“I joined Startupathon because I wanted to ship something instead of talking about it. Now I run mobile for the studio.”
Michael Dadzie
Head of Mobile Engineering
400+ mentorsAWS & LLM creditsLegal & ops covered
Built here
SongGPT
Facesearch AI
Socialverse
DeepVid AI
Colabio
Game of Creators
heyOva
Swissmote
Ascension StudioSongGPTFacesearch AISocialverseDeepVid AIColabioGame of CreatorsheyOvaSwissmoteAscension StudioSongGPTFacesearch AISocialverseDeepVid AIColabioGame of CreatorsheyOvaSwissmoteAscension StudioSongGPTFacesearch AISocialverseDeepVid AIColabioGame of CreatorsheyOvaSwissmoteAscension StudioSongGPTFacesearch AISocialverseDeepVid AIColabioGame of CreatorsheyOvaSwissmoteAscension StudioSongGPTFacesearch AISocialverseDeepVid AIColabioGame of CreatorsheyOvaSwissmoteAscension StudioThe challenge
Four stages. Most don't make it.
We give you a product idea and a deadline. You build an MVP.
01
Apply
Submit your application. Show what you've built and why you're ready to lead, not your résumé, your proof.
02
Compete
You're up against ambitious builders from around the world. Only the strongest applications advance.
03
Prove it
Build under pressure. Ship something real. This stage separates talkers from founders. Most drop off here.
04
Win
If you win, you build the real thing with us.
From the studio
How it actually went
Hear from people who went through the challenge and stayed to build the product.
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Vetted builders
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Stories
Builders who made it through
“Went through the challenge as a designer. I figured I'd help on one product and move on. I'm still here, and the work got a lot bigger than I expected.”
Akash Mishra
Head of Design
“Game of Creators was my Startupathon submission. I didn't think I'd be running a company after it. That's just how it went.”
Vishesh Gupta
CEO, Game of Creators
“SongGPT started as a challenge. We got it live and people pay for it. I'm still in the codebase most days.”
Vikash Kumar
Founding Engineer, SongGPT
“I built Facesearch for the challenge. After that they asked me to keep going, so I did. I run engineering now.”
Adil Sameer
CTO, Facesearch AI
Own what you build
We'll help you ship it. Create a profile, take a challenge, and if you win you stay and run it.