

My Experience at YC Hacks - jamest
http://www.erica.biz/2014/my-experience-at-yc-hacks/

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khangnn
The best kind of hackathon project is to demonstrate a new technology.
Facebook wouldn’t win a Hackathon, most social networks wouldn't, because
technologically, they aren't that interesting. I am glad that you didn't spend
much time business/revenue model or market research. I got it wrong the first
time I joined a hackathon

~~~
Brajeshwar
Absolute True. I once joined a weekend Hackathon. I built a web app, released
it live with a clear business/usage proposition.

I didn't even make it to the first round but the ones that got selected and
won don't make any usable sense at all. They won and the 'business/app' dies
at that Hackathon. There were no practical application at all.

~~~
khangnn
Wow that was a bit extreme heh. But I think that role of technology vs role of
business model is what makes a hackathon different from, say, startup weekend.
And again, as the author pointed out, we don't need to get the first price to
enjoy the 'high' and fun of a hackathon. Onward!

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yurylifshits
You can significantly accelerate this types of hacks with Unbounce. Just build
a landing page in advance for "Lorem Ipsum" hack. Then, on an actual
hackathon, you can launch a nice looking site for your idea in 30-60 minutes.
Starting with Unbounce gives you time to find the first users and to work on
the actual app experience.

Looking forward to try your app!

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porter
What happened after the deadline? Did you pitch it in front of everyone? Or
did all the teams just get to experience the joy of building something with
tight deadlines?

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juneyham
It was a "science fair" style expo, where all of the completed hacks were on
display with one person from each team demoing--essentially over and over
again for hours.

Judges came around to review and score everyone (every team had multiple
judges stop by), and a shortlist of hacks made it to the final round where it
was more of a traditional pitch-off, with different judges.

[http://ychacks.challengepost.com/](http://ychacks.challengepost.com/)

~~~
necubi
The expo was pretty awful, as a presenter. After being up for >30 hours
working on the project, having to stand up and pitch it for two hours was
rough. It also meant not getting to go around and see everybody else's
projects.

If they do this again, they should shorten the expo significantly and do it in
stages, so that nobody has to stand and talk for two hours.

~~~
chambo622
I've been to a dozen large hackathons and they essentially all operate in this
manner. I've been trying to come up with another way - the expo style has many
shortcomings including those you listed. It's very hard to stand out in this
format especially if your demo is not conducive to 10 seconds standing up at a
table with 100db ambient volume. Makes the importance of designing a
hackathon-friendly hack paramount.

~~~
gailees
The expo definitely has it's tradeoffs, but I've been to dozens of hackathons
now, and before we switched to the expo, the endings were significantly lower
energy: [https://medium.com/how-to-throw-a-
hackathon/635563ceab2f](https://medium.com/how-to-throw-a-
hackathon/635563ceab2f)

Expo definitely favors larger teams as we only allow one person to demo from
each team at a time, leaving the team members to swap out and check out all
the other hacks. While the demos in front of everyone may be more fair, the
expo builds community and gives people the opportunity to get immediate
feedback on their pitch/product even if they dont win a prize or make it to
the final round.

You should've seen the energy in the room.

~~~
chambo622
PennApps, LAHacks, HackTech, HackSC...all had expos. You're right in that
demos for everyone just aren't feasible. But I think you understate the
challenges and downsides associated with expos.

The hackathon explosion is just getting started, I'm sure things will continue
to improve as these events mature.

