Where crypto founders start their journey

Colosseum hackathons are global, online competitions designed to grow the crypto startup ecosystem and evaluate founders for investment from our venture fund. We run global hackathons twice per year through our online platform. If you’re considering building a crypto startup, our hackathons provide an opportunity to showcase what you’ve been building while competing against other elite founders.

Colosseum hackathons are different from traditional hackathons. The competitions are intended for serious developers and entrepreneurs to compete over four weeks for a chance to receive pre-seed capital from Colosseum’s venture fund and to be admitted into our Accelerator program in San Francisco.

Crypto founders looking to launch their startups between our two primary hackathons can join Colosseum Eternal.

Eternal is an ongoing competition structured as an on-demand, four-week startup sprint. Check the Eternal page for current availability.

Yes. Sign up for a Colosseum account and join the currently running hackathon. If you are part of a team, every team member must create an account, and the team leader must add them during the product-submission process.

The product-submission portal is available from the platform dashboard after you join the competition. To be eligible for prizes and Accelerator consideration, team leaders must complete the submission before the deadline.

Only one product submission is allowed per team—and therefore one per individual—during each hackathon.

Colosseum hackathons are for new startups that haven’t raised significant outside capital. They’re not intended for established companies that have been building the same product for years and have already raised venture funding.

Eligibility criteria:

• Teams may begin development before the hackathon, but products are judged only on the work completed between the competition’s start and end dates.
• If you’re an entrepreneur or developer building a new product that hasn’t raised significant funding, you may compete and be eligible to win.
• Builders may use pre-existing code, but teams must disclose all relevant past development work in the submission form.

If a team misrepresents its product’s development history or fails to disclose relevant information, Colosseum retains the sole right to:

• Disqualify the team from the competition
• Ban individual builders from participating in future Colosseum hackathons
• Revoke prizes if applicable

“Pre-existing code” does not refer to open-source code developed by others. We encourage founders to compose with existing crypto protocols.

Visit Colosseum’s Developer Resources page for the documentation, tools, tutorials, and content needed to launch a crypto product today.

Join the Colosseum Discord. The server has an active developer community, and our team can route you to the right information.

You may submit a product as a solo founder. However, our hackathons are highly competitive, so we recommend teaming up with builders who can help develop both your product and go-to-market strategy.

For the most in-depth support, use Cofounder Matching to connect with serious builders looking to start a full-time company. You can also browse the Colosseum user directory or join our Discord.

Yes. Colosseum frequently hosts builder-focused events at our office in San Francisco. Visit colosseum.com/events to RSVP for an upcoming event.

Separately, partners such as Superteam and the Solana Foundation host build spaces in cities around the world during our hackathons. Check the schedule at solana.com/events.

You don’t need to be an engineer to participate. If your strengths are in marketing, business development, design, or another discipline, many technical builders need a business-minded cofounder. We have backed non-technical founders in our Accelerator who built MVPs entirely with AI coding tools.

Long-term, we encourage you to find technical cofounders whose skills complement yours. Colosseum hackathons require teams to sprint through product development and build a business plan, so both engineering and business competencies matter.

Builders are encouraged to enter the hackathon with their own novel product ideas. To pressure-test and refine an idea, try Colosseum Copilot, a skill for deep crypto product research across previous hackathon submissions, curated sources, academic research, and live ecosystem data.

Hackathon builders should view their product submission as a pitch to Colosseum’s venture fund, other investors, and an application to our Accelerator. The portal asks comprehensive questions and invites any other information needed to understand the product and business plan, including:

• Product name and a brief description
• Which blockchains and tools are being integrated
• All teammates, with context on their backgrounds and previous experience
• Where the team is located
• A product logo or graphic
• A GitHub repository link. Open-source repositories are encouraged, but private repositories are allowed if access is granted to hackathon@colosseum.com for review.
• A two-to-three-minute presentation video. This is one of the first resources judges review, so it should be clear, concise, and high quality.
• A product-demo video of no more than three minutes explaining how the product works
• Go-to-market strategy, demand validation, and plans for developing distribution

We evaluate more than the product itself. We want to understand founder-market fit, how the opportunity was uncovered, how the team prioritizes, and whether the founders are committed to building a venture-scale business.

First and foremost, Colosseum hackathons are startup competitions. Although the hackathon is a speed run through technical development, participants should also refine their go-to-market strategy and presentation. Every submission is reviewed against factors including:

• Founder + Market Fit: Does the team have the right skills and experience to succeed in this market, and why is it motivated to solve this problem?
• Insight: Does the founding team have some unique insight based on their deep understanding of the problem space? Is there a new technology, or a new trend that creates an opportunity for their startup to succeed?
• Product + Execution: How well does the product work? How does it stack up against the competition? How quickly is the team shipping product updates and addressing user feedback?
• Potential Market Size: How big is the total addressable market for this project? Is it already large, or small but growing rapidly? What will be the impact of this project on the growth rate of their market?
• Founder Communication: Are the founders communicating the product vision clearly and capable of growing the product’s user base?
• Viability: Can this project become a scalable, sustainable business? Colosseum hackathons and Eternal are startup competitions, so presentations should provide a holistic view of the company.
• Traction: Does the product already have demand or revenue? If so, how durable are its revenue and user base?

After submissions close, the Colosseum team conducts multiple rounds of evaluation and advances a shortlist of the highest-quality products to the judging panel. After individual judging, an even smaller group of teams is invited to a 15-minute Zoom interview.

Once interviews are complete, winners are chosen. Hackathon winners—and the subset accepted into the Accelerator—are announced roughly one month after the submission deadline.

We understand that startups ship code quickly and that systems and approaches may change rapidly. Mostly, we want to see that you and your team:

• Did significant work during the hackathon
• Were the ones to do this work, rather than a third party
• Prioritized feature development strategically

A few things that we are not looking for:

• Using a particular language or framework
• Specific design patterns, best practices, or code-quality checks

Weekly updates are an opportunity to share progress, stay locked in, and give us more context on your product’s development. They aren’t strictly required for every participant, but we strongly recommend them for anyone serious about competing.

Each update should be a concise, one-minute video highlighting progress and notable challenges from the previous week.

No. Each builder can submit only one product and be part of only one team. Colosseum hackathons are highly competitive, so focus on developing your strongest concept.

No. Hackathon winners are not required to join the Accelerator. If your team is selected and interested in continuing to develop the product full-time, the program offers funding, community, mentorship, and fundraising support.

Learn more about Colosseum’s Accelerator.

Colosseum welcomes builders globally and intends to create an environment that values engineering, collaboration, creativity, competition, and impact. Hackathon administrators, judges, and participants must follow this Code of Conduct throughout the competition. Colosseum may disqualify any individual or team that violates it.

• Be Respectful: Be kind and respect all participants in the event. Do not insult or put down other participants.
• Be Professional: Remember that harassment, racism, sexism, or exclusionary jokes are not appropriate during Colosseum hackathons or when using the platform. Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, and/or religion. Sexual images in public forums, deliberate intimidation, online stalking, sustained disruption of virtual presentations, or any other inappropriate action is strictly prohibited.
• Be Thoughtful: In the spirit of open-source and inclusiveness, there may be minors participating in the hackathon. Keep this in mind when communicating or speaking in public forums.
• Be Open: We welcome participants from all backgrounds. This competition is about expanding crypto as an industry. Help us foster a positive and productive environment for everyone who joins.
• Believe in Yourself: Crypto lets anyone permissionlessly build applications that can change finance, payments, governance, and much more. Dream big and use this technology to create products that improve the world.

Read more about Colosseum’s Code of Ethics.

Unfortunately, the volume of hackathon submissions prevents us from providing direct feedback to every participant. We can guarantee that every product submission will be reviewed by the Colosseum team and/or the judging panel.