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Guide to winning a hackathon
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Cyrus Stoller
September 28, 2012
Technology
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Guide to winning a hackathon
Cyrus Stoller
September 28, 2012
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Transcript
by @cyrusstoller from @hazelnutapp guide to winning a hackathon
National Winner – Summer 2012 Boston • New York •
Seattle • Silicon Valley 900+ Attendees • 250+ Teams GiveGo
Winner – Fall 2012 DoubleYou
Preparation Hacking Challenges
Preparation Build a team Brainstorm ideas Get feedback
Why is your team competing?
<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>
Picking your idea Is this a real problem? Is this
the right hackathon? Does everyone agree?
Think Backwards What is being evaluated? What looks impressive? What
do you want to demo? Finalized your idea?
Is your idea valuable?
Winning hackathons isn’t just about engineering ... ... it’s about
commercial viability
Hacking Build product Create buzz Get feedback
How should you spend your time?
Business development Back-end engineering Front-end design Video submission Pitch preparation
What did we do?
Front Page of HN 120+ sign ups on Launch Rock
Deployed on Heroku Stylized pages for our demo Polished screencast Well-practiced pitch
What counts?
Insight Product Business Model
Bonus points
Endorsements Press coverage Polish
What did we do?
HSS of City and County of SF ABC News Compelling
presentation
What you need
Real Problem Real Solution Real Traction
Challenges Difference in vision Risk tolerance Business model
Reflect
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?
What did I learn?
Networking matters Ask everyone for feedback Optimize design
P.S.
Lifestyle vs Commercial
The Way Forward
Shameless Plug Are you a designer? We need your help
@hazelnutapp
Thanks contact me @cyrusstoller