AngelHack, the world’s biggest hacking competition, is coming to Seoul this summer. ‘AngelHack Seoul’ will be held over two days on June 1-2 and hosted by startup incubator Seoul Space and VentureSquare. The event will also feature former Mashable editor Ben Parr and XG Ventures investor David Lee as panel judges.
Founded in 2011, AngelHack competitions have been held in 30 major cities around the world including Boston, London, Barcelona and Berlin. The upcoming Seoul event is the first time an Angelhack competition has been held in Korea. Last summer’s competition in the US was held in four cities with over 900 attendees and resulted in the creation of 250 applications. Sponsors for this year’s event include Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook.
While other hacking competitions often end teams are awarded prizes, AngelHack helps participants use their creations as a chance to found a company. First place teams from all 30 cities are put into the AngelHack Accelerator Program for three months. As many teams are still in the ideation phase, emphasis is placed on developing basic skills before starting a business. The program covers several subjects including legal issues, design and business planning. CEO of AngelHack Greg Gopman says that winning teams can receive incubation in an area that they want and not necessarily the area they won.
Over 75% of the participants at AngelHack are engineers and developers, much higher than other hacking competitions where only about 50% of participants are developers. Developers take realistic ideas, create services at the event and start companies; the biggest plus for participants are the connections to Silicon Valley investors. Winning teams also gain the opportunity to take part in the finals to be held in San Francisco in September.
Stay tuned for more information!
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