Community Update: empowering startups building on Cloudflare and creating an inclusive community

Post Syndicated from Ricky Robinett original https://blog.cloudflare.com/2024-community-update


With millions of developers around the world building on Cloudflare, we are constantly inspired by what you all are building with us. Every Developer Week, we’re excited to get your hands on new products and features that can help you be more productive, and creative, with what you’re building. But we know our job doesn’t end when we put new products and features in your hands during Developer Week. We also need to cultivate welcoming community spaces where you can come get help, share what you’re building, and meet other developers building with Cloudflare.

We’re excited to close out Developer Week by sharing updates on our Workers Launchpad program, our latest Developer Challenge, and the work we’re doing to ensure our community spaces – like our Discord and Community forums – are safe and inclusive for all developers.

Helping startups go further with Workers Launchpad

In late 2022, we initiated the $2 billion Workers Launchpad Funding Program aimed at aiding the more than one million developers who use Cloudflare’s Developer Platform. This initiative particularly benefits startups that are investing in building on Cloudflare to propel their business growth.

The Workers Launchpad Program offers a variety of resources to help builders scale faster and reach more customers. The program includes, but is not limited to:

  • Fostering a community of like-minded founders
  • Facilitating introductions to the Launchpad’s VC partner network of 40+ leading investors
  • Company-building support and mentorship through virtual Founders Bootcamp sessions
  • Organizing technical office hours with our engineers
  • Access to preview upcoming Cloudflare products and Product Managers
  • Culminating in a Demo Day, for participants to share their stories globally with investors and prospective customers.

So far, 50 amazing startups from 13 countries have successfully graduated from the Workers Launchpad program. We finished up Cohort #1 in March 2023, and Cohort #2 wrapped up August 2023.

Meet Cohort #3 of the Workers Launchpad!

Since the end of Cohort #2, we have received hundreds of new applications from startups across the globe. Startup applicants showcased incredible tools and software across a variety of industries, including AI, SaaS, Supply Chain, Media, Gaming, Hospitality, and Developer Productivity. While we were encouraged by this wave of applicants’ ability to build amazing technology, there were a few that stood out that are leveraging Cloudflare’s Developer Suite to scale their business.

With that being said, we would like to introduce you to the 29 startups that have been chosen to participate in Cohort #3 of Workers Launchpad:

Below, you will find a brief summary of what problems these startups are looking to solve:

Autoblocks AI Evaluation & testing platform to improve AI product quality.
BEAM (By Mass Luminosity) A next-gen live streaming platform that elevates creator-viewer interactions to the next level.
BentoML Run any AI model in your cloud.
bohr.io An easy and fast development platform.
Cloneable Provides low/no-code tools to build and deploy applications to any device, instantly.
CleverEV Manage EV charging infrastructure and experience for clients.
Dulia Managed edge powered serverless AI platform.
Erxes Open-source experience operating system empowering businesses.
Exporio AI-first A/B testing and personalization platform.
Helicone GenAI observability platform built for developers.
Houdini An end-to-end solution for building and deploying GraphQL applications.
Intelligage Humanize your AI for customers.
Langbase Ship hyper-personalized AI apps in seconds — any LLM, any data, any developer.
Milkshake Create websites via mobile within minutes.
Nadrama Kubernetes PaaS in your cloud account, in minutes.
NuxtHub (by NuxtLabs) Build full-stack applications on Cloudflare with zero configuration.
Panaptico High performance networking fabrics for specialized workloads.
Playroom Platform for game developers to build multiplayer games in minutes.
Puzzle Labs P2P, prompt-first knowledge base for teams to collaborate with AI.
Resilis Intelligent edge caching for REST APIs.
Scrappi A better way to collect, create and collaborate.
Starlight Labs AI native game studio.
T4 Stack Ship feature parity on universal apps.
TextCortex AI AI copilot platform to leverage the power of easy customization and integration.
Toothless Build GenAI-powered workflow automation and internal tools in minutes.
Unfetch Generate and run scripts with AI to complete tasks within seconds.
Unkey Redefines API management for developers. Add authentication, analytics, and rate-limiting to your APIs in minutes.
Unnug Transformative cloud compiler with an emphasis on user on-premises, cloud, and edge resources.
Wope AI-powered marketing agent that leverages Gen AI to optimize businesses’ online presence and drive more traffic.

The Cloudflare team is looking forward to working with Cohort #3 participants and sharing what they are building on Cloudflare. To follow along with Cohort #3 of Workers Launchpad, follow @CloudflareDev and join our Developer Discord server.

Are you a startup and interested in joining Cohort #4? Apply here!

AI developer challenge

Now that Workers AI is GA, we’re excited to see what our community can build.  We’ve teamed up with our friends at DEV who will be running an AI Developer challenge, which officially launched on Wednesday, April 3, and runs until Sunday, April 14, 2024, when submissions close.

For this challenge, you will build a Workers AI application that makes use of AI task types from Cloudflare’s growing catalog of Open Models. Apps will be evaluated on innovation, creativity, and demonstration of underlying technology with prizes awarded by DEV for the best overall app, as well as projects leveraging multiple models and tasks. For more information and details on how to participate, including DEV’s rules and requirements, head over to the official challenge page.

Creating an inclusive community

Our community has been growing really fast over the past year, so fast that it’s becoming more difficult to welcome each new member that joins our Discord server every day, and Developer Week has always been one of the main drivers of this growth.

When you come into the Cloudflare developer community, it’s important to us that you’re entering a space that is safe and welcoming. Even though we already have rules for the server and community forums, we needed guidelines for our community programs, so that’s why we’ve created a new Code of Conduct that promotes inclusivity, respect, and will help us create a better community for everyone.

Do you want to be part of this and help us create a more inclusive and helpful community? Then please share your feedback and tell us what you would like to see improved in our community and our Discord server in this thread.