My Experience Judging “El Hackathon”

Recently I was part of the judging panel for “El Hackathon.”  Organized by Latism, the largest community of latinos in social media, this was not only the first hackathon with a focus on the Latino tech community, but also very likely the first one to take place at the Waldorf Astoria.

Fellow judges included representatives from the venture capital, consumer advocacy, and startup communities. After listening to presentations from seven teams and some healthy deliberations, I was pleased to find that the winners of the competition included my two favorites.

The first one was “Legitimo,” a mobile app that allows people to quickly create and sign simple contracts on the spot. Targeted to communities where verbal agreements and cash transactions are still common in the purchase of goods and services, this app offers a simple way to keep track of these agreements and aid with conflict resolution.

The second one is called “MailTucan” and it provides an alternative to newsletter management programs like MailChimp. The insight is that small businesses may find a number of obstacles to use email newsletters in their marketing efforts, but most are becoming quite adept at maintaining a Facebook page. With just a few clicks, MailTucan allows users to create a sign up form, choose a design template and start sending newsletters based on their  Facebook posts. How cool is that?

Before you go off and start looking for these products online, remember that they were put together in about 24 hours and it may take a while for them to be available to the public. Of course, the cash prizes will help.