[evanjacobs]

I'm a big hackathon fan and participant and I can sympathize with the emotional high of "hey, we built something really cool" to the low of "the judges didn't just didn't understand what we've built". Most of the hackathons in which I've participated use a panel of judges from the VC or general "tech community" but whom aren't usually hackers themselves. I'd love to see an event where the judges know what it takes to produce something that works in a compressed timeframe and don't ask the inane questions like "how are you going to make money?" or "who are your competitors?"

I'm also bootstrapping my startup primarily for the same reasons. I don't particularly want or need validation from VCs, many of whom aren't hackers, to distract me from figuring out whether what I've built is of any value to my customers.

[spamizbad]

Have hackathons really turned into a prototype show-and-tell crossed with a business plan competition? Because that's what a lot of these hackathon contests seem like.