Encode Club’s Solana Accelerator Summary
Encode Club’s Solana Accelerator, an eight-week online programme designed to transform the most promising Hackathon and late-stage Bootcamp projects into fully-fledged startups, concluded on Thursday, 4th January with a fantastic Pitch Day!
This accelerator offered a unique opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs to receive expert guidance, mentorship and resources tailored to the Solana ecosystem. Throughout the programme, participants gained valuable insights on product development, fundraising, go-to-market strategies and more, all aimed at turning their innovative ideas into successful ventures.
The next step in our Solana-dedicated programming is the Encode x Solana Hackathon, sponsored by the Solana Foundation! Registrations are open and we welcome every builder on Solana to join and answer general and/or more specific bounties.
Accelerator Structure
- Lasted for 8 weeks
- Weekly workshops on building a project
- Dedicated 1–1 mentorship meeting
- Expectation to build intensely, but not full-time, for those 8 weeks
- Ended with a Pitch Day and opportunities for follow-on funding
Workshops
Startup Method/Fundraising
This workshop offered participants an in-depth understanding of securing funding and strategies for launching successful startups. Attendees gained valuable insights from Anthony Beaumont, CEO & co-founder of Encode Club, equipping them with essential tools to navigate the complexities of startup financing and growth in today’s competitive market.
Branding and Marketing
The ‘Branding and Marketing’ workshop, hosted by Jamie Turner, Head of Marketing at Neon, provided attendees with a comprehensive exploration of effective branding strategies and marketing techniques. Participants had the unique opportunity to learn from Turner’s extensive experience, gaining practical skills and insights into creating compelling brand identities and executing impactful marketing campaigns.
10 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Starting a Company
The workshop titled ’10 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Starting a Company,’ hosted by Italo Casas, CEO and founder of Ironforge, offered invaluable insights into the entrepreneurial journey. Casas shared personal experiences and lessons learned, providing attendees with practical advice and wisdom that he wished he had known before embarking on his successful venture into the business world.
Go-To-Market Strategy
The ‘Go-To-Market Strategy’ workshop, led by Malcolm Ho, the Head of Growth at Solana.fm, delved into the intricacies of developing and implementing effective market entry strategies. Participants benefited from Ho’s expertise and experience, gaining knowledge on how to craft compelling go-to-market plans that align with business objectives and drive sustainable growth in the web3 space.
Design and Usability
In a dynamic session on ‘Design and Usability,’ Simon Amor, co-founder and designer at Sling, captivated attendees with his approach to user-centric design principles. The workshop was a deep dive into the world of creating intuitive and engaging user experiences, where he shared his wealth of knowledge and practical tips for marrying aesthetics with functionality in design to engage wanted audiences.
Accelerator Projects
1UP
1UP is a decentralised social network which integrates AI, an NFT auction place, and mixed-reality camera/content recording tools. It is transforming London with mixed reality accessible via its app and AR glasses.
dReader
A platform for discovering, reading, collecting and trading digital comics.
Football Club Owners
Football Club Owners is a strategic IDLE game on the Solana blockchain where players own football clubs, define a vision and use club resources to compete against other players, win tournament prizes and run their clubs profitably, creating real-world value within an in-game economy.
GooseFX
GooseFX is Solana’s first super-app. They launched a revolutionary AMM that they call single-sided liquidity pools: single asset deposits where the yield is earned from swap fees as well as the captured arbitrage profit between the pool and oracle price, similar to a bid-ask spread in traditional market making. They also have a fully on-chain CLOB perps DEX, an NFT aggregator and gamified rewards programs — all of which are currently operational on the Solana mainnet.
iKnowSpots
In the digital age, community leaders and organizers need user-friendly tools to create, manage, and promote events. This platform offers ticketing, rewards, inclusivity and RSVP escrow to boost community engagement, fostering connections in a new era of event hosting. It simplifies event management, supports efficient promotion and monetizes events through ticketing. Their reward system incentivizes participation and inclusivity, while RSVP escrow ensures event reliability. They empower community leaders to focus on building stronger, more vibrant communities.
Nomis
Nomis is a multi-chain identity and reputation protocol that leverages wallet on-chain footprints and ML-powered mathematical modelling technologies to serve two primary objectives:
- Empowering users to construct, oversee, and capitalise on their on-chain reputation;
- Enabling web3 projects to harness wallet reputation data for accelerated growth and development.
Nomis is revolutionising the way individuals manage and leverage their on-chain presence, while also providing web3 projects the essential tools they need to propel their growth faster than ever before.
Trekn
Trekn is a location-based platform that elevates travel through a dynamic point system and cNFTs, powered by the local community. Discover, share, and validate IRL experiences, turning each journey into a treasure hunt. Navigate with confidence; every experience is community-verified.
Vanward
Vanward is an app to manage and verify professional certifications.
Encode x Solana Hackathon
Throughout the Hackathon, participants will spend 4 weeks building projects on Solana’s advanced capabilities. Hackers will be provided one-on-one mentoring throughout this period, ensuring they can turn their innovative ideas into reality.
Participants will also benefit from a range of specialized technical workshops. These sessions will offer insights from leading figures in the space, providing both theoretical knowledge and practical experience with Solana.
After you register, please keep an eye on your inbox for a registration confirmation. You will be contacted by our Programme Manager regarding next steps.
You can either hack solo or with your team! If you registered as a solo hacker, but are looking for a team, we’ll help you with that!
About Solana
Solana is a blockchain built for mass adoption. It’s a high-performance network that is utilized for a range of use cases, including finance, NFTs, payments, and gaming. Solana operates as a single global state machine and is open, interoperable and decentralized.
About the Solana Foundation
The Solana Foundation is a non-profit foundation based in dedicated to the decentralization, adoption and security of the Solana ecosystem. For more information, please visit: https://solana.org/
About Encode Club
Encode Club is a web3 education community learning and building together through fantastic programmes with the leading protocols in the space. Together we organize programmes like education series, bootcamps, hackathons, and accelerators both online and in person. We then help our community get jobs and funding for projects and startups.
