Run Your Own Niche-Themed Hackathon to Pull Two-Sided Users
Run Your Own Niche-Themed Hackathon to Pull Two-Sided Users is a first users & traction tactic for getting your first users: Host (don't sponsor) a small hackathon framed around your product's actual domain to recruit both sides of a marketplace at once. UXHack ran one and pulled 200+ users plus 5 startups from the first event, 1k+ users over 7-8 events.
It's a strong fit for Marketplaces teams, and works especially well for two-sided marketplaces, community products. As a first users & traction play, plan for medium effort and expect results to arrive at a steady pace, all grounded in 1 linked primary source.
- Channel: First users & traction
- Best for: two-sided marketplaces, community products
- Effort: Medium
- Speed: Medium
- Sources: 1 linked primary source(s)
Why does first users & traction work for this?
A single event gives you a concrete reason to recruit both sides simultaneously, and many participants stay on as users.
The exact steps (5)
The full step-by-step this founder ran, what they posted, where, and in what order, plus the watch-outs, is part of the library.
Sources
- Source — IndieHackers · indiehackers.com