Team And Tech Overview | Funding the Commons SF: Intelligence at the Frontier
Build frontier intelligence in service of human flourishing.
Tech & Team Formation Overview
Intelligence at the Frontier Hackathon — Frontier Tower, San Francisco
Before the hacking begins, join us for a Tech & Team Formation Overview designed to help builders quickly understand the technical landscape, connect with collaborators, and form strong teams for the weekend.
This session will introduce the core problem spaces, infrastructure, and tooling available during the hackathon, helping participants move from idea → prototype as quickly as possible. If you’re arriving with an idea, this is the place to find the right teammates. If you’re arriving solo, this is the fastest way to plug into a high-impact project.
Expect a fast-paced walkthrough of the four hackathon tracks, along with guidance on how to build projects that move beyond concept into working systems and real-world demos.
What we’ll cover:
Track Overview
A concise introduction to the four tracks—Physical AI & Robotics, Agentic Funding & Coordination, AI Safety & Evaluation, and Sovereign Infrastructure—with examples of the types of prototypes we’re excited to see.Available Technology & Hardware
Overview of the tools, infrastructure, and platforms available to builders throughout the weekend—including robotics systems, AI models, decentralized infrastructure, and evaluation frameworks.Team Formation
Participants will introduce themselves, share project ideas, and form teams across disciplines—AI engineers, roboticists, protocol builders, designers, and researchers.Build Strategy for the Weekend
Guidance on how to structure your project so that by the end of the hackathon you have:
• A working prototype
• A live demo or system demonstration
• Clear articulation of the problem, approach, and impact
This session sets the stage for the entire weekend: aligning builders around meaningful problems and accelerating collaboration from the very first hour.
If you want to build frontier intelligence in service of human flourishing, this is where your team starts.
👉 Join our Discord.
The Tracks
Projects must align with one of four tracks:
🤖 Physical AI & Robotics
AI systems that control real hardware—robots, drones, lab equipment, factory tools, or other physical machines. We want systems that operate outside the browser and interact directly with the physical world.
🧠 Agentic Funding & Coordination
What happens when agents can hold budgets, evaluate proposals, move capital, and make funding decisions? Build systems where AI can allocate resources, manage treasuries, distribute grants, or coordinate contributors—with clear rules and verifiable outcomes.
🛡️ AI Safety & Evaluation
Build tools that catch real failures in deployed AI systems—security vulnerabilities, prompt injection risks, evaluation gaming, deception, or runtime misbehavior. Strong projects define a specific failure mode and produce a reusable evaluation, monitoring system, or audit framework others can run.
🌐 Sovereign Infrastructure
Infrastructure that enables independent identity, coordination, and compute without relying on centralized gatekeepers. This includes verifiable identity systems, decentralized compute networks, governance mechanisms, and coordination tools that remain operational under real-world constraints.
Registration & Approval Process
This is a curated hackathon with limited spots.
When applying, you must create a DevSpot profile:
👉 https://devspot.app/
DevSpot is where team formation and final submissions happen. You’ll need an account there to participate.
Step 1: Apply on Luma.
This page is your formal application.
Step 2: Get approved.
Selected builders will receive an approval email and access to the official DevSpot hackathon page to register their team and submit their project.
Spots are limited. If you’re building at the frontier, apply early and come ready to ship.
👉 Join our Discord.
Presented by Funding the Commons, Frontier Tower, and Protocol Labs.
Supported by ElevenLabs, Bittensor, Solana, Redwood North, BittensorCommons.org, VESSL.AI, Velda, activeloop, Solo Tech, Learning Layer Labs, Lit Protocol, and KikiTora.