Navigating Growth: An In-Depth Retrospective of 2023 Grants

20240704_2023-Retro 1200×800 81.6 KB Over the past 15 months, the Atom Accelerator DAO (AADAO) has been supporting innovation and growth for the Cosmos Hub and the Atom Economic Zone. Established by Prop #95 , in 2023, we awarded 40 grants to various projects, each chosen for its potential to contribute to the ATOM community and the Cosmos Hub’s growth. (Under our renewal mandate, Prop #865 , we have thus far awarded a further 14 grants.) It’s only natural that with such a wide array of projects, some have hit the mark while others have fallen short. One of our core ethos at the AADAO is the continual improvement of our processes - in the way we filter, evaluate and administer grants. In pursuit of this improvement, this publication is a thorough retrospective of every grant issued in 2023. Unlike our Transparency Reports, which are published by the Oversight Committee, the Grants and Ops teams at AADAO are publishing this retrospective. Atom Accelerator DAO is fully owned by and accountable to the Cosmos Hub community, and we believe this publication underscores the DAO’s commitment to evolving operations with accountability. How many grants? Since our grant…

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Transparency is the foundation for accountability, but it’s important to remember that humility is equally crucial. To improve over time, we must acknowledge and recognize both our strengths and weaknesses—building on the former while striving to improve the latter. This post exemplifies this principle perfectly. We are proud to be part of this journey into the Cosmos. This ecosystem stands out from the rest of the crypto world, where many are simply trying to sell a token. We must elevate to higher standards, and you clearly are making efforts in the right direction.

For context, we have been working with various Cosmos projects for nearly two years now. Often, teams are pleased to receive positive feedback but rarely take negative feedback into account. However, our recent experience with AADAO was different. We shared both positive and negative feedback about the grantee process, aiming to provide a constructive partnership. We were pleased to see that they listened to both, and this post further proves that they are taking concrete actions to improve.

We hope the community recognize these strengths as well.
Thanks for reading,
Govmos.

Re: Messari reports—agree they would benefit from more widespread sharing. They flew under my radar.

My impression with the AADAO is very positive and I’m impressed with the amount of work. I find it difficult to assess the impact or outcomes produced, however, but that takes time so it’s normal. One impact that is fuzzy but noticeable is increased positive attitudes, marketing, and general activity around the Hub. You were instrumental in that, thank you.

I noticed a recurring trend in reading the comprehensive report, namely that you were overwhelmed or surprised by amount of work/follow-up/supervision needed, as well as coordination or general manpower. Because of that my only critical feedback is to suggest picking a smaller set of grantees, where each is at a higher standard (you know best which metric to use primarily to determine that, eg, more motivated or skilled or promising or bold or well defined or determined).

Appreciate the comment Adi and your kind words towards our work here at AADAO.

Your suggestion on a smaller set of grants and a higher standard is right down the alley of what we have been working on throughout 2024 since I have joined as Grant Lead. Particularly, increasing the threshold for when we invite applicants to an interview, making us able to double down on high-quality projects and teams that we do invite to an interview and potentially accept as grantee.

Doubling down includes continuously staying updated and provide support to grantees on a much larger scale than before, rolling out a monthly update form so we are more in tune with how grants are evolving, untying any knots on the path to grant completion. This especially involves GTM to reach max adoption and user activity.

AADAO was not to the same extent able to provide support and doing outreach last year as most of the team was part-time. This year, most of us are full time currently with a team 7 FTEs, so grantees are receiving proactive support AND we are also proactively seeking grants that solve the most pressing needs of the Hub.