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