Associate
ColosseumCheck size: Colosseum's published accelerator investment is $250K pre-seed for accepted teams; it is a program-level standard, not Michael's personal discretionary check. Current materials say hackathon winners are interviewed and considered, with accepted teams receiving capital, mentorship and network access. Earlier official content described 7% terms; founders must verify the current instrument, percentage and token/equity structure.
Michael's lens combines markets research with Colosseum's tournament-style venture funnel: use global hackathons and four-week build sprints to observe which founders ship, learn and attract users before investing. He is interested in Solana products that exploit crypto-native primitives rather than append tokens to conventional software—especially futarchy and market-protected capital formation, tokenized cash-flowing assets, sophisticated trading tools, privacy-enabled settlement and AI-enabled onchain agents. He treats tokens as useful when distribution, user alignment, liquidity and governance matter, but recognizes that early public prices can distract pre-product teams and that long-horizon capital-intensive companies fit equity better.
Founders drawn to open competition who can ship a working product rapidly; strong technical depth plus a simple explanation of the market, problem and why it matters; early user conversations, usage, community or open-source adoption; teams that iterate repeatedly in a vertical rather than submitting a one-off idea; crypto-native mechanisms that replace trust with markets, escrow or verifiability; AI-assisted builders whose output quality exceeds their formal background; and products that align users economically through thoughtful token design.
Ideas presented as recipes rather than products tested with users; projects that cannot demonstrate technical depth, clarity or progress during the sprint; tokens driven only by speculation and without cash-flow, distribution or governance value; faux AI agents that are just an API call, wallet and social account without accountable agency; governance products whose customers will not surrender control; capital-intensive, long-horizon companies forced into an ill-fitting liquid-token structure; and hackathon submissions that ignore why Solana or another blockchain is essential.
The primary path is demonstrated execution, not a cold deck: enter the applicable Colosseum hackathon or Eternal/product-sprint program, ship within the deadline, publish progress and earn an interview. The submission should explain the target market, problem scale, why the product needs crypto, relevant founder insight, technical architecture, live demo/GitHub, user conversations and early usage. For Michael's current themes, be explicit about trust assumptions, token-versus-equity choice, governance or futarchy mechanics, privacy and market liquidity. His public @mrinko account invites discussion, but choosing an RFP prompt does not guarantee a prize or investment. Confirm the current $250K instrument and terms after selection.
Use an open build competition to observe speed, technical execution, iteration and response to users before selecting a small accelerator cohort.
Require a bounded product sprint with visible progress, a working implementation, pitch materials and technical walkthrough instead of evaluating an idea deck alone.
A strong submission explains the market and problem simply, shows user or community evidence, and demonstrates enough technical depth that the solution is hard to dismiss as narrative.
Use tokens where liquidity, distribution, aligned users or market-governed capital are central; prefer equity for long-horizon, capital-intensive companies harmed by premature public pricing.
Release treasury resources only when decision markets predict that a proposal increases value, replacing founder trust with an adversarial economic check.
Identify the trust, settlement, ownership, liquidity or coordination problem a blockchain uniquely resolves; a token attached to a conventional app is insufficient.
Treat AI coding tools as a widening of the founder pool, then judge the shipped product and security rather than the builder's conventional engineering credentials.
Publish a painful unsolved surface and relevant primitives while leaving founders room to discover the wedge, customer and implementation through building.
Prompts should inspire builders rather than prescribe companies; Michael specifically proposes futarchy-controlled AI agents and privacy-aware onchain OTC and large-order execution tools.
His markets work emphasizes distinguishing headline token supply events from likely sell pressure and returning to protocol fundamentals rather than trading the headline alone.
“These ideas should be viewed more like a prompt than a blueprint.”
— https://blog.colosseum.com/request-for-products/
“Onchain agents are still just a narrative.”
— https://blog.colosseum.com/request-for-products/
“If you're interested in the bleeding edge of crypto, AI, and futarchy — please reach out.”
— https://blog.colosseum.com/request-for-products/
Michael Rinko is an Associate at Colosseum, the hackathon, accelerator and venture platform originally built around the Solana ecosystem. He previously worked as a Research Analyst at Delphi Digital, writing about markets, after roles at a macro fund and centralized exchange. He studied at Fordham University and brings a market-structure and liquid-crypto perspective to startup selection, product prompts and portfolio support.