Overall recommendations for Submissions

Most readers from the selection and voting panel will not read through every submission word for word. In most cases, they will understand your submission at a high level and the value it provides. If that sounds interesting, they will take a closer look.

Follow these four recommendations to help make your submission worth exploring:

🎯 | Be clear and to the point

Present the value of your project in the first sentence using clear and concise language. Don’t describe the history of the idea or problem in too much detail. Instead, keep it short and ensure you’re giving factual information. Avoid marketing-speak. The sooner the reader understands your submission and its value, the more likely they are to vote for it.

Don’t begin your submission with something like: "We are going to transform the relationship between individuals and impact investment." That sounds impressive, but it isn’t saying much. Instead, try something like: "A marketplace that empowers NFT creators to launch campaigns and split sales revenues with environmental causes."

Tip: After drafting your submission, read through it again (yourself and others if possible) and remove any unnecessary words and sentences. Clarity is key!

💡 | Explain what differentiates your solution

You want to start an NFT marketplace? Great! But how will you hold your own against popular competitors like OpenSea? What’s going to be distinctive about your solution? And why and how will you use Stellar?

Also, be honest by including the challenges and threats you're facing. If we think of a problem you don’t mention within the first few minutes of reading your submission, we’ll assume it’s because you haven’t thought of it.

It’s a common mistake to say the distinctive thing about your solution will be that it’s well-designed and easy to use. While this is great, try to be more specific. What, exactly, will you do to make your software easier to use? And is that enough to beat competitors?

Tip: Switch up your written content to include other mediums in your submission. Add a video, give access to voters to try out your project (e.g., through demos), and showcase your code. The voter panel is diverse, and each member has a unique preference for reviewing projects.

👥 | Showcase user validation and traction (with metrics)

User feedback and validation are highly valuable during all stages of development. It dictates your revenue and influences how you should build your project. For readers of your submission, knowing that users already like your solution increases the credibility of your project. Any traction you can already show can improve your submission tremendously, and remember, numbers are key!

If you have an established company that already has users, you can showcase user validation through user acquisition and retention, sales, reviews, and more.

If you're just starting out, getting feedback can be more difficult, but not impossible! Try building a simple MVP for testing purposes only (something bare-boned with the essential features) and have friends and family that somewhat fit the target audience profile test it and give feedback.

Winner of SCF#10 Beans, a non-custodial wallet on Stellar, focused on enhancing user experience and tested their beta version with 70-year-olds to determine if their solution is effective. In addition to helpful feedback, they received valuable user validation that helped them decide what to focus on.

💁‍♀️ | Proof that you're the best people for the job

Last but not least, it's about you: the founders and builders. No matter how great your idea is, you must convince the community you can make your project successful. What have you achieved before? Do you have unique (personal) insights about the problem you're solving? What experience do you have with Stellar so far? Let the community know who you are!

Include your project’s social media information (Discord, Twitter, LinkedIn) to the Team section of the submission and engage in the SCF Discord to start building traction with the community.

The following pages give guidance for specific sections of the submission form:

• Set the right budget

• Make your project stand out by adding the right additional project information