ZAYNA Venture Challenges
A real problem.
48 hours. One winner.
ZAYNA publishes a real problem from inside City Life & Commerce and opens it to entrepreneurial people for a short, fixed window. You explore it, challenge the assumptions, develop an idea, find collaborators and submit before the clock runs out.
Deal Review is a door, and it is always open. A Venture Challenge is an event.
Some challenges run 24 or 72 hours. The closing time is set by ZAYNA's servers, shown to you in your own timezone, and it does not move. When it passes, submissions close.
How a challenge runs
You can think out loud for the whole window, and you should. But there is a single, deliberate Submit entry step, and only properly submitted entries go into review. Edit yours as often as you like until the deadline; at the deadline the submitted version freezes exactly as it stands.
ZAYNA's reviewer takes part as a facilitator rather than a judge — asking what a question assumes, connecting two people working the same angle, sharpening a submission before you send it. It is there to make the thinking better, not to run the challenge.
After every challenge ZAYNA publishes the real numbers: registered, active, eligible submissions, finalists, winner, reward, dates. Never the ideas, the business models, the mechanisms or the private team discussion. The record proves the process was real without giving away anyone's work.
- A challenge is collaborative. What you post can be seen by other participants, so post accordingly.
- Taking part does not transfer ownership of your idea to ZAYNA.
- If ZAYNA ever wants to build on something you contributed, that is a separate written agreement covering ownership, IP and compensation.
- Deal Review, by contrast, is private and one-to-one.
The reward
Challenges carry a guaranteed prize. The standard ZAYNA reward is a 1-year JOYIZM membership, plus recognition as a ZAYNA Venture Challenge winner. Individual challenges may add validation support, prototype support, customer research, or advisory sessions.
The guaranteed prize is the prize. Winning does not by itself bring investment, employment, equity, partnership, Founder in Residence admission, the formation of a company, or ZAYNA funding. Anything of that kind would need its own written agreement.
Past challenges
The first ZAYNA Venture Challenge has not run yet. When challenges close, their results are published here — participation, submissions, finalists, winner and reward — and they stay here.
In the meantime, the door is open.
Deal Review runs all year. Bring an idea, bring a venture, or bring yourself and the intention to lead one.