Three Tips to Successfully Hack a Hackathon for All It’s Worth

Kirill Bensonoff
Jul 30, 2017 · 2 min read
InsurTech Hackathon Weekend 2017

In a recent Huffington Post column, I shared my top ten lessons learned as an entrepreneur who’s had two successful companies in the past 10 years in the New England area. I’m reminded of these experiences when I participate as a mentor at events for rising startup founders. One upcoming event is a weekend-long hackathon with InsurTech Hartford and Upward Hartford (Sept 8–10, 2017). While many of the geeks among us get very focused on the technical achievements to be made under pressure at such an event, I would recommend that each and every entrepreneur in attendance takes a hacking approach to the hackathon itself with these three tips:

  1. It’s As Much About The Innovation Of Collaboration As It Is About The Competition: Working with other humans can be a challenge — we all have strong opinions, beliefs, and come from different backgrounds and walks of life. When building companies, two+ heads are better than one. Use your time wisely, and learn to collaborate, it will bear fruit down the road.
  2. Hack the Network (of People!): This is one, if not the, most important part of the event. Any event with like-minded individuals is your chance to build your network — investors, partners, mentors, and even potential friends, they are all there, you just haven’t met them yet.
  3. Share Your Voice: You have probably heard countless voices telling you to become a “thought leader”. Well, being a leader is great, but sharing experience and educating others can even be more valuable. Sharing what you have learned with others will drive your own value up.

I hope to see you at the InsurTech Hackathon Weekend 2017! For tickets + info visit the registration site on EventBrite.

Kirill Bensonoff

Written by

Parallel Entrepreneur, Speaker, Blockchain & Crypto Investor https://kirillbensonoff.com

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