board games event sf tech week 10.10

sf so nice, scooters esp

• also gotta know the places for sf

mix and mingle often, quick transition when ppl arent great

wear hoodies

certain vcs and founder things gotta know

• wtf is 500 capital?

so many amazing ppl that are super interesting to chat with

introduction

• if say “student that is doing x”, then
• should say “founder”
  • currently working on new product
    • deflect to mom test q’s
    • OR: maybe better to just tell them the thing? for more credibility & specificity & briefness; also to just answer their q
  • used to work on @ another startup bci’s
• even saying “im a student” and then when they ask where “a hs student in san mateo” isnt even that bad
  • get snubbed by some but others are actually really into it
    • (still, in the “haha thats really cool” but still open to connecting, helping, genuinely cares, curious)

specifically with lulu: dont prelude; just say. bro is so interested and you keep saying bs

interesting that everyone asks me: bachelors? masters?

phrases:

• “what do you do?” is so seamless
• qr code for linkedin, iphone for exchanging contacts
  • wanna exchange linkedins?

event hosts are great ppl to talk to ** ** take selfies lol (only if they dont know im a hs student)

make system for logging contacts for good context

prepare cool demos & things to show about your product for cool effects

alr doing but asking great questions and being active overall is good

awkwardness doesnt exist with stuff like this

have a good time :)

literally just have a recording thing going all the time—so good prob ** ** to get noticed for funding:

• build in public
• post often about your products
• go to events
• pitch etc
• vc is a lot about networks so networking also helps

overall

so fucking amazing some branding things to think abt strategies for next time

agentic context sftw 10.11

q’s to ask them / planning

• really care about making something good? (or networking)
  • if y: team structure?
    • who does what?
    • communication?

notes

talk to the ppl, they are interested in finding founders and making you use their tools (free credits)

post

talking to people so easy

• literally just do it, like 95% hit rate

if hosts are for products maybe dont talk to them that much

• merch is fun though, esp tshirts

whats the point?

• some amazing shared experiences
  • great time -> not even that crazy
• some meh
  • meh time

a couple of fun connections from many many

• ig decently strong
  • advice
  • perspectives
  • collab
  • connection

also scared of misleading others by introducing self as founder

• e.g. that one guy that was super intrigued by my idea & has not accepted my invite to connect on linkedin

beware ai rot, if want to win: go for simple & strong presentation

get linkedin qr code

only get contact if think about be useful

• mark it down right after

so fried lol

really cool ideas that can evolve into bigger projects

pitching is nice, maybe prep a bit

learn amazing skills

• just building on the spot, very average

free + food is best, all the ppl want to go

solo is different, potentially worse, but also defs has its advantages

also just fun time, dont have to stress that much about doing stuff

send the team invite earlier to make a better team

dont judge by cover, ppl are so different

• judge by talking to them (at least briefly)

if you really believe in an idea, great way to spread it (ppl want to talk to you, nice intro)

• just tell them the idea, dont ask for approval
• mom test for other situations / when the convo goes longer

keep convos shorter, esp if they are stalling a bit

• no need to extend, only go to natural stopping point -> ask for contact

longer hackathon better

maybe push for own idea more?

• a. more passion -> better, can supplement it for the team
• b. the idea gets built out and tested and discussed, really great spring board

pitching matters very similar amounts to the actual product

• e.g. you can have shit product but pitch much above average and still win

ppl are normally neutral so that doesnt mean they didnt like your presentation

perfect:

• simple, straightforward, robust, cute, motivated product
• unique idea
• very cool demo
• confident & important topic hitting presentation

things that make process easier

• clear understanding of the goal
• the goal being easy & effective
• humor :) dont be too serious
• make it clear ur in it to win it, but its chill overall

things i got out of it

• the drop on hackathons in general
  • vibes & general behavior of ppl
  • how to win
  • feedback on ideas
  • experience of hacking
• more connecting & self intro practice, experience
• training on recognizing who is cracked
  • really active ppl
  • really confident ppl
  • really smooth & stable ppl (not jumpy, not laughing hella, not pausing for too long)
  • good speakers
• experience with certain workflows
  • mongodb
  • refresher on nextjs
  • api access points
  • planning out software
• good connections
  • marc
  • the ppl i worked with
  • sophie
  • the other guy
• some cool merch (not trivial)
• a really good idea / extension of contextflow
• cool idea cross pollenation about life context & assistant
  • many ppl have ideas similar to it (tal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talglobus/)
• practice tons of core skills
  • collaboration (esp with new ppl)
  • communication
  • building fast
  • fast discussion
  • building fast
  • ideation
  • conflict resolution
  • pitching :)
  • presenting

trae hackathon 10.12

dont be too quick to look for collaborators, say “oh i might go solo” OR come with a team of 4 ready to jam

ideas person is also great

really good when can agree on an idea from the start

activity + +!

• ppl who are active are so good to work with, ask questions, ensure understanding, etc

“are we all technical here?” -> simple way to gain clarity on roles (important)

preparing the presentation once before actually doing it was nice

after presentations

full stack is hella easy

having ppl on the team that dont know whats going on isnt a good feeling (dont trust, create issues, need to redo things)

have crunch time again, very similar to everything

• go into panic mode
• should realize that i should just make a coherent plan and do it in a set amount of time
• -> albert: should find a simpler path, dont go fast (or just go same speed, hope they give extra time)

leaked out the fact that im hs again

• to team
• to audience (college apps)

should have just said that i was founder, can also share idea

wow so many ppl thinking about context, product we built was literally the thing

hackathon problem patterns:

• ideation
  • sometimes divided, sometimes aligned
• specification
  • not everyone understands the idea
  • its also not crazy specified
• building
  • some things take a lot longer than expected
  • some things just dont work
• finalizing (submission)
  • product isnt put together yet
• demoing
  • ppl have different ideas about whats important

with team, many context, understanding, communication, trust, dependency, issues

• even when things are very smooth, there are issues
• the first one goes to show how bad the problems can get (not even that bad)
• solo tbh very strong

perfect pitch

• slides for a bit (outline core value prop)
  • should be very engaging
• demo
  • really cool

ppl have the idea that “all the applications of llms has been done already”

hackathon transaction: use an llm tool or smth

• get experience, money, recognition, networking, food, swag, etc
• promote their tool or smth else

hackathons go to show basically how easy it is to build stuff these days

for networking, make sure to get the contacts of ppl who vibe w/ you quickly; saying “ill get it later, dont have my phone” will not work (they leave) and they think its a delaying tactic

after

danggg thats crazy

a binary bias comes in when evaluating hackathon pitch success

• many of the previous hackathons were not “perfect perfect”, they had issues
  • dementia had slowness, not that much context, very rudamentary implementation
  • movies had “arbitrary baseline”
• we won, and the road was very bumpy
  • ig thats what happens when you aim big

smaller hackathons -> much easier success

wow some people are really just 10x devs and you need to find them / get lucky

• ig doing the introduction was the way i got that, but it was not certain lol

winning is very strong way to gain respect, when you say ur founder now ppl believe you winning also makes me more arrogant / honest (able to say “mit” as dream school)

actually demoing well is so important

• tbh probs if our graph had like 3 things it would have been so much worse (probs not win)
• some other branding things were important
• but most importantly, the demo was very stunning (graph, mcp, recording immediately connecting into graph)

factors of success

• great idea from the start
• important demo concepts
• decent communication
• good follow through on componenents

backend hella easy, just components and connections :)

• kinda have a strong idea of how to build a ts app now

sometimes revealing hs’ness to judges is fun

• guy was not super impressed with being part of winning team, they have seen it all etc
• “impressive”

having mutuals is amazing, gives deeper connection

also did play their game a good amount -> helped us win