After sharing our story to many people, many of them didn’t know what it is. So first I want to explain what a hackathon is. Before my first hackathon I thought it’s a coding competition where you have to hack a website or solve a programming task for speed. Well it could be something like this, there were algorithmic competitions during the TCO14. But usually the hackathon is an organised event by big companies, sponsoring the food, drinks and the space. And either you have to solve a problem, suggest a good idea or/and use specific tools to do that.
You can compete in a team or solo. And at the end they judge you by some criteria like: Uniqueness, Impact on the industry/world, Completeness (is it working), Design, Technology (how difficult it is) & etc.
So my story begins winning the second hackathon I participate in called “Herocity Hacks”
There were 3 categories: Small business platform, Bitcoin idea, Health & Fitness
I won 1st place for small business platform. My idea was a platform called BizShare — Connecting small business to help them share resources & expenses.
Because of that I was lucky to get invited to participate in TCO14 by the amazing & incredibly talented Max Makarochkin. He approached me and asked me if I want to join him and go together on TCO14. It was my last week in the bay area and I decided why not! What other better way to be in a place with latest cool technology and the most talented people in the area. In order to enter you either had to pay 400$ or solve a complicated programming task (Code your way in).
The option of paying 400$ wasn’t really an option :D This was their first step so they can select the group of people. So I need to mention TCO is not the ordinary hackathon. The others everybody can sign in, here they selected the people from the beginning.
So we went. We had to spin a wheel with companies. We were lucky enough to get HP Idol OnDemond, Amazon & Salesforce
We thought about them and went to speak with the people from the companies. This was our first time hearing about HP Idol OnDemand. It turned out that this is unbelievable set of tools. And with them you can create literally almost everything! One of the tools was creating an index with large amount of data and the option to pass a text and they returned similar results. So our teammate Max came with this cool idea: to get peoples favorites shows from facebook, create a large amount of database with tv shows, pass the description of the shows and find similar and create a cool use experience & providing the user with tv channels with shows he really likes.
So we started working the same day. We were lucky to meet the two incredible people from HP, Martin Zerbib & Sean Hughes.
Martin helped us a lot giving us ideas & tips how we can use their API to accomplish our goal.
I created the database with tv shows & the index on idol, Hubert started working on the design and the site & Max set the ground of the project
We went back to San Mateo and continue working all night at HeroCity (An amazing place to work!)
We had 2 days to submit the idea. We didn’t sleep the whole night till 9AM and submitted our presentation at 8:50AM. To be honest we didn’t think we will made it and went to sleep not very happy.
Then I woke up somewhere at noon. AND guess what, we got an email:
So we woke up pumped and started working on the project so we can finish it. We worked again till 4–5AM And me and Hubert went to sleep. Max didn’t sleep the whole night again! He basically completed the project by himself!
At 4AM I was thinking, this is so cool TV, and what is a TV without remote control. so we came up with the idea of the remote but there wasn’t really time to implement it. Hubert designed it on piece of paper, I created the html.
The next day Max started working on it on the train while going to San Francisco and finished it literally 5 minutes before our presentation :D
So our turn came up and we presented. We also showed our cool remote to the judges and luckily it worked :D
The results came up. We weren’t in 4 5 7 8 place, Then they announced 2nd and 3rd we didn’t see our names. And then the last slide 1st place
Unbelievable moment! Amazing feeling! 3 days of effort 4–5 hours total of sleep and what a moment!
We went on the stage and gave my phone to the person who announced it to capture that priceless moment!
So what it takes to win a world series type competition like Topcoder.
1st you need a great team. Our team was made of talented people all Draper University students. If one of us wasn’t on the team, we wouldn’t win it. Max is unbelievably good programmer. Hubert amazing designer and also had the experience to win hackathons before that. This was my third hackathon but already knew what hackathon is and how you can win it.
2nd a really good idea! Max’s idea about the personalized television is amazing! Spotify for youtube! Television without advertisements showing the content you love!
3rd Execution. We didn’t sleep for 2 nights and worked really really hard! Specialty Max! We did the right things so we can fit in the deadline and delivered almost complete product at the end.
So recap: Team, Idea, Execution!
You can check the website http://tely.vision and try it for your self! ☺
