{"id":8206,"date":"2015-02-24T15:00:33","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T21:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/?p=8206"},"modified":"2016-08-29T16:26:26","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T21:26:26","slug":"lgbt-entrepreneurs-compete-cash-prizes-hackout-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/lgbt-entrepreneurs-compete-cash-prizes-hackout-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"LGBT Entrepreneurs Compete For Cash And Prizes At HackOut 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where can you find a solar panel-cleaning drone and an app that helps you stay in fashion on a budget? Maybe you\u2019re interested in a website designed to improve your relationships or a centralized database of chemical compounds? If this amalgamation of ideas makes sense to you, HackOut 2015<\/a>, a hackathon that took place in Austin \u00a0was the place to be over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Sponsored in part by WP Engine, HackOut split participants into teams and challenged \u00a0them to transform their ideas into viable products and businesses overnight. Teams had 24 hours to complete their projects, after which they presented the results to a panel of judges. The winning team walked away with $2,500 cold hard cash (initially delivered in the form of an over-sized cardboard check, naturally), free cloud computing service from Rackspace, and a chance to present their product directly to investors in New York City.<\/p>\n

HackOut encourages entrepreneurial development in the LGBT community\u2014a mission handed down from the organization that presents HackOut, an LGBT entrepreneur advocacy organization called StartOut<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WP Engine was proudly represented by one of our\u00a0openly-gay product managers,\u00a0Taylor McCaslin<\/a>, who volunteered as a mentor during the hackathon. He provided guidance and advice for\u00a0teams leveraging WordPress and other web technologies to bring their projects\u00a0to life. “I love working at a company where I can come to work as my authentic self everyday, and have opportunities to give back to the\u00a0LGBTQ community that I’m proudly a member\u00a0of. This event gives all the participants a chance to openly be themselves, and\u00a0see that the tech community accepts and embraces their uniqueness. They get to geek out in the process of learning new technologies and put\u00a0their new knowledge to use. We’re helping build the foundation for future LGBTQ entrepreneurs”, Taylor said,\u00a0when asked about the importance of an LGBTQ hackathon.<\/p>\n

When Austin-based computational physicist and data science entrepreneur Steve Kramer found out about StartOut more than two years ago, he said the organization really resonated with him. So much, in fact, that he organized HackOut in Austin last year and helped with this year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this economic reality of if you can create viable businesses on your own, you have that economic wealth,\u201d Kramer said, adding that a win at HackOut strengthens the LGBT entrepreneur community at large.<\/p>\n

\"Team<\/a>
Team API Flow hopes to make app-to-app interaction easier by taking care of API configuration for you.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joshua Sellers moved to Austin last August with plans to join a startup committee. Less than a year later, he took the organizational reigns of HackOut 2015 and spent the weekend assisting teams and making sure the trains ran on time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to do something that is quite novel. And that is to bring this experience of a hackathon, which is becoming a commonplace experience, to a new community, which is the LGBT entrepreneurship community,\u201d Sellers said. \u201cA lot of people just aren\u2019t aware that these opportunities exist yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea seems to be spreading. Participants came primarily from Texas, but there were a few from other states and countries. Unifying them all was the looming deadline to complete their projects and the sweet, sweet loot up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Team \u201cFollow the Music\u201d spent the weekend working on a navigation app that changes the direction music from your car stereo or smartphone is coming from to point you toward your destination.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be using 3D audio engines at some point so that we can accurately locate sounds in 3D space,\u201d said team member Richard Knight, \u201cbut right now we\u2019re just using left and right channels to audibly notify you where your destination is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team \u201cDress Out\u201d ended the weekend with a prototype fashion app that allows you to tag and link to what you\u2019re wearing so that followers can purchase the same threads.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe come from this idea that as regular people, we don\u2019t know much about style or fashion but we want to look nice too,\u201d said team member James Lin. \u201cEvery time we look at a website for fashion or style, we always see articles talking about celebrities or super models, but there\u2019s not much for regular people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Team<\/a>
Team “Dateline” took first place at HackOut 2015 for their site that tracks relationship history.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After 24 hours of sweat-soaked entrepreneurial exertion and two hours of \u00a0presentations and grilling from the judges\u2019 panel, only one team hacked their way to a win: team \u201cDateline.\u201d The brainchild of University of Texas undergrads Emily Brandon and Nova Courtois, Dateline is a kind of online diary that allows users to track their dating history and self-reflect so that they might become better partners in future relationships.<\/p>\n

At the announcement of their win, the rousing applause of their peers left team Dateline\u2019s two-member team flabbergasted.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I feel so light headed I can\u2019t really function right now in the best way possible,\u201d Brandon said. \u201cThe fact that we\u2019re getting validation from others means more than we could\u2019ve hoped for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where can you find a solar panel-cleaning drone and an app that helps you stay in fashion on a budget? Maybe you\u2019re interested in a website designed to improve your relationships or a centralized database of chemical compounds? If this amalgamation of ideas makes sense to you, HackOut 2015, a hackathon that took place in…<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":8210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[379],"class_list":["post-8206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wordpress-community","tag-hackathon"],"yoast_head":"\nLGBT Entrepreneurs Compete at HackOut 2015<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"HackOut split participants into teams and challenged them to transform their ideas into viable products and businesses overnight.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LGBT Entrepreneurs Compete at HackOut 2015\" \/>\n<meta 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