Ambassador Program
What’s involved? What’s expected? What’s in it for me?
Executive Summary
The Ambassador program creates the best analysts in crypto: the small handful of data experts & storytellers who become the analytics leaders in their selected ecosystems
Ambassadors have four primary tasks:
Handle stellar direct-to-analyst work that delights partners.
Create a powerful social media “center of gravity” that draws in users & attracts projects.
Work closely with the Flipside team to improve our data, Data Studio, and community programs (such as Top Dashboards and analyst upskilling).
Become data experts in a particular ecosystem, e.g. Solana, Avalanche.
Ambassadors also serve as exemplars of the Flipside community:
They represent Flipside to the world and showcase data-driven storytelling.
They are symbols of professionalism, positive energy, hard work, and skill.
Qualifications
Ambassador Selection usually occurs during a Selection Window. Typically, this opens two or three times per year.
During the Selection Window, we assess all available candidates and select Ambassadors to fill a number of available slots.
The number of slots depends on the following:
Existing partners’ request for additional Ambassadors.
Flipside signing new partners.
Current Ambassadors going on leave or graduating to full-time employment.
There are three ways to become an Ambassador outside the normal Ambassador Selection process:
Selection: Be chosen by a Flipside Ecosystem Lead.
This decision is purely based on that Flipsider’s assessment of your existing body of work. Key factors that apply: professionalism, friendliness, skill as both a writer and an analyst, and ecosystem expertise.
Path of the Architect: Demonstrate exceptional prowess as a dapp or widget builder.
In rare instances, Ecosystem leads may select a “builder Ambassador” whose primary role is in creating dapps for partner ecosystems.
Acclamation: be nominated by an existing Ambassador and confirmed by a two-thirds vote.
Victory: Win (highest individual score) a Flipside Premier League tournament.
These methods are rare, but they do occur. The standard process is listed below.
Ambassador Selection
When selecting new Ambassadors, the Flipside Community and Ecosystem teams carefully considers candidates who meet the following five criteria:
Qualifying Threshold: match the average monthly impressions of existing Ambassadors during the preceding three-month period. As of February 2024, this means achieving the following within any single 6-month period:
Achieve at least 1 month of 100,000+ impressions, without using bots.
Achieve at least 2 additional months of 75,000 impressions, without using bots.
Display a repeated track record of expertise in a specific ecosystem.
While we appreciate generalists, the nature of an Ambassador is to build renown and expertise in a single Flipside ecosystem.
When choosing Ambassadors, we consider the quality of your work and the strength of your relationships in a specific ecosystem, rather than your overall body of work.
IMPORTANT: if you are particularly skilled in an ecosystem that doesn’t have open slots: don’t give up! 🙂 We are open to making exceptions for phenomenal candidates.
If you have 1,000+ followers, you “live and breathe” a particular Flipside ecosystem, and several ecosystem projects have retweeted your work: our DMs are open.
Complete both the Base Camp training and the Analyst Matching Program (AMP).
Act as shining examples of the Ambassador Values (see below).
Demonstrate the analytical, research, and storytelling skills of Top Analysts.
To determine these qualities, the Community team consults with the existing Ambassador corps, Review Networks, and the Flipside Ecosystem team. This ensures a diversity of expert opinions and eliminates bias.
Particular weight is given to the opinions of existing Ambassadors for a given ecosystem. In other words: if we are opening an Avalanche slot, then the Avalanche Ambassadors will have significant sway in choosing new candidates.
If you are wondering how you stack up, we strongly encourage you to contact us to receive feedback on your work. We will do our best to provide all the feedback you need in order to be the strongest possible qualifier for an Ambassador slot.
Ambassador Values
The following are expected of all Ambassador candidates and are a key part of the role:
Professionalism: friendly, courteous, clear communication, & raising problems and challenges politely; being a positive presence for all fellow analysts; setting a standard for creative & original work and providing credit to others whose work is used.
Timeliness: speed of delivery & meeting timelines for Direct-to-Analyst work.
New Insights: being a prolific, current voice in your ecosystem; consistently producing new data-driven insights on current topics in this ecosystem.
Learning Mindset: willingness to work with & learn from mentors/senior Ambassadors and to strive to constantly improve your own work.
Integrity: we expect all Ambassadors to possess no black marks - concerns about bot activity, improper citation, or tearing down the reputation of other community members - for a period of 6 months prior to formally being appointed.
Evidence of bot activity, plagiarism, or improperly citing the work of other analysts is grounds for expulsion from the Ambassador program!
Community Engagement: be engaged in our Discord community and partner communities: asking questions, sending thoughtful messages, responding to others, and being a center of knowledge and energy for your ecosystem.
Ecosystem Knowledge: doing deep research on selected ecosystem, networking with projects and influencers in that ecosystem, being active on Twitter and in project Discord.
Ecosystem Thought Leadership: when choosing topics for analysis, prioritizing topics and methodologies that achieve some or all of the following:
Ask and answer analytical questions in new and interesting ways.
Articulate findings in a way that captures the attention of readers at several levels of web3 familiarity (from total beginners to that ecosystem's experts, and everyone in-between).
Contribute to key existing public conversations in and about that ecosystem, or kickstart new ones.
Use innovative methodologies (and explain their significance in terms that are easy for others to understand).
Flipside Team Feedback: provide regular feedback on product & data to Flipside teams and occasionally assist the Marketing team by promoting major reports & releases.
Responsibilities
The specific Ambassador responsibilities are as follows:
Maintain the Impressions Threshold:
As Ambassadors grow their reach and reputation, this threshold rises over time. This makes it more difficult for future Ambassadors to qualify, but also gives them many examples of successful Ambassadors to learn from & study.
Ambassadors who achieve beyond this threshold regularly receive bonus incentive compensation from Flipside, based on hitting defined targets.
In addition to this incentive compensation, Ambassadors who repeatedly exceed the Threshold are eligible to increase their base pay.
Miss an impressions target? No problem - just make it up the next month. By request of past Ambassadors: if you miss in consecutive months, we’ll pro-rate your compensation & work directly with you to get back up to speed.
Work directly with Ecosystem Leads to handle direct-to-analyst requests:
~3 dashboards per month are considered part of the scope of this role. Additional requests will receive additional compensation. The Flipside Ecosystem leads will agree with you on a reasonable rate for this additional work.
Additionally, Ambassadors receive first pick of “flash bounties”: opportunities to volunteer for & handle research & analysis that needs to be done on a tight turnaround.
Work directly with Flipside to help us strengthen our offerings and user experience:
Product & Analytics: Each month, provide feedback as needed to the Flipside team on issues & improvements in the Data Studio.
Marketing: Upon request, assist the Marketing team with promoting occasional Flipside thought leadership pieces and releases.
Community: Collaborate with the Community team to share your knowledge, to enable some of the most driven community analysts to grow and follow in your footsteps.
Uphold all Ambassador Values.
It is especially important that you maintain Professionalism when you use others' work as a starting point for your analysis. This includes two steps:
Provide ample citation: Name the author and link their work. Explain which part of their work is used in which part of your work. Explain why you decided to use it.
If you use someone's work as a starting point, ensure that your analysis adds a meaningful original contribution. Just copying queries, rearranging them, minor changes (e.g. copying someone's analysis but on another chain) is plagiarism and not a meaningful original addition.
Starting September 1, 2024, a zero-tolerance plagiarism policy is in effect for Ambassadors and Top Dashboards. Plagiarism can be: using someone's work without attribution, not enough attribution (Which queries were copied? Why? Where are they used in your analysis? ), and/or a lack of a meaningful original contribution. The first instance of plagiarism leads to immediate exclusion from analyst incentives, such as Ambassador impression incentives and Top Dashboards rewards.
Learn as much as you can about your chosen ecosystem and regularly engage on Twitter, Telegram, and Discord with members of key projects, builders, and community members.
Work with Reviewers to constantly improve and update your signature work, as well as your analytical techniques.
Maintain and update the Flipside Ecosystem Maps to keep a current list of the hottest projects and trends within your ecosystem.
Be an active, friendly presence in Discord channels.
Compensation
New Ambassadors start at a baseline rate of $500/month, paid in USDC or in the native token of your ecosystem. As listed in the Responsibilities section, many of our Ambassadors end up earning raises to their base pay after the first three months.
Ambassadors also earn via the following three mechanisms:
Via hitting impressions targets, e.g. exceeding the baseline 100,000 threshold.
By delivering outstanding work that earns bonus payouts from Ecosystem Leads. So far in 2024, several of these bonuses have been awarded, ranging from 40% to 100% bonus of base pay.
Most Ambassadors typically earn significant sums from the Top 30 program, since their work is typically among the best-performing.
Last but not least: Ambassadors are first in line for direct-to-analyst work and receive their choice of these opportunities. Ambassadors who pursue this work regularly double or triple their base pay.
Taking Time Off
Everyone needs a break! If you’re going to be away for part or all of a month, simply let us know by the first day of that month. We’ll pause your Ambassadorship for part or all of that month - no problem.
Timeframe
All Ambassadors initially serve for a trial period of three months. This trial period lets us get to know you and gives you time to prove your abilities and ensure that the role fits your goals.
At the end of the three-month period, we’ll meet with you, review your growth and any challenges you may be facing, and determine whether to extend the trial period, end it, or offer a permanent Ambassadorship (please note: there’s no prohibition on former Ambassadors reapplying again in future selection periods. If your trial ends, wait until the next selection window and reapply!)
Perks
Money matters, but it’s not the only thing that does. All Ambassadors receive the following:
Free Builder Tier. To power your analysis and maximize your query and dashboard performance, Flipside provides all Ambassadors with free Builder Tier ($200/month for all other buyers).
Red-Carpet Product Access. Ambassadors get a direct hotline & private Discord access to both our Product and Analytics teams. You can use this channel to raise issues, suggest feedback, or simply chat with us. In addition, you’ll get to try our newest features before anyone else gets access to them & make prioritized requests for features you’d like.
Swag. Each Ambassador receives a unique “welcome package” with custom-branded Flipside swag, made to order for the Ambassador program.
Private alpha group chat with your fellow Ambassadors. Want to become an expert in a new ecosystem? You’ve already got the best analysts all in one place, ready and willing to help you out.
Our Commitment to You
As an Ambassador, your work has a major impact: informing and impacting decisions at the highest levels of Flipside’s partner ecosystems. Every week, Flipside shares the work of our Ambassadors with founders and leaders of multi-billion dollar ecosystems. Your analysis will regularly shape strategies and drive decisions in your chosen ecosystem & make you one of the most recognized and respected analysts in all of crypto.
Ultimately, we hope that our Ambassadors become respected pillars of crypto-analytics and gain their pick of employment, freelance work, or new opportunities. Whatever your aspirations are, we will work with you to help you get there - and leave an Ambassador legacy you can take pride in.
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