I feel like I've lived some kind of sheltered life now, in that I didn't even know winning was a thing at hackathons until I read this article. I don't think I've ever been to a hackathon that had prizes and winners.
The use of the term "hackathon" here seems to mean something else, less of a dev-party and something more like, a time-limited, minimum-viable-product startup competition. Is that a recent thing?
Hackathons aren't about slides or business plans. They are about actually building something. If there are prizes, they are fun and silly. In the end, every really does win.
that was my first thought too. my second was a growing bemusement that, having realised that the purpose was not to win, he didn't then conclude that the point was instead to get together with a lot of other hackers and build something. then it finally clicked that the key word in there (which i had skimmed over) was "startup" - they're definitely using the word hackathon in a different sense than the usual one.
I'm not trying to get involved with defining what a hackathon is (or isn't), but I do know that Startup Weekend (www.startupweekend.org) has been hosting events that have prizes and winners for quite some time now.
The Startup Weekend I attended in January had winners but it was never the emphasis, and the prizes weren't anything special anyway. I liked the presentation/judging process was nice because it gave you an end goal for the weekend, and it was interesting to see what the judges said about your project.
You know you've pretty much hit rock bottom as an industry when people are complaining about Robert Scoble being mean about their fake business that they created while on a bus to an expensive party.
The problem is that Silicon Valley has been flooded in recent years by people who watched The Social Network and took it literally, believing this is how startups are done. This Hollywood fake version of a startup has become the model for so many folks trying to do real startups. I believe Baudrillard should be compulsory reading for entrepreneurs.
What should really happen is for hackathons to stop awarding prizes. There's no need for them. Most people go to hackathons because they want to meet people, try new things and learn stuff.
Part of the reason for this is sponsorships of the hackathons by third-parties, as they are the ones who frequently award prizes because of the increased publicity behind the tech used for successful hacks.
Unfortunately, I don't think that will be changing soon.
That was my immediate reaction. It's human nature to want a prize. If you think people should stop focusing on the prize, stop making it a competition.
I quit going to hackathons when they started to turn into "do something with our web service" instead of "X straight hours of whacking away at whatever project you're working on, surrounded by like minded people doing their own thing, that you can bounce problems off of when you get stuck".
There are two local hackathons coming up, neither of which I'm the slightest bit interested in, since both are based around handfuls of companies and their products' web-based APIs. It's obvious that they are not interested in you turning out a product, or even getting a start on a product. They're using you to determine possible areas their company could branch into, and like Tom Sawyer, they're getting you to pay to help them.
FWIW those product/company sponsored hackathons aren't all hackathons. StartupWeekend happens with some regularity in tons of cities across the US, and their schtick is "build-a-business-in-a-weekend". So you're free to come up with whatever idea and build that.
Here is the number one reason people don't win hackathons (even if they have an amazing creation) - they suck at explaining.
I was at one recently where a guy showed off what promised to be a very interesting way of analysing data. He spent his 5 minute demo slot talking about how he rewrote a webserver in "Go"...
I mean, ok, from a geek point of view it's kind of interesting that he wrote an amazing server but a) this wasn't a server hackathon and b) he couldn't explain his way out of a wet paper bag.
At the last hackathon I went to, one losing team spent their slot arguing about why they couldn't connect their Macbook to the 800*600 projector used for demoing.
Ok, we all experience technical difficulties, but this team had sat through 30 minutes of presentations and at no point thought "Hey, we'd better make sure we don't waste time like these other teams - let me quickly Google how to set my external screen resolution."
Honestly, the biggest thing standing between you and victory is (probably) your inability to succinctly explain your idea in such a way that you will captivate the judges.
What I don't get so much is the push to take the result of a hackathon and turn it into a company. Several occasions I have seen investors promise to invest in winners, but most of the time it is just a group of people together for the weekend with already their startup or a dayjob. Lauch, Angelhack have this actually built in. Result: more focus on business and already existing teams (companies?) that come in together to use the event as a launching platform. Which is not the goal for me for a hackathon: trying out technologies, meeting new people, have fun. I already have my startup, don't need another.
Except it can be a fantastic way to launch a company. Social proof, publicity, and credibility all in one weekend. Look at companies like Roximity that effectively launched by winning Ford's contest at Disrupt. That's a real startup now.
If you don't have a current venture you're working on, why not use a hackathon as an accelerant?
because it is cheating to the judges, competitors and to possible people that join up with my team and would put in hours for free. I am already out there with my company. The number of successful startups that come out of a hackathon is actually quite low I'd say.
I'm a big hackathon fan and participant and I can sympathize with the emotional high of "hey, we built something really cool" to the low of "the judges didn't just didn't understand what we've built". Most of the hackathons in which I've participated use a panel of judges from the VC or general "tech community" but whom aren't usually hackers themselves. I'd love to see an event where the judges know what it takes to produce something that works in a compressed timeframe and don't ask the inane questions like "how are you going to make money?" or "who are your competitors?"
I'm also bootstrapping my startup primarily for the same reasons. I don't particularly want or need validation from VCs, many of whom aren't hackers, to distract me from figuring out whether what I've built is of any value to my customers.
Have hackathons really turned into a prototype show-and-tell crossed with a business plan competition? Because that's what a lot of these hackathon contests seem like.
I really agree with this post. Hackathons can be used as a great way of energizing, educating, and building a community of passionate, motivated hackers.
I'm really interested in using this force to build the next generation of technologists, and we're currently doing this via an event called CodeDay.
High school / college students are always busy -- they have tests, homework assignments, jobs, and other things that prevent them from spending time on the things they want to do. A hackathon provides these students an opportunity to focus, and for the students that are learning some tech on the side to actually create something. At the same time, beginners who are interested in technology get started and feel empowered to start learning and experimenting in their own time. They all become friends, and create amazing things.
Question: I've been wanting to attend a hackathon, but I have no idea where to find when/where they happen? Is there some sort of list, or do I just need to keep my ear to the ground?
I will probably get torn down by the HN crowd for this one, but I think the best one around is still the TechCrunch hosted one annually at Disrupt. If you've never been to one that's a great starting point, and it's free - I am a skeptic of the new trend of for-profit hackathons with entry fees, personally.
I still think that's a good starting point.
The Startup Digest is a good source of information on upcoming Hackathons.
There are multiple hackathons depending on where you live (some are online also) and what you are interested in. Some that are interesting and in many cities include NodeCopter (node.js and drones) and the startup related ones - AngelHack and Startup Weekend.
I think part of the problem here is that there are so many Hackathons around nowadays, it's hard to attract attention to your hackathon, and attendees. This is even worse for the for-profit ones rather than the more social affairs. As a result they seem to have chosen to focus on prizes and big money as their core marketing angle. This raises the stakes and makes it far more about pursuing the dollars for many participants.
I've seen people pitching their startup idea in the one minute presentation for the hackathon, thinking that this is the best way to launch a company (spoiler alert: it's not!). Yes there have been some nice positive stories coming from projects that started at hackathons, but that's the exception.
I love hackathons. I have a couple of buddies and we go to every TechCrunch hackathon, and some of the others from time to time. We do it because it's fun. We love the social aspect of it. We don't go expecting to win. We go because we enjoy it.
I like the little side prizes $x free services for the best on Y platfom; a free iPad for the best using Z platform. But when it's become about $50,000 grand prizes, and places in unproven incubators/accelerators I think we risk destoying the atmosphere of hackathons. We'll drive away the social participants and it'll just be competitive hackathoners, and when they realize it's not the best way to achieve their startup goals they'll move on...
Let's just go back to fun hackathons, like the old TechCrunch ones used to be. Good food, social activities, fun atmosphere, lots of vendors and partners to teach us about their APIs and perhaps a few side prizes that are nice-to-wins but don't have people thinking this will make or break their startup.
From my experience, different people view Hackathons differently. I wouldn't want to make any blanket statements about why one should or shouldn't go, or what the focus should be. I don't really think there is anything wrong about being competitive and wanting to win. I think what's important is recognizing what you want, and building a team of people that match. Some people will be competitive and serious about winning. Others may be more laid back, and just want to enjoy the experience. Some may want to actually create a product and start a business. Others may just want to work with new technology, or learn something new. Building a team that is aligned with your views and expectations is important. If you don't build the right team, the experience can become frusturating. In extreme cases, it might even pull the team apart.
I am shocked, shocked I say, that people who have just gone three days with almost no sleep get grouchy, whiny, and stupid. Not getting enough sleep isn't cool, it doesn't make you more productive, and for many people it makes you a horrible person to be around. Unfortunately, it seems that many coders still view it as a badge of honor, not the symptom of poor decision making. (See the author of this post, cheering on the group who made a 'bold' decision to go out drinking instead of getting sleep.)
> Once I realized that, I looked around me. I saw a group of
people whom I know will be successful as they push onward,
because I’ve seen them go through hell and still come out
on top.
The phrase 'have gone through hell' is not at all applicable to losing this competition. The competition comes with a two/three day investment and allows one to focus on the social aspect of the gathering.
Been to design-a-thon's (same, same but different) and haven't met anyone there to win, people enjoy working on a problem with others. There were prizes, but more as tokens, not anything worth shouting about.
When I think of the term "hackathon", what comes to mind are events like the OpenBSD hackathons (http://www.openbsd.org/hackathons.html), the Wikimedia hackathons (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Amsterdam_Hackathon_2013), and SuperHappyDevHouse (http://superhappydevhouse.org). You can't win any of those, at least not in any kind of formal sense.
The use of the term "hackathon" here seems to mean something else, less of a dev-party and something more like, a time-limited, minimum-viable-product startup competition. Is that a recent thing?