10X Founders Demo Day v2.0: Inspira Labs <> Yellow <> Cicada
10X Founders Demo Day v2.0: Inspira Labs <> Yellow <> Cicada
Here's what we learned running the first Demo Day: the hardest part of building early-stage Web3 isn't building. It's that every critical conversation: capital, chain, liquidity, security, distribution lives in a different room, and founders spend months collecting those rooms one intro at a time. Usually they get there later than they should.
So we built the room ourselves.
10X Founders Demo Day v2.0, created by Inspira Labs, Yellow and Cicada, puts together the most promising early-stage Web3 projects and putting them in front of the people who can actually move the needle.
A structured evaluation session: 8 selected founders, 5 minutes on stage + 2 of judge Q&A in front of active VCs and top domain experts. Everyone leaves with a scorecard and real introductions; the winner leaves with $150K+ in resources behind them.
If you're building something worth defending in public, we'd like to see it on August 25.
Total Reward Pool: $150,000+
The reward pool included the following: ecosystem grants and investments, acceleration, GTM support, SDK and advisory access, market making, audit credits, and media exposure.
We've assembled the resources founders need to build, launch, and scale.
How To Apply
Step 1 — Register through Luma and submit your application.
Step 2 — Repost the official announcement on X and introduce your project by tagging @InspiraLabsHQ, @Yellow, and @cicada_mm.
Step 3 — Wait for approval; selected projects will be notified directly via telegram by August 20
👉 All communication about approvals, preparation, and pitching details will happen via Telegram
Built for Founders Who
Has a working product or demonstrated early traction
Are looking for funding, ecosystem partnerships, or strategic guidance
Plans to launch a Token Generation Event (TGE) within the next 3–6 months
Are ready to present and defend their product in front of active investors and experienced operators
Values honest, actionable feedback over short-term exposure
VC Stage
██████ Connecting...
The VC lineup will be gradually revealed, starting July 27.
The Idea Behind 10X Founders
Working with early-stage teams daily, we kept hitting the same three walls.
Some founders can't see the gaps. The product works, but scaling, distribution, and the raise aren't on the radar yet. Others see them clearly but lack the leverage to close them: the playbook, the approach, the right people. And some have both covered, yet markets shift faster than roadmaps, and a product built without room to adapt gets outdated on the way to launch.
Most founders hit a mix of all three. A working product answers none of it; a product is one piece of a working company.
That's the issue 10X Founders started from. We show you what you can't see, hand you leverage for what you can, and pressure-test what you're building against where the market is actually going.
The proof
We didn't start with a thesis deck. We started by running it.
v1 earlier this year brought 150+ applications; 12 finalists, selected through multi-stage review; a judge panel spanning Varys Capital, Funders VC, Starknet Foundation, Magnus Capital, Coinsilium, and Draper Associates; and $125,000+ in grants, market-making, audits, GTM, and acceleration made available to founders.
Backyard Finance took the win unanimously.
But winning wasn't the story. What mattered were the conversations that continued after the event introductions turned into partnerships, feedback became product decisions, and new relationships opened doors that didn't exist before.
That was the proof we needed. The model worked.
Why v2.0?
The market seeks talents. v1 exposed the ceiling; more founders deserved that room than we could fit, and more ecosystems wanted seats at the table than we had slots. And isn't that a signal?
So v2 is doubled. Sonic anchors it as one of the fastest EVM chains in production, with top-notch companies as co-hosts across infrastructure, DeFi, security, media, and growth, and a reward pool built past $150,000—structured as resources founders actually use (grants, credits, services, and acceleration), not trophies.
Same belief as day one: the right room changes trajectories. We're just building a bigger room.
Food for the thought
Companies aren't built in seven minutes. But seven minutes in the right room can change what the next seven months look like.
See you on August 25~
Hosts
About Inspira Labs
Inspira Labs is a web3 venture studio and accelerator, working with early-stage founders on GTM, tokenomics, partnerships, and research across 1,000+ network partners.
inspira-labs.com | @InspiraLabsHQ
About Yellow
Yellow is Web3 infrastructure powered by state-channel technology, enabling real-time, non-custodial settlement and cross-chain trading without intermediaries or on-chain congestion.
About Cicada
Cicada manages the market side of Web3 growth, from market-making and listing prep to KOL marketing and tokenomics design paired with audits.
Anchor Partner
About Sonic
Sonic, formerly Fantom, serves as the Anchor Partner, bringing the strategic weight of a high-performance, EVM-compatible Layer 1 ecosystem.
Built for scalable, production-ready applications, Sonic combines sub-second finality, near-zero transaction costs, and a developer environment designed to support projects from deployment through sustained ecosystem growth.
Co-Hosts
About Injective
Injective is a lightning-fast, interoperable layer-one blockchain optimized for building premier Web3 finance applications. Injective provides developers with powerful plug-and-play modules for creating unmatched dApps.
About Cointelegraph Accelerator
Cointelegraph Accelerator helps post-MVP blockchain companies turn early traction into scalable businesses, successful token launches, and their next fundraising milestone.
cointelegraph-accelerate.com | @CointelegraphAc
About Galxe
Galxe is the leading Web3 credential and growth platform, powering quests and on-chain community campaigns for thousands of projects.
About Cryptic
Cryptic is a Web3 marketing agency and a crypto marketing agency in the full sense: From strategy to execution, Cryptic helps blockchain projects build, launch, and scale.
crypticweb3.com | @Cryptic_Web3
About Hacken
Hacken is one of Web3's most established cybersecurity firms, running audits and security monitoring trusted across token launches and listings.
About Atlas - Backed by CMC
First-party price feeds sourced directly from 905+ exchanges, validated through a four-layer stack built to stop oracle manipulation.
atlasoracle.io | @AtlasOracleX
About 1inch
1inch is one of DeFi's most established names, a DEX aggregator finding users the best swap rates across the market.
Media Partners
Bitcoin.com
One of crypto's longest-running, most-visited media platforms, reaching a global audience well beyond the usual Web3 bubble.
Cointelegraph
One of crypto's most widely read media brands, reaching millions with daily news and market coverage.
cointelegraph.com | @Cointelegraph
CoinMarketCap
The industry's leading crypto data platform, trusted by millions of users worldwide for market intelligence, token discovery, and ecosystem insights.
coinmarketcap.com | @CoinMarketCap
Cryptorank
A leading crypto data and analytics platform, tracking prices, market data, and fundraising rounds industry-wide.
cryptorank.io | @CryptoRank_io
Incrypted
The top crypto media outlet in Ukraine and Eastern Europe's largest crypto community, with reach into the CIS builder pipeline.
NS3.AI
NS3 is an AI-powered crypto news intelligence platform. AI reads every article from 20+ trusted media in real time, classifies it by importance, generates structured analysis, and delivers everything in 16 languages.