Ask HN: What do you dislike about hackathons/startup-weekend type events?

[overworkedasian]

im currently throwing around an idea for a 'startup weekend' type of event. i've done several startup weekend events and I do have some gripes about it. while you do learn alot in those 48 hours of hacking/building a business model, it is very very stressful but rewarding. but i dont think it has to be that way all the time. was wondering if anyone has any complaints about these type of events that have been to in the past.

[saurik]

I frankly, usually, find these events fairly annoying, as they cause a large number of people to build something that is out of touch with practical concerns like marketability or even end-to-end feasibility: it is easy to come up with crazy ideas and build prototypes; what is more difficult is to come up with a plan for how to actually build a business.

Meanwhile, as everyone is broken down into little teams, very few people actually meet others; the worst case scenario of this is a lot of times people come with a few of their friends, and literally meet no one.

I thereby find myself going to events like this and purposely not joining a team and not entering the a-thon, and instead watching like a hawk waiting for the few moments when someone is taking a break (I then meet them).

On the other side, I've seen events like this work well: in specific, the 360|iDev game hack-a-thon is nearly perfect. As it is part of a larger conference, there are lots of chances to meet people, and in fact many people don't participate at all (as there is no real expectation to); of those who remain, they are clearly building "something fun", so the idea of "would this actually work" is irrelevant.

[kausikram]

I have been to quiet a few startup weekend type events, down here in India. In fact one of the main products i am working on is based out of a weekend hack that happened 6 months ago. To me the most biggest crib-point is the fact that, while most of these events put in considerable amount of effort pre-event, and ensure an amazing event, everyone of them lack when it comes to post event engagement. Without an after event support system in place, most of those hacks do not see the light of the day and the event in itself ends up becoming a terrible cross between a beauty pageant and a spellingbee contest.

[overworkedasian]

what would you like to see in a 'post engagement' system? do you want to be able to see a list of everyone that attended so you can follow them on facebook or twitter? have a place that teams and post updates on the projects that they worked on? curious as to your thoughts on how the 'post event' support system could be better.

[kausikram]

a bit of all that:

  * Chronicling the products that were created.

  * Having a forum where there is discussion on the MVPs created, to validate it against real market and see if it can be developed into a product.

  * A place where the MVP creators can try to find initial customers / beta testers.

Individual networking does not required any post event hand holding, but thats hardly enough to help the MVP to take shape into a full blown product.

[orangethirty]

My only gripe is that these events are more American Idol and less business. Its a popularity contest for people afraid of going out and selling something. I was invited to one where "the startup voted most popular gets funding." Yeah, no thanks. Funding is something you get because you need to buy infrastructure or pay employees or anything business related, and not (well, outside of a bubble) because you are popular. Though someone might say that popularity == traction, I will answer that it does not. Traction == sales == money in the bank. Popularity just means that you are trending on the internet.

[helen842000]

Please have something informal scheduled for after the demos. It's the end of the weekend, everyone is buzzing from the pitches & finally knows each others names & enough about each other that the shyness has gone - and then it's all over! Usually a group drink ends up being set up last minute with no real structure, which is a shame because lots of folks have usually pre-arranged their travel etc.

Once the intensity of building is over, that's when the real networking begins.

[overworkedasian]

thanks for the all the input! ill share my idea once i have refined it more. but the key things i want to focus are:

- give a chance for everyone to network with each other

- put people in situations where teamwork is needed

- put focus on creativity and make things fun. FUN is the focus here.

- learning is still the goal here but not in a stressful/lack of sleep environment.