LA · Apr 5–7 · 22 days away v04 · "Pay-Ten" edition

48 hours.
Ship a real thing.

Cohort Hack is a 200-person hackathon in DTLA. One theme — build something a single human being would actually pay $10 for. From kickoff Friday at 18:00 to demos Sunday at 14:00. Solo or in teams of 4. Beds not included.

Get a hacker ticket — $89 See the 48 hours $14,408 in prizes →

Days

Hours

Minutes

Seconds

▸Fri 18:00 → Sun 14:00 PT

▸Beacon Studios · DTLA

▸200 hackers · 50–60 projects

▸Solo or teams up to 4

BUILD SOMETHING // A SINGLE USER WOULD PAY $10 FOR // BUILD SOMETHING // A SINGLE USER WOULD PAY $10 FOR // BUILD SOMETHING // A SINGLE USER WOULD PAY $10 FOR //

§ 01 · The theme

The Ten Dollar Test.

Most hackathon projects die on the demo. They look cool, get applause, and never get used again. Cohort Hack only has one rule that matters: at the end of 48 hours, you have to be able to point at one specific human being who would actually pay you ten US dollars for the thing you built — not "would" in theory, but who said yes.

It's a forcing function. It makes you call your mom, your DM, your old coworker. It makes you charge real money on a Sunday morning instead of debating the OAuth flow. We've seen vintage-camera repair finders, custom Talmud reading-plans, dental insurance comparison sites, and an SMS service for ranchers. All ten-dollar businesses. All built in 48 hours.

editions

1,608

hackers, all time

19%

still shipping

$140k

in prizes paid

Past Cohort Hack alumni now run

v01 (2022) · v12 (Mar '26)

Linnea FORECAST Glide.io Brightwave MERCURY Halcyon NIMBUS// Northwind atrium quartermast Foundry & Co. DOVETAIL Linnea FORECAST Glide.io Brightwave MERCURY Halcyon NIMBUS// Northwind atrium quartermast Foundry & Co. DOVETAIL

§ 02 · 48 hours, hour by hour

The clock.

All times PT · Beacon Studios

Day 01 · Friday

Kickoff & teams

04/05

18:00
Doors open · check-in
Get a wristband + sticker pack + cold brew on tap from Sey.
18:45
Welcome & theme reveal
12-minute keynote, no slides over a tweet. Sponsor APIs revealed live on stage.
19:30
Dinner — Howlin' Ray's hot chicken
Vegetarian + vegan options on the second floor.
20:30
Team formation speed-dating
7-minute rotations. Solo hackers strongly encouraged. ~64% of teams form here.
21:30
▶ Hacking begins
All-night access from this point on. Beacon stays open 24/7.
23:00
Late-night ramen drop
Tatsu Ramen, 100 bowls, while supplies last.

Day 02 · Saturday

Build

04/06

08:00
Breakfast tacos + espresso
From Loqui. Refills on espresso until 11.
10:00
Workshop · "Charging Stripe in 14 minutes"
Optional. By Adaeze Okonkwo, founding eng at Forecast.
12:30
Lunch · burrito assembly line
Eat at your desk if you must. We will not judge.
14:00
Mentor office hours start
14 mentors. 20-min slots, sign up in the app. 88% slot fill rate (v11).
17:00
"Talk to a real user" hour
Cold-call your test user. Required. If you can't, we'll pair you with one of 42 volunteer users.
19:00
Dinner · Roy Choi food trucks
Three trucks parked on Mateo. Lines open until 21:30.
22:00
Midnight ramen rerun
If you missed Friday's, you get a second chance.
00:00
All-night room opens
Quiet zone with bean bags. No beds — bring a hoodie.

Day 03 · Sunday

Ship & demo

04/07

08:00
Breakfast burritos + cold brew
Plus the strongest matcha LA has to offer, courtesy of papercut.
11:00
Submissions close · code freeze
3 fields: URL, 60-sec video, one user's name.
12:00
Demo expo · public
Spectator tickets activate. Walk-around expo, 60 booths.
13:00
★ Finalist demos on stage
Top 10 picked by judges. 90 seconds each, hard cut.
14:00
Awards · prizes · closing
Top 3 + audience choice + the "Ten Dollar" award. Drinks immediately after.

§ 03 · Prizes

$14,408 in cash.

Plus six months of free workspace at Beacon, sponsor credits, and the audience-choice swag bag that 2024's winners turned into a 14-person dinner.

★ Grand prize

Best overall · "Ten Dollar" Award

$7,408

Cash, paid Sunday by Stripe + a 6-month residency at Beacon Studios (desk + WiFi + 24h access). Past winners: SaddleNotes ('25), Verso Camera Repair ('24).

2nd place

$4,000

Cash + 3 months at Beacon + a featured spot on the Cohort Hack alumni page.

3rd place

$2,000

Cash + $500 in cloud credits across sponsors + a one-on-one with an alum founder.

Audience choice

Swag bag deluxe

Hand-printed run by Cohort '23 winners. Last year's bag went for $260 on eBay (we did not authorize this).

Sponsor track · best use of API

$1,000 + ongoing credits

Awarded by each platinum sponsor for the most creative use of their stack. 6 separate tracks this year.

Solo hacker

$500 + a hug

Highest-ranked project built by one person. We've awarded this seven editions running.

§ 04 · Judges & mentors

Twenty people in your corner.

14 mentors · 6 judges · all volunteer

§ 05 · Sponsors

Who pays for all this pizza.

Six sponsors. They cover hosting, cloud credits, food and coffee. They get logo placement and one judging seat each. They do not get a booth, your email, or your code.

Cloud & tools

▲ Vercel

◆ Neon

Stripe

Brightwave

papercut

DOVETAIL

Food, drinks & venue

Sey Coffee

Howlin' Ray's

TATSU

Loqui

Roy/Choi

Beacon

§ 06 · Venue

Beacon Studios. DTLA.

Editorial architecture photograph of a converted industrial loft building with exposed brick

BEACON STUDIOS · 1340 MATEO ST · DTLA · 200 CAP

Address

1340 Mateo St

Arts District · Los Angeles, CA 90021

Open in maps →

Getting there

METROA-line · Little Tokyo / Arts District · 14 min walk.

LAX~35 min Uber off-peak. Allow 75 min Friday 16–19:00.

CAR$18/day in the lot across the street. Validated for hackers.

BIKEIndoor bike rack at the loading bay — 40 spots, first come.

Stay nearby

NoMad Hotel DTLA$298/nt · 8 min
Freehand LA (hostel beds avail)$58/nt · 12 min
Hoxton DTLA$245/nt · 11 min
Ace Hotel DTLA$268/nt · 13 min

Hacker tip: Freehand has private rooms $148/nt and shared beds $58/nt — we hold 18 of each, code COHORT26. About 40% of past hackers crash at Beacon all night.

♿

Step-free access via the loading bay. Accessible restrooms on both floors. Single-stall gender-neutral on each floor. Email [email protected] with anything.

§ 07 · Tickets

Two ways in.

Hacker

Full 48 hours

53 left

$89 $129 early-bird price · 4 days left

✓All 48 hours · all meals · all the coffee
✓Eligible for all $14,408 in prizes
✓Mentor office hours · sponsor APIs · workshops
✓Hand-screen-printed numbered t-shirt
✓Sunday demo on the main stage if you finalist
✓Lifetime alumni Slack — 1,608 members

Grab a hacker ticket →

Spectator

Sunday demos only

218 left

$24 incl. tax

✓Sunday 12:00–15:00 · expo + finalist demos
✓One beer or coffee on the house
✓Vote in the audience-choice award
✓Recruiter spot in alumni Slack (1 message limit)

Get a spectator pass →

Tickets non-refundable but transferable ·Need a travel grant? Apply by Mar 14 ·Bringing a team? 4-pack — $300

§ 08 · Past hackers

What people actually shipped.

v11 · 1st place

"Built SaddleNotes — a Sunday-school lesson planner — for my mom. She gave me $10 by Venmo at 13:47. We have 408 paying users now."

Priya Anand
Founder · SaddleNotes

v10 · audience choice

"I came alone, didn't know one person. By Saturday breakfast I was on a team of four. Two of us still work together at Forecast."

Marcus Tobin
Founding Eng · Forecast

v09 · solo hacker

"The Ten Dollar rule is the best forcing function in tech. By Sunday morning I'd cold-emailed twelve dental offices and one of them paid me."

Hana Suzuki
Solo · Verso Dental

v12 · finalist

"Slept on a bean bag for four hours total. Shipped a product. Was paid by a stranger on the train home. 10/10."

Yusuf Abara
Bootcamper · grad May '25

v08 · 2nd place

"It's not a hackathon. It's an excuse to call your old coworkers and not pretend you have a plan."

Ines Calderón
Founder · Quartermast

v11 · spectator → v12 · 3rd

"I bought a $24 spectator pass in '25, sat in the back, and watched. Came back in '26 as a hacker and placed third. Worth every $89."

Adaeze Okonkwo
Founding Eng · DOVETAIL

§ 09 · FAQ

Real questions.

Need a human? [email protected] · same-day reply.

Solo or team — what's the size limit? +

Solo is great — we hand out a dedicated Solo Hacker $500 prize specifically to reward people who don't team up. Otherwise, teams of up to 4. No external collaboration allowed during the 48 hours (no friend back home writing your code). Past trends: 32% solo, 41% pairs, 19% trios, 8% fours.

What should I bring? Beds? Pillows? +

Laptop, charger, government ID. Pack a hoodie — Beacon is warm by day, freezing by 3am. Beds are not provided. We do have bean bags, a quiet room, and a shower in the back. About 40% of past hackers slept at the venue; 60% Ubered home. Tip: book Freehand DTLA, $58/nt for a shared bed, 12 min walk.

Wi-Fi capacity — will it actually hold up? +

Yes. Beacon's network was hardened after v07 (apologies, v07 attendees). 4 separate APs, dedicated 5GHz radios per floor, 1.4 Gbps symmetric uplink. We run a public dashboard at status.cohorthack.la during the event. Median P95 last edition: 28ms to us-west-2.

Dietary options? I'm vegan / kosher / GF / etc. +

Yes. Every meal has a clearly-labeled vegetarian and vegan option. Gluten-free at every meal, dairy-free on request. Halal options Saturday + Sunday. Kosher meals on request (need 48h notice; email by Apr 3). Allergies — tell us in the ticket form and our caterer will confirm directly. We've never failed a special diet.

License of my submission — who owns it? +

You. You retain 100% ownership and IP rights to whatever you build. We ask for a 60-second demo video and a short public README — that's it. Sponsors get no rights, no source access, no claim. If you submit, you grant us a non-exclusive license to show your demo video on the alumni page; you can ask us to take it down any time.

Are AI tools / Copilot / Cursor allowed? +

Yes, no rules against. Most teams use them. The Ten Dollar Test still applies — a great-looking demo won't beat a project where one real person paid. If anything, AI tools make the "talk to a real user" hour the actual differentiator.

48 hours. Ship a real thing.