Supporting unconventionality: Why we do hackathons at Carta
Co-authored with Ry Sullivan
At Carta, one of our identity traits is to be unconventional. We define that as imagining the world how it should be, rather than accepting how it is. As an organization, we give special attention to creativity and a problem-solving mentality. One way we do this is with a quarterly hackathon.
At Carta, hackathons are a celebration of bottom-up thinking. Every Cartan has the opportunity to identify a problem worth solving and try to solve it. Over the years, many hackathon projects have evolved into new product lines and businesses. In fact, over 40% of Carta’s hackathon projects have made it into the hands of real users.
These multi-day events are so successful because they empower everyone at Carta to suspend their normal duties and ask catalytic questions that might otherwise get lost in the hustle of a high-octane startup: What aren’t we doing that we should be? What would I build if there wasn’t a roadmap and why? What do I know to be true from my experience that may be missed in the roadmap today?
Carta introduced hackathons in 2016, when product and engineering leaders noticed a concerning trend: The team members most deeply involved with customer problems weren’t involved enough in making the decisions about what to build. It was clear that obvious wins were being overlooked or missed.
Immediately, our Investor Services business unit held its first hackathon at K9 Ventures in Menlo Park. We quickly discovered that hackathons generated tremendous creativity in a short time. Other teams quickly emulated the model. People began looking forward to the next “free time” to focus on a new big problem.
In 2018, we took our game to the big leagues, dedicating time for a companywide two-day hackathon each quarter. Doing so exponentially unlocked our creative potential. We created principles that continue to guide hackathons today:
- Solve problems that you’ve always wanted to solve
- Meet new people
- Think creatively and try something bold
- Have fun
What do our hackathons look like?
Every hackathon has a theme. Carta chose “Equity for Everybody” as the theme of our Q3 2020 hackathon. We wanted to find new ways to implement Carta’s mission to drive inclusion by creating more owners — as we do each year with Table Stakes to provide insight into gender disparities in equity compensation — with a particular focus on supporting racial justice. In Q1 2021, our theme was “The WOW Factor” to focus on bringing delightful experiences to our users.
Once a theme is set, anyone can pitch their idea at an open pitch session, which helps people hone in on an idea and find other Cartans who want to make it happen. Hackathon teams are a key way to help employees connect with each other. One recent winning team included employees from Rio de Janeiro, Kitchener-Waterloo, New York, Salt Lake City, Palo Alto, and San Francisco, none of whom had ever worked together before. Pitch sessions also boost participation from non-technical employees who know customer problems and want to work with technical peers.
When the hackathon begins, teams self-organize to solve the problem they’ve chosen, leaning on some of our other identity traits: Cartans have a bias to action and we act as owners. Our hackathons are intentionally unstructured and encourage participants to step up as creative thinkers, product owners, project managers, and builders. The process isn’t fancy, but it’s effective and fun.
Demo days are also informal: There’s a Zoom link available to the whole company, an Asana list of projects, and an emcee to fill the time between presentations. Henry (our CEO) and other key product and business leaders within the organization always attend, sharing excitement around new ideas with the teams who built them. Comments in Zoom chat are a real-time reminder that solving problems is fun — and that there’s a whole org to support you. Winners are voted on by the company and walk away with a prize and their names in our Hackathon Hall of Fame.
Hackathons have become part of how we do business at Carta. Effective teams with strong ideas see their projects regularly picked up within product roadmaps. Many of these projects start as something small and scrappy but evolve into high-value products for our customers. Some examples include SPV closings on Carta, a free SAFE calculator for companies, and a management company budgeting tool. We’ve also seen some really creative ideas leveraging GPT-3 technology, crypto transactions, and more.
Companies will always have long-term visions, roadmaps, and near-term projects. At Carta, we recognize that a downside of structured planning cycles is that high-value ideas can get lost in the shuffle. That’s why we have designed space for innovation through collaboration. Through hackathons and other employee-as-owner activities, we cultivate an environment for problem solvers to continue doing what they do best: solve problems. This cycle of creativity feeds on itself quarter over quarter to create a culture unique to our organization.
If you found yourself reading this and thought Carta Hackathons might be fun, check out our Careers Page — maybe you can be part of our next hackathon.
