As most will now, being sponsored will put you on the @minnowshares upvote list for about a month and getting sponsored 6 Minnow Shares over time will get you 1 Upvote Share which will give upvotes from the @upvoteshares account for as long as that project runs.
The upvotes themselves don't have spectacular value (0.02$) and the current steem price does not help much but they are quite consistent if anything and I know that these small votes can make a difference to some minnows.
The system seems to work pretty good and votes are being spread out evenly amoung everyone that got sponsored.
Next Level
Level 3 is nearly reached (Progression Report) which means ~50 new Minnow Shares will become available to be sponsored. It will take about 10 days after level 3 is filled up for current upvote list names to be replaced by the new ones. To see who sponsored you check the Level 2 Spreadsheet File. Contests that give away Minnow Shares will be retseemed on this account.