IIRC the A10 specs are closed (and at a time I've been involved with a project including a A10, I've even been reported the A10 designers did not even have written one...), so this might not be the best SoC to start with, especially to target Linux geeks, promising them openness.

Also $50k of funding seems quite light for this project.

I hope anyway that it succeeds, because it would still be an interesting device.