Launch Hackathon
February, San Francisco
The Pitch
Compete against thousands for more than $1 million in combined prizes.
Reigning Champion
Ramen, crowdfunding for early-stage tech startups.
Big Prize
$40,000 investment; access to Launch founder Jason Calacanis’s $800,000 AngelList.
Status Update
Too early to tell for 2013’s winner, crowned in November, but 2012’s ditched their product and are prototyping new ones.
StartUp Bus
March, various cities
The Pitch
Spend 72 hours on a bus; develop world-changing products with strangers.
Reigning Champion
CareerMob, matching returning vets with jobs.
Big Prize
Mysterious. Potential funding, as well as unspecified prizes from sponsors.
Status Update
CareerMob’s makers won storage on RackSpace for their web app–but no one continued working on it.
POV Hackathon
September, New York
The Pitch
Developers and documentarians hack into the future of storytelling.
Reigning Champion
Portraits of the Enemies, a multimedia web exhibition.
Big Prize
All finished products are hosted on PBS’s website in perpetuity.
Status Update
Photographer Karim Ben Khelifa is currently developing the war-zone interview project at the MIT Media Lab.
Focus100
October, New York
The Pitch
“The most diverse tech conference on the planet” runs a hackathon to match.
Reigning Champion
WhatUEatn, leading people to healthy food alternatives.
Big Prize
Not yet disclosed, but last year’s included Nexus 7 tablets for all team members and $500 to share.
Status Update
The app exists as a functional prototype but nothing more–the four team members are all finishing graduate school.