AngelHack has always been a little different from your average hackathon — rather than taking place in one spot over one weekend, it has become a global event that takes place in multiple stages. As a result, the projects are usually pretty polished, though not yet at the level of full-fledged startups. Now it’s taking another step in that direction with the launch of its very own accelerator.
The program will admit 40 teams into a 14-week program – 12 weeks of local mentoring, then two weeks in San Francisco pitch training, investor meetings, and events. In that sense, it follows the broader AngelHack model, where there are local hackathons which feed into a big competition among the finalists in Silicon Valley. In exchange for the mentorship (and tickets to this fall’s TechCrunch Disrupt), AngelHack takes 2 percent equity.
Founder Greg Gopman said that his goal is “to be the largest funnel of seed-stage technical talent into incubators and investors around the world,” and he noted that previous AngelHack winners have joined Y Combinator, AngelPad, MassChallenge, TechStars and 500 Startups, and also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars on AngelList.
In addition to launching the accelerator, Gopman is also announcing the spring round of hackathons, which will take place in more than 30 cities, with the goal of enlisting 6,000 participating developers. It starts in late April. He said that last fall’s AngelHack was held in 11 cities with 2,200 participants (70 percent developers). And the hackathons feed into the accelerator — 10 teams will be selected from direct applications (the deadline is June 8), but the other 30 will be the winners of their local AngelHacks.
You can see the full list of hackathon locations here and read more about the accelerator here.