Proposal Title
Grow3dge Accelerator: Strategic Support for Rari Foundation and Ecosystem Partners
Date of Submission
July 14th, 2025
Author
Kara Howard
Abstract
This proposal is submitted to support the Rari Foundation, Rarible and eight of its most promising ecosystem partners in driving more market awareness, adoption, and revenue. It requests funding for their participation in SI<3>’s Grow3dge Accelerator and Rari Showcase. Grow3dge is a 10-week growth-focused program running from August 7 – October 9, designed to help projects launch public-facing campaigns and programs and deepen their impact across their parent ecosystems.
Grow3dge offers each participant structured pathways to learn, collaborate, and grow alongside 22 womxn educators and operators from organizations like Uniswap, Zerion, Adobe, Stellar, Ledger, Serotonin, Dune analytics, and many more. SI<3> is also offering a ‘Rari Showcase’ LinkedIn Live event with Rari’s Grow3dge participants sharing their projects and ways to onboard into the Rari ecosystem.
In addition to participation in the Grow3dge accelerator, this proposal extends the opportunity to invite 35 womxn in Web3 communities within our collaborative to create and list NFT collections on Rarible.
Throught the activities in this proposal, Rari Foundation and its ecosystem partners will gain valuable tools, strategies, and relationships, while onboarding new NFT collections onto Rarible through SI<3>’s womxn’s community network with over a 1 mln collective reach.
Motivation
This proposal directly supports the Rari Foundation’s strategic goals to:
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Foster ecosystem-wide visibility for projects building on or around Rarible
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Convert strategic partnerships into measurable marketplace activity
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Improve RARI token awareness and deepen governance participation via delegated staking
Rationale
This initiative delivers high-leverage impact in these core areas:
- Strategic visibility: SI<3>’s womxn’s collaborative and their respective 35 womxn’s communities partners will be invited to list NFT collections on Rarible and deploy live campaigns on Rarible.com, creating powerful public association between the Rari ecosystem and new entrants
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10 Rari Ecosystem partners will receive 10 weeks of education and support from industry leaders in the Grow3dge Accelerator, and participate in a demo day in November on SI<3>’s LinkedIn Live channel to demonstrate the education programs, campaigns and/or products they have accelerated.
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SI<3> will facilitate a no-cost integration with Unlock Protocol (a module educator in Grow3dge), which is an opportunity to drive new NFT listings on Rarible with Unlock’s built-in certifications, events and membership NFT’s
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Capacity building: Rari Foundation participants will leave with frameworks, playbooks, and connections that directly support their long-term adoption goals
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Governance alignment: Participants are encouraged to explore staking RARI and delegating, increasing DAO engagement from committed ecosystem partners
Key Terms
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Grow3dge Accelerator: A 10-week Growth and Education 3.0 training and networking program run by SI<3>
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Rarible.com Activation: Partnership and new listings facilitation between SI<3>'s collaborative of 35 and growing womxn in Web3 communities
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RARI Token Incentives: An optional path for participating projects to buy and stake RARI as a form of DAO alignment and visibility.
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Ecosystem Partners: The 8 funded projects aligned with the Foundation, chosen for their traction, strategic relevance, and growth potential.
Specifications
Grow3dge Program Details (Live sessions meeting once per week on Thursdays at from 9-10 am MST):
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‘Preparing Your Metrics for Success’ with Web3 Marketing Lead at Dune Analytics, and Senior Growth Analytics Manager at Serotonin
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‘Designing & Developing Accessibly’ with Design Lead and CTO from SI<3>
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‘Incentivizing Learning with Certifications and Rewards’ with Lead DAO Steward from Unlock Protocol and Product Manager at Huddle01
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‘Global Education 3.0’ with Founders of Women Biz LATAM, BitQueens Africa and Women of Web3
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‘Adoption For All’ – with Ecosystem Lead at Moonbeam and Director of Growth and Engagement at Adobe Express
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‘Preparing for Scale’ with Head of Marketing from Uniswap and Business Development Lead at Zerion
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‘Creating Lasting Partnerships’ with Head of Partnerships at Ledger and Co-Founder of BD in Web3
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‘Immersive & AI-Supported Education’ with Director of Research and Education at Blockchain Research Institute, Founder of Friends with Holograms, and Co-Founder of Reliabl AI
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‘Bringing Web3 Into Real-World Impact’ with Ecosystem Lead at Stellar and Project Manager at Metagov
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‘Know Your Cybersecurity & Privacy’ with Founder of Peace Keepers and CEO at Hacken
Each participating organization in the accelerator receives:
- Access to all ten modules of training
- Access to our private Telegram accelerator channel with all educators and participants, fostering networking throughout the 10 weeks
- Growth and Education 3.0 Playbook
- Certification for participation
The following projects will be invited to participate in the cohort as a part of Rari’s Ecosystem Partners:
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Rari Foundation - Ecosystem steward focused on adoption, partnerships, and token strategy.
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Rarible – NFT marketplace and protocol infrastructure
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Happ3n – Web3-native social collectibles
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Ajna Protocol – Permissionless lending protocol
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Owlto Finance – Cross-chain bridging infrastructure
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Blockscout – Open-source explorer integrated with Rarible
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HeyMint – No-code creator onboarding tools
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Stargate Finance – Cross-chain liquidity infrastructure
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Additional project to be suggested by Rari DAO
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Additional project to be suggested by Rari DAO
Grow3dge Partner Contributions
During the program, SI<3>’s womxn’s collaborative will be invited to design and deploy campaigns on Rarible.com, showcasing use cases like creator minting, tool onboarding, or co-branded listings. In turn, this will amplify visibility of the Rari ecosystem and signal confidence in Rarible’s infrastructure
- Each community listing a new NFT collection on Rarible will recieve $500 in RARI as an incentive to list, and will be encouraged to stake, delegate and participate within the Rari ecosystem.
Steps to Implement
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Confirm Participant List
Led by Rari Foundation and SI<3>
Deadline: July 22 -
Onboard into Grow3dge Accelerator and Telegram channel for cohort participants
Facilitated by SI<3>
Deadline: August 5 -
Participate in Live Sessions & Collaborative Learning
All participants actively engage in weekly programming
Timeline: August 7 – October 9 -
Deploy Campaigns on Rarible.com
Executed by SI<3> community partners
Timeline: August – November 2025 -
Rari Showcase on LinkedIn Live
Executed by SI<#>
Timeline: November 13th
Timeline
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July 22 – Final confirmations
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Aug 5 – Pre-program onboarding
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Aug 7 – Oct 9 – Accelerator runs
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September - November - Womxn’s community NFT listings
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November 13th Rari Grow3dge Showcase on LinkedIn Live
Overall Cost
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RARI Foundation: $1,000 in RARI
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9 Additional Ecosystem Partner Seats: $9,000 in RARI
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Total Requested: $10,000 in RARI
The Grow3dge program is $1k per partner, and we are requesting $8k in RARI for this program (as all other participants are paying up-front for this training program). We will submit the remaining $2k in RARI request post the Rari Showcase on LinkedIn Live, with a target of 1k registrants.
This can be funded via the Strategic Partnerships Wallet or Creator Fund, depending on internal categorization. There are no recurring costs or obligations.
- $500 in RARI to each community partner that creates an NFT collection and lists on Rari, asking these communities to stake this RARI. Requests for these funds for community partners can be made upon a second proposal in September/October, with community partners listed NFT collections
About SI<3>
SI<3> is an ecosystem of communities, professionals, and protocols focused on fostering education and collaborative growth in the emerging on-chain economy.
Kara Howard, Co-Founder & Ecosystem Growth Lead
Kara Howard has been a womxn-in-emerging tech community builder and growth marketer for over twelve years. Her first role in women in tech leadership was as the LA Chapter Lead of the Vinetta Project, focused on connecting women founders with women investors. Kara previously worked on Wall Street in Equity Research and as a financial analyst, and holds an MBA from NYU. Kara is now bringing her career experience in emerging technology, finance, womxn-in-tech community building, partnerships and marketing together as she leads SI<3>, an education-driven ecosystem of emerging tech organizations and communities.
Jelena Gjorgev, Co-Founder & CTO
Jelena is a seasoned full-stack developer and educator deeply involved in blockchain and Web3 technologies. With extensive experience in software development, she actively participates in academia as a university lecturer and mentor. Jelena’s work emphasizes the integration of cutting-edge technologies with practical applications, aiming to foster inclusive and equitable digital solutions. Her role as a technical advisor highlights her expertise and commitment to advancing the field through both educational endeavors and strategic development.
Previous Partnership Testimonials:
Granting Access Virtual Event:
“The Granting Access event was well-attended and successfully executed, with clear evidence of deliverables. The focus on onboarding under-represented groups is seen as a positive step that could drive significant impact for Arbitrum.”
Si Her Unlock Value Workshops:
“Unlock Protocol DAO and SI<3> have transformed workshops into a joyful celebration of kindness and enthusiasm, fostering a vibrant and dedicated community that embraces blockchain-based events and membership creation.”
Push Chain
“Push x SI<3> Ecosystem’s partnership has been impressive, driving awareness and hundreds of new adopters to the protocol.”