Startup Village Borneo
Shipping is the easy part now. AI can write the code. The hard part is finding real users, telling a story people remember, and getting in front of the people who can fund you. Startup Village Borneo is five days built around exactly that, co-hosted with Solana Foundation and SOCOE.
From 5 to 9 September 2026, we are bringing builders from around the world, a mix of international founders, digital nomads, and Malaysian talent, to Kuching, Sarawak for an immersive programme that ends in a public Demo Day.
This is not a hackathon but an immersive startup experience. You arrive as a builder and leave as a founder with a product, a network, and real early traction.
Here is how the week runs:
- Day one you land and we throw you into an Amazing Race across Kuching, because you should actually see the place and meet the people you will be building with.
- Day two we open with the Solana Foundation and SOCOE, then get to work on finding a problem worth solving, understanding real users, and framing your market.
- Day three is heads-down building, and then you take your product into the streets of Kuching to win your first 10 users.
- Day four is storytelling: go-to-market, distribution, deck, the one-liner, and a live roast of your pitch.
- Day five is Demo Day, in front of a room of investors, partners, and government.
You will build alongside the people who actually move the Solana ecosystem. Mentors, speakers, and judges across the week come from the Solana Foundation, SOCOE, Superscrypt, the Solana Ecosystem Call, Impossible Finance, Rarible, MonkeDAO and MonkeFoundry, Elfa AI, TankDAO, Virtuals, Sanctum, No Limit Holdings and RedotsClub.
Other partners: BESarawak
Startup Village Borneo runs straight into Colosseum Fall season, so the product, the traction, and the story you build here are the ones you carry into your submission. If you are serious about building on Solana, this is where you get your head start.
There is a USD 10,000 prize pool, and accommodation and F&B are covered for the week. You just need to fly in.
Update (17 Aug): our accommodation allocation is now full. We are still accepting applications from builders who can arrange their own stay in Kuching, whether you are already based here or happy to book your own place. Food across the programme is still covered, and everything else about the week is unchanged.
You will leave with a shipped product, your first real users, a sharper pitch, direct relationships with Solana ecosystem partners and investors, and five days in one of Southeast Asia's most underrated cities.
Spots are limited and we are keeping the cohort small on purpose, so everyone gets real mentor time. Apply now and come build your next thing from Borneo.