Why Projects at Hackathons are Ephemeral

written by Phillip Chao

A hackathon is a place where hackers come together to create something. It could be a hardware product, a software product, or even a mix. Sounds very vague, doesn’t it? It indeed is. Everything is built from the ground up using creativity. Many minds, many teams, many hackers from different parts of the globe. To get started, apply for a hackathon at their own website. Once accepted, attend the hackathon and hack away. Form a team. Have fun. Maybe even win an API Prize or a Grand Prize. But then what?

Many teams split up and go back to their individual lives after the hackathon, which usually only lasts 24–36 hours. If a team placed and won something, whether it be a cash prize or leap motions, it would be split equally among the team. They take it as a prize for how hard they worked on their project. Some team members even go as far to say, “Hey, let’s continue working on this.” But why does this usually never end up happening?

It’s got to be problems with commitment, viability, and distance.

Time is a very big issue for many. I worked on a native iOS and Android app at LAHacks seven months ago, but when I asked if the team wanted to continue, both of them said they had college to finish and internships to do-no time! It also tells me that they aren’t as committed to this project as they are with college and their internships even though one of them came up with the idea for it.

Viability lends its hand to prioritizing, because if the idea was super viable and may actually turn into a successful startup, then every founder would take the opportunity to keep working on the app and scaling it, as the four co-founders of Workflow had done with their app which was initially started back in MHacks.

It’s all in the gut feeling. It’s what I think. It’s what they think. It’s what you think.

After a little over a day hacking together this hardware piece or this app, it’s really hard to meet back up again, because everyone has went their separate ways. One’s got high school. One’s got their own company to run. One’s got college. That seemingly short weekend activity…it just abruptly ends when the awards ceremony ends. That one hackathon only comes around at most once every 6 months. The iOS developer of the team lives in Mountain View, CA. The full stack web developer lives in New Jersey. The UI/UX Designer lives in Vancouver, Canada. The Android developer lives in San Diego, CA. How will they meet together? Only way is online. Google Hangouts. Skype. When it comes to creating a startup, that’s tough. That’s why companies have their own central headquarters where the employers and employees work.

So will your hackathon projects always be just a hackathon project? It’s up to each founding member’s ambition to pursue it further.