Jihad Esmail

Jihad discovered DAOs through two parallel avenues. He spent two years as co-founder and operator of a (now acquired) creator growth agency, AMA, where he worked with Youtubers like Jesser, Ali Abdaal, Pat Flynn, and more to build their communities. Meanwhile, he was conducting research at Northwestern University on "post-capitalist entrepreneurial models," exploring what alternative non-profit maximizing organizations might look like. Both paths led to tokenized communities.

Jihad is a Core Contributor at Forefront and Community Lead at Syndicate Protocol. His work involves helping tokenized communities and creators navigate web3 from the earliest stages, and building partnerships between them. He regularly hosts Forefront Hangouts, a live event series highlighting some of web3's most interesting builders and community leaders, and is a member of FWB, Gitcoin, and PrimeDAO. Jihad is particularly interested in the ways social DAOs will find new ways of forming, managing, and allocating capital throughout their communities, enabling new economic models for creators and organizations.