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Two Harvard University Alumni Win Salesforce $1M Hackathon Prize

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

#51

Post by philthesong »

jorde wrote: post #24
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…

People also complaining that their apps didn't get any hits during the evaluation period [1]. If this is true, which it seems like to be, it is pretty shameful business from Salesforce given that people clearly used a decent part of their week in order to participate. I feel bad for Heroku employees who promoted this. Edit: According to one of the judges [2], they only saw and evaluated the 5 Salesforce selected apps…

People gotta group up and sue them

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

#52

Post by philthesong »

jmacd wrote: post #46
goldenkey wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It did not cost $500 to enter. It was either $99 or Free (there was a free entry promotion for most of the time during the run up to the hackathon).

even if it was free...... how about time?

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

#53

Post by philthesong »

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...

Marc Benioff probably thought that it would be a win win situation if he shamelessly plug in one of his investments on top of naive hackers.

So does he even care?

What a show...

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

#54

Post by philthesong »

coppenheimer wrote: post #36
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…

This is ridiculous. Really sounds like a bunch of sniveling losers. I participated in the hack, lost don't regret it at all. Well, a little bit because i hate staying up late. next time will plan ahead.And I'm a former salesforce employee and personally know a bunch of the dev relations team. No leg up there. I thought our submission was pretty good, didn't win, oh well. It's almost as if these commenters believed th…

these guys are definitely tools. it is not really about winning. its about being fair or not. it is a scam if teams had to pay to contend

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

#55

Post by jcrei »

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…

So was this just one of those hackathons made to keep internal employees happy? I mean, I'm sure there's plenty of people inside Salesforce who have big dreams and ambition, and would be thinking about starting their own companies. So does Salesforce put on a show just for these people to feel good about themselves? And of course to get the prize money. But why open it to the public then?

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

#56

Post by goldenkey »

jmacd wrote: post #46
goldenkey wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It did not cost $500 to enter. It was either $99 or Free (there was a free entry promotion for most of the time during the run up to the hackathon).

I was wrong. Still though, that $99 fee is _per_ person. You'd probably have 2 or 3 people on your team. That's $300 in that case. And if I'm correct, I remember them saying that a 1-person team would have very low chances of winning. Not to mention that the competition is not a 1-day event, it is just a 1-day showing, the winning team put a month of work in addition to what they already had completed as a base. I am not one to take such large gambles when the tables are clearly not in my favor. The whole thing reeks of pre-arranged cronyism.

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

#57

Post by [deleted] »

jcrei wrote: post #55
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…

So was this just one of those hackathons made to keep internal employees happy? I mean, I'm sure there's plenty of people inside Salesforce who have big dreams and ambition, and would be thinking about starting their own companies. So does Salesforce put on a show just for these people to feel good about themselves? And of course to get the prize money. But why open it to the public then?

[deleted]

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

#59

Post by DanBC »

jmacd wrote: post #46
goldenkey wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It did not cost $500 to enter. It was either $99 or Free (there was a free entry promotion for most of the time during the run up to the hackathon).

All entrants had to be a registered attendant of Dreamforce 2013. Are people including that cost too?

http://salesforce1million.challengepost.com/

> You are, and each of your team members is, a registered attendee of Dreamforce 2013. See the Dreamforce website for event registration information.

How much did that cost? DF14 says it's going to be $799

https://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF13/register.jsp?d=70...

I think, but I don't know, that DF13 was the same price?

Maybe the 5 is just a key-rollover error from the $99?

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

#60

Post by Jd »

jmduke wrote: post #40
jorde wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People also complaining that their apps didn't get any hits during the evaluation period [1]. If this is true, which it seems like to be, it is pretty shameful business from Salesforce given that people clearly used a decent part of their week in order to participate. I feel bad for Heroku employees who promoted this. Edit: According to one of the judges [2], they only saw and evaluated the 5 Salesforce selected apps…

that people clearly used a decent part of their week in order to participate And $499.

Hacker pass was $99 list price and often given out for free.
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