Product Hunt + Fastgen Hackathon

Key Facts

• The hackathon runs from November 27th to December 11th and is fully remote
• You can register here
• You need to launch the product on Product Hunt by the end of the deadline 
• You need to build a new product or significant new feature
• You need to use Fastgen in some significant capacity (At least one of the following extensively or multiple combined: APIs, CRON Jobs, DB, User Auth)
• The submission/launch deadline is December 11th, 23:59 ET
• Enter as an individual or as a team of up to 5 people
• Win cash prizes, a 1 on 1 meeting with the Product Hunt CEO, a feature on Times Square and cool company swag

Prizes

There are 3 categories that each have their own prizes:

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Best overall project (Win a 1 on 1 call with the Product Hunt CEO, be featured with a celebratory video on Times Square, get Swag kits & 1500 dollars)

• The best overall project will combine great usefulness, strong creativity, and a remarkable Product Hunt launch.
  

Outstanding Product Hunt launch (Product Hunt Swag kit and 500 dollars)

• This winner will be selected based on the quality and creativity of your Product Hunt launch. Are you using beautiful visuals? Have you recorded a unique video explaining your product? Are you engaging the community in a cheerful manner? All of these aspects will help you to win this. Please be advised that we will not look at upvotes to decide on the winner. If you place well, great. If not, we are still happy.
  

Best use of Fastgen (Fastgen Swag kit, three months of Fastgen Pro plan for free and 500 dollars)

• The best Fastgen Project has used Fastgen innovatively and holistically. You use the features to their fullest potential and integrate them well with the rest of your stack. 

What should you build?

We will leave the freedom to you to decide what you want to build. Some example projects from our last hackathon include an AI-based SEO-Optimization tool for Webflow sites, a marketplace for travel goods, a short-form newsletter platform, a chatbot that answers your questions about the Premier League and many more. If you need suggestions, we will discuss product ideas in the Hackathon Discord in advance and you might be able to find some team members that you can convince to build your idea or you can hop on and participate in bringing their ideas to life. 

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Judges

• Rajiv, CEO of Product Hunt
• Nate, GP at Mischief (former Head of Product at Front)
• Peer, CEO of cal.com
• Vlada, Investor at 468 Capital
• Mike, CEO of Fastgen

Here are some further details on how submissions will be evaluated:

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Overall winner

• Usefulness
• Creativity
• Functions correctly/smoothly
• Visually pleasing
• Technically impressive

Outstanding Product Hunt launch

• Clean screenshots and visuals of the product
• Clear and elaborate description of the product 
• Follow the rules of the Product Hunt launch guide (This is a minimum criterion for every category)
• Engage with the community and answer their questions in the comments

Use of Fastgen 

• Fastgen can serve as your full backend, or you can use pieces of it like the API builder and User Auth. We expect you to make it a central part of the product you are building. However, if you decide to use an external DB, we welcome you to do that and connect it to Fastgen
• Fastgen is inherently modular, so feel free to connect external tools even if there is no native integration yet by using the HTTP or the custom code module

And most importantly

• Enjoy the process!

Submissions

At the end of the Hackathon you need to submit the following things: 

1. A video explaining your product, showing its functionality and details how you have used Fastgen
2. A link to your Product Hunt launch (If you want to launch at a later date, that is fine, we will just exclude you from the Overall Winner and Product Hunt Launch Category. You can still win best use of Fastgen)
3. Provide the url of your Fastgen project 
4. Some basic information about your team like the name, email and team members

Rules

• Team size 1 - 5 (all team members on winning teams will receive a prize)
• You cannot be on multiple teams
• One submission per team
• All design elements, code, etc., for your project must be created during the event
• Must use Fastgen in some meaningful capacity
• Must follow the Product Hunt Launch guidelines 
• You must submit before the deadline (no late entries)

Events during the hackathon

We will have some great speakers discuss building and launching products during the hackathon. You can see a selection below but we will announce more people in the following weeks. 

• Nate Abbott (former head of product at Front)
• Peer Rich (CEO at Cal.com)
• Mike Mahlkow (CEO at Fastgen)
• Surprise guest from Product Hunt
• More guests will be announced in the following weeks including successful solo entrepreneurs, Unicorn Founders, and operators from some of the best product companies in the world

Resources

• Official Product Hunt Launch Guide
• Fastgen Docs
• Fastgen Product Hunt launch
• We will have a dedicated Discord server to discuss all the logistics for the hackathon. We will answer questions, support in building, and give advice on how to launch well on Product Hunt

You want to participate? Just fill out the registration form here.