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  • Timeline
  • Prizes
  • Judges
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  • FAQ
  • Startup Challenge 2026
  • What's Required
  • Timeline
  • Prizes
  • Judges
  • Resources
  • Official Rules
  • FAQ
  • Startup Challenge 2026

FUEL AI INNOVATION AND WIN GLOBAL EXPOSURE, PLUS UP TO $1 MILLION INVESTMENTS IN THREE STARTUPS

 

 

Are you up for
THE Challenge?

Snowflake and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) join forces once again to ignite innovation and empower Al startups around the world with the Snowflake Startup Challenge! The Snowflake Startup Challenge is a contest for early-stage startups that are building innovative applications and products powered by Snowflake’s Al Data Cloud. The winner and finalists may receive up to $1 million in investments from Snowflake, mentorship from industry leaders at NYSE-listed companies, along with global exposure, and the opportunity to ring the NYSE Bell!

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Thanks for your interest in the Startup Challenge 2026! We’ll notify you with details about next year’s challenge as it gets closer.

WHAT’S REQUIRED?

  • Build an application that is dependent on Snowflake as a core part of its architecture
  • Submit a demo video (up to five minutes) and a description of your application before the deadline
  • Semifinalists will be required to submit an investor-pitch video recording (up to five minutes) and provide access to their application
  • Be an entity with less than $5 million in cash funding and that has not received any cash funding through the sale of equity securities, including through a Series A or other priced round of funding

Review the official rules and FAQ for more details.

THE TIMELINE

October 14, 2024
Submission window open
March 1, 2025
Deadline for submissions
April 2025
Top 10 semi-finalists announced
May 2025
Top 3 finalists announced
June 2025
Live pitch with top 3 finalists and winner announced at Summit

THE Prizes

Up to
$500,000
Potential investment
Additional marketing opportunities from Snowflake and NYSE
(Plus finalist prizes)

Up to
$250,000
Potential investment
Feature on select marketing channels
Present at Snowflake Summit and 2 Summit passes
1:1 meeting with the CEO of Snowflake
Receive dedicated mentorship from an industry leader at a company listed on the NYSE
Ring the NYSE bell
(Plus semi-finalist prize)

Blog featuring your application and team

THE JUDGES

Denise serves as Snowflake’s Chief Marketing Officer and has been with the company since 2016. Denise oversees worldwide marketing initiatives, and has played a pivotal role in driving growth and scaling Snowflake’s revenue from $1 million to over $2 billion.

Denise has over 25 years of technology marketing experience at high-growth companies. Prior to joining Snowflake, she served as CMO for Apigee, an API platform company that went public in 2015 and Google acquired in 2016. She began her career at collaboration software company Genesys, where she built and led a global marketing organization. Denise also helped lead Genesys through its expansion to become a successful IPO and acquired company. Denise holds a BA in Business Administration and Economics from Stockholm University, and holds an MBA from Georgetown University.

Denise Persson

Chief Marketing Officer

Snowflake

Denise Persson

Chief Marketing Officer

Snowflake

Benoit Dageville co-founded Snowflake and currently serves as President of Products. He oversees the company’s technical strategy and leads a team of engineers, product managers, and designers who are making data easily accessible and actionable to everyone.

Benoit is a leading expert in parallel execution and self-tuning database systems. Prior to founding Snowflake, Benoit was with Oracle for over 10 years as a lead architect for parallel execution in Oracle RAC and a key architect in the SQL Manageability group. Prior to Oracle, Benoit worked at Bull Information Systems. He helped define the architecture and lead database performance efforts for Bull’s parallel systems. Benoit has a PhD in Computer Science with a focus in Parallel Database Systems from Université de Paris VI and is a named inventor on more than 270 patents.

Benoit Dageville

Co-Founder & President of Products

Snowflake

Benoit Dageville

Co-Founder & President of Products

Snowflake

Sarah Guo is the Founder and Managing Partner at Conviction, a venture capital firm founded in 2022 to invest in intelligent software, or “Software 3.0.” Prior, she spent a decade as a General Partner at Greylock Partners. She has been an early investor or advisor to 40+ companies in software, fintech, security, infrastructure, fundamental research, and AI-native applications. Sarah is from Wisconsin, has four degrees from University of Pennsylvania, and lives in the Bay Area with her husband, two daughters and son. She co-hosts the AI podcast “No Priors” with Elad Gil

Sarah Guo

Founder and Managing Partner Conviction

Sarah Guo

Founder and Managing Partner Conviction

Jon Herrick is the Chief Product Officer for the New York Stock Exchange, a part of
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), responsible for product development and
innovation across all areas of the exchange’s business. In his role, Jon oversees the NYSE’s
transactions, ETF listings and market data businesses, driving competitive strategy and
distribution. Previously, Jon served as the NYSE’s Head of Markets, leading the NYSE’s equities and
options businesses across its seven exchanges and three trading floors. Earlier, Jon was the
exchange’s Head of Equities.
For more than a decade, Jon held senior roles at several prominent proprietary trading firms
including GETCO, which acquired Knight Capital to become KCG Holdings; Sun Trading,
which was acquired by Hudson River Trading; and most recently Quantlab.
Jon holds a B.A. from the State University of New York, College at Oswego and currently
serves on the Board of Directors at DTCC.

Jon Herrick

Chief Product Officer

New York Stock Exchange

Jon Herrick

Chief Product Officer

New York Stock Exchange

What WE’re Looking for

Business Potential

What is the market opportunity? Does it address an unmet need? How does it complement Snowflake?

Innovation

How unique is your application? How are you disrupting the world with AI?

Snowflake Leverage

How does the startup leverage Snowflake? Does it leverage a broad set of Snowflake features?

The Team

Does your leadership team have the experience required and ability to execute? 

HEAR FROM OUR
PREVIOUS WINNERS

“The Startup Challenge is really the gift that keeps on giving. We just raised a massive Series A, and it started the day after winning the Challenge and being onstage. The exposure is second to none. [Snowflake] is really telling the story that if you build on top of Snowflake you’re better, faster, stronger, more valuable. I think these companies are going to benefit a lot from that.”

Raphael Steinman

Co-CEO, Maxa

“The Snowflake Startup Challenge transformed our business from the moment we applied. It united our team, sharpened our market positioning and drove significant inbound interest. Reaching the top 3 helped close crucial deals, and winning helped us double our sales since the contest began. The investor interest we’ve gained allows us to be more selective in choosing the right partners to help drive our growth.”

Michael Lukianoff

Founder and CEO, SignalFlare.ai

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