SCF Kickstart

Updated 09/03/24 SCF Kickstart is a focused 5-day virtual bootcamp hosted every two months for teams interested in receiving expert guidance from mentors in the Stellar ecosystem who will help you turn your idea into an actionable Proof of Concept. By completing an SCF Kickstart Cohort, founders can apply for initial funding up to $15,000 in XLM* to validate their projects, a necessary step to become eligible for further awards and support from the Stellar Community Fund.

Structure & Timeline

1️⃣ | Submission

Take a close look at the Participant Eligibility Rules and Selection Criteria before applying to SCF Kickstart. To apply, fill out all the required fields on the Submission form on communityfund.stellar.org/kickstart.

2️⃣ | Review and Selection

After the application deadline of SCF Kickstart, your application will be reviewed by members of the Stellar Development Foundation and BiGGER in accordance with the Participant Eligibility Rules and Selection Criteria.

3️⃣ | Participant Preparation

Selected participants will be notified immediately following the selection and review phase. They will receive bootcamp information, preparation guidelines, and calendar invites for the bootcamp and other relevant activities. In order to comply with US regulations, SDF asks that SCF Kickstart participants complete a Know Your Customer (KYC) check. The KYC information that will be collected can be found on https://stellar.org/bd-kyc. Note: If applying as a team of individuals, each individual on the team should complete the form. Please refer to the SDF Privacy Policy for more information on how SDF uses and retains data. If an SCF Kickstart Participant does not pass the required eligibility and compliance checks by the specified deadlines, they are no longer eligible to participate in the SCF Kickstart and may be disqualified from consideration in future Stellar Community Fund programs.

4️⃣ | 5 Days of Kickstart

Developed by BiGGER—a leading technology partner in the Stellar ecosystem—and the Stellar Development Foundation, the SCF Kickstart adopts a version of a design sprint process developed by leaders at Google Ventures and seeks to shortcut the endless debate cycle of product development and compress months of discussion and development into a single week. Mentors from BiGGER, the Stellar ecosystem and the Stellar Development Foundation will provide support through a dedicated Slack channel, where you will have access to experts in Business, UX/UI, Software Engineering, and more.

DAY 1

Define your Minimum Viable Product

Teams engage in problem validation and definition of their Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of their idea to build on Stellar.

DAY 2

Create a UI/UX Mockup

Building upon defining their MVP, teams will move forward with outlining their solution's user interface and experience.

DAY 3

Outline Technical Architecture

To support the user flows created, teams will draft a technical architecture outlining how Stellar and relevant technologies power their ideas.

DAY 4

Develop a Go-to-Market Strategy

Leveraging insights gained from previous days, teams will formulate a comprehensive go-to-market strategy to ensure successful launch and adoption of their Stellar-based solution.

DAY 5

Pitch your Product

Concluding the intensive development phase, teams will present their Stellar project, showcasing the MVP, UI/UX design, and strategic planning to a panel of industry experts, gaining valuable feedback and potential stakeholder interest.

5️⃣ | Kickstart Award Submission

SCF Kickstart Awards are distributed to teams who completed SCF Kickstart and are looking to build meaningful products, services, and resources in the Stellar ecosystem (“Projects”). Awards are distributed as $5,000 in XLM*, $10,000 in XLM* or $15,000 in XLM*, and are intended to support the team in kick-starting the development of their Stellar network based project.

After completing a SCF Kickstart Cohort successfully, teams are invited to apply for a Kickstart Award up to $15,000 in XLM*. Take a close look at the Participant and Submission Eligibility Guidelines before submitting your Project for a Kickstart Award. Each Participant will only be able to make one (1) submission at a time.

To submit a project for an SCF Kickstart Award, fill out all the required fields on the Kickstart Award submission form provided upon completion of an SCF Kickstart cohort.

6️⃣ | SCF Kickstart Award Submission Review (1 week)

After the submission deadline, your SCF Kickstart Award submission will be reviewed by a selection panel in accordance with the Review Criteria. The amount of the SCF Kickstart Award ($5,000 in XLM*, $10,000 in XLM*, or $15,000 in XLM*) will be determined by a diverse selection panel consisting of SDF employees and verified members of the Stellar ecosystem.

If your Project is selected for an SCF Kickstart Award, move on to step (7).

If your Project is not selected for a SCF Kickstart Award, you will be notified of the decision and may also receive an email with anonymous comments from reviewers.

7️⃣ | SCF Kickstart Award Distribution

Projects must have passed the compliance checks in step 3 in order to be eligible for the SCF Kickstart Award. If you already have a whitelisted Stellar address and have successfully completed all the preceding steps, SDF will be able to send the SCF Kickstart Award directly to the Stellar address. If you don’t have a whitelisted Stellar address yet, then:

• SDF will send a test transaction to the Stellar address (and memo) you provided in step (3) and will notify you by e-mail when the test transaction is sent.

• You will need to check the test transaction and report back the amount to SDF via the form.

• Once SDF has confirmed that the reported transaction amount matches the test transaction, SDF will send the SCF Kickstart Award amount in XLM* equal to Award to the Stellar address.

Upon distribution of the SCF Kickstart Award, you’ll receive instructions on how to prepare for next steps and opportunities.

8️⃣ | Kickstart Project Validation

~4-6 weeks after the bootcamp finishes, the Project will be invited to pitch to a panel consisting of employees from the Stellar Development Foundation and BiGGER, as well as Stellar community members, showcasing whether their Stellar solution has found validated Product-Market-Fit by proving initial traction. If the panel decides to approve the Project to apply to the SCF Build Award, the Project will receive an email with further instructions and information on how to do so.

Projects are advised that receiving initial approval to apply to the SCF Build Award in no way guarantees or ensures that the Project will receive any additional SCF Award or any other form of economic support from SDF.

About BiGGER

BiGGER is a software development company with deep expertise in blockchain and Stellar. The company has a team of 90+ people, including developers, software architects, designers, and product owners. They have helped over 35 startups launch and scale across Australia, the US, and Europe. BiGGER possesses deep expertise in Stellar, having built its products on the Stellar platform, such as Planet Pay (https://planetpay.io/), and has been featured in Stellar case studies: https://stellar.org/case-studies/bigger."

The Stellar Development Foundation starting in 2021 has hosted several boot camps (with partners including DFS Lab) to boost development in the Stellar ecosystem. Several participants went on to acquire further funding from the Stellar Development Foundation, and beyond.

• October 2021

• April 2022

• October 2022

• April 2023

• August 2023

Disclaimer

*To determine the number of XLM equal to the USD value of any Award, the USD valuation of XLM shall be calculated using the CF Stellar Lumens-Dollar Settlement Price as administered, maintained, and reported by the cryptocurrency index provider CF Benchmarks Ltd. (using the ticker “XLMUSD_RR”) (available at https://www.cfbenchmarks.com/indices/XLMUSD_RR), or, if such settlement price is unavailable or reasonably suspected by SDF to be unreliable, the settlement price as reported on a substantially similar and equally reputable cryptocurrency index provider as determined by the SDF in its discretion. The USD valuation of XLM for any particular Award shall be calculated using the CF Stellar Lumens-Dollar Settlement Price (or other agreed upon settlement price) reported on the day such Award is scheduled to be paid. The Participants acknowledge and understand that XLM is a highly risky and volatile asset, and that SDF does not provide any representations, warranties, or guarantees of its value.