Season 1 · Awards V2 · One authoritative scoring source

Methodology & Scoring Rules

SOFL scores each award category by its own growth metric and evidence — community support and gifts cannot push the overall leaderboard. Data Trust is a system-wide condition and tie-breaker, not a standalone award.

Official awards
7
Main award slots
21
Max per startup
1
Tie-breaker
Data Trust

Separate metric per category

There is no single composite score that ranks all startups. Each award has its own metric, weight class, data sources, and minimum threshold.

Data Trust is the gate

Data missing a source, flagged for heavy risk, or not yet reviewed will not be used to publish a winner.

One startup, one main award

A startup can be considered for multiple categories, but the system distributes awards so each startup receives at most one main award to prevent sweeping.

7 official awards

This list is sourced from the same scoring ruleset shared with the Awards page — there is only one version of the scoring rules in the system.

View award details

Tech App Growth

Technology

For tech startups with an app, web product, or digital platform showing verified download or usage growth.

Metric: Download/install delta + Data Trust tie-breaker

Tech Social Reach

Technology

For tech startups with verified public social channel growth.

Metric: Follower delta + engagement context + Data Trust

Tech Public Fundraising

Technology

For tech startups with a public fundraising signal from a credible source.

Metric: Confirmed public funding milestone — no self-declaration

Non-tech Order Growth

Non-tech

For commerce, services, F&B, education-services, creator-businesses, and non-tech models.

Metric: Confirmed order delta + Data Trust

Community Donate Support

Community

For startups that received valid, capped community support with an exception queue to prevent manipulation.

Metric: Capped support points after daily limits

Founder Choice

Community

Cross-ecosystem vote from verified founders with active public startup profiles.

Metric: Verified founder vote score + Data Trust

Overall Breakthrough Award

Overall

Composite breakthrough for the most outstanding startup after weight class, growth delta, Data Trust, and award cascade.

Metric: Composite growth + award cascade + human review

Pre-award checklist

Verified baseline and final metric snapshots for the primary metric.
Verifiable evidence source: URL, screenshot, data export, or third-party proof.
Source reviewed by organizers or admin: approved, risk-flagged, or rejected.
No severe flags, unresolved complaints, or manipulation indicators.
AI only assists with extraction, normalization, anomaly detection, and explanation — AI never decides the winner.

Special rules

Data Trust
This is a system-wide condition and tie-breaker, not a standalone award. Weak data, missing sources, risk-flagged or unverified evidence will not be used to publish results.
Community Donate Support
Support only counts inside the Community Donate Support category. V2 caps: max 300 points per supporter per day and 1,000 points per startup per day.
Founder Choice
Verified founders have max 3 votes per season, cannot vote for themselves, and votes are locked on submit.

Award review process

This is the single operating process for Awards V2. Other pages only summarize or link back to this page — no separate scoring rules are defined elsewhere.

  1. 1Founder registers for an award category and submits evidence and source links.
  2. 2System checks required fields, metric snapshots, and data sources.
  3. 3Admin reviews Data Trust scores, risk flags, complaints, and exception reasons.
  4. 4System generates a draft candidate list with an audit log; no auto-publishing.
  5. 5Organizer or admin approves the final list, locks results, and publishes winners.