I've only done a couple hackathons recently: (a) at Twilio conference last Fall (I quit), (b) a Twilio/Zappos at-home hackathon (I won), and (c) at AngelHack a

I've only done a couple hackathons recently: (a) at Twilio conference last Fall (I quit), (b) a Twilio/Zappos at-home hackathon (I won), and (c) at AngelHack a couple weeks ago (I was a top 25 finalist). I must say it's pretty fun. Here's my observations: 1. I'm too old to stay up all night. So, for me, a 24-hour hackathon is really 18 hours at most. 2. The prizes aren't really worth it (yet). One prize took 6 months to receive. At AngelHack, I probably wouldn't have accepted the $25K convertible note. 3. The "free work" thing is a myth. I thought that too, but no one is forcing you to open-source or commit your code (from what I can tell). You're basically just giving some companies with APIs something to blog about. Sure, someone could steal your idea but that's a risk anyway. 4. Meeting people is a big benefit. I'm a founder and in between SF and LA, so I don't have connections like the valley startups. Doing a hackathon every quarter seems like a good way to meet potential partners, employees, contractors and investors. 5. Skills/resume boosting is the other plus. The skills I learned at these hackathons have already helped me and I likely wouldn't have got them any other way. Plus, none of this looks bad on my resume should I, God forbid, ever have to work for someone else.