Seven teams of hackers, designers and marketing specialists joined forces Friday, March 6 for
The Brandery’s first-ever HackOTR, and for 24 hours straight they hacked and programmed to come up with a pitchable idea. With help along the way from local startup founders who'd already established themselves, hackers presented their ideas at the end of the hack-a-thon Saturday evening to an enthusiastic and engaged audience.
“We were absolutely thrilled with the diversity of people who showed up,” says Emily Cooper, marketing and operations manager for The Brandery. “We had everyone from a high schooler to someone with 30-plus years of experience working together. Everyone chipped in to try to make their teams the best — the work ethic was unbelievable.”
Winners were announced Saturday evening, with the “Overall Best Hack” award, sponsored by
Cincinnati Bell and
Cintrifuse, going to Habitable, a website and app that uses cultural inputs like dress codes to help millennials find a job that fits their lifestyle. As a reward, Habitable received three months of office space at Cintrifuse along with free Dell laptops.
“Habitable had a consistent level of quality across the board,” says Connor Bowlan, CEO of
Cintric. “Ideation was good, their pitch was good and execution was good. They had a great UX."
Other winners included Sideline, whose wearable app for referees and sports fans attracted the attention of The Brandery’s own
Strap as the “Best Wearables App.” Team members were awarded with Pebble smart watches.
Another Brandery graduate,
Frameri, gave impromptu prizes to two other teams, Informed and Staq — Informed aggregates media recommendations, and Staq helps the user manage credit card payments on one platform. The two teams won glasses and sunglasses for all members.
Petbrosia, another well-established Cincinnati startup, selected Pet Plates as its favorite “side hack.” That team put together a dog food recipe compilation site, much like
Allrecipes.com for pet owners.
Other startup founders simply enjoyed the judging process.
“I had a great time judging HackOTR,” Bowlan says. “There was a very impressive level of quality among all the hacks.”
The Brandery has already scheduled their next HackOTR for Aug. 7-8.
Stay tuned for details.
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