Popescu Razvan Matei


Mashal Waqar is the Head of Marketing at Octant. She’s also the co-author of the State of Web3 Grants report, and the Retroactive Grants report. 

Her governance experience includes shaping the Octant Community Fund, and participating in governance councils at Gitcoin, RARI Foundation, and Thrive. Her past projects in web3 include heading partnerships at Bankless Publishing, operations at a web3 venture studio, researching token models for seed club, QF case studies for Gitcoin, and being a researcher in Ethereum Foundation’s Summer of Protocols. She also led two quadratic funding rounds with the Octant x SheFi Community Round, and co-led the Octant x GreenPill round. To date, she has collectively reviewed 130+ grants for the ThankARB, Gitcoin, and Octant ecosystem.


In her web2 journey, Mashal co-founded a global media company (The Tempest), 60 Day Startups, an action-oriented accelerator program taking founders from early stage to revenue in 60 days, and co-authored a paper on challenges faced by female founders. Since 2021, she’s been DAOing with Gitcoin, Shefi, Protein, RADAR, and BanklessDAO. Mashal holds a B.S. in Computing Security with a minor in International Business from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). She’s a Forbes Middle East 30 Under 30 and winner of the 19th WIL Economic Forum Young Leader of the Year award.

Past Work:
State of Web3 Grants
Unlocking Community Insights with Quadratic Funding: Arbitrum's Journey with Grants Stack 
Identifying High Potential Grantees
Rethinking Community Design to Build Better Communities
Quadratic Voting: A How-To Guide
Gitcoin <> UNICEF: A powerful Quadratic Funding collaboration pilot
Empowering Contributors: How DAOs Can Improve the Onboarding Experience
Why are we struggling to retain interest in communities?
Council Member: Gitcoin GG20, GG21, Arbitrum DAO via ThankARB, RARI Foundation Delegate, Octant Community Fund
Linkedin: Mashal Waqar
Twitter: @arlery 