Venture 313 Buildathon & Showcase 2026

Join TechTown Detroit, Invest Detroit Ventures, the Detroit Development Fund, the Gilbert Family Foundation, and the City of Detroit for five days of building real solutions to Detroit’s biggest challenges no experience required.

This setembro, builders, dreamers, and product developers from across Detroit come together to design and ship digital tools that address real municipal challenges. Hosted by Venture 313 in partnership with the City of Detroit, the Buildathon anchors Detroit Homecoming week as its opening act.

Applications open agosto 20. From there, you’ll spend two days getting oriented and trained on the latest AI-assisted development tools Claude Code, Lovable, ChatGPT, GitHub, and Vercel before diving into a build weekend where your team turns an idea into a working product.

Pick your challenge.

Teams choose a category to build against:

• Safe, Just & Thriving Neighborhoods
• Community & Public Health
• Reliable Transportation, Infrastructure & Sustainability
• Open, Accessible & Responsible Government
• Future of Education & Youth Opportunities
• Future of Detroit: Physical AI, cross-border opportunity, the waterfront, sport, entertainment & media

No prior software experience is required. The education is built in, and teams form on-site — so whether you’re a coder, a designer, a student, or someone who’s never written a line of code, there’s a seat for you.

At the Showcase, you’ll pitch your working product to a live audience and a panel of judges.

$50,000 total is up for grabs:

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$25,000 for 1st place

$15,000 for 2nd place

$10,000 for 3rd place

$2,500 for People’s Choice

Awards are delivered as a mix of cash and product development grants through Venture 313 and its partners.

Register now to apply and claim your spot!