Night Hack by Founders, Inc.

50 teams showed up for the first Night Hack. 100 came to the second. They shipped secure sandboxes, robot-training pipelines, sports tech, and more.

Now we’re making the third Night Hack even bigger.

One night at Founders, Inc. in Fort Mason. Build hardware, software, or both. You have five hours to ship something real.

Live demos only. No slides. No localhost.

Credits & prizes

1st prize gets $5,000 in Anthropic credits

2nd prize gets $3,000 in Anthropic credits

3rd prize gets $2,000 in Anthropic credits

What counts

Build something completely new, or add a substantial new capability to an existing project.

Existing libraries, models, APIs, infrastructure, codebases, and prebuilt hardware are allowed as a starting point, but disclose what existed before kickoff. Judges will evaluate the new work completed during Night Hack.

Who this is for

Engineers, technical founders, researchers, designers, and operators.

Solo or team. First project or fiftieth. Every teammate must apply separately and receive approval.

Details

• Date: Friday, July 24
• Check-in: 6:30 PM
• Hacking: 7:00 PM–12:00 AM
• Finalist demos + winners: 12:45 AM
• No re-entry after: 11:00 PM
• Capacity: Up to 200 builders

Building with hardware?

Hardware is welcome, but you must bring your own. Bring a complete working rig, every component, tool, cable, charger, spare, and a software or simulation fallback.

• We unfortunately can't supply hardware or access to the electronics lab, given the hundreds in attendance.
• This means: No hardware, tools, soldering, fabrication, or 3D printing from the lab. You may bring your own 3D printer.

Supported by

Anthropic Providing Claude credits for eligible checked-in builders and the $5,000, $2,000, and $3,000 credit prizes for the winning teams.

Cursor Cursor is a coding agent for building ambitious software.

Bolt.new Bolt.new helps builders create and ship full-stack apps with AI.

Convex Convex is the reactive TypeScript backend for agents and full-stack apps, with a free tier available to hackathon teams.

About Founders, Inc.

Founders, Inc. backs early-stage founders in emerging tech with $100K–$250K first checks. We run programs, sprints, and hackathons from our 42,000 sq. ft. campus in Fort Mason.

Accepted builders will receive the attendee Discord and final event instructions after confirming through Luma.

This event may be photographed or recorded. Builders under 18 must have parent or guardian permission to attend.