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Build a consumer product that puts missing context back into digital media.
Register on ConneXions*$1M SAFE from Xponential Venture Fund is proposed for the winning team, subject to a signed fund commitment, Horizons Council ratification, and structured diligence.
A clip without the full exchange. A headline without the article. A quote without what came before or after. A label without its meaning.
What we see online is often only a fragment of the original story. Most people can tell when something feels incomplete, misleading, or exaggerated. But finding out what's missing takes work. The original video may be buried. The full article may sit behind a paywall. A summary may technically be accurate while leaving out the detail that changes how you understand it.
By the time someone tracks down the source, compares versions, and reconstructs the full picture, the fragment has already traveled.
The problem isn't a lack of information. It's the gap between what we see and the context we need to understand it.
Your challenge is to close that gap.

of U.S. teens say they were misled by content that was real but presented misleadingly.
ITU, Measuring Digital Development: Facts and Figures 2024 → Link
of the news influencers sampled have no newsroom or journalism background
Pew Research Center / Pew-Knight Initiative, America's News Influencers, November 2024 → Link
of people now say they avoid the news, a record high and up from 29% in 2017
Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2025, June 2025 → Link
When someone encounters content, your product helps them see: where it came from, who said it, what credible sources say, where those sources disagree, and what still can't be verified. It doesn't replace anyone's judgment; it gives their judgment more to work with.
The tool surfaces content for only the user, and it doesn't publish ratings, judgments, or profiles about the people behind the content.
An assistant that retrieves the fuller source behind a fragment and reports what it can and cannot verify.
Local inference for speed and privacy, with no round trip and no record of what the user looked at.
Context delivered in place, inside the page where the content is already being read.
A share-sheet or overlay path that works where most feed consumption actually happens.
Transcript retrieval, clip-to-full-exchange matching, and source tracing for a pasted link.



Solutions will be evaluated on the following success metrics to ensure investment-grade scalability and market viability.
The pathway from access to voluntary use. Having the tool is not the same as reaching for it.
Whether the product would survive a platform turning hostile.
Whether the product can tell genuine debate from controversy that was manufactured to look like debate.
Whether every consequential output still traces to a linked source when the product is running at feed speed.
You start with a grand challenge, build a multidisciplinary team around it, and spend the competition turning your response into something real, a working product and a hire-ready body of proof employers actually care about.
A consumer product in production, with users, telemetry, and a defensible business, on your record whether or not you win the investment.
Nobody has yet built a context product that people return to voluntarily. Whether a student team can is an honest question with an answer at the end of 18 months.
AI capability will keep moving. Part of the test is building something that gets better as models improve rather than something a model update makes obsolete.
For the winning venture, subject to fund commitment, Council ratification, and diligence.
It needs people who understand information, people, systems, interfaces, technology, behavior, institutions, and business. These examples highlight the value that certain majors can bring to the table but this is far from an exhaustive list. If you are interested, we want you here.
How information is created, framed, distributed, and understood.
How people process evidence, make judgments, and navigate institutions.
How complicated information becomes clear, useful, and usable.
How products retrieve, evaluate, connect, and explain information at scale.
How a useful idea becomes a product people adopt and a venture that can endure.
How a clip is cut, framed, and scored to carry a meaning the raw footage never had.
Your team must span at least three disciplines. The strongest one may span more.
You do not need a company, a product idea, or a business background to enter. You need a team willing to take on the problem.


Backing ideas built to become companies. Xponential Venture Fund supports the venture-development path beyond the competition, including the proposed $1M SAFE for the winning company, subject to fund commitment, Council ratification, and diligence.
Horizons Council institutions help shape the challenge, connect students and expertise across campuses, and expand Xperience beyond a single university.