Delulu mode on: I'm launching a business in 10 days.

Or at least I'll try. I'll do it with @soonami_io's Venturethon 11 - so follow along with the journey.

Or even better: apply for the Venturethon yoursel!

To celebrate our partnership with @soonami_io, we are running an exclusive content creation contest just for Sol Sisters member!

You will find the details and participation instructions on the Sol Sisters chat - if you're not in, join us; link in bio.

We are happy to announce that we have become community partners of the @soonami_io accelerator program!

Soonami is is a startup launchpad for AI and Web3 founders. This month, they are running Venturethon 11, a 10-day remote hackathon starting 17 November.

It’s open to Web3 y stage, whether you just have an idea or already have customers. Participants pitch live to experienced founders, get real feedback, and compete for €7,000 in prizes. Free to join, no equity taken.

If you’re building something - or if you’re even just still thinking of building something - you should definitely apply: soonami.io

🚀 Web3 Opportunities This Week: hackathons & ambassador calls for builders and creators

1️⃣ @soonami_io Venturethon 11 (online)
🧪 10-day remote build sprint for early-stage AI and Web3 startups, ending in a live pitch and Demo Day with feedback from unicorn founders. An idea is enou, teams of 2+ (no solo teams)
💰 Reward: €7,000 in prizes (€5,000 AI for Good grant, €1,000 Best Project, €1,000 Under-20 builders)
⏳ Kicks off Nov 17, submissions close Nov 27
Apply: app.foundance.org/events/soonami…

2️⃣ @solana_devs x @MLHacks Solana Hackathon (online)
⚡ Weekend hackathon with AI, DeFi, Gaming and Best Beginner tracks. No blockchain experience needed, open to builders 18+
💰 Reward: $1,000 microgrant for each of the top 3 teams, plus $100 gift cards per member for track winners
⏳ Runs Fri Nov 6, 6:00 PM WAT to Sun Nov 8; final submissions due Nov 8, 5:45 PM WAT
Apply: events.mlh.com/events/15200-s…

3️⃣ @sancus_africa Ambassador Program (November batch)
🇳🇬 For Nigerian CT creators, educators, community builders and marketers who can drive conversations and onboard users to Sancus (crypto, gift cards and fiat). Short Google Form
💰 Reward: Undisclosed
⏳ Applications close Fri Nov 6
Apply: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

4️⃣ @LinkaLabs Ambassador Program
🌍 Linka Labs is building the storage scheduling layer for AI networks and is looking for content creators, community members and local leaders. No previous ambassador experience required
💰 Reward: Undisclosed
⏳ Rolling, no deadline listed
Apply: forms.gle/no791WtQSoYBe8…

Follow @barondickson for more

I am begging you

don't sit on your startup idea.

it's November and you have two months to push it in 2026

if you wanna be accountable to a great community of founders and mentors, join the @soonami_io venturethon.

10 days of building.
7000 euros in cash prizes.
special of course ) and Web3
mentorship from the best
partner perks
fully remote

applications are open. comment YES for the link and I will onboard you personally.

GTM engineer barely existed three years ago.

Today there are 1,000+ open roles and and in the US the pay goes up to $250K+

I talked to @Munnawar_h , Head of Community at @clay , about how Clay grew into a $7.1B company through its community, and how you can get into GTM We get into:

- the two things a product needs before a community can grow
- why he'd rather you have a good time at a Clay event than buy Clay
- the $1M GTM engineer scholarship
- whether a marketer can switch into the role
- how he got hired remote at an in-person company
- how he'd job hunt today

Watch the full conversation here 👇

00:00 GTM engineering in 30 seconds
01:13 When community became Clay's growth engine
02:00 The two layers under any community
05:02 How Clay measures community success
07:44 Slack, Clay Clubs and Clay Cup
09:37 Clay Cup: one winner, $50K
16:17 The $1M GTM engineer scholarship
19:05 What a GTM engineer earns
19:54 Can a marketer become a GTM engineer
24:42 In-person events in the AI era
25:18 Getting hired remote at an in-person company
37:31 Job hunting: 10% applications, 50% conversations
39:47 Rapid fire

"Pitch the problem first."

@PhilippZentner , founder of @lifiprotocol, on how he pitches and how he finds what to build: meet problems yourself, then build, build, build.

Venturethon starts 17 Nov. 10 days, remote, €7,000 prize pool. An idea is enough.

Apply: soonami.io

I just led a workshop on founder-led marketing for @soonami_io (thank you for inviting me to do it @dikshadutta <3) and this inspired this week's article on The Web3 Marketing Hub.

If you want to know how to turn your founder into a talking head for your company - link below.

Hackathons are an amazing way to keep building with deadlines.

@PhilippZentner agrees; that's exactly how @lifiprotocol started.

Apply for Venturethon, and you could get a session with him and win up to 7,000 euros in cash: soonami.io

I have decided my podcast is my learning ground.

My guest, Calvin Hia, has over 100K views for some of his AI workflows on youtube.

He built me a working AI agent live on this episode of @questwithdiksha.

A folder, two skills, Claude Code.

Minutes later it had scraped scored new episode ideas for me.

he shared 5 agents every marketer can copy today.

He shared the actual agent file; link in the episode.

Big thanks to @frogule for sharing so much alpha with our cohort ! Here is a free dose for you as well 👇🏽

Our cohort 10 founders had a coaching session and received individual feedback from @deepaknautiyal , Founder, NoiLabs recently. Deepak has been working on products all his life.

At Zalando, Deepak ran Sponsored Product Ads, part of their advertising business, one of Zalando's it. He grew the self-service side of that business from zero to millions in revenue within three years.

What he said:
1. Judgement is more valuable than ever before. Building is cheap, but answering 'what to build' is gold!
2. 'What to build' is best answered using first-principles. Amazon, Apple, Meta, Zalando were all built on this. True then, true now.
3. Underlying human behavior must drive your product trajectory. For example, marketplaces = successful transactions. Content apps = attention. AI products = trust in agents.
4. Learning to kill features is critical. He cut 80% of the MVP scope early on at Zalando despite pushback, and it worked.
5. Distribution is super relevant now. Talking to customers is no longer enough to validate your product. Best signal now is trying to actually sell the product, since prototypes are sophisticated enough to test even real payments.
6. Seat-based pricing for AI products is under pressure. Outcome-based pricing is a buzzword nobody's nailed, but it is worth exploring. Factor in the LLM/Token costs when figuring out how to price.

I just hosted a feedback session with @soonami_io and some of the startups in their accelerator (gosh, I missed it soo much, thank you so much for inviting)

Here are some mistakes I think many early stage founders make

1. They don't want to lead with "founder led marketing" maybe do some accountability sessions to start with?
2. Many just talk about the product and choke at:
* narrative and storytelling
* GTM Strategy
* Numbers and showing results (even if they do)
* Being loud and bragging about the results you're having
3. Money
* what do you need money for
* and what do you want to spend it on
4. Product
* are you PMF?
* did you test your product?
* do you have any testimonials
5. Consider Social media as "somewhere we need to be on" or an "afterthought" when it should be one of the main places to get your first users.

Obviously the list continues, but I really loved seeing that people are still building things are not rug pulls and launching a token was not on anyone's plan.

PS: let me know what else you'd like to see in these pitching sessions

Venturethon 10 ran across three advisor pitch sessions this month.

AI, fintech and early Web3 teams, each pitching live to advisors who have built and scaled real companies. Every pitch scored on the same bar. No geography premium, no insider advantage.

Ideas are cheap. What we es hard feedback and sharpens week over week.

Thank you to the advisors who gave real-time feedback, and to every team that put their work in front of a hard room.

Recap below.

Tushar Ahluwalia, founder of German unicorn Razor, now building GeneralMind, on a panel I moderated:

The gap between open and closed models keeps closing, and more companies will end up building on open source.

Worth sitting with if you're deciding what to bet on now.

Most founders meet investors at the worst moment. Cold, early, pitching into a void.

@AlexBangash sits on the other side. He advised the first checks in Accel, First Round, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, and Khosla, and has helped invest $2B+ across 50 funds.

We're opening a few ers actively raising.

A session with Alex isn't a pitch, it's a read on whether you're ready to pitch at all.

Apply here: form.typeform.com/to/lICQNHsT

soonami is sending founders to Prompt's Berlin edition on June 29-30.

Pre-seed and seed AI and SaaS teams, matched 1-on-1 with relevant investors. Online, no deck.

Applications close today.

Every ad you see will be AI-generated.

@PatrickHaede, CEO of @superscale_ai , breaks down why: once your competitors generate more creative and run more tests, you're under pressure whether you like it or not.

We get into how marketers start running agents like engineers, his why he says your launch now has a four-week shelf life.

New episode of @questwithdiksha 👇🏽

What an honest hour of conversation looks like.

Last week in Berlin during @SuperReturn we hosted a small breakfast for our inner circle of VCs, family offices, LPs, founders and advisors.

More of these coming. Always small, always invitation only.

Our founder @christiansauer spent the day at The Dekta Studio Open Day in Berlin last week.

Fireside with Julian Teicke + then 1:1s with founders.

Biggest takeaway: founders need someone in the trenches with them. More operators, fewer cheques.