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The Hackathon in question is apparently BattleHack Miami, hosted by PayPal: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/the-starting-gate/2013/08/battlehack-miami-and-the-w

by jmduke 13y ago

The Hackathon in question is apparently BattleHack Miami, hosted by PayPal: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/the-starting-gate/2013/08/battlehack-miami-and-the-winners-are.html http://miamiherald.typepad.com/the-starting-gate/2013/08/bat... The winner in question was YellowPepper, who at the very least share their name with a startup also involved in mobile banking (http://www.yellowpepper.com/#/homeId/homeCB/page/home.html http://www.yellowpepper.com/#/homeId/homeCB/page/home.html) and have issued a press release from Miami (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yellowpepper-and-fundamo-partner-to-bring-greater-access-to-mobile-money-services-in-latin-america-84463442.html http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yellowpepper-and-fun...). (I'm not involved, I just saw this through Tom's Twitter.)

ssafejava 13y ago
They not only share their name with the existing startup, they are that startup: The winning app makes it easy for consumers to find places to withdraw small amounts of cash at a low cost, using businesses in their own neighborhood and a PayPal technology that is very secure, said Alexander Sjögren, who developed the app with Jose Pimienta and Osniel Gonzalez. Sjögren is with the Miami company YellowPepper, which offers mobile banking and payment solutions in Latin America. Pimienta and Gonzalez co-founded Vinylfy, a startup catering to vinyl-record enthusiasts. [1] YellowPepper is: About YellowPepper YellowPepper Mobile Financial Solutions provides products and services that enable mobile financial transactions between financial institutions (banks), businesses, and consumers in Latin America. With 1.5 million users, YellowPepper operates in Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, and Panama as a service provider for more than 50 financial and non-financial institutions. For more information, log on to www.yellowpepper.com. [2] 1. http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/25/3585797/hackers-emerge-from-wynwood-app.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/25/3585797/hackers-emerge... 2. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yellowpepper-and-fundamo-partner-to-bring-greater-access-to-mobile-money-services-in-latin-america-84463442.html http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yellowpepper-and-fun...
ShellfishMeme 13y ago
I was at the BattleHack in Berlin. The event itself was absolutely fantastic. It was definitely the best organized hackathon I've ever been part of. Still, the final results felt similarly weird. The winner was a (non-technical) dude who had been pitching his startup for months already and found himself an amazingly talented developer at the hackathon. They made use of most of the sponsor APIs and added PayPal as a payment option for the already existing service. To me it felt like the guy was just going to random hackathons so he could get work done on his website for free. Even though the developer seemed to be exceptionally good, it seemed like he was just being taken advantage of by a guy who couldn't get his startup to have more traction. There were definitely much more impressive hacks out there. (Mine honestly wasn't one of them, so it's not just jealousy talking). In addition, the theme of the hackathon was 'solving local problems'. Now if not having a platform to get product X in city Y is a local problem, it might fit. For me though, the interpretation was more 'making the world a better place' and not 'building a purely profit-oriented application to sell stuff using PayPal'. I think they simply chose the most monetizable product that was in the competition. Made the whole event, which, I repeat, was about the best organized and executed hackathon I've ever seen, suddenly feel cheap.
- sek 13y ago
  Have been there too, had the exact same feeling. It is a running business, he pitched his company, that he has thousands of customers already. I heard the guy did the same at other hackathons in Berlin. The Technical guy was a professional who knew from the beginning what he had to do, we spent half the time developing a concept.
- razvvan 13y ago
  Thing is most of us didn't come there for the prize. Personally I already had an idea in the back of my head, just went in to do an MVP(which I did) and in the process maybe meet some new people. But then ... the cleanberlin guy wins. Felt like ikea winning a furniture design and quality competition. Also... wasn't it a bit weird how the guy had his wife and his kid just "around"? If I came in with his "idea", I wouldn't expect to win so I wouldn't bring in my wife and kid to witness it.
- 13y ago

by jmduke 13y ago

ssafejava 13y ago

They not only share their name with the existing startup, they are that startup: The winning app makes it easy for consumers to find places to withdraw small amounts of cash at a low cost, using businesses in their own neighborhood and a PayPal technology that is very secure, said Alexander Sjögren, who developed the app with Jose Pimienta and Osniel Gonzalez. Sjögren is with the Miami company YellowPepper, which offers mobile banking and payment solutions in Latin America. Pimienta and Gonzalez co-founded Vinylfy, a startup catering to vinyl-record enthusiasts. [1] YellowPepper is: About YellowPepper YellowPepper Mobile Financial Solutions provides products and services that enable mobile financial transactions between financial institutions (banks), businesses, and consumers in Latin America. With 1.5 million users, YellowPepper operates in Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, and Panama as a service provider for more than 50 financial and non-financial institutions. For more information, log on to www.yellowpepper.com. [2] 1. http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/25/3585797/hackers-emerge-from-wynwood-app.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/25/3585797/hackers-emerge... 2. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yellowpepper-and-fundamo-partner-to-bring-greater-access-to-mobile-money-services-in-latin-america-84463442.html http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yellowpepper-and-fun...

ShellfishMeme 13y ago

I was at the BattleHack in Berlin. The event itself was absolutely fantastic. It was definitely the best organized hackathon I've ever been part of. Still, the final results felt similarly weird. The winner was a (non-technical) dude who had been pitching his startup for months already and found himself an amazingly talented developer at the hackathon. They made use of most of the sponsor APIs and added PayPal as a payment option for the already existing service. To me it felt like the guy was just going to random hackathons so he could get work done on his website for free. Even though the developer seemed to be exceptionally good, it seemed like he was just being taken advantage of by a guy who couldn't get his startup to have more traction. There were definitely much more impressive hacks out there. (Mine honestly wasn't one of them, so it's not just jealousy talking). In addition, the theme of the hackathon was 'solving local problems'. Now if not having a platform to get product X in city Y is a local problem, it might fit. For me though, the interpretation was more 'making the world a better place' and not 'building a purely profit-oriented application to sell stuff using PayPal'. I think they simply chose the most monetizable product that was in the competition. Made the whole event, which, I repeat, was about the best organized and executed hackathon I've ever seen, suddenly feel cheap.

sek 13y ago
Have been there too, had the exact same feeling. It is a running business, he pitched his company, that he has thousands of customers already. I heard the guy did the same at other hackathons in Berlin. The Technical guy was a professional who knew from the beginning what he had to do, we spent half the time developing a concept.
razvvan 13y ago
Thing is most of us didn't come there for the prize. Personally I already had an idea in the back of my head, just went in to do an MVP(which I did) and in the process maybe meet some new people. But then ... the cleanberlin guy wins. Felt like ikea winning a furniture design and quality competition. Also... wasn't it a bit weird how the guy had his wife and his kid just "around"? If I came in with his "idea", I wouldn't expect to win so I wouldn't bring in my wife and kid to witness it.
13y ago