# How to win Startup Weekend Global! [Part 4]

**Published by:** [Durwin](https://paragraph.com/@durwin/)
**Published on:** 2023-03-03
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@durwin/how-to-win-startup-weekend-global-part-4

## Content

Stay tuned for the final pitches of Startup Weekend Global on Sat!Most people join hackathons but don’t know how to win them. Here’s some tips and steps to win any hackathon. I call it “hacking the hackathon”. Interested? Let’s dive in. Today we talk about some of the best tips from my own experiences participating, winning and organising hackathons, as we march closer towards the largest Startup Weekend Global happening this weekend. This is a 5-part series on the behind-the-scenes of Startup Weekend Global and what it takes to run a hackathon that has morphed into a global entrepreneurship juggernaut. Part 4: Hacking the hackathonTeam.Sure you can join a hackathon and try to meet new people. It is fun to meet strangers but if you are there to win, go hustle and persuade your best friends to join along. Form a team of A players, preferably 1 techie, 1 marketing/hustler and 1 designer. If you need a 4th person, make sure it is a hot girl/guy so they can swoon the judges! What can I say, first impression matters, and you only have a few minutes to impress the judges! Don’t worry too much about who is going to be CEO or CTO or CPO, it really doesn’t matter now. Focus on the win.2. Tools. Not all hackathons give you such in-depth tools. Startup Weekend Global is an exception. You have Discord (to bounce ideas), Gather Town (for meeting/networking), Miro Board (for all the useful info, prizes, swag .etc) and mentors to tap on! Make use of them.Mentors are very useful if you know how to pick their brains!3. Mentors. Split the roles, divide and conquer. Send someone to speak to the mentors, while the rest work. Research their background, ask meaningful, relevant questions, learn from their experiences, bounce ideas and dive deeper in what they think. Don’t ask generic questions that ChatGPT can give answers to. Ask them specific questions that they can draw from their own experiences and domain knowledge. ![Knowing your judges can give you an edge in winning! ](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/90079c7PwbT2ZOM6P0KNq.png?height=604&width=720) 4. Judges. Don’t be afraid, be confident. If you are uncertain or unsure about your idea, it shows. Research on the judges’ background. Use it to your advantage. Know what their expertise are and avoid controversy where possible. If you are building a metaverse for pets and you know one of the judges has a dog, call it out and reference it in your pitch. Make it fun, memorable and enjoyable for the judges. Remember, if they like you, they will remember you!Yep, we once had Patrick Collison, cofounder of Stripe and one of the youngest billionaires in the world, in person, at our Startup Weekend Singapore!5. Pitching. Rehearse at least 10 times. Get it down to a science, the timing, the number of slides, the exact moments where you change slides. Don’t focus too much on beautiful slides. Focus on making it CLEAR and EASY TO UNDERSTAND. If they don’t understand, how they ever like or know what you are pitching? If you have a working demo that you can present live in 30s or less, DO IT. It speaks way more than slides. And if the demo is indeed impressive, you have won 80% of the battle. Oh, and don’t ever have more than 1 speaker if its a short pitch.It takes a village of volunteers working tirelessly and passionately behind the scenes to make Startup Weekend magic!6. Q&A. Be ready for questions. Do not be defensive. Throw in back up slides and be ready to back them up with numbers and your research. Whatever you do, don’t ramble and use more words than you absolutely need to. Answer plainly and simply, no jargons, no running in circles. Please don’t play a video to answer a judge’s question, it is annoying.“There are no bad ideas, just bad execution!”7. Idea Don’t overthink an idea. In fact, don’t start with an idea. Start with a problem. Find a really painful, really obvious problem that ideally most people can immediately relate and understand. A good problem is half the battle won. Sometimes, you don’t even need a perfect solution. For example: tired of having to use 6 totally different apps to check and get the lowest prices for a ride home? Those who know, knows just how painfully real that problem is. Sure, you may not have a solution yet, but the fact that it is a great pain point already sells itself so well!Throwback to when Justin Kan, Cofounder of Twitch and Goat Capital, graced our Startup Weekend as a guest speaker!8. What’s next? Even if you don’t win, don’t despair. The idea may not survive the weekend, but the team will. If your team is awesome and you had fun working together. I suggest you guys keep in contact, meet regularly and see what other hackathons or projects you can work on together. So many brilliant startups are started from great founders. Of course, some of these tips won’t work in a very technical hackathon or if there are overarching rules that changes things fundamentally. So be discerning and have fun!Nothing beats the raw emotion, high octane energy and amazing vibes of an in-person hackathon!Excited to join Startup Weekend Global? Well, what are you waiting for? If you want to participate and stand a chance to win up to $100k of prizes, join us now! If you want to watch the finals on 4 March at 10pm (SGT), get your tickets here. - Startup Weekend is a volunteer-led initiative under Techstars. Since its inception in 2009, hackathons have been held in over 1,800 cities and ignited the fire of over 500,000+ startup enthusiasts across the globe. Notable alumni including Zapier, EasyTaxi, Rover and Carousell even went on to raise more than 7 billion dollars. - Have you joined a hackathon before? - #startups #business #startupx #growth #success #socialmedia #culture #entrepreneurship #strategy #eth #btc #crypto #polygon #partnerships #startupweekend #NFT #swglobal #unicorns #mentors #founders #judges #hacking #marketing #team #networking #startup #people

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