Matty Taylor (former Head of Growth at Solana Foundation), Clay Robbins (former Principal at Slow Ventures) and Nate Levine (former software engineer at Stripe) announced the launch of Colosseum, a new organization founded to discover, accelerate and invest in builders who are “looking to develop industry-defining innovations and startups powered by the Solana blockchain.”
Through Colosseum, developers can “compete in online hackathons, take ideas from concept to production, and kickstart their crypto startup journeys.”
Solana Foundation’s hackathons have “played an integral role in the ecosystem’s growth in the last three years.”
Under the leadership of Taylor, the hackathons “attracted over 60,000 participants across eight online hackathons and builders from over 200 countries. Of hackathon participants, 4,000 products were launched, and winners have raised $600 million in venture funding.”
Today, Solana’s hackathons have reportedly “become one of the largest recurring tech hackathons in terms of participants, project submissions, and venture funding raised by winners. Colosseum will carry forward this legacy as its future organizer.”
Matty Taylor, co-founder of Colosseum and former Head of Growth at Solana Foundation:
“Colosseum is focused on increasing global developer and founder participation in order to find the next wave of breakout startups that bring the world onchain. Our goal is to continue scaling Solana Foundation’s hackathons well beyond what they are today and provide a platform that provides an arena for builders to launch new startups on Solana.”
Through the bear market, Solana’s focus on grassroots developers continued “with an 83% increase in new developer growth, and developer retention rates jumped from 31% in 2022 to 50% in 2023.”
These results were also highlighted “by Solana’s two most recent hackathons, Grizzlython and Hyperdrive, which were the largest in crypto’s history.”
In addition to administering future Solana hackathons, Colosseum has also “launched an Accelerator Program for select hackathon winners who will receive $250,000.00 in pre-seed capital ahead of their Demo Day.”
Colosseum is set to host 2-3 hackathons per year, “with the inaugural event kicking off March 4, 2024.”
As noted in the update, Colosseum is “an organization focused on attracting, accelerating, and investing in the next wave of talented founders in the Solana ecosystem.”
Founded with a mission to continue scaling one of the most “successful” recurring hackathons in tech, Colosseum taps into “a global network of builder talent to onboard them into the world of onchain development.”