What is a hackathon and what benefits can it bring you?

In recent years, numerous initiatives have emerged to promote young entrepreneurship. Hackathons —competitions designed to develop business ideas against the clock— are one of the proposals that have gained the most popularity in the university environment.

In a changing environment, there are many business challenges and opportunities that arise to respond to different social, economic, environmental, and political problems. In this scenario, entrepreneurs have undoubtedly become a key figure in contributing to the construction of a fairer and more sustainable society.

<<Cómo convertirse en un emprendedor de éxito [Descubre más] >>

Fortunately, more and more young people are deciding to bet on entrepreneurship to develop innovative business ideas. Therefore, providing them with support, visibility and resources is essential to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem and ensure its growth. As a result of this need, numerous initiatives have emerged to encourage entrepreneurship through the celebration of events that promote creativity and the development of transformative ideas, often with an important social component. In recent years, one of the proposals that has gained the most popularity is hackathons.

What is a hackathon?

The hackathons are competitive events with a playful approach, usually lasting between 24 and 48 hours, in which participants must in teams to solve a specific problem in a creative, fast and effective way.. Originally, and as the word itself indicates -the term "hackathon" is a contraction of "hacker" and "hackathon" is a contraction of "hackathon" and "hacker".hacker" y "marathon"- these meetings were aimed at programmers and developers in order to encourage them to design software solutions. However, nowadays the concept has been extended, so they are open to all types of sectors and disciplines.

Once the event is over, each group must present its product prototype, service proposal or business model to a specialized jury and demonstrate the originality, viability and degree of development of the idea.

Why participate in a hackathon?

One of the advantages of participating in a hackathon is that these competitions, in addition to fostering creative thinking, promote a model of collaboration and contribute to building communities, given that teamwork is one of its foundations. Thanks to this dynamic, collective learning is enhanced and a valuable knowledge network is generated.

On the other hand, living this experience will allow you to network and establish links with people who share your same interests and aspirations. In addition, hackathons have the presence of experts to provide advice, give presentations and observe the way in which each team faces the challenge. Therefore, you should keep in mind that being in direct contact with these professionals in the sector represents a great opportunity to demonstrate your talent and find new job and entrepreneurship opportunities.

The recreational nature of these meetings should not lead us to believe that it is a mere pastime, since solving the proposed challenge implies a significant degree of difficulty and organization. The time limitation to develop the project will allow you to test and improve your productivity and your ability to work under pressure. For this reason, indicating that you have participated in a competition of these characteristics will add a plus to your resume.

<<¿Por qué las startups eligen coworkings para trabajar? [Descubre más] >>

As a culmination of the hackathons, it is common for the winning team to receive a prize with financial endowment to put their project into practice, or be given the opportunity to access incubators or acceleration programs that make it easier for them to develop and implement their idea.

At Aticco we always consider it a pleasure to collaborate with initiatives aimed at promoting young entrepreneurship and in recent months we have been fortunate to host in our spaces various events that have been true engines of motivation, learning and inspiration. Below we present three of them:

• Startup Turbo

The Startup Turbo entrepreneurship competition held at Aticco Bogatell on April 9, 10 and 11 brought together university students from various centers in Barcelona, ​​such as UPC, La Salle, Elisava and ESADE.

The objective of this event was to develop —in multidisciplinary teams and in an international environment— an innovative idea with the help and advice of mentors and professionals from the entrepreneurial ecosystem, to present it to a qualified jury after three intense days of work.

It is worth noting that one of the prizes of the competition consisted of enjoying a 3-month pre-acceleration for ĀticcoLab together with with the startups of its 2nd programto develop the idea presented during the competition. The winning team of the competition that obtained this benefit was. Nimenta project that aims to democratize the most advanced technologies on the market for SMEs, with the aim of promoting more sustainable growth not only for companies but also for society.

• StartCamp by Start Comillas

The 5th edition of the StartCamp competition, promoted by Start Comillas, the Entrepreneurs Association of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, took place at Aticco María de Molina on the weekend of April 10th and 11th. 

A competition that brought together 40 students from all the universities in Madrid, who were divided into 10 multidisciplinary teams to develop the best idea for the same mobility and subscription model challenge posed by Bipi, the car subscription marketplace that has driven transformation and growth in the automotive sector.

In this way, in just 48 hours the teams worked to create a new product on the market, studying Bipi's value proposition and establishing synergies between this company and an existing or emerging industry of their choice. A complex challenge that allowed participants to learn more about a market in full growth.

In addition, this initiative aimed at promoting young talent had the support of experts in mobility and entrepreneurship throughout the weekend, who provided their support to all the teams. A weekend full of fun, entrepreneurship and learning, in which three finalist teams were selected, and finally a single winner.

• StartCamp UPF:

The hackathon StartCamp UPF, organized by Start Universe y UPF ESocietywas held at Aticco Bogatell on April 17 and 18. The competition brought together 50 students from different universities, who. -distributed in teams of four people- had to fight against the clock to develop a business idea focused on solving a challenge of the future.

During the weekend, students were able to attend training sessions and receive mentoring from experts, as well as exchange knowledge and points of view, an essential factor in formulating their value proposition.

The winning project of the competition was PSICole, an app designed to offer psychological help to adolescents in schools that do not have an adequate tutoring and counseling service.

Are you organizing a hackathon and would like to celebrate it at Aticco? Contact us and let's make it happen!