Four times a year, Culture Silicon locks the doors at WePlay Inglewood and the community builds for 48 hours straight. Open kickoff Friday. Demo Sunday. Three categorical winners. $75K cash prize pool, sponsor-funded. $50K Founders Fund SAFE on offer to the Grand Prize team. Members attend free. The Build is where strangers become co-founders and ideas become companies — same weekend.
Cohort 1 graduates ship in 48 hours. Public can attend.
The Cohort 1 Founders 100 finish their 36-week pathway on July 29. Two days later, we lock the doors at WePlay Inglewood and they build for 48 hours alongside members of Foundation/Builder/Sovereign tiers and a public day-pass cohort. Open stack — ship anything that uses Culture Silicon tech: Next.js, Supabase, Stripe, Ollama, your own master catalog, your own LLC. Three categorical winners: Best Build · Cultural Build · Best Use of Sponsor Tech. Top 3 split a $75K cash pool + optional $50K SAFE from the Founders Fund.
We do not run winner-takes-all. Three categorical prizes ship together so the room celebrates plural excellence. Plus one Best Use Of Tech award per Founder-tier sponsor.
Optional $50K SAFE from the Culture Silicon Founders Fund · Lifetime Sovereign tier · Permanent Hall of Champions placement
Awarded to the team that ships the most production-ready, highest-leverage build. Judged on technical execution, business viability, and cultural alignment. Founders Fund SAFE is offered, never required.
1500 Sound Academy visit · 6 months personal mentorship from Rance · Featured in the Hall of Champions
Awarded to the build that most directly serves the culture — solves a real problem for Black, Brown, and overlooked creators. Judged on impact and clarity of vision over commercial scale.
Sponsor-specific prize package (Stripe credits, Vercel Pro, OpenAI/Anthropic credits, Bolt invite, etc.)
One award per Founder-tier sponsor. Awarded to the team that most creatively integrates the sponsor stack into their build. Sponsor judges select.
Cohort 1 graduates ship in 48 hours. Public can attend.
KICKOFF IN
90 days
Build the tools that put masters back in artists hands.
KICKOFF IN
146 days
Tools that run on your laptop. Zero paid APIs. All yours.
KICKOFF IN
216 days
One year of Culture Silicon. Build whatever you want.
KICKOFF IN
328 days
Sponsor packages fund the entire prize pool. In return: the most concentrated source of Black/Brown technical talent in the country, brand association with culture, and first-look access to every winning team. Founder tier locks the year. Builder tier locks one event.
$50,000
$15,000
$5,000
First champions crowned Summer 2026.
The Hall stays empty until the Cohort 1 Graduation Build closes August 2, 2026. From that moment forward, every winning team gets photographed for the Hall, every participant gets a permanent receipt on their /u/[handle] Wall, and the project gallery opens to public archive view.
Members register free for every Build. Public day-passes available. Sponsor inquiries to sponsors@culturesilicon.com. Build inquiries to build@culturesilicon.com.