Guide to winning a hackathon

Transcript

1. by @cyrusstoller from @hazelnutapp guide to winning a hackathon
2. National Winner – Summer 2012 Boston • New York • Seattle • Silicon Valley 900+ Attendees • 250+ Teams GiveGo
3. Winner – Fall 2012 DoubleYou
4. Preparation Hacking Challenges
5. Preparation Build a team Brainstorm ideas Get feedback
6. Why is your team competing?
7. <ul class="reasons"> <li class="good"> To win </li> <li class="good" id="hackinghealth"> Hack for fun </li> <li class="good" id="angelhack"> Stress test relationships </li> <li class="bad"> Build a company </li> </ul>
8. Picking your idea Is this a real problem? Is this the right hackathon? Does everyone agree?
9. Think Backwards What is being evaluated? What looks impressive? What do you want to demo? Finalized your idea?
10. Is your idea valuable?
11. Winning hackathons isn’t just about engineering ... ... it’s about commercial viability
12. Hacking Build product Create buzz Get feedback
13. How should you spend your time?
14. Business development Back-end engineering Front-end design Video submission Pitch preparation
15. What did we do?
16. Front Page of HN 120+ sign ups on Launch Rock Deployed on Heroku Stylized pages for our demo Polished screencast Well-practiced pitch
17. What counts?
18. Insight Product Business Model
19. Bonus points
20. Endorsements Press coverage Polish
21. What did we do?
22. HSS of City and County of SF ABC News Compelling presentation
23. What you need
24. Real Problem Real Solution Real Traction
25. Challenges Difference in vision Risk tolerance Business model
26. Reflect
27. Did you want to kill each other? Did you disagree well? Would you want to hire your teammates? Would they want to hire you? Are you happy with what you built? Can you agree on your next steps?
28. What did I learn?
29. Networking matters Ask everyone for feedback Optimize design
30. P.S.
31. Lifestyle vs Commercial
32. The Way Forward
33. Shameless Plug Are you a designer? We need your help @hazelnutapp
34. Thanks contact me @cyrusstoller