El Supuesto: If You’re an Entrepreneur, Go to a Hackathon
Over the past year, I have been to several hackathons and it has undoubtedly been one of the best experiences of my life. Hackathon is the name given to a type of event whose goal is the development of technological solutions within a limited time frame or in a competitive setting. There is no single organizer of hackathons in the world, and they differ from one another in their objectives, the technologies they support or promote, the type of participants, the prizes, the sponsors, etc.
My story with these began in December 2022, when I participated in my first hackathon: The first University Web 3 Hackathon, which took place at UNAM. Alongside 2 fellow ITAM students whom I greatly admire — Danya Gomez Cantu and Gerardo Godfrey — we developed in just over 24 hours the prototype of a dApp (decentralized application) called Decentralized Diary, which generated digital memories in the form of NFTs from text processing, with the goal of preserving special moments and sharing memories in a novel way. We won first place in the competition and that brought me closer to ITAM professors who are part of the Web 3 ecosystem in Mexico.
Since then my life has changed a lot, because without making the story too long, I can say that I have participated in other hackathons in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Turkey, and virtual ones, fortunately winning some prizes along the way, meeting incredible people, and learning more than I expected. I believe many people would deeply benefit from attending events like these, but especially, I believe this is the case for entrepreneurs:
- You don’t need to go with a team, and in fact, it’s a great place to find your technical cofounder. You don’t need to code to hack. The best teams are those with diverse skills. In every hackathon I’ve participated in, there are efforts to help you find your team, and it tends to be a “Watering Hole” for finding Devs.
- You will learn a lot about the most modern technologies. Technology developers benefit from attending these events to receive feedback on their newest tools or to put a price on solving problems they have, so many times you are among the first to use a technology or have special access.
- You can get funding or economic incentives for software developers. Hackathons usually have many prizes, which can help you take the first steps toward founding your Startup. Another way to look at it is that these prizes are the incentive that can help you develop with very talented people without having to pay out of pocket.
- You can have your MVP in a matter of days. Most in-person hackathons last a couple of days; if you’re anything like me, it feels like trying to save a course right before finals begin. The point is that in those days, or a few weeks at most, you can have a product to validate your business idea and keep improving it continuously.
That is why I believe that if you are an entrepreneur, a hackathon might be just what you need for your next sprint.
Shout out to all the ITAM students who have hacked with me, and those who have made it possible:
Pepe Incera @ ITAM, Danya Gomez, Ger Godfrey, Jana Boltvinik @ EPIC, Daniela Ruiz Massieu @ EPIC, Kevin D. Jhonson @ MIT, Ana Sof Rios, Gustavo Salaiz @ ITAM, Paco Cordero, Emilio Ortega, and Dylan Gonzalez.