How to win a FinTech Hackathon
A Breakdown of the FinHACK 2018 Winning Ideas
Hackathons are all about coming together and creating solutions to everyday problems, and with the advancements in technology, there is so much we can do to help streamline cumbersome financial procedures and create financial solutions that benefits all parties involved! In fact, there are so many benefits to joining a hackathon — we recommend you read this article by Karen Contet Farzam, hackathon mentor and judge and WHub co-founder & Chief Hustler, as she explains why should join a hackathon, no matter who you are.
To win a hackathon, you first of all need to think of a problem that is currently plaguing our daily lives in order to come up with the solution we never knew we needed. With the FinHACK 2018 Prize Presentation Lunch on 21st August, we would love to showcase the winning teams and ideas to give you some inspiration on how YOU can also come up with award-winning ideas for hackathons as well!
FinHACK 2018 Winners & Their Product
There were amazing prizes at FinHACK this year, including $50K in cash, murcul credits, RISE tickets and Microsoft Azure passes, click here to see the highlights during our 36-hour hackathon.
There are 5 teams that won FinHACK, and we’ve broken down the winning ideas into 5 factors: The members and relationship of the team, the problem they’re trying to solve (labeled Goal), the app they’re created, who they plan on partnering up with to be successful, and their catchy tagline to make a lasting impression on the judges! (If a factor is missing, it’s because the team did not put a focus in that area),
CreDiscount GO
Grand Prize
Team: 6 students of The University of Hong Kong
Goal: To help people with credit cards to maximize the discounts they can get from their credit cards, “25% customers use credit cards for the rewards and each Hong Kong person owns an average of 2.5 credit cards.”
App: CreDiscount GO is an app with a Pokemon GO like feature to “catch” all the discounts & gifts.
Partners: With banks and retailers as well as customers to create a win-win-win situation.
Tagline: “CreDiscount GO — an app that combines Credit, Discount and Pokemon GO” (this is a phrase they had just constantly repeated during the pitches as they did not seem to have actually created a catch phrase)
GoodTime Scooby
1st Runner Up
Team: A team of 5 people, mostly composed of students from The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Goal: Fostering good saving behaviour from a young age, they find that Hong Kong people seem to lack the discipline to save up
App: a “saving assistant” app that gamifies saving by incorporating “Scooby” — a virtual dog who’s attitude changes depending on progress with saving targets, and allows both kids and parents to set goals and track their progress and savings.
Quizmas
2nd Runner Up
Team: A team of 6, made up of students as well as seasoned entrepreneurs who met and joined forces during the FinHACK Meetup before the hackathon
Goal: To simplify Terms & Conditions (T&C) so customers can swiftly understand what they’re signing up for, and feel more comfortable with purchases
App: “A new environment to protect everybody”, their app helps companies design T&C and streamlines the experience for customers when reading T&C. They also provide data for companies to design better T&C, and consequently, better marketing strategies.
Partner: Insurance companies & other bodies that require T&C
Tagline: “Make T&C frictionless”, “No more stupid T&C”
Polar
Sustainability Prize
Team: A team of 7 who are not from Hong Kong
Goal: To help users store and manage receipt information, so the information can be easily transferred and users can track their spendings
App: A smart scan app that besides help users manage and transfer receipt data, also provides customers with promotion of the month to incentivise scanning receipts on their app.
Partner: Different retail companies, banks
Tagline: “No glue, no scanner, no paper”
MPF Hero
.tech Prize
Team: A team of 6, consisting of a mix of locals and international participants, students and entrepreneurs
Goal: To make sure you don’t lose any MPF details and money when you change jobs
App: Makes MPF details simple, readable and easy to track, along with functions to streamline the process of transferring the resources
Tagline: “What do I do with my old MPF account? It’s 5% of my salary!” (Although not a proper tagline, this is a phrase they said that really caught everyone’s attention!)
FinHACK 2018 Testimonials from winners
Did you know that some of winners are first time hackers? Hear what some of our winners have to say about FinHACK as a Hackathon and email hello@finhack.io to be notified about the next one!
As an software engineer, participating in FinHACK was really a special experience. All the teams proposed novel ideas, which looked like a whole new world for me. From FinHACK, I started to realize how engineers could help the financial industry offer brilliant services to society. I would join FinHACK again.
— Che-Jung Shu, Engineer, System Design, ASTRI
FinHACK presented an amazing opportunity for me to learn more about the current state of Fintech in Hong Kong. I’m amazed by how the team made the hackathon appear seamless and straightforward. Definitely one of the best-run hackathons in Hong Kong thus far.
— Alexander Ma, Student, Oxford Internet Institute
FinHACK is a good platform to get to know people from different background and work together to try to provide solutions to current challenges in the industry. I have got a lot of inspirations by talking to the mentors with both technical and financial background which helped refine our business models before presenting to the judges.
— Alex Cheng, Management Trainee, Kuehne & Nagel
FinHACK 2018, co-organized by WHub and Societe Generale, was an incredible learning experience with an elite selection of nurturing mentors, insightful judges and knowledge-packed workshops. Email hello@finhack.io to sign up for the waitlist for the next one!
