Following feedback from the DAO, both in the forum and in-person at Devconnect, we’re happy to announce our renewed approach to Firestarters Fund going forward, and once again gather the community’s input. We remind you that, as per our last communications regarding Firestarters, we had decided to internalize and fund a Firestarters pilot from OpCo’s budget, without requesting additional funds from the DAO.
What we’ll be looking to fund
As the name suggests, and as was the case with the original program, Firestarters’ grants are supposed to fund work that will ignite a fire for fully-fledged initiatives, without, however, funding the initiatives themselves. In that spirit, we will be looking to fund individuals or teams to work on exploring the feasibility or setting the groundwork for initiatives the DAO can undertake, and which fall under one of the following categories:
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Creation of additional revenue streams for Arbitrum, or an increase in the revenue generated from existing ones
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Builder support initiatives for verticals other than DeFi (e.g., RWAs, DePIN, AI)
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Unifying initiatives across and between the DAO and the broader ecosystem
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Open track
*The OpCo reserves the right to exercise discretion when offering grants for initiatives in the open track category. In any such case, we will provide a clear justification.
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The budget we’ll allocate to the Firestarters Fund is $50,000, and the maximum amount for any individual grant is $10,000.
Evaluation of Applications
We will evaluate all applications through a subjective evaluation matrix (see below) that we have created. The purpose of the matrix, and the reason it’s subjective and not tied to strict KPIs, is to provide a standard, transparent way to evaluate proposals while maintaining flexibility to review proposals in both the defined categories and the open-track one.
Evaluation Matrix
| Planning & End Goals | Expertise & Positioning | Strategic Relevance & Timing | Grant Size & Impact | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | There’s a clearly outlined plan with defined steps and a specific end-goal | The applicant has relevant expertise and/or experience, and they’re well-positioned to execute on the grant scope | The application falls within the defined categories or has strong strategic alignment with existing initiatives undertaken by AAEs or the DAO | The grant size is competitive when measured against market rates, and the potential impact of it is high |
| Medium | There’s an end-goal in sight, but there’s no defined plan to get there | The applicant has relevant expertise, but they do not have a strong positioning within Arbitrum | The application has potential strategic relevance, but the timing is not optimal | The grant size is not competitive, but the potential impact of it is high |
| Low | There’s no specific end goal in sight, but there’s a specific plan to research and figure out if one should exist | The applicant has good positioning within Arbitrum, but not the relevant domain expertise for the scope of the grant | The application has good timing, but does not align with existing initiatives or workstreams of AAEs or the DAO | The grant size is competitive, but its impact is low |
| Minimal | There’s no specific end goal in sight, and there’s no research plan. The application is an open exploration | The applicant doesn’t have relevant experience or expertise, and they’re not well-positioned in Arbitrum | The application doesn’t come at a good time, and the scope of work doesn’t align with existing initiatives from AAEs or the DAO | The grant size is not competitive, and the potential impact of it is low |
OKRs/KPIs for applicants
The OpCo will work with each applicant to set up specific OKRs/KPIs, depending on the scope of their application and the aspects that make sense to aim for and measure. We envisage our role as similar to that of a project manager for all grantees, working with them to define goals, serving as a resource as needed, and ensuring everything is completed on time.
Transparency
All grants given through Firestarters will live on a public Notion dashboard available on OpCo’s website or the forum. The dashboard will include all relevant information, including the scope of work and expected deliverables, the OKRs/KPIs for the grantee, the timeline, and the grant amount. We’ll publish a distilled dashboard summary in the forum for delegates’ convenience monthly, including a short progress report on the program’s KPIs (see below).
At the end of the first quarter of 2026, or after we’ve distributed the entire $50,000 budget (whichever comes first), we’ll put together a comprehensive report to evaluate the pilot, detail out learnings and next steps.
KPIs for Firestarters
To gauge the program’s success, we’ll look at the following KPIs and how they develop MoM to determine whether we’re heading in the right direction.
- Number and quality of applications received
- Number and quality of applicants we proactively reach out to
- Approval rate of funded projects
- Milestone/project completion rates
- Success of the resulting initiatives in governance, where applicable
- Grantee satisfaction and feedback
What you can do to help
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Provide your input and feedback on the outlined approach to Firestarters, and specifically on the categories selected, the evaluation matrix, and the KPIs for Firestarters
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Attend the calls we’ll be hosting and participate in the discussion
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Leverage your network to help us with leads
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Respond below with ideas of categories or initiatives within the specified categories we should consider
Calls to discuss Firestarters
Next week, we’ll be hosting 2 calls to discuss all of the above further and gather more input from the community.
Both calls will have the same agenda, and both will be recorded, so feel free to join either or both.
Please direct any questions or feedback for Firestarters to @Sinkas (Telegram)