V4 Hackathon 2017: a great team, a radical healthcare application & the grand prize!
Before V4 Hackathon 2017
My first hackathon experience from Startup Bus
My first hackathon in my life was Startup Bus.
What is Startup Bus by the way?
Is an annual competition designed to empower the tech community-challenging top tier talent to hop on a bus & conceive, build & launch a startup in 72 hours.
It was a challenge for me to hop on a bus with “unknown” crazy skillful developers, designers & business persons like me & develop a crazy startup idea from Greece to Vienna in 72 hours.
Startup Bus contributed the biggest impact in my life. My mindset completely changed. I started to empower young people to take the first step through beginning new notable initiatives & organising several startup contests & events.
My V4 Hackathon experience
Introducing V4 Hackathon 2017
V4 hackathon is a 24-hour hackathon that organised by AT&T in collaboration with Czech Telecommunication in Brno on 7th to 8th April at HolidayInn. The theme of V4 is Internet of Things & Data Analytics.
During this hackathon 21 teams formed. 21 applications developed & presented about Smart Cities, Healthcare, Open Data & Sustainability.
Which were my main incentives to participate at V4 Hackathon 2017?
-Build something big from scratch in 24 hours with social impact
-Improve my Marketing Skills
-Expand my professional network
-Meet new skillful and passionate people like me
-The prize of 10.000k Dollars
“The pitch of myself, the recruiting from Red Pandas, the first 12 hours”
The pitch
It was a rainy Friday. I arrived at Holiday Inn without an idea. One of the mentors, Marcus from Silicon Valley called us on stage. We had to present ourselves and convince other people to “hire” us. I talked about my skills & my personal challenge for this hackathon.
Recruiting
Red Pandas found interesting mine story. After a while, they asked me if I want to join them. Their idea was fascinating, Their challenge is to save human lives by making an Artificial Intelligence app that uses a wearable device to detects emergencies. Our common challenge was to build this app within 24 hours by using our expertise. Well, it was my pleasure to work with those visionary & skillful high school students!
The first 12 hours
We started to work hard from the first second. The Marketing Team worked on branding development (colours, app name, logo, tagline, the definition of the target group and so on). The developers were writing code continuously. Some short coffee breaks during the day were very useful for our productivity.
During the dinner, we started to talk about improvements. Our first idea was to make a healthcare application that helps travelers with medical emergencies. Finally, we decided to make a new healthcare application that uses a wearable device able to detects medical emergencies for any person not only for travelers, cause “every second matter” for our team! The application uses Artificial Intelligence and supports calling an ambulance in case of emergency. This pivot helped our team to win the grand prize in the hackathon on Saturday afternoon! The time passed so fast. Our developers stayed awake all night. They didn’t feel tired! They were full of energy & passion to make it happen! It’s so incredibly to meet those folks! They are remarkable makers!
The last hours & the announcement of winners
Preparation before the pitch
The last hours were the best during this hackathon. Each team member had the same willpower to make it happen until the last minute. We worked on our pitch. Our idea was to present a story on the stage instead of a common pitch. I will reveal it later! We practiced, practiced, practiced a lot for our speech. The secret for a successful pitch is PRACTICE! Keep it on your mind! If you are prepared and know everything about your product, you can convince judges & potential investors.
Our Pitch
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” -Seth Godin
Finally, on the stage. We were a bit stressed. Our passion helped us to overcome it. We chose to present a story instead of a typical boring presentation. We demonstrated on the stage an emergency case of a sick person who needed an ambulance. The application called an ambulance directly. The app was functional and worked properly! The judges were so excited with that. According to Seth Godin, “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” Make a story about your solution. Don’t present something boring in front of judges. Be clever, be radical!
Announcement of winners
We were waiting for the final results. The third and the second price announced. Our hearts and bodies were shaking.
AND THE WINNER IS…
RED PANDAS!!!
We won!! Our feelings were incredible. After 24 hours of hard work, we accomplished it! Grand prize and 10k Dollars for Red Pandas team!
Final Thoughts
Folks, nothing is impossible until it’s done! Do what you can’t! Don’t listen to anybody! Believe in yourself, form a team with skillful people who breathe for marketing, coding, design and make it happen! Don’t give a fuck for victories. The most important thing is to build something!
Hackathons and start-up contests like Startup Weekend are the ideal places. If you have an idea present it and turn it into reality with folks like you!
DARE TO DREAM, MAKE IT REAL!
Antonis Spyridakis | Red Pandas Team
