When a Hackathon Becomes a Funding Engine

Ten years ago I had a simple idea: hackathons could prove a startup was enterprise-ready.

• With Capital One, founders built on the bank’s APIs and solved real problems. Winner: into YC, raised, got a Capital One offer.
• With Novartis, we paired startups with doctors. Winner: funded, later exited.

Hackathons were good — but not enough. So I rebuilt them into Proving Grounds: 72-hour venture sprints that pressure-test startups before founders waste months.

72 hours isn’t about getting funded. It’s a forcing function: ship something real, test with users, and get brutal clarity fast.

Monday morning is when it matters — double down, pivot, or walk away with signal investors rarely see this early.

It’s working: in the last two AI sprints alone, teams like PromptDriven and Closing.wtf have been funded or accepted into top accelerators — moving fast to defend their moats.

🚀 Next Sprint: Oct 17-19 @ Snowflake HQ (Menlo Park) Builders + early teams: Build it. Test it. Prove it. 👉 lu.ma/startupsprint