The Cold Start pitch competition 2026

The Cold Start is a pitch competition from Cloudflare. It selects five startups to present live at Cloudflare Connect. Judges award one startup USD 500,000 in Cloudflare platform credits, a San Francisco billboard, and an invitation to the VIP speakers dinner. The audience awards another startup USD 100,000 in Cloudflare credits. Credits last twelve months from the award date. The billboard has an approximate retail value of USD 100,000. The dinner invitation has an approximate retail value of USD 200.

You must be a legal resident of the United States or Canada and 18 or older as of 10 September 2026. Your company must have raised less than USD 10,000,000 and must have a real product or working prototype. Stealth, waitlist only, and idea only projects cannot enter. Weapons, sexual content, political content, and illegal activity are out. Cloudflare employees and people in their households cannot enter. Employees of a government department, agency, public enterprise, or state owned entity cannot enter. Each entrant may send one application.

Apply with the form named in the official rules. The application must describe how Cloudflare fits the product and must use the Cloudflare developer platform. Cloudflare may cover travel and a hotel for up to two people from each finalist. Winners must be physically present at Cloudflare Connect.

The contest opened on 10 September 2026 at 9:00am PDT and closes on 2 October 2026 at 11:59pm PDT. Five finalists each get ten minutes on stage at Moscone West in San Francisco on 19 October 2026. Judges score product quality, market opportunity and traction, team and pitch strength, the range of Cloudflare products used, and the mix of industries. Cloudflare announced the competition on 28 September 2026.