Get Started with your First Hackathon!

I have participated in around 18 hackathons, won around 5 & organized 12 hackathons in college & 50+ after joining IncuabteIND thus giving me a lot of experience & many pointers which can be useful for making major progress in a short amount of time — if you come in with a strategy or a specific plan.

Let’s start by What are Hackathons?

In simple terms, it’s an event with a time limit where people tend to solve real-life problems using a tech stack. Hackathon can be of any domain like medical, agriculture, or specific to any technology.

The best way to start is by gathering general info and advice from friends, mentors, seniors & alumni. Info & data will help you win anything. You’ll find their tips and tricks which can and should be improvised according to your goal.

1. Benefits of Hackathon & fixing an Aim:

There are so many good ways to gain from a hackathon as it is a big treasure cave, it’s just that you should know where you have to search. There is N number of things that can be gained in a hackathon.                                                                                                                

• Looking to learn a new tech stack.
• Networking opportunity.
• Participated to build a project.
• Internship, job & start-up funding opportunities.
• Or Just for Prize Money.

A hackathon can help you achieve any of these aims/goals - but it’ll depend on your team, hackathon, and many XYZ factors as you’ll probably not get all of them at once.

2. Build a Team:

A pre-formed team is the best. If I give my example me and my few friends decided on the tech stack in which we’ll excel & the 5 people specialized to form a stagnant team. We worked together, we learned together, we improvised at each step. 

 A lot of people form teams when they arrive at a hackathon or few days before the hackathon. That will work, but it also means you’ll start out behind those who have their teammates, idea, and strategy.

3. Choose Your Project:

Hackathons are divided into 2 parts (according to me) one theme-based & 1 open innovation.

• Theme based:

 Understand the problem statement given & match the solution with the team capability. Sometimes you can rock the problem statement which is the most common but it will be tough as the number of contenders will be huge.

Generally, these types of hackathons have an industry session a few weeks before the hackathon to give you a brief idea about the problem statement & solve your queries, make sure to attend it.

• Open Innovation:

Don’t make new projects for every hackathon. Make 1 project with a huge scope of improvement. Work on this project through hackathons, improvise it with the tips & suggestions of mentors & you’ll have a solid project at the end of your college with many hackathon tags.

4. Take At least a week or 2 to prepare:

Once your team, idea, and goals are solidified, it’s time to get to work! Set aside at least a week to prepare. You’ll use the time differently depending on your goals. Look into similar projects, problem statements, presentations & focus on USP - Unique Selling Point of your project. 

Having an idea, project, prototype is good but one of the key factors for winning is PRESENTATION and Pitching. Make sure to focus on that too.

And go into any hackathon with the intention to WIN!

5. Time strategizing:

Hackathons have many mini-events, fun zones so don’t get distracted. Have fun but divide the work, sleep time & fun time equally so that it’ll be to your advantage. 

6. Have Fun

Hackathons are designed to be hyper-active. They will lock you in a room, give you a deadline, surround you with food, and you’ll not have time to sleep. It’s intense but fun at the same time so enjoy.

Note: Participate in as many hackathons as you can. Each hackathon will teach you a lot & there no specific time to start or any pre-requisite

All the Best!