about 1 year ago

NEW: Reg for Agentic Startup Hack-a-thon today

Hi RAG-a-thoners!

Our Spring hackathon is here!. We are bringing together the startup curious folks with the startup serious folks.

Check it out here: https://agentic-rag-a-thon.devpost.com/

Some stats from our last RAG-a-thon and why we're in the midst of the perfect storm for startup creation:

From our last two hackathons:
- 100% of engineers & operators we surveyed said YES—they want a structured startup-focused hackathon.
- 81.5% are VERY interested in transitioning from a hackathon participant to a founder.
- 92.6% want a network post-event to keep going.

But here’s the problem:

- Most startup-curious builders never get a real chance to validate their ideas.
- 99% of pitches get rejected because they lack proof—not because they’re bad ideas.
- 88.9% of founders say they struggle with product-market fit.

That’s why we're hosting the Proving Ground: Agentic Startup Hackathon at 500 Global (May 16-18).

- This is a 72-hour validation sprint to pressure-test AI startup ideas & MVPs.
- Enterprise engineers + pre-seed founders + serious builders in one room.
- Real feedback from potential customers, mentors & investors.
- A post-event roadmap so you know EXACTLY what to do next.

We’re prioritizing enterprise engineers, AI specialists, and founders working on AI-driven startups.

We have two tracks:
1. new and existing ideas
2. pre-seed startups.

Check it out here: https://agentic-rag-a-thon.devpost.com/

Questions?

Email me: mark@futureproofsv.com

Or

If you have any questions about the hackathon, please post on the discussion forum.