The AVI Pilot has been a collaborative journey. Feedback from the community has provided valuable insights into their priorities and has been instrumental in developing strategies that align with the DAO’s goals.
This article presents an index of engagement efforts and key links from the AVI Pilot, as well as an outline of the proposed transparency measures for AV. It also provides a summary of ways we plan to enable the community to play an active role as we transition into the second phase of AVI, which will gain more granularity as alignment for the second phase progresses.
Community Feedback
Throughout the AVI Pilot, we worked to build meaningful connections with the broader community, aiming to gather valuable insights, foster collaboration, and ensure everyone’s voice contributed to shaping the direction of AV. Some of the avenues of engagement have included:
- Directional Temp Check: Drawing from the Pilot’s research, strategic planning efforts, and alignment conversations with delegates, we developed a staging plan for AV’s structure. This plan was shared with the community through the Directional Temperature Check on Arbitrum Ventures Setup.
- Forum Updates: Regular status reports in the AVI Update Thread
- Update Decks: Detailed update presentations for Open Office Hours and Proposal Updates (to be linked shortly).
- Miro Boards: Conceptualizations of potential structures and strategies for AVI.
- Deliverable Content: An explanation of the deliverable roll-out plan, types of content to expect, and the relationship between each item in the Deliverables Hub
Findings
These discussions enabled us to strategize with delegates about adequately addressing the community’s concerns, enabling us to align our priorities and focus our efforts accordingly. The most common concerns revolved around:
- Strategic Alignment: Aligning investments with DAO goals and balancing growth and return priorities.
- Governance & Oversight: Ensuring strong governance, transparency, and active oversight for AV.
- Overlap with Existing Initiatives: Minimizing redundancies with other programs, highlighting the need for coordination and clear role delineation to avoid duplication and inefficiencies.
Delegate Discussions and Collaboration
Discussing these concerns and additional alignment needs, we worked with delegates to integrate community feedback and ensure our priorities matched the DAO’s objectives. These discussions primarily focused on:
- Investment Opportunities: Detailed discussions on specific investment avenues and initiatives to assess their alignment with DAO goals.
- Governance Structures: Exploring decision-making frameworks to align on ideal methods for AVI and AV transparency and accountability.
- Ecosystem Fit: Aligning AV’s role within the broader ecosystem, ensuring synergy with existing programs.
Outcomes
- Strategic Alignment: Identified key investment focuses (outlined in our Mini-Thesis Series on the Deliverables Hub), enabling us to evaluate specific deal cases.
- Governance & Oversight: In collaboration with delegates, we were able to plan a staging path for governance and oversight.
- Infrastructure Staging: Coordination and feedback about paths toward AV’s infrastructure development (as outlined in the first ideas presented in the Directional Temp Check)
Cross-Group Collaboration
As part of the AVI Pilot, we engaged with other working groups to uncover potential collaboration opportunities and refine our strategic direction to ensure clear role delineation and avoid overlap. During these sessions, we identified the following initiatives for coordination:
- Entropy: Discussions about governance procedures, receiving input into AV’s oversight council development, and providing input into considerations for the DAO Advocacy Alliance.
- GCP: Identifying pathways for mutual support and discussions about their learnings.
- Treasury: Conversations aiming to ensure there is no overlap between CapCo and Treasury roles.
Outcomes
Through these engagements, we confirmed that no significant overlaps were found between AV and other initiatives. We also addressed complexities related to capital calls and management of the ARB token.
Transparency and Accountability Measures Moving Forward
Based on the concerns expressed through conversations with the community, during Phase 2 of AVI we are going to focus on the following transparency and accountability mechanisms for AV:
- Governance and Oversight: To ensure effective management and stakeholder trust, we have developed a comprehensive plan for governance and oversight. See the breakdown of the planned Governance and Oversight Staging.
- Simplicity in Communication: Just as we have prioritized making sure all deliverables are easily digestible to people of all familiarity levels, we will continue to prioritize presenting progress updates in a way that is easy to understand and inclusive for the entire community.
- Reporting:
- Quarterly Reports: Comprehensive reports will be published at the end of each fiscal quarter. These reports will detail activities, evaluate the impact of investments, and provide a breakdown of operational costs. Key metrics will include progress against strategic goals, financial performance, and ecosystem contributions.
- Monthly Briefs: More frequent updates will be shared through concise monthly briefs. These will highlight milestones, address immediate challenges, and provide an overview of ongoing initiatives to keep the community engaged and informed.
- Office Hours: Regularly scheduled office hours will be established to allow community members to ask questions, provide feedback, and directly engage with the AV team. These sessions will help ensure two-way communication and enable real-time resolution of concerns.
How can the Community Get Involved?
AV should create a space where contributors can shape its future, while they and the ecosystem as a whole reap rewards of their efforts. Here are some of the ways we plan to enable community participation:
- Become a Scout and Help Shape Investment Programs: The Scouts Program empowers community members to identify high-potential opportunities within the ecosystem. With access to small investment tickets, scouts can drive innovation and contribute to the development of Vertical-Specific Fund-in-a-Box (FiB) programs—pilot investment initiatives targeting key areas for growth. One example of what this might look like can be found here. However, the direction will be adjusted based on the feedback received from the DAO.
- Join as an LP or Co-Investor: Community members can participate as Limited Partners (LPs) or co-investors in Captive Vehicles designed to focus on strategic opportunities. Whether through direct investments or collaborations with other protocol investment arms, this approach strengthens ties across ecosystems while expanding the reach of impactful projects.
- Support and Expand the Ecosystem: The investment strategy prioritizes empowering the ecosystem by supporting its current needs while enabling growth into new markets and categories. With a focus on leveraging the expertise of contributors, this approach fosters agility and ensures the ecosystem remains robust and forward-thinking.
- Get Rewarded for Contributions: To recognize and incentivize contributors, various reward mechanisms are being explored. A portion of the carry from the Fund-of-Funds (FoF) will be allocated to reward active participants, from scouts to builders. Additionally, this rewards system will provide valuable insights for DAO working groups to create targeted grants and incentive programs that sustain innovation and growth.
We are fine-tuning our approach to community contribution to make it as impactful and effective as possible. If you’d like to get involved or learn more, please don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!