Colosseum Codex: Helius Startup Launchpad, Solflare Guards, VORTX
Helius Startup Launchpad, Solflare Guards, VORTX, AI Hackathon Projects, Solana Games, Agent Kit
🚀 Helius Startup Launchpad
The Helius Startup Launchpad is a new program to turn Solana builders into full-fledged startup founders.
Alongside engineering support, the program offers resources for fundraising, sales, and overall business strategy, which are critical areas that many early-stage crypto teams struggle with.
Benefit for participants include:
- 8 months of free Business tier access on Helius
- Exclusive discounts and perks from industry-leading partners
- Mentorship from veteran Solana operators and investors
- Private working groups, educational sessions
- Introductions to top VCs
To qualify, founders should have some working product or proof of concept, although pre-seed or seed-stage teams (and even earlier) are also encouraged to apply.
All Colosseum Accelerator founders will have automatic access to the launchpad.
By combining technical infrastructure with real-world mentorship, the Launchpad aims to help Solana startups accelerate product development and build a sustainable business.
Announcing the Helius Startup Launchpad
💂♀️ Solflare Guards
Solflare’s new Guards feature tackles a major concern in the Solana ecosystem: malicious dApps, hidden tx fees, and unauthorized actions to exploit users.
Guards provides real-time monitoring of every external transaction, automatically warning you if there’s anything suspicious such as airdrops that are actually wallet drainers, scam sites posing as legitimate apps, or token delegation exploits that slip under the radar.
Guards even helps protect hardware wallets like Ledger and Keystone when they’re connected.
This higher level of trust and safety will help encourage broader adoption of Solana-based projects, strengthening the entire ecosystem.
🤠 VORTX
VORTX is an exclusive community spearheaded by Allmight and Superteam, designed to make Texas a vibrant hub for Solana builders.
By gathering top talent, serious capital, and dynamic culture, VORTX aims to transform the Lone Star State into a Solana stronghold.
Members can look forward to networking events, grants, and co-working opportunities, all centered around accelerating Solana-focused innovation.
Although small, VORTX is “stacked” with elite developers, founders, designers, and ecosystem contributors, each dedicated to pushing crypto forward.
Builders that want to be a part of this network can apply for VORTX membership and join the movement.
⚡ Quick Hits
Discover all 400+ agentic projects built during the Solana AI Hackathon across 8 tracks - @sendaifun
Dev Tips: Write Contention - @blockiosaurus
Building Trust on Solana: Everything You Need to Know About Solana Verifiable Builds [VIDEO] - Olumide Micheal
How to Position Yourself in This Agentic Cycle - @Defi0xJeff
Range announces advanced Solana-native real-time simulation API - @RangeSecurity
10 Solana games you can play today - @solana
Sanctum launches Creator Coins beta - @sanctumso
⚙️ Tools & Resources
Solana Agent Kit is an open-source toolkit for connecting AI agents to Solana protocols to trade and launch tokens, send compressed airdrops, execute blinks, and more.
Solana Summarizer is a Python script that crawls top Solana blogs, docs, and GitHub repos to produce a flat file that could be used to create a Solana-smart LLM.
lut.rs is an Anchor interface for address lookup tables.
👩🔧 Get Hired
- Asymmetric Research is hiring a Technical Project Manager to lead the professional services security portfolio
- Arka is hiring a Web3 Engineer to develop and maintain decentralized dApps
- Phantom is hiring a Senior Software Engineer, Full-Stack to help build Phantom Extension and website
🎧 Listen to This
Unchained
2024 was a transformative year for Solana. With a surge in developer activity, bold innovations in DePIN, and its ambitions to become a “decentralized Nasdaq,” the ecosystem is making waves.
But are these changes enough to differentiate it from competitors like Ethereum and L2 solutions such as Base?
In this episode, Lily Liu, president of the Solana Foundation, and Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius, join Unchained to discuss how Solana is carving out its niche.
They debate whether Base is a serious contender, why they’re not concerned about the 2025 token unlocks, and how Solana’s unique approach to MEV could shape its future.
Plus, they tackle the ecosystem’s broader challenges and why they believe Solana’s vision will endure.
2024 Was Solana's Best Year Yet. Can It Sustain the Momentum in 2025?
Bonus Episodes
What Solana Needs To Fix | Max Resnick - Lightspeed
This week Max Resnick to discusses why he left the Ethereum ecosystem to focus on Solana, a deep dive into joining Anza, what Solana needs to fix to be successful, will Solana or Ethereum ever be considered money, the Firedancer impact & more.
Luca Netz on the Pudgy Penguin Airdrop - Empire
Pudgy Penguins founder Luca Netz unpacks the recent Pengu token launch, the challenges of fundraising for IP projects, strategic decisions around launching on Solana versus Abstract L2, and how the project aims to transcend traditional memecoins to become a cultural phenomenon.
Follow @mikehale on X or Warpcast!
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