Scalathon

Special Events

Scalathon

Venture Mechanics' Scalathon events are unique. Unlike a hackathon, where the goal is to develop code over a weekend, in a Scalathon diversely-talented teams try to solve major real-world problems, by crafting venture-scale business plans optimized for scalability, monetization, and investor readiness. Instead of demonstrating your code at the end, you'll be presenting your compelling business plan to a panel of VCs to see which team has come up with the biggest venture-scale business idea.

Upon registration, participants will receive the Scalathon Guide, which will lend insights on how to best prepare for the event, what the judging rubric will be, and other details.

We recommend registering as soon as possible, as space will be limited.

‍

Format Overview

Length: 48 hours (Friday evening to Sunday evening)
Participants: Teams of 3-6 (encouraged to mix GTM, financial, technical, and domain expertise, ensuring diversely-talented teams)
Goal: Develop a robust, investor-ready business plan for a scalable startup tackling a significant problem, and deliver a great pitch
‍
Guest Mentors: Experienced mentors and investors from the Venture Mechanics Catapult Accelerator will roam room-to-room throughout the day Saturday and up until the competition begins on Sunday afternoon. They will touch base with the co-founders and see how their ideas are coming along, providing constructive suggestions to move their ideas forward. You can see guest mentor "office hours" at the end of the event page.

‍
Who can be a "Founder" at a Scalathon

Absolutely anyone with an idea from a problem to attach can stand up on Friday evening to pitch their idea, and pull together a team of 4-6 diversely talented individuals.

If you are currently running a very early stage startup as a solopreneur or with no more than one co-founder, you can pitch your own existing startup as a team. Such teams will be judged separately from the "raw concept" teams.
‍