HarbourHack

Don't just build. Ship 🚀
Have an idea worth building, have something that you think could change how we see certain industries? HarbourHack is where you bring it to life. 🚀
HarbourHack is an inaugural, in-person hackathon bringing together ambitious student + early career builders, founders, mentors and tech enthusiasts to build the future of the Australian startup ecosystem.

📅Key Dates

Kickoff Mixer: Friday 27rd November
Build Days: TBA
Ship + Submissions Week: TBA
Finals: TBA

Team Requirements

We accept solo builders/founders and cap team size at a maximum of 5 individuals. However, we recommend a team of 3-4 to maximise the experience and impact you can create during the week.

For anyone with an existing team, all team members need to register on this event!

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Our Partners

Thank you to all our partners for supporting this initiative, the first of many that we think it takes to reignite the ecosystem.

Lead Track Partners

Build Australia - on a mission to reignite Australian industry.
Fastlane - helping scale winning brands using AI

Builder Experience Partners

AdaL - your automation-first, GTM agent harness
n8n - seamlessly automate any business process

Community Partners

Build Club, MLAI, Sip & Scale, UTS TechSoc, UNSW NoCode Society

• more to be announced!!

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Hackathon Structure

We're don't believe in the 'traditional hackathon' format, where teams just code and demo something to a panel...so we're switching things up.

For the first three days, October 23–25, teams will take their ideas and theses from concept to product, developing real solutions, things that can actually work. Throughout the weekend, participants will have access to experienced founders and industry mentors, opportunities to connect with other talented builders, and the space to move quickly from idea to execution.

For the following days, October 26-28, teams go out and ship. Find customers, sell, get feedback. We don't care what or how you do things -> startups and innovation is about moving fast, and iterating quickly.
The strongest teams will progress to the HarbourHack Finals on Friday, October 30, where they’ll pitch live to a panel of leading judges, track sponsors and compete for a major prize pool. 🏆

...but what will you actually be building? We'll be releasing our 3 main tracks in the week leading up to our launch (we can't be letting people start vibecoding early! 🤣)

Keep your eyes peeled here + on LinkedIn for more information.

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More than a hackathon, HarbourHack is an opportunity to build with purpose, validate fast and ship something real.
Applications are now open.