The$1MStartupChallenge
A globally recognised hub for AI builders and innovators. Member of The AI Alliance.
AI-Native enterprise orchestration platform. Helps companies build, scale, and monetize AI solutions.
Partners
Web3 Partners & Supporters
TheDiscoveryLayerfortheNextMillionStartups
Surge is where AI builders create verified product profiles, earn community attention, and convert it into funding.
Earn crypto by sharing your unused bandwidth and compute.
Shared ZK proving network for rollups and dApps.
Token-gated social feeds with real-time on-chain activity.
Neural network-powered DEX aggregator for optimal routing.
Real-time smart contract monitoring and threat detection.
Instant cross-border payments with stablecoin rails.
$1M Startup Challenge.
30-day challenge. Season 1: $250K.
Enrollment
1 Week
Founders create Hub profiles. Connect metrics, upload pitch. No application — the platform IS the application.
Ignition Race
30 Days
Community allocates Ignitions. Live leaderboard tracks every project. Founders stream, ship, engage.
Decision
1 Week
100% community Ignitions. Winners selected for investment.
Token Launches
1 Week
Winning projects launch tokens via curated Ignition Launch. Community backs the winners.
Season 1: $250K in funding.
Funding (Equity or Token)
Beyond Cash
- Ignition Launch curation
- Tokenomics advisory
- Co-marketing for token launch
- KOL exposure & amplification
- Warm intros to VCs & angels
- 1:1 mentorship with judges
- Permanent participation badge
Season 1
$250,000
in direct funding
Full Series
$1,000,000
across all seasons
The Surge Challenge Path
List on Hub
Founders create verified profiles with GitHub commits, Stripe revenue, Google Analytics, Mixpanel — all connected and verified in real-time.
Live Stream
Founders stream building sessions, pitch live to the community, and engage audiences in real-time.
Earn Ignitions
Scarce community attention tokens. Expire every 30 days. The primary signal for selecting winners.
Leaderboard
Compete for top ranks as the community allocates scarce attention. Your position decides who gets seen by judges.
Get Funded
Top-ranked projects get selected for investment and curated for public token launches on Surge.
What founders must do to compete.
Complete all requirements to be eligible for the Challenge leaderboard and prize pool.
Complete project profile
All 8 steps of the wizard — logo, tagline, description, category, stage
Post a roadmap
At least 1 milestone for the current quarter
Upload pitch video
YouTube, 2–5 min explaining the product and vision
Connect X
Connect X for the project and for the founder
Go live at least once
Minimum 10-min livestream on the platform
Share on X
Share your project on X that you participate in the Challenge
Incomplete profiles are hidden from the leaderboard. Every requirement fills the platform with real content.
100% Community Driven.
Winners are decided entirely by community Ignitions — no judges, no panels.
Ignition Count
Active Ignition count at Phase 2 cutoff determines your rank.
Proportional Scoring
Normalized proportionally — not winner-take-all.
Anti-Gaming
30-day expiry prevents accumulation and gaming.
Genuine Support
Only active, genuine community support counts.
Battle-tested operators
and technologists
Pawel
CEO
Joseph
CFO/CIO
Andrea
COO
Robin Janaway
CBDO
Track Record: Built and scaled global AI communities, enterprise partnerships, global enterprise & venture creation and funding, AI research pipelines across multiple continents.
Partners
Web3 Partners & Supporters