Welcome to this week’s Beta Update 👋
*Note: You’re receiving this update because you previously registered for a Beta University–hosted or co-hosted event via our Luma calendar and opted in to receive communications from the hosts.
Saturday 4/18: MultiModel Hackathon with Beta Fund
Top 5 team will get a direct opportunity to demo on May 2nd with 50K Investment Checks and up to 80K Cash prize
Topics: AI Video Agents for Vertical Industries, AI-Powered Content Automation, Voice + Video AI Agents, AI DevTools for Video, Physical AI + Simulation
Sunday 4/19 to 4/27: AI Lab: Seed Agents Challenge with Beta Fund: $70K Cash Prizes
Early submission on 4/19, with travel sponsorship Top 20 teams receive covered flight and hotel for the May 2nd finale in Silicon Valley.
1st Place: $8,000, 2nd Place: $4,000, 3rd Place: $2,000
Beta Fund 2 Investment Checks up to $50,000
Track Winners: $1,000 (6 Winners)
Pitch to investors: Live feedback from partners at a16z, NEA, Mayfield, OpenAI, and Anthropic.
Saturday 5/2: Seed Agent Hackathon Grand Demo Day
20 Teams with 2 Panels, $80K on the line
P.S.: If you want to help support the next event, drop us a note at daniel@betauniversity.org for sponsorship inquiries.
Last week at Beta University, we had an online session with Ryan Green, Principal at Antler, we explored the critical mechanics of early-stage fundraising with a specific focus on the nuances between Capped and Uncapped SAFEs. Ryan emphasized that while valuation caps provide a necessary ceiling for investors, the decision between these instruments significantly impacts a startup’s long-term cap table health and future dilution. We dissected how founders should navigate these valuation discussions, ensuring they secure the necessary runway without over-leveraging their equity before reaching key product milestones.
Beyond the technicalities of term sheets, the conversation centered on storytelling as the ultimate differentiator for founders in the AI era. Ryan argued that while technical moats are increasingly fleeting, the ability to articulate a compelling, high-signal vision is what truly attracts tier-one capital. In an environment saturated with AI prototypes, the primary red flag for investors is a lack of narrative depth; therefore, mastering the art of the pitch is not just a soft skill, but a core requirement for scaling any venture in today’s competitive market.
We are moving beyond passive loops. The Seed Agents Challenge, hosted by Beta University, is a call to the world’s elite engineers to build autonomous agents that see, reason, and generate high-fidelity video in real-time. This is not about building “wrappers”; it is about defining the agentic frontier of AI video.
We have structured the competition across five strategic tracks to capture the full spectrum of generative video application:
Vertical AI Video Agents: Real estate, product demos, and compliance.
AI-Powered Content Automation: Scalable “always-on” marketing pipelines.
AI DevTools for Video: Infrastructure, SDKs, and evaluation systems.
Physical AI + Simulation: Synthetic training for robotics and autonomous systems.
Most Creative: Out-of-the-box multimodal applications using Seedance 2.0.
The incentives are designed to identify and accelerate high-potential founders, featuring a $20,000+ total cash prize pool. Furthermore, top teams are eligible for Beta Fund 2 investment checks up to $50,000 and will pitch live to partners from NEA, a16z, Mayfield, OpenAI, and Anthropic etc,.
To maintain technical integrity, all video generation must utilize BytePlus Seed models (Seed 2.0, Seedance 2.0, Seedream 5.0, or OmniHuman). Submissions require a precise 2-minute video: a 60-second live demo, followed by 30 seconds of technical architecture and 30 seconds of future vision.
April 19: Early Submission Deadline (Priority for flight/hotel sponsorship).
April 27: Final Hard Deadline for all submissions via Betahacks.org.
May 2: In-Person Finale in Silicon Valley—20 selected teams will demo for our investor network.
For API keys, credit release, and real-time updates, join our Discord for more information and updates!
Join the Builders Club, the official Discord hub for future Beta Fund Hackathons.
We are centralizing a high-signal community of founders and engineers. This isn’t just another chat server—it is the direct pipeline to our investment team and ecosystem partners.
What’s on the line:
Direct Investment: On-the-spot investment checks for exceptional projects.
Hardware & Capital: High-tier prizes including Cash, Mac Minis, and more.
GTM Support: Direct access to Beta Fund’s resources to help you scale and move from hack to startup.
If you are building at the edge, join us to connect with mentors, find co-founders, and secure the backing your project needs.
Cheers,
Beta University Team
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