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  •   25 days ago

Questions regarding eligibility, revenue evidence, customer validation, and AI tools

Hello,

I have a few questions regarding the competition:

1. If a participant from Uruguay wins a prize, what is the process for receiving prize payments and completing any required tax documentation?

2. What forms of evidence are accepted to demonstrate revenue generated during the competition?

3. What types of documentation are accepted to demonstrate real customer usage and business traction?

Thank you very much.

  • 2 comments

  •   •   24 days ago

    Hi everyone,

    I'm a non-technical founder participating in the challenge and building an AI-first startup using Gemini and Google Cloud products. My focus is on solving a real business problem and creating a viable business, while leveraging AI agents to operate significant parts of the workflow.

    Since I come from a business and growth background rather than a software engineering background, I want to make sure I'm interpreting the competition criteria correctly and building in a way that aligns with the judging expectations.

    My planned approach is to use multiple Gemini-powered agents responsible for different business functions such as customer analysis, engagement, content generation, operational reporting, and conversion workflows.

    I'm planning to use a mostly free-tier stack initially and currently evaluating tools such as:

    * Gemini API
    * Google Cloud Free Trial Credits
    * Firebase
    * Supabase
    * n8n
    * Telegram
    * Google Sheets
    * Lovable

    A few questions:

    1. For judging purposes, what level of autonomy and decision-making should AI agents demonstrate to be considered as meaningfully operating a business rather than simply automating tasks?

    2. Would a workflow where Gemini-powered agents analyze data, make recommendations, trigger actions, and manage customer engagement be considered sufficient?

    3. Which Google Cloud products would you recommend prioritizing to maximize alignment with the competition objectives while keeping costs low?

    4. If you were building an AI-operated startup from scratch for this challenge, which parts of the business would you automate first using Gemini and Google Cloud services?

    I'd appreciate any guidance from organizers, mentors, or participants who have experience with similar AI-agent architectures.

    Thank you.

  • Manager   •   19 days ago

    Great questions Lia — happy to answer all four!

    1. Uruguay is not on the excluded countries list, so you're eligible to participate and receive a prize. Prizes are sent electronically to the winner's bank account after completing required forms, including a W-8BEN form for non-US residents. Winners are responsible for reporting and paying all applicable taxes in their jurisdiction. Full prize delivery details are in Section 8 of the rules.
    2. For revenue evidence, the rules ask for total revenue from arms-length third-party customers in USD, broken out by calendar month (May, June, July, August 2026), along with total costs and marketing/customer acquisition spend. Accepted formats include a Stripe dashboard export, bank statement, or P&L statement.
    3. For customer traction, the rules ask for the number of individual users, a high-level breakdown of who your users are, and any testimonials or feedback from customers. During the review process you may also be asked to provide customer contact information (name, email, phone).
    4. Yes — the rules explicitly allow this. Projects must use the Gemini API for at least one LLM call in the deployed application, but you're free to use additional AI tools and providers alongside Gemini.

    Full rules at https://xprize.devpost.com/rules — good luck!

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