Neal Shyam of Challengepost powers hackathons and corporate challenges

I got on the phone (for the second time!) with Neal Shyam of Challengepost to talk about the hackathon game.  Neal has an interesting perspective because Challengepost is a platform to power any sort of developer challenge - in person at hackathons, or online as a longer form competition.  Brands like McDonalds and Coke have used the service, and many hackathons organziers lean on it as an event webpage.  It preserves submissions, several hundred thousand projects are indexed currently.


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Interview flow:


  • 0:00 Brief overview of Neal's background

    • Mechanical Engineer at CMU

    • worked on engines at caterpillar

    • ended up in B school at NYU

  • 0:48 - Brief overview of your ChallengePost

    • CP started as a competition platform

    • focused on building a community around hackers

    • CP is place for software developers and designers to show off their stuff

    • it powers registration, submissions, judging, sharing

    • Looking at CP’s data, you can check out each hackathon’s different set of sponsors - you can see the trends

  • 2:45 - What does a dev evangelist do?

    • Evangelist’s main job is to keep hackers engaged

    • if they run into problems get them the help they need

    • regardless of your event’s location CP can help

  • 4:18 - CP is a meta tool, what are unique challenges you have faced?

    • Civic Challenges are an interesting thing Neal has done work on that most evangelists never get into

    • Appquest is an example - ATT + NYC MTA

  • 5:10 - What did you work on before you became a dev evangelist?

    • Got the opportunity to open - started up a plant in mexico

    • worked in adtech before as well

    • billboards are heavily regulated depending on the city you are in - LA they are prevalent, Seattle they are almost nonexistant and highly regulated

  • 6:40 - How long has CP been running your Dev Evangelism program

    • have been operating for 5 years

    • about 2 years ago CP got involved in the hackathon scene

  • 7:10 - what surprised you as part of this role?


  • 10:44 - What is an API or product (not your own) that you love?

    • Textwrangler - does 80% of copywriting there

    • Cooking is a good metaphor for simplicity to other projects - instead of getting 100 tools, just get a good knife and a good pan.  

    • Atom or Sublimetext for coding

    • Dev Evangelists need to be good writers - Neal does many copywriting projects - blog posts, wrap ups, marketing for a challenge, newsletters, etc

    • Evangelists can recycle your old content, link back to your old stuff - your new audience will never be the wiser - “evergreen content”

    • BufferApp is a good way to schedule posts

  • 15:29 - What is your favorite hackathon format?  

  • 19:05  - Tell me about a great event you’ve been to in the past year

    • MLH - boilermake at Purdue

    • it was different - a bit more than just a hackathon - it had more of a festival vibe

    • had a badge challenge - (similar to defcon badge challenge)

    • lounges - 3-4 different ones

    • darkroom - for sleeping :)

    • mini challenges by sponsors

    • just a solid mid-sized hackathon

  • 23:20 - Throw a hackathon vs sponsor one - Which choice is better for a company who wants to get involved?

    • best thing is to sponsor one that’s organized by someone else - you should aim to be an incredible sponsor

    • put a lot of boots on the ground - be visible -

    • try to do a killer API session - optimize the developer experience -

    • soft tshirts are clutch :)

    • help regardless of the product - even if they aren’t using your stuff

  • 26:10 - Throwing your own hackathon

    • do not outsource a hackathon!! - don’t get an intern to run it or bring someone in

    • Are you really ready to throw one?  If you are …

    • ChallengePost blog is a resource

    • hackathon.posthaven.com podcast is also :)

  • 27:40 - Do you think hackathons will play a role in the future of education?

    • they are self directed - will be a great learning tool for students who have the internal motivation

    • opt-in at this point in the hackathon lifecycle

    • recognition and prizes - reward as many people as you can, versus rewarding a few high performers

    • hackathon seems to be a supplement to education, not a replacement

    • power of a hackathon is that it lets you quickly discover your strs, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, and to ship!

    • educators can absolutely use the hackathon model to supplement curriculum - you can’t force it, though

    • since they are viral, you need to be open to newbs and support learning

  • 33:30 - Anything (product, API, idea) you want to plug?

    • Go to ChallengePost and create the portfolio - everyone wants to know what you are hacking on - gives you practice about talking about what you are doing

    • If you want to learn about an open source project - GitAtMe

    • PennApps winner which moderates FB comment spam - http://challengepost.com/software/mark-sweep

  • 34:55 - Is there anything I forgot to ask that I should have?

    • Have seen a lot of accessibility related products - sign language, music, interpreters, etc - blurred lines between online and offline - this will continue to be a trend

    • music hack day

  • @nealrs on twitter

  • GitHub and Challengepost

  • Go to a hackathon!