If you work at a startup, it’s all too easy to feel like you have zero time for something “fun” like a hackathon (even one as awesome & crazy as ours).  

If you’re a founder, you’re slogging away at your pitch deck all day or sitting through countless meetings with potential investors, customers & hires.

If you’re a developer, you’re coding & debugging until 2AM most nights, probably pushing commits that sound a little like these.

However: there are 3 business-critical reasons why your team should still make time for our 2015 Global Virtual Hackathon this year … even if you feel like you’re already burning the candle at both ends.

Reason #1: There’s Serious Prize Money At Stake This Year

To be clear: This is the world’s largest virtual hackathon, and the winner will take home $100,000 cash.

Winning the grand prize would mean being able to easily pay for any of the following:

• Your PPC advertising budget for 5+ years
• A desperately-needed new hire, i.e. a software engineer, designer, or marketer
• Rent for your entire office for 1.5 years (or longer, depending on where you’re based & how many staff you have)
• If you’re so inclined, something completely impractical but totally awesome, like a luxury team retreat to somewhere exotic (check out Buffer’s team retreats for a little inspiration in that regard)

If you think your startup could benefit from a cash injection in 2016, join our hackathon now & throw your hat in the ring.

Reason #2: You Could Get Noticed by a World-Class Incubator

We’re extremely excited to have the Founder Institute — the world’s largest entrepreneur training and startup launch program — partner with us to help make this event the biggest, most exhilarating hackathon ever.

If your team wins one of the top 3 prizes ($100K, $30K, or $10K), you will not only walk away with a sweet chunk of change, you’ll also get time to meet & talk business with both co-founders of the Founder Institute, Adeo Ressi and Jonathan Greechan.  

Reason #3: It’s a Crazy-Fast Way to Build an MVP

We all have tactics for minimizing feature creep and shipping on time: scheduling sprints, drafting burndown charts & setting ambitious deadlines are pretty standard fare when you’re part of a startup.

But none of these tactics sharpen product scope & strengthen discipline quite like the insane time constraints & manic competitive spirit of a hackathon.

If you’ve been keeping an exciting idea for a product on the back-burner, December 12 & 13, 2015 will be the perfect time to turn it into reality. In just 48 hours, you might end up with a brand-new product to sell. Still don’t believe us? Well, then trust Forbes, who agrees that Hackathons are a great way to fund your startup.

Don’t miss your chance to win $100,000, no strings attached …

(And don’t wait: Deadline to apply is December 9, 2015 at 12pm PST.)