So it’s insane to us how often startups take months and a hundred thousand dollars before they launch their initial product into the world.

Simply put, Grids keeps people from making that mistake.

We combined human experts with a specialized AI to help founders work a lot more efficiently with outsourced designers and engineers — 50% cheaper with a lot less headaches.

Sounds too good to be true? Reach out and we’ll show you how it works, totally for free. If you already have a proposal from an agency or freelancer, even better. We’ll show you how you could make it 50% cheaper and avoid some costly mistakes.

New product, same mission — to help more great products get built. Follow along at grids.co or with @gridsdotco on X. And thanks to our amazing investors and community for all of the continued support.

- Joey, Rapha, and the Backdrop crew

P.S. Build isn’t going anywhere either — more updates on the next program will be coming soon!

That means that as of today:

• Builders can apply to and join Build 365 days a year. We review all applications within 48 hours and you can get started as soon as you’re in. 

• When one program ends, another begins. And to keep things simple, we’re aligning them with calendar months.

The decision to double down on Build was easy to make. What started as 100 builders in the first program is now 2500 builders from 90+ countries in the fifth. In the first 4 programs alone, Build helped >700 projects launch with a demo video and live product that people can use. Building new projects at the frontier is incredibly hard, and there is something powerful in doing it alongside a growing community of builders.

The real magic of Build is that it gets better as it gets bigger. We support builders alongside a quickly growing list of 50+ of the best and most forward thinking companies in tech — including Google Cloud, Coinbase, Pinecone, Modal, and so many more. Together we’ve helped builders earn >$500k in grants, and thanks in part to our growing Boost network of accelerators and other funding sources, Build graduates have raised >$3M in the past 4 months alone.

The value of builders who can manage to bring their idea to life has never been higher, but as a builder or early-stage team it doesn’t always feel that way. Most builders want to spend their time shipping, not trying to search and sift through the ever-growing sea of products and opportunities that exist. We're here to fix that.

People said we were crazy to run programs with thousands of builders with only a short break in between, and doing them with zero break means we have a lot of shipping of our own to do. But the work is worth it because we can finally say this — whenever an idea hits you, or you have something new in the works, you can plug that project into Build and get access to all the resources we have to get your project off the ground.

See if for yourself at backdropbuild.com

Build v1:

• WordDuel received a $5.5k grant from Base, Sismo & Backdrop

• Tres Cool, Web3 GPT, Loop Decoder received $3k each from Base & Sismo

• Ponder received $3k from Base & Sismo in addition to an investment from Seed Club’s accelerator

• Fren Drops received a $2.5k grant from Base

• Together with Artizen, we helped a dozen projects collectively earn $20k in grants

Build v2:

• Sorbet raised a pre-seed from from Adaverse and Antler

• Super received a $4k grant from Backdrop, a $5k grant from AWS, and a $2k grant from Stability.ai.

• Heimdall, Egabee, cogniverse.ai, Videosd, and Mint Club each received a $4k grant from Backdrop and a $5k grant from AWS. 

• Socratic received a $2.5k grant from BuidlGuidl / Scaffold ETH, a $2.5k grant from Base, and $600 in credits from Fixie

• Tivitix received a $1.5k grant from BuidlGuidl / Scaffold ETH

• Fibbonacci Swap received a $1k grant from BuidlGuidl / Scaffold ETH

• Basemint received a $2.5k grant from Base 

• Narrative.ai, GPTActionHub, and ORIGIN STØRIES received $600 in credits from Fixie 

Build v3:

• Dappfuse received a $5,000 grant from NEAR Protocol to continue building out their platform that makes it easy for anyone to create and deploy decentralized apps.

• Onchain Clarity, Voicedeck DAO, PlayMini, and daospace each received $50,000 grants from Hedgey to advance their innovative crypto projects.

• FREISA earned $5,000 in credits from RunPod to power their AI-driven platform.

• Stable Jack, a decentralized stablecoin project, completed a pre-seed round to expand their offering.

• Glowby, a draw-to-code GenAI assistant for software creation, gained 10,000 users and earned its first monthly recurring revenue during V3 Launch Week. The Glowby team went on to raise $150,000 from a VC fund after the program ended.

• Contxt received a full-ride to the upcoming Edge City popup village in Healdsburg. Edge City is an incubator for people who believe the future can be better and are actively working to make it happen.

Build v4:

• The following v4 projects each received $25,000 in credits from Google Cloud: Glowby, DRVN, Sellout, Sublayer, Stable Jack, ETC Swap, Vabble, Lucid CMS

• RunPod is providing $250 in credits to each of the following AI-focused projects: Casa AI, Topic Navi, FREISA, NURAI, Tost AI, llama-cpp-agent, sdfont, Dance Generator, AI4E

• GetAICEO.com has secured a $5,000 grant from NEAR Protocol.

• ETC Swap (v2, v3, v4) reached $10k in daily volume

We're excited to watch these projects evolve and to welcome new projects in future Build programs to add to this list of success stories. 

Did you participate in a Build program and achieve a milestone you want to share? Reach out to be featured!

Discover More

Explore our showcases to learn about these and other promising projects:

backdropbuild.com/builds

Ready to turn your idea into reality? Join the next program of Build here.

We're welcoming builders to continue making progress on their buildathon project or start something new. We have an incredible ecosystem of organizations providing grants and other opportunities for builders, including showcases throughout the rest of Onchain Summer.

Check out more details below, and apply by June 7th with your existing project or a new idea at backdropbuild.com.

Base would love to see Onchain Summer projects continue to iterate and find traction. Grants are available for promising projects that are fun and innovative or help bring more users onchain. Read more about Building on Base in v5.

Bountycaster. There are over >$250k in open bounties on Bountycaster, including many that have been created specifically to support Onchain Summer projects in Build v5. Read more about Building on Bountycaster in v5.

Superfluid would love to find great builders from v5 to join the Superfluid Frontier Guild. If selected, they can work on high-impact ecosystem projects and get a continuous stream of funding. Read more about Building on Superfluid in v5.

Optimism will be watching out for v5 participants to apply to Retroactive Public Goods Funding (Retro Funding), a 850 million OP program that embodies a vision of collaboration and collective success. Read more about Building on Optimism in v5.

Arcana Arcana Auth provides global embedded wallets, allowing developers to offer non-custodial wallets to their users with a sub-3-second login, regardless of how they authenticate (email, social logins, or existing wallets). Read more about Building on Arcana in v5.

Ethereum Attestation Service is extending its Onchain Summer bounty of $10k ($2k/team for the top 5 teams) to the Build community. We're looking for the most impactful use case using attestations that align with the Onchain Summer buildathon. Read more about Building on EAS in v5.

Livepeer is a video infrastructure network for streaming and generative AI. We're looking for builders to create generative media applications on our new AI Subnet or integrate new models as AI pipelines on the network. $2k-15k grants available for projects that meet certain criteria. Read more about Building on Livepeer in v5.

Ceramic is dedicated to expanding the availability of decentralized data. We're seeking builders who want to leverage a decentralized data layer for their applications. We're giving $3,000 in cash for the best project built on Ceramic. Read more about Building on Ceramic in v5.

Neynar is a developer platform focused on integrating with Farcaster protocol (hosted hubs, read and write APIs, signer management and free sign-in for users, webhooks, sql playground, hosted databases and data pipelines, frame hosting and analytics). Read more about Building on Neynar in v5.

Textile Textile would love to see v5 projects build AI/ML workflows with Basin (object storage), and also create onchain datasets with Tableland (SQL database) and its newly added Base chain support. Read more about Building on Textile in v5.

Privy is the easiest way for devs to onboard users, regardless of whether they already have wallets. We power apps like Zora, OpenSea, Blackbird, Friendtech, and dYdX. v5 participants are eligible for dedicated support and thousands of dollars worth of Privy credits. Read more about Building on Privy in v5.

Piñata is a leader in Web3 infrastructure, providing developers fast and reliable uploads and retrievals to IPFS. Read more about Building on Piñata in v5.

Decent Decent's core offering is cross-chain swaps and 1-click cross-chain transactions. We help you reduce churn and increase transaction volume by enabling transactions in your app with any token across chains. Read more about Building on Decent in v5.

Cyber Cyber is a L2 designed specifically for social apps. Built on the OP Superchain, Cyber facilitates the creation of onchain apps that enrich social connections, strengthen community, and foster collaboration. $2k grants available for socialfi, infra, and unique projects. Read more about Building on Cyber in v5.

Blockscout Blockscout is an open-source block explorer, utilized by over 800 networks, rollups, L2s, and Layer 1 chains. It also includes the DAppscout marketplace, offering a secure platform for discovering, exploring, and interacting with decentralized apps. Read more about Building on Blockscout in v5.

Dynamic Dynamic is the builder’s solution to developing different types of multi-chain applications, especially those involving digital transactions, user accounts, and secure access. Promising projects built on Dynamic will receive $500 in cash each. Read more about Building on Dynamic in v5.

Questions about Build? Head to our FAQs or reach out at community@backdropbuild.com.

We are constantly helping builders in this process, so we figured we’d put together a quick post on our learnings as well as the tools we see builders using and loving. We’ll keep this updated as things change! 

The bottom line is that standing in front of your product is one of the most valuable things you can do, and builders who find ways to do it successfully — especially at early stages — open a lot of doors for themselves. And the good news is that if you follow this guide it really doesn’t have to be scary or time intensive. 

Generally speaking this is the structure we recommend:

• Introduce the problem, who has it, what that matters, and why you’re on a mission to solve it

• Showcase the product, focusing on the “aha” moment

• Talk about what comes next and invite people into the process

To break that down a bit:

Say Why You're Building It

Builder energy is infectious. Convey your passion for building the product instead of focusing on a grand vision or market opportunity. Explain your personal motivation for starting the project.

Put the Problem First

This might seem obvious, but it's surprising how many demos dive straight into the solution. Always start with the problem. Who has this problem? Be insanely specific. Describe the issue in detail before presenting your solution. This helps the audience understand the context and the need for your product.

It's perfectly fine if your problem is "I just wanted to learn this new tech" or "I wanted to build my first-gen AI app." Just say that! Clarity about the problem keeps viewers from getting distracted trying to figure out what issue you're addressing.

Skip the Login Step–Please!

For most products, it makes sense to skip the login step in the video demo. Builders assume they should just walk through their product from start to finish, but nobody needs to see your login flow — we’ve seen a million of them that are all the same. By the time you get to the good stuff, people aren’t paying attention anymore.

Instead, jump straight to the exciting parts that showcase your product's "aha" moment. This keeps your demo concise and focused on what really matters to your audience.

Keep It Short

There’s a steep dropoff in attention after about 3 minutes in a product demo. Try and keep it within that! Then point people that are interested to the next step you want them to take.

Give People a Next Step

We see a lot of builders that get to the end of the demo and just sign off. You may be missing that collaborator/user/supporter who could really change things for you. So make sure to tell them what you have planned next and how they can follow along/participate if they are interested — be a beta tester, connect with you in a certain place, collaborate with you on something specific, etc!

These days the tools to create demo videos make it a total breeze, no matter what setup you have or what language you speak. These are a few of our favorites:

Scripting:

You can use a tool like Scribe to document the steps you want to take in your demo and draft a rough script. Practicing what you are going to say and do will save you a lot of recording time!

Video:

Most computers have a ready-to-use tool like Quicktime Player that gives you lightweight screen recording and editing capabilities. If you have an Apple computer, iMovie works too. Other popular tools for recording videos are Loom, Mmhmm, and Tella.

Translation:

We have builders from all over the world in our program. We want the demo experience to be accessible no matter what language you speak. You can easily dub audio and video files into various languages with ElevenLabs, VoiceCheap or Pipio.

Voiceovers and avatars: 

If you’re not ready to make your camera debut yet, you can utilize tools to create AI avatars and voiceovers using Synthesia or HeyGen.

If you have any other tools you love, send them to us and we’ll add them here! And if you want to get inspired from some of the demos from Build, head to https://backdropbuild.com/builds. Or apply to an upcoming program and add yourself to that list :) 

• Supabase: Finalists building with Supabase can redeem an additional $300 in credits to keep scaling.

• Ethereum Attestation Service: extending its Onchain Summer bounty of $10k to the Build community ($2k/team for the top 5 teams).

• Resend: $5k in credits for the best projects built on Resend.

• Arcana: awarding $2k in grants to top projects with exciting product ideas and traction.

• Patchwork: divvying up 10k USDC worth of bounties posted on Bountycaster to their favorite 7 projects.

• Zilliz / Milvus: awarding $500 in Zilliz Cloud credits for the most creative/inspiring/best use projects built with Zilliz or Milvus.

• NEAR Protocol: $5,000 for top projects, plus up to $5,000 matching funds in the Bounty Booster Program.

• Bountycaster: >$250k in bounties available for builders.

• Google Cloud: Grants of $25k in Google Cloud credits for top projects

• Modal: Up to $25,000 in credits for select builders.

• Tableland / Textile: Promising projects can access $5k Microgrants through the Pilot Program

• Convex: Invitation to exclusive Convex Startup Program for finalists built on Convex.

• Voiceflow: $3,000 cash for top non-traditional AI agent project, $1,000 for runner-up projects.

• Ceramic: $3,000 for the best project built on Ceramic.

• BuildShip: Micro-investment grants for top builders.

• Base: 1-5 ETH grants for projects built on Base

• Dynamic: $500 to selected projects.

• Privy: $1,000 in Privy credits to promising projects.

• Cyber: $2,000 for unique projects, $2,000 for infrastructure & tooling, $2,000 for social or social-fi projects 

• Optimism: Grants for projects via Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RPGF).

• Sieve: Selected top projects will receive $1,000 credits plus a Sieve swag bag.

• Upstash: $250 in credits for the most interesting AI project.

• Pinata: $250 in credits to top projects.

• ZenML: ZenML Cloud Starter for 2 months for top projects.

• Draftbit: One year of Draftbit Pro for top 10 builders.

• Superfluid: Top builders will be considered for the Superfluid Frontier Guild ($10k/month streamed to builders)

• Supabase: All Builders are eligible for $25 Supabase credits to upgrade their Projects.

• Arcana: Free to use Arcana Auth for all builders.

• Langchain: LangChain is offering LangSmith Premier Plan for Build Participants.

• Privy: first 1000 MAUs free.

• Sieve: $200 in credits for all builders.

• Pinecone: $100 in serverless credits, additional credits for innovative projects.

• Upstash: Free credits for all builders for Upstash Vector and Upstash Redis. Upper tier and credits available for more advanced projects.

• Modal: $500 in credits for all participants.

• Braintrust: Full access without a usage cap for the duration of the program.

• Bubble: $500 in Bubble credits.

• Marblism: 500 marbles for anyone building a project on Marblism

• ZenML: All builders are eligible for additional free days on their 14 day trial.

• Devii: Free access for 12 months for final submissions, three months free for all builders.

• Dynamic: 6 months premium plan free

• Draftbit: Three months of Draftbit Pro for free.

• Convex: Free Convex Pro plans for six months.

• Voiceflow: Free pro workspace & $25 free AI tokens

• BuildShip: 1 month free, 6 months free on completion of the program.

• Triplet: Free, unlimited usage of the private beta of Triplit Cloud.

• CodiumAI: Try CodiumAI’s IDE extension for free.

• Clerk: 50% off Pro plan for 12 months.

• Optimism: Apply for deployment rebates, and Dev Console resources.

• Shuttle: Two-month free PRO Tier.

• Fauna: Discounts for builders using Fauna.

• Supertokens: 50% discount 

• Magic Patterns: Free trial for Backdrop builders.

• Blockscout: Prominent placement and dedicated marketing campaigns for top apps.

Boost partner opportunities:

The following accelerators and other funding programs will be reviewing Build projects for funding and additional incubation:

• IDEO CoLab

• Press Start Capital

• Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator

• TachyonX by ConsenSys Mesh

• HZN by Horizon

• Seed Club

• OrangeDAO

• Microtraction

• Onboard microgrants

• Charmverse

These benefits and opportunities are designed to help you turn your innovative ideas into reality. Take advantage of these resources and start building something incredible with our v5 partners! Apply here to build with us.

Ceramic is looking for v5 builders who want to leverage a decentralized data layer for their applications and are offering Backdrop Build participants $3,000 in cash for the best project built on Ceramic. 

So, what’s the benefit of a decentralized data layer? 

Here’s just a few benefits:

• Censorship Resistance: No single entity can control or censor the data, making it ideal for applications requiring freedom of information.

• Data Sovereignty: Users retain control over their data, deciding how it is accessed and shared.

• Improved Reliability: The distributed nature ensures that data remains accessible even if some nodes go offline.

• Interoperability: Often designed to be compatible with various blockchain platforms, enhancing the potential for cross-chain applications.

Cool, so what are some example use cases?

1. Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Managing financial transactions and contracts in a transparent, secure manner.

2. Supply Chain Management: Tracking products and their origins to ensure authenticity and reduce fraud.

3. Social Networks: Allowing users to own their data and control its distribution, reducing the power of centralized social media platforms.

4. Healthcare: Securely sharing patient records across different providers while maintaining privacy.

5. Content Distribution: Ensuring that creators retain ownership and control over their digital assets.

Ceramic is offering a unique opportunity for builders to innovate and create impactful applications using a decentralized data layer. By participating in the Backdrop Build program and leveraging Ceramic, you can contribute to a more open, reliable, and user-controlled internet. 

Ready to Build on Ceramic? Apply here.

Clerk

Clerk provides a powerful authentication and user management system for modern web applications, simplifying the process of adding secure, user-friendly login and registration features.

CodiumAI

CodiumAI offers AI-powered code reviews and automated test generation, ensuring high-quality code by catching bugs early and maintaining clean, efficient codebases.

Magic Patterns 

Magic Patterns speeds up development by generating UI from a text prompt or image, offering design inspiration and providing React code that can be directly integrated into your app.

Marblism 

Marblism generates full-stack web apps with a front-end, back-end, and database, streamlining the development process from start to finish.

Superfluid

Superfluid is the Token Infrastructure Protocol, upgrading ERC20s with advanced mechanics like Token Streams and Distribution Pools. It can be used for vested airdrops/grants, reward distributions, subscriptions, and payroll, serving as a modular building block for DeFi, SocialFi, and Web3 Games

Upstash 

Upstash provides serverless data solutions with ultra-low latency and high scalability, making it easy to manage data in real-time applications

Blockscout

Blockscout is an open source, fully featured block explorer that works across 500+ chains. 

Cyber

Cyber L2 serves as the social layer for web3 applications and the gateway for the next wave of users to access web3 experiences, tools and financial liquidity across all Layer 2 ecosystems. 

Why these partners matter:

At Backdrop, we scout for partners who excite our builders and push the tech frontier. Here’s what we’re obsessed with in v5:

1. Blazing Fast Deployment: Many of our partners specialize in developing builder-ready products that support our devs in shipping products quickly, efficiently, and accurately—perfect for launching their products in 4 weeks flat

2. Cutting-Edge Crypto: With half of our v4 builds in the crypto space, we’re always on the lookout for groundbreaking partners here.

3. Advanced Data Solutions: Our partners provide top-tier data solutions, both on and off-chain, ensuring support for diverse projects.

We’re in the process of finalizing even more v5 partners. If you’re a builder with a particular partner in mind or a tech company interested in partnering with us, reach out to Emily, our Head of Partnerships, at emily@backdrop.so.

Join our Build program and leverage these innovative tools to bring your next big idea to life. For more info and to get started, visit Backdrop Build.

User-Friendly Crypto Apps

Build a crypto app so intuitive that even your mom can use it. Dynamic’s embedded wallets make web3 apps accessible for non-crypto natives, all while maintaining essential blockchain guardrails.

Seamless Airdrop Experiences

Use Dynamic's multi-chain wallet onboarding and multi-wallet linking to set up seamless airdrop experiences across different blockchain networks.

Flexible Multi-Chain Embedded Wallets

Spin up flexible, non-custodial embedded wallets, allowing users to manage their assets easily.

Itai | dynamic.xyz

@turbahn

2 clicks to turn on multi-chain @dynamic_xyz embedded wallets. Another 1 to make Solana default. I'm loving our new embedded wallet developer dashboard page!

14

1:18 PM • Jun 13, 2024

Mobile-Friendly Web3 Apps

Create mobile-friendly web3 applications ensuring a smooth user experience across various devices.

Itai | dynamic.xyz

@turbahn

One of @dynamic_xyz's most powerful and yet underrated features is our bridge flow. Check out below how quickly you can connect EVM and Starknet on the official @Starknet StarkGate bridge.

5

11:28 AM • Jun 14, 2024

Trusted by Leading Web3 Brands

Dynamic has been trusted by leading brands in the web3 space to enhance their user experience and streamline their operations. Companies like Tokenproof, Doodles, and Fabrica have leveraged Dynamic’s innovative solutions to build secure, user-friendly, and scalable applications. By choosing Dynamic, these brands have been able to focus on their core products and deliver exceptional experiences to their users.

But don't take our word for it - try it out for yourself here.

Ready to bring your web3 idea to life? Apply here to Build on Dynamic. 🚀

NEAR is awarding $5k for promising projects deployed to NEAR during the Backdrop Build v5 program. In addition, any builder that chooses to build on the NEAR stack is eligible for the NEAR Bounty Booster Program, where NEAR will match your winnings up to $5,000.

Here are a few ideas to get started building on NEAR:

1. Open Source AI Models

   • Opportunity: Develop AI solutions that anyone can audit, improve, and deploy, ensuring accessibility and security.

   • Why It’s Cool: Open source AI models promote transparency and ethical standards by enabling public auditing and contributions. This collaborative approach accelerates innovation and creates robust, secure solutions, making powerful AI tools broadly available and advancing the field responsibly.

2. User-centric AI Agents

   • Opportunity: Create AI agents that execute tasks based on abstract intents rather than specific blockchain mechanics, eliminating chain tribalism.

   • Why It’s Cool: User-centric AI agents enhance interoperability and user experience by seamlessly working across various blockchain platforms. By focusing on abstract intents, these agents simplify interactions and reduce complexity, enabling users to benefit from diverse blockchain technologies without being confined to a single ecosystem.

3. Personal AI Tutors

   • Opportunity: Develop AI that understands individual learning styles and knowledge levels.

   • Why It’s Cool: By adapting education to individual learning styles, AI-driven personal tutors can improve learning outcomes and ensure that no one gets stuck or left behind. This personalized approach addresses the diverse ways people learn, making education more inclusive and effective, and helping every learner reach their full potential regardless of traditional teaching methods.

4. AI Interactions

   • Opportunity: Create systems where AI agents live, interact, and grow within the network, eliminating the traditional empty feed problem by generating engaging content from day one.

     Why It’s Cool: Envision a next-generation social platform where AI agents autonomously interact and enrich human connections. These AI-driven interactions can bootstrap the network, providing dynamic, engaging content that enhances user experience and fosters vibrant online communities.

NEAR Protocol's focus on decentralization and user ownership in AI development makes it a unique and innovative platform for developers to build on. Ready to Build on Near? Apply now.

Needless to say, we are excited to extend our partnership with Convex by introducing Convex’s startup program to builders joining Backdrop Build v5. All finalist builds using Convex will be eligible to join this exclusive program. Founders and their teams will gain access to additional free Convex resources, invitations to insightful talks and focused programming, a dedicated program Discord, and enhanced support from the Convex developer relations team.

Here are a few ways you could get started with Convex: 

AI Chat Applications: 

• Use Convex to build AI-driven chat applications that offer real-time messaging and advanced conversational abilities. Bring your favorite APIs from OpenAI, Replicate, Pinecone and others through Convex actions & jobs.

  See what you can build with Convex

  

Productivity and Collaboration Tools 

• Develop versatile productivity and collaboration tools that enable users to organize their tasks, notes, and projects or collaborate on visual boards and diagrams using Convex as a realtime database, its always up-to-date queries, and reactive UI.

Web and SaaS Applications 

• By utilizing Convex’s real-time data handling, automatic reactivity, and powerful integration capabilities, you can build scalable, efficient, and responsive web and SaaS applications that can handle growth and complexity with ease.

Ready to build something awesome? Build v5 kicks off on July 8th. All finalist builds using Convex will be eligible to join their startup program. Apply here to build on Convex.

"I needed support with accountability and getting exposure for my project. Build delivered on both!"

He recognized the value of having a structured program that could help him stay on track and showcase his work to a wider audience.

Cam

@camsinit

I can't thank @joey_debruin and @raphacaixeta enough for putting together such a useful, accountable, and well-designed program & platform

The partnerships alone have radically changed what I thought was possible with @contxtquotes

10/10 recommend for any/all project today

8

5:51 PM • Mar 20, 2024

Cam's vision for Contxt is to create a consent and privacy-focused multimedia interpersonal wiki, where users can preserve the context of their relationships by capturing moments, digital artifacts, and tidbits that remind them why they love and appreciate their people.

Through Contxt, Cam aims to foster genuine connection and appreciation, ultimately mending the societal fabric that has been torn apart by systems that benefit from polarization, isolation, and hyper-individualism.

Cam describes Backdrop Build as "organic fertilizer for your project." He emphasizes that while a project might grow on its own, participating in Backdrop Build provides the motivation to ship consistently and focus on meaningful progress rather than chasing vanity metrics.

One of the key advantages of Backdrop Build, according to Cam:

"Grants and the ability to get support from partners is definitely the top benefit and motivator for me as a participant. The accountability is a byproduct of that; the partners feel like an audience that's rooting for you and will support you regardless and reward you if you finish with a bang."

Cam

@camsinit

A major shoutout to @hedgeyfinance and @goforlindsey for creating this opportunity for the @withBackdrop community

Lindsey and Alex at Hedgey embody the web3 spirit of support and mutual aid, and this RPGF round is only possible because of their generosity

4

1:22 PM • Apr 9, 2024

With the successful launch of Contxt, Cam was a finalist in Build's v3 and v4 program. He has also since received a full-ride to the upcoming Edge City incubator in Healdsburg.

Cam

@camsinit

Grateful for the @JoinEdgeCity team @timourxyz @JanineLeger @garysheng for choosing @contxtquotes as the Build v3 grant recipient

@withBackdrop steady with the power partnerships for this generation's builders

Backdrop

@withBackdrop

Another day, another great outcome to report from Build v3

Congrats to @camsinit and the @contxtquotes team for getting a full ride to the upcoming @JoinEdgeCity popup village in Healdsburg!

@contxtquotes is back for v4, so more to come soon!

x.com/JoinEdgeCity/s…

17

3:39 PM • May 14, 2024

If you're a builder with an idea that you're eager to bring to life, Backdrop Build may be the perfect fit for you. Take the first step towards launching your project and join an upcoming program here.

Glowby founder, Jacob Ilin, wants to help more people build new products without knowing how to code. Glowby leverages the advances in generative models to allow people to turn simple sketches into fully functional products and export the code to a variety of different code languages that work across platforms like Android, iOS, Flutter and others. 

Glowby launched in Build v3 and has since crossed 10k users, partnered with a strategic investor, and started collecting revenue for the first time. And while we can’t take credit for any of that, we love to hear how Build helped Jacob,

“Setting the deadline helped me focus. Updates kept me on track. Launching on X together was super fun.”

Taking advantage of Build's structure, Jacob returned for v4 where he launched Glowby 2.0 where he made further advances on accessibility and capabilities for Glowby.

Interested in joining an upcoming Backdrop Build program to launch a project? Apply here. 

• Dappfuse received a $5,000 grant from NEAR Protocol to continue building out their platform that makes it easy for anyone to create and deploy decentralized apps.

• Onchain Clarity, Voicedeck DAO, PlayMini, and daospace each received $50,000 grants from Hedgey to advance their innovative crypto projects.

• FREISA earned $5,000 in credits from RunPod to power their AI-driven platform.

• Stable Jack, a decentralized stablecoin project, completed a pre-seed round to expand their offering.

• Glowby, a draw-to-code GenAI assistant for software creation, gained 10,000 users and earned its first monthly recurring revenue during V3 Launch Week. The Glowby team went on to raise $150,000 from a VC fund after the program ended.

• Contxt received a full-ride to the upcoming Edge City popup village in Healdsburg. Edge City is an incubator for people who believe the future can be better and are actively working to make it happen.

We hear more success stories every day and will continue to update here as we find them. And if you were part of v3 and achieved some milestone you're pumped about, reach out so we can include you!

To learn more about these projects and discover other promising ones, check out the Backdrop Build v3 Showcase at backdropbuild.com/builds/v3.

Interested in joining an upcoming Backdrop Build program? Apply here. 

We know building something great takes time, and we have been thrilled to see so many builders coming back to multiple Build programs. Boost is another step towards connecting promising projects with the resources they need to really take off. 

What is Boost?

Partnering with accelerators, incubators, venture firms, grant programs, and other startup programs, Boost helps open doors for top projects in Build. Here's how it works:

• Finalist project selection: At the conclusion of each Build program, we select a number of finalist projects out of the hundreds of launches. We send those finalists out to our Boost partners based on the partner’s particular areas of focus.

• Facilitating applications/intros: We work with Boost partners to identify good potential matches, and then facilitate intros and applications to make life easier for builders.

We’ve got an amazing network of partners lined up already to support builders, including Google Cloud, IDEO CoLab, Orange DAO, Press Start Capital, Seed Club, TachyonX, Horizon, Charmverse, Microtraction, Onboard Protocol and more to announce soon.

Join Us!

If you help give builders superpowers, we’d love to work with you. To become a Boost partner or learn more about the Backdrop, please reach out to Emily at emily@backdrop.so.

Ponder exemplifies the potential of the Build program for builders. Its journey from a Build v1 project to a celebrated platform in the crypto consumer app space illustrates the heights that can be achieved with the right mix of support, vision, and hard work. When we asked Ponder’s Co-founder, Colin Johnson, what was motivational about the Build program, he shared,

"The selflessness of the entire thing was inspiring. Just builders helping (and funding) builders. We want to continue spreading that sentiment with everyone building in the space, so we can raise the tide for all boats"

The platform's reach and impact are evident in its impressive metrics: since December 2023 they have gone from 1700 users to nearly 15,000 users, with over 2,000 weekly active participants and around 300 Ponder Pass holders–their community that earns PNDR tokens for survey answers.

The future looks bright for Ponder, with acceptance into the Seed Club accelerator program and plans to raise a proposer round in the coming months. This next chapter in Ponder's journey promises to bring more innovation, growth, and success as they continue to pave the way in decentralized customer research.

What motivated you to participate in Backdrop Build v3?

I wanted to have some sense of external accountability and a tangible goal to motivate myself towards. The community and the sense of excitement from working fast under the pressure of a deadline were the most valuable to me. It gave me that sense of excitement you get from working at your limit on something you are passionate about. Made me feel like a grad student again.

What did you accomplish during the four-week program?

During the program, I learned and utilized new technologies like discord.py, google-api-core, and Docker for the first time. I also achieved my goal of creating a universal interface for Bartleby, my open-source conversational writing assistant. Users can now interact with the AI assistant using any Discord client application on various devices and operating systems, making it highly accessible.

How has participating in Build v3 impacted your project and future plans?

The progress made during Build V3 has only fueled my enthusiasm for the project. I'm eager to participate in the next iteration, Build V4, to implement exciting new features such as image manipulation, external search capabilities, additional language models, and retrieval augmented generation for more comprehensive answers. With a vector database of English Wikipedia at my fingertips, the possibilities for enhancing Bartleby are endless.

What would you say to someone considering joining Backdrop Build?

If you're looking for a supportive community and the motivation to bring your passion project to fruition, I highly recommend joining Backdrop Build. It's an experience that will push you to grow as a developer and achieve more than you thought possible in a short span of time. I have not accomplished so much on a passion project in 4 weeks, maybe ever.

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Interested in applying for an upcoming Build program? Apply here.

We need help reviewing the top projects. Here’s how it’ll work:

• We filter down to the best projects

• We send them to you along with a simple rubric

• You tell us which projects you think should get $90 in grants

Sound like fun? Apply here to join the panel and come check out some of the awesome projects builders are shipping at the edges.

-Joey

If you’re free, come hang and ask questions. Or just RSVP and we’ll send you the recording afterwards. 

Tomorrow, Tuesday at 9am PST - “Where to build next in AI”

With Justin Uberti (founder @ Fixie.ai) and Rohit Krishnan (investor, author of “Building God”). RSVP here.

Tomorrow, Tuesday at 10am PST - “Where to build next in crypto”

With Jackson Dahl (venture partner @ Paradigm), Soren Wrenn (founder @ Titles.xyz), and smac (partner @ Compound VC). RSVP here.

Cheers and happy building!

-Joey

Whether you’re in the program or not, we have some events next week that everyone in the Backdrop community is invited to attend. 

Workshop with the Stability team

Stability.ai is one of the hottest and most interesting companies in AI. They’re behind Stable Diffusion, the open source model leading the way in generative image. But what fewer people know is they have models specifically trained for code and audio as well. They’re also investing pretty heavily in crypto.

On Tuesday at 10am PST they are hosting a workshop for builders in the Backdrop community. Research scientist Nathan Cooper will be walking us through “LLMs for code and beyond” and Head of Quality Assurance Scott Detweiler will be presenting on “Using Comfy UI for Stable Diffusion XL.” RSVP here.

Fireside with Jesse Pollak, Dan Romero, and Rick Bhardwaj 

The Build week 2 fireside is going to be amazing. Jesse Pollak (creator of Base), Dan Romero (founder @ Farcaster), and Rick Bhardwaj (founder @ Guru.ai) and I will be jamming on “Finding early traction for frontier projects.” Going 0-1 in a rapidly changing environment requires some unique skills and mental models, and these three builders clearly know how to do it. RSVP here.

As always, happy building.

-Joey and the Backdrop team

P.S. if you're curious what people in the program are building, reach out

Joey DeBruin

@joey_debruin

I'll get more precise numbers soon but a high percentage of crypto projects in Build V2 are integrating AI in some form, significantly higher than V1.

Some general buckets:
- using AI agents to improve UX of interacting onchain
- using generative models to create onchain media…

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9:26 AM • Nov 11, 2023