.jpg)
The SCF Startup Camp, a quarterly 5-day bootcamp organized by the Stellar Development Foundation and DFS Lab, recently concluded its first cohort of 2023 with resounding success. The intensive program supported 30 emerging startups in Web3 to define their use case on Stellar and/or Soroban (Stellar's new native smart contracts platform, currently in preview release) as part of the Stellar Community Fund. By providing guidance and support, the bootcamp offers a valuable opportunity for teams to refine their ideas and develop innovative solutions within the Stellar and Soroban ecosystems.
Spanning two time zones, the bootcamp also boasted a remarkable lineup of 34 mentors, comprising experienced developers, industry veterans, and successful entrepreneurs. These mentors generously shared their expertise, guided participants through challenges, and imparted invaluable knowledge about launching and scaling successful startups.
Following the design sprints, a distributed selection panel evaluated the projects and selected the top ten finalists and three winners*. While all teams did a fantastic job, the following teams in particular exhibited great effort, innovation, and creativity during the bootcamp, while also developing projects with strong potential to impact the Stellar and Soroban ecosystems.