Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Guide to winning a hackathon
Search
Cyrus Stoller
September 28, 2012
Technology
0
2k
Guide to winning a hackathon
Cyrus Stoller
September 28, 2012
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Cyrus Stoller
See All by Cyrus Stoller
Web Scraping 101
cyrusstoller
0
190
Other Decks in Technology
See All in Technology
ドメイン特化なCLIPモデルとデータセットの紹介
tattaka
1
180
「良さそう」と「とても良い」の間には 「良さそうだがホンマか」がたくさんある / 2025.07.01 LLM品質Night
smiyawaki0820
1
320
OpenHands🤲にContributeしてみた
kotauchisunsun
1
470
【PHPカンファレンス 2025】PHPを愛するひとに伝えたい PHPとキャリアの話
tenshoku_draft
0
120
フィンテック養成勉強会#54
finengine
0
180
なぜ私はいま、ここにいるのか? #もがく中堅デザイナー #プロダクトデザイナー
bengo4com
0
480
第9回情シス転職ミートアップ_テックタッチ株式会社
forester3003
0
260
標準技術と独自システムで作る「つらくない」SaaS アカウント管理 / Effortless SaaS Account Management with Standard Technologies & Custom Systems
yuyatakeyama
3
1.3k
25分で解説する「最小権限の原則」を実現するための AWS「ポリシー」大全 / 20250625-aws-summit-aws-policy
opelab
9
1.2k
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure:2025年6月度サービス・アップデート
oracle4engineer
PRO
2
270
変化する開発、進化する体系時代に適応するソフトウェアエンジニアの知識と考え方(JaSST'25 Kansai)
mizunori
1
230
AWS Summit Japan 2025 Community Stage - App workflow automation by AWS Step Functions
matsuihidetoshi
1
290
Featured
See All Featured
[RailsConf 2023] Rails as a piece of cake
palkan
55
5.6k
Improving Core Web Vitals using Speculation Rules API
sergeychernyshev
17
940
The Cult of Friendly URLs
andyhume
79
6.5k
Helping Users Find Their Own Way: Creating Modern Search Experiences
danielanewman
29
2.7k
Fireside Chat
paigeccino
37
3.5k
Code Reviewing Like a Champion
maltzj
524
40k
Thoughts on Productivity
jonyablonski
69
4.7k
How to Think Like a Performance Engineer
csswizardry
24
1.7k
Fight the Zombie Pattern Library - RWD Summit 2016
marcelosomers
233
17k
Responsive Adventures: Dirty Tricks From The Dark Corners of Front-End
smashingmag
252
21k
Understanding Cognitive Biases in Performance Measurement
bluesmoon
29
1.8k
Design and Strategy: How to Deal with People Who Don’t "Get" Design
morganepeng
130
19k
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