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Two Harvard University Alumni Win Salesforce $1M Hackathon Prize

techcrunch.com

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Re: Two Harvard University Alumni Win Salesforce $1M Hackathon Prize

#11

Post by dimva »

eggbrain wrote: post #6

I hope this hackathon happens again next year. They were very generous with their grand prize, and anything you built you were able to keep. The one thing I'd ask them to change is for the prizes to be a little better distributed this year. I'd hate to be those second place winners who perhaps _just barely_ lost to the first place winners but had a $950,000 dropoff. Perhaps first place $500,000, second place $250,000…

Their prize structure reflects rewards in winner-take-all scenarios, such as the tech industry. How much money is the second-best CRM system making compared to Salesforce?

Re: Two Harvard University Alumni Win Salesforce $1M Hackathon Prize

#13

Post by atwebb »

dimva wrote: post #11
eggbrain wrote: post #6

I hope this hackathon happens again next year. They were very generous with their grand prize, and anything you built you were able to keep. The one thing I'd ask them to change is for the prizes to be a little better distributed this year. I'd hate to be those second place winners who perhaps _just barely_ lost to the first place winners but had a $950,000 dropoff. Perhaps first place $500,000, second place $250,000…

Their prize structure reflects rewards in winner-take-all scenarios, such as the tech industry. How much money is the second-best CRM system making compared to Salesforce?

A whole lot? I mean, I don't have exact figures but knowing a few I hardly doubt the next competitor has 95% less profit than SalesForce. Tech isn't winner take all in most cases, it's a few take all, like say 4-5...

Re: Two Harvard University Alumni Win Salesforce $1M Hackathon Prize

#14

Post by goldenkey »

melvinmt wrote: post #10

One of the comments, kinda what I already expected: "Spoiler: One of those guys used to work for Salesforce! (not kidding, they announced it during the demo). The French guys were followed around during the entire hackathon by a salesforce camera crew (I was sitting right next to them, some of the salesforce people even came over to help them submit to be sure they got it in before the last 5 min was up, kinda knew t…

Not to mention it cost $500 to enter, meaning negative EV, not as bad as the lotto, but still a losers' gamble.

Re: Two Harvard University Alumni Win Salesforce $1M Hackathon Prize

#20

Post by ch4ch4 »

dragulagu wrote: post #19

The more i read the comments in the article, the more I'm getting the impression that it was a set up deal in which salesforce wanted to buy off the source/architecture of the project from the ex-employee...

... then, they acquire the project and the ex-employee is back at Salesforce again.

Perfectly plausible deniability, and the money stays in the company!

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