To Mainnet
and Beyond

We have backed startups across a broad spectrum—from an idea or mid-pivot through companies with meaningful recurring revenue.

The program is customized to support founders at many different stages.

The program runs for eight weeks. The first two weeks take place in person at Colosseum’s San Francisco headquarters, and founders must return to San Francisco at the end of the program to pitch at Demo Day. The remaining six weeks may be joined remotely, although we encourage founders to stay in the Bay Area throughout the program.

Although the Accelerator concludes with Demo Day, support from our team and founder community continues throughout the life of your startup. The content, tools, and community channels on our platform remain available to you.

Startups enter the program at different stages, so the experience is customized to each accepted team. Most founders use several core components:

1:1 Mentorship: The companies in each batch are divided among Colosseum’s three cofounders—Matty, Clay, and Nate—who remain on call to help with go-to-market strategy, investor pitches, introductions, and other blockers.

Founder Community: Accelerator founders immediately join a private group of current Solana founders and developers. Many peers won previous hackathons and have built leading crypto startups, making the group an unusually valuable source of support and insight.

Group Check-ins: Founders join a weekly standup to share progress, unblock teams, discuss critical topics, and exchange insights.

Guest Sessions: Leading crypto founders host optional mentor sessions each week. Weekly group check-ins are required and typically begin at 10 a.m. Pacific to accommodate global time zones.

Demo Day: During the final week, Colosseum invites more than 150 early-stage investors to a private, in-person Demo Day in San Francisco. Each team gives a two-minute pitch, which is recorded for investors who cannot attend in person.

The first two weeks and Demo Day are required in person in San Francisco, but founders are welcome to stay for the entire program. Participants have 24/7 access to Colosseum’s Financial District office, where sessions and workshops take place.

The remaining six weeks may be joined remotely, although we encourage as much in-person attendance as possible. Throughout the year, Colosseum also occasionally hosts meetups for current batch members and alumni in cities around the world.

The only way to become eligible is to sign up for a Colosseum account and submit a product through a Colosseum hackathon or Eternal. Competition winners receive an opportunity to interview for the Accelerator.

Roughly 0.7% of applicants across our competitions are accepted into the program.

We believe the best founders and early-stage teams can iterate extremely quickly, are technically competent, resourceful, and fierce competitors. Our hackathons give founders everywhere a level playing field to demonstrate their potential to build a world-changing startup. Winning a primary hackathon or being selected through Eternal is a better filter for entrepreneurial talent than a written application, personal connections, or other traditional sourcing methods.

No. Joining is not required. The program is designed to accelerate serious founders in the earliest stages of launching products in the Solana ecosystem. Colosseum invests $250,000 in each accepted startup and provides a comprehensive eight-week program.

Yes. Some form of Solana integration is required. Our current Accelerator is designed to support founders building within the Solana ecosystem.

No. Hackathon and Eternal winners are guaranteed an interview with the Colosseum team, but not admission. The interview helps us determine whether founders are committed to turning the product into a full-time startup and whether the team is a fit for the program.

The program itself is free, although accepted founders are responsible for travel expenses such as flights and lodging in San Francisco. During the first two in-person weeks, Colosseum provides meals, drinks, and snacks in the office.

Admission requires Colosseum to invest $250,000 in the startup through our standard deal—either a SAFE plus token warrant, or the Colosseum STAMP for projects tokenizing through MetaDAO.

Founders are expected to make their best effort to use the connections, education, and mentorship available during the program.

Yes. We have helped many founders navigate immigration and obtain appropriate visas before a new Accelerator batch begins.

The process can be difficult depending on a founder’s location, but we will do our best to connect accepted teams with the right legal and immigration resources.

Two. Colosseum runs two primary hackathons per year, and each is followed by a new Accelerator batch sourced from hackathon winners and rolling Eternal participants.

There is no fixed number. Batch size varies based on the quality and composition of the accepted teams.

Across the most recent Colosseum hackathon and Eternal submissions in 2026, we received more than 3,000 product submissions and accepted 20 teams into the Accelerator—an acceptance rate of roughly 0.7%.

It’s common for builders to enter multiple competitions before finding the right product and cofounder. If you aren’t accepted initially, keep exploring the idea maze and iterating.