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LIGHTSPEED: A startup hackathon (powered by AI Tinkerers & the Lighthouse)
👇👇👇🚨🚨🚨Important note🚨🚨🚨👇👇👇
The AI Tinkerers platform is being used to manage the Hackathon details, not to manage registrations.
Instead, you must register from this page. Registration costs $27.32.
If you register for this hackathon through this page - it doesn’t count, and you will not be able to attend!
👆👆👆🚨🚨🚨Important note🚨🚨🚨👆👆👆
Lightspeed is a high-energy, 48-hour sprint where developers, designers, marketers, and builders form teams and build real solutions to startup & investor-provided challenges.
The goal: Launch, don’t just pitch.
By the end of the weekend, each team will present a working prototype or MVP, validated by customer insights, and judged by a panel of experts and the community.
What makes Lightspeed different? The challenges aren’t just made up- they’re real problems sourced from pre-seed investors and startups actively hiring. That means you’re not just building for fun, you’re building something that could actually go to market.
🏆 $2,500 will go to the overall Judges’ Pick
🏆 $2,500 will go to the overall Audience Favorite
🔥 And each Challenge Sponsor (investor or startup) will pick a winning team to receive 6 months of mentorship — one meeting per month to help keep momentum going post-event.
You can learn more about our challenge sponsors here.
Whether you’re looking to land a job, impress an investor, or ship something meaningful with new collaborators- Lightspeed is the weekend to do it.
🗓️ Weekend Schedule
Friday – Kickoff
5:00 PM – Doors open + check-in
5:30 PM – Welcome & challenge presentations
6:15 PM – Team pitches + formation
8:00 PM – Hacking begins
Saturday – Build Day
9:00 AM – Breakfast + work begins
10:00 AM – Mentorship support
1:00 PM – Workshops (UX, pitching, validation)
7:00 PM – Midpoint check-ins
Late – Keep building (or rest up!)
Sunday – Final Push & Pitches
9:00 AM – Breakfast + final stretch
1:00 PM – Submissions due
2:00 PM – Live pitches
4:30 PM – Awards: Judges’ Pick + Community Favorite
5:00 PM – Wrap-up + networking
This hackathon is powered by Cline, the collaborative AI coder
If you are in need of financial assistance to participate in this event, we want to help you! Please fill out this form.