Colosseum has announced its launch, aiming to host a Solana hackathon to provide long-term acceleration and investment for the winning founding team and the next generation of groundbreaking crypto startups.

The encryption market is at a turning point, with many promising experiments confined to a small corner of the Internet due to a lack of scalable infrastructure for developers and end users. Solana has made significant innovations at the foundational level, making it possible for the next generation of encryption products to surpass existing projects.

The mission of Colosseum is to explore the enormous potential of global Builders and find the next generation of on-chain product founders, enabling the wave of innovation to continue.

Colosseum is an independent organization, consisting of three integrated parts

Hackathon: Colosseum will host 2-3 online hackathons annually for the Solana Foundation and the wider ecosystem. These competitions are the melting pot of innovation in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The five-week hackathon provides a fair arena for global innovation teams to showcase the potential of the products they have built.

Accelerator: Colosseum's accelerator is an online, five-week program tailored for hackathon winners in the cryptocurrency industry, allowing them to deeply experience the Solana ecosystem. They will join an elite founder network, interact with various users, receive 1-on-1 guidance, and receive ongoing coaching. The accelerator team will launch directly after each hackathon, with each batch of winners being a part of it. Participating in the Colosseum hackathon and being selected as a winner is the only way to enter this program.

Venture Capital: Teams selected for the accelerator program will receive a seed round investment of $250,000 from Colosseum on founder-friendly terms. In addition, the accelerator team will receive ongoing support as they continue to develop their product and raise future rounds of funding. The program will culminate in a Demo Day where founders will pitch to dozens of venture capital funds and have direct introductions.

For founders who were initially not accepted into accelerators, we encourage you to keep trying. Developers often participate in multiple hackathons before being selected as winners. Finding the right product and the right team may take some time.

For the selected founders, the support from Colosseum will not end after Demo Day. The core of Colosseum is a community of founders and alumni, where you can receive support throughout your journey. The team will continue to access all private tools, discussion boards, and other features provided by Colosseum's online platform.

Colosseum Team

Colosseum was co-founded by Matty Taylor, Clay Robbins, Nate Levine, and others. The team will support founders through hackathons, accelerator programs, and other means, as well as provide other assistance.

Matty previously served as the growth lead at the Solana Foundation and launched the Solana hackathon project in 2020. Over the past three years, the project has attracted over 60,000 participants, launched 4,000 projects, and raised $600 million in venture capital for winners. Founders of leading projects in the Solana ecosystem, such as Tensor, Squads, StepN, and Jito, all got their start through the Solana Foundation's hackathon. Matty has previously worked at 0x Labs and Square.

Clay is the Chief Partner of Slow Ventures and one of the first investors in Solana. He helped lead the company's cryptocurrency investment work and has been an active angel investor in the ecosystem through many market cycles. Prior to joining Slow, he was a product and growth expert at 0x Labs and Square. Clay and Matty met on the first day of working at Square and worked together for the third time after daily text messaging.

Nate was a software engineer at Stripe and worked for its cryptocurrency team. During his time at Stripe, he built developer tools and API infrastructure, responsible for transferring billions of dollars every day. Prior to this, Nate led the engineering team of LendUp, a fintech startup supported by YC. Nate and Matty were college classmates and became interested in Bitcoin at that time.

The participant responsible for the Asian hackathon is Chris Ba. Chris has served as the head of Solana's Greater China region, during which time he made many contributions to the Asian market, including building media influence, constructing communities, establishing and maintaining ecological funds and relationships with Asian exchanges, obtaining SPL support from multiple exchanges and wallets, and dedicating himself to increasing Asian hackathon participation and incubating early-stage teams, including the star project StepN. Chris will serve as an advisor to seek and support more high-quality Asian teams and projects in the upcoming hackathon.

In addition to the support of the team, Colosseum also collaborates with leading ecosystem developers and founders, many of whom were previous hackathon winners. The founders will receive extensive guidance and support during the accelerator program and become part of an exclusive founder community.

The hackathon of Solana Foundation is currently not only the largest regular hackathon in the entire cryptocurrency industry, but also in the technology industry in terms of the number of participants, product submissions, and the amount of venture capital obtained by the winners. It is worth noting that 80% of the start-ups that have received venture capital in the Solana ecosystem were created during online hackathons.

Therefore, expanding the scale of the ecosystem hackathon is a huge opportunity. The Solana Foundation will end the hackathon managed internally and instead collaborate with Colosseum to achieve this vision.

This is a positive step for the decentralized hackathon of the Solana ecosystem, which also allows the Colosseum team to work more closely with peers in the ecosystem and further develop the platform.

Colosseum will enhance hackathon and accelerator experience through several key areas

Online platform: The Solana Foundation's hackathon has developed to a level that is not as easily managed as any traditional hackathon. Therefore, Colosseum has established its own custom platform, simplifying everything from finding co-founders to discussing product ideas to submitting hackathon projects. Founders in the accelerator will also receive a unique set of features that will help them as they embark on their journey. If you are a developer who wants to participate in the next Solana hackathon, you can create a Colosseum profile.

Cooperation: One of Colosseum's goals is to directly embed a wider ecosystem into the competition. Therefore, it is actively cooperating with various companies, ecosystem developers, and investors who can contribute to judging and sponsorship. If you are interested in cooperation, you can contact Colosseum here. 

Support: After hackathons, excellent teams often lack support to further develop or lack funding. Colosseum's accelerator fills this gap by selecting hackathon winners to join the program and helping them in the early stages of their entrepreneurial journey. Although Solana Foundation's hackathon is primarily a startup competition, there are also many participants who do not want to become founders. Colosseum supports these developer communities through online platforms and discussion forums. Improving these hackathons is an ongoing process, and we hope to work with the community to understand pain points and opportunities. Therefore, if there is any feedback, you can also contact Colosseum here.

If you are a developer, founder, or team member and are interested in participating in the next Solana Foundation hackathon starting on March 4th, please register for a Colosseum account here. Hackathon registration will open on the platform in a few weeks.

You can also follow updates on the  @ColosseumOrg X account.

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