---
type: entity
entity_type: company
name: "Dean's List"
domain: internet-finance
handles: ["@deanslistDAO", "@_Dean_Machine"]
status: active
tracked_by: rio
created: 2026-03-11
last_updated: 2026-03-11
category: "Services DAO — user feedback, QA, community management (Solana)"
stage: stable
key_metrics:
  token: "DEAN (100M cap, mint authority burned)"
  governance: "Futarchy via MetaDAO Autocrat"
  economic_model: "Client fees in USDC → purchase DEAN tokens"
competitors: []
built_on: ["Solana", "MetaDAO Autocrat"]
tags: ["dao", "services", "futarchy", "metadao-ecosystem", "community"]
---

# Dean's List

## Overview
Services DAO on Solana providing professional user feedback, QA, marketing, and community management services to other Solana protocols. Originally a sub-DAO of Grape Protocol. Self-describes as a "Network State" of Web3 power users. One of the early DAOs to adopt MetaDAO's futarchy governance outside of MetaDAO itself.

## Current State
- **Token**: DEAN. Total supply capped at 100M (30M additional minted, then mint authority burned). Economic model: charge clients in USDC, use collected USDC to purchase DEAN tokens.
- **Governance**: Uses MetaDAO's futarchy for governance decisions. "Enhancing The Dean's List DAO Economic Model" was put through futarchy decision markets.
- **Scope evolution**: Beyond just feedback services — now involves broader Solana ecosystem coordination, trading community activities, AI agent token exploration.

## Significance for KB
Dean's List is interesting not as a standalone company but as an adoption data point. It demonstrates that futarchy governance can be adopted by organizations outside of MetaDAO's direct ecosystem — a services DAO using market-based governance for operational decisions. If more existing DAOs migrate from Snapshot/token voting to futarchy, that validates the governance evolution thesis.

## Relationship to KB
- DAO governance degenerates into political capture because proposal processes select for coalition-building skill over operational competence and the resulting bureaucracy creates structural speed disadvantages against focused competitors — Dean's List moved from token voting to futarchy to escape this
- [[optimal governance requires mixing mechanisms because different decisions have different manipulation risk profiles]] — Dean's List may use futarchy selectively for high-stakes decisions

---

Relevant Entities:
- [[metadao]] — governance platform

Topics:
- [[internet finance and decision markets]]

## Timeline

- **2024-12-19** — [[deans-list-implement-3-week-vesting]] passed: 3-week linear vesting for DAO payments to reduce sell pressure from 80% immediate liquidation to 33% weekly rate, projected 15%-25% valuation increase

- **2024-10-10** — [[islanddao-treasury-proposal]] passed: Established treasury reserve funded by 2.5% of USDC payments with risk-scored asset allocation (80/20 safe/risky split) and quarterly performance reviews managed by Kai (@DeFi_Kai)