[saryant]

I went to AngelHack Austin earlier this year and I thought there were a number of things that could be improved upon. The group I went with (all devs) had a terrible time. Sounds like they've realized this too.

At the ATX event, there were no demos. Not even a public presentation to the rest of the participants, we were just grilled in a closed-room session by their panel on a bunch of business questions.

The only way to get a T-Shirt was to listen to a sales pitch by one of their sponsors.

Everyone was absolutely crammed in their space. I really hope they find a new venue for Austin.

Maybe this event just went poorly but everyone I went with was really soured on AngelHack after that.

[scc]

I keep hearing stories like yours, I'm not sure why people who have bad experienes at AngelHack don't share their stories more.

[saryant]

Their Austin event was pretty bad. We thought it would be developer oriented but then it was just a 48 hour long sales pitch. Based on the other comments I'm seeing here, maybe they just dropped the ball in Austin.

[ggopman]

Yea... we had some problems with ATX last time. We're switching things up with a completely new organizing team and venue this time around. It's not easy to throw these big hacks, so I have to be a little forgiving with our first time organizers from past. That said, we will get it right and things in Austin will be awesome like they are in most other cities.

[saryant]

I understand. I ran a hackathon in San Antonio this summer and problems crop up where you least expect them. Definitely not an easy task.

[mgirdley]

After attending, I don't see how AngelHack can ever be successful in its current format. It's clearly not about the hacks. It's for the sponsors who want to recruit devs and investors/judges who want to find the next big idea.