Patronage
Ten thousand, in advance of the work.
At gatherings where attention runs deep — olympiads, collegiate finals, research symposia — we award a single grant of $10,000. It funds nothing in particular. It is, instead, an early signal that the work has been seen.
- Upcoming
- 04
- Recent
- 04
- Rolling
- 01
I.The prize
A single envelope.
At every event we sponsor we award one grant of $10,000. Not a list of finalists. Not a tier of placeholders. One envelope, handed to one recipient, with a short letter explaining why.
The judging panel — usually faculty or organizers we trust — selects the recipient on a single criterion: the work that shows the deepest signal in the room. Originality of approach. Refusal of the easy abstraction. Evidence of attention that has been spent, not improvised.
There is no obligation attached. We do not become an investor. We do not ask for a meeting. The recipient is free to spend the money on a flight, a textbook, a year of rent, or nothing at all.
II.Where we show up
A partial register.
The list below is partial by design. The events we attend are chosen quietly, often on the recommendation of a previous recipient. We add to it slowly.
- 01
International Mathematical Olympiad
Sun City, South Africa
Grant for the contestant whose proof the judging panel calls most original.
UpcomingJul 2026 - 02
International Olympiad in Informatics
Sucre, Bolivia
Awarded to the entrant whose solution path is furthest from the reference implementation.
UpcomingAug 2026 - 03
Hack the North
Waterloo, Ontario
Grant for the project whose architecture choices reveal the deepest first-principles thinking.
UpcomingSep 2026 - 04
ICPC World Finals
Astana, Kazakhstan
Awarded to the contestant whose problem-solving cadence surprised the judges most.
UpcomingOct 2026 - 05
Research grants — open submission
Anywhere
Discretionary grants for solo researchers whose work falls outside the obvious institution.
RollingRolling - 06
MIT EECS Senior Symposium
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Granted to a graduating senior whose advisor describes the work as unreasonable in its depth.
RecentMay 2026 - 07
Putnam Competition
United States · Canada
Awarded to a participant who solved a problem in a way the judges had not seen before.
RecentDec 2025 - 08
AI Engineer Summit
San Francisco, California
Granted to the demo whose evaluation methodology was the most rigorous in the room.
RecentFeb 2026 - 09
Cambridge Computing Symposium
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Awarded to a postgraduate whose research bridged two fields the audience had not paired before.
RecentMar 2026
III.Why ten thousand
The smallest unit of the firm's idiom.
We invest at $10,000,000 or at $10,000,000,000. We sponsor at $10,000. The rest is ratio. The choice to scale in factors of a thousand is, for us, a working discipline — one that keeps the firm's attention on a small number of things, large.
A larger argument lies behind it. The economies of the next century will be built, disproportionately, by minds that compress on signal — engineers and scientists whose cognition runs at a depth the standard institutional ladder has historically failed to recognize at first sight. We try to recognize them earlier. Sometimes the recognition is a check. Sometimes it is an envelope.
Either way, the act is the same: an early statement, in money, that the work has been seen.
On the work
“The future is built, disproportionately, by the people who have always seen it a little differently. We try to find them earlier.”
IV.Nominate
If someone ought to be seen.
If you organize a competition, an olympiad, or a symposium where this kind of recognition would matter, write to us. If you know someone whose work belongs in the next envelope, write to us as well. Two paragraphs are enough. Ornament is not required.
Organizers
events@a10.vcNominations
nominate@a10.vcWe respond to every credible note within ten business days. Submissions are considered in private. The recipient is named, with their consent; the panel is not.