Launched! Whiplash, Povio, Blurbity Hubskip & triptease...

Round 2

Whiplash Zappos-level order delivery for any webstore. "Pioneering fulfillment as a service." 

Povio Povio is a new form of persistent communication that uses photos as a medium.

Blurbity News aggregation that uses algorithm to pull most salient part out of a post (not just the headline)

Hubskip We take away all the complexity of buying an airline ticket and won't surprise you with any hidden fees. 

triptease Makes travel reviews beautiful and highly shareable by giving users templates and gorgeous photos of destinations. 

Instarad.io - Turn your phone into a broadcast radio station.

Launched!

In case you missed 'em: 

Round 1  

Instabridge | Instabridge is creating the world’s largest Wi-Fi network by leveraging trust and the social graph.

Fanamana | Words with Friends meets professional sports, i.e. live fantasy gaming. Pick a real player of a real game to join your game.

VuePlus | We provide a platform that enables YOU to sell YOUR physical and digital products directly over YOUR videos - turning views into revenue.

CubeSensors | CubeSensors are beautiful, small devices for indoor environment monitoring. (Sound, scent and more.) $250 / 2 cubes.

Open Garden | The 2.0 = mesh network built seamlesly among all people who have the application.

Jawfish | Real-Time, Multiplayer Tournament games for mobile and web. Stop playing with yourself.

WATCH LIVE

LAUNCH!

We're here. You're here. Ready to LAUNCH?  

[Last night's super-awesome LAUNCH Founders & Funders Dinner @ Yank Sing.]

LAUNCH Hackathon Grand Prize now at $75,000!

Launch Hackathon

I promised you the best hackathon ever a few months back. Only 5 days until the LAUNCH & AngelHack teams deliver on that promise.

Amazing food, massage therapists and HUGE prizes.

I’m thrilled to announce that the Hackathon Grand Prize is now at an unbelievable $75k!

Dharmesh Shah from Hubspot/OnStartups and I kicked this thing off by each putting up $25k as an investment prize (or $10k cash). Now, the worldwide leader in web security, Barracuda Networks [ http://barracudanetworks.com ] has matched our commitment with an additional $25k investment or $10k cash prize! We officially have the largest Hackathon prize ever!

Who wants to make it $100k? ;-) Email: partners@launch.co.

There’s still time to apply and register for the Hackathon, but we’re filling up fast. Registration closes on Thursday, Feb 28 at 11:59pm PST or when we hit 450 participants. Apply here: http://launchhackathon.com/register.

This is only the start. We have awesome partners offering prizes as well. See the full list below.

Reminder: The LAUNCH Hackathon with AngelHack begins this Saturday, March 2nd at 12pm at the San Francisco Design Center Concourse (635 8th St). Coding ends on Monday, March 4th at 1:00pm. Hackathon finals begins at 6:00pm on Monday (3/4), with the top 12 finalists presenting to the public beginning at 8:00pm. For more info: http://launchhackathon.com.

** All Hackathon Partners & Prizes **

For the most up to date prize info: http://launchhackathon.com/prizes

Grand Prize

• $25k investment or $10k cash from Jason Calacanis
• $25k investment or $10k cash from Dharmesh Shah
• $25k investment or $10k cash from Barracuda Networks
• $10k in credits for the Google Cloud Platform
• Lifetime free hosting from MediaTemple [ up to 2gb (dv), (gs), or (ve) ]
• $2.5k in Amazon AWS Credit
• One year’s worth of Dyn Email and/or DNS Services (dependent on actual needs)
• Guaranteed spot on stage at 2014 LAUNCH Festival

Amazon AWS

• Grand Prize winner receives $2.5k in Amazon AWS Credit
• Next 4 runners-up receive $1k in Amazon AWS Credit

Barracuda Networks

• Top 5 Hackathon finalists will receive a package of free security products (free web filtering, firewalls, etc).

FilePicker
Project must use FilePicker to be eligible to win: 

• iPad Mini

Firebase
Project must utilize Firebase to be eligible to win:

• iPad

MediaTemple

• Grand prize winner receives lifetime free hosting - up to 2gb (dv), (gs), or (ve)
• Next 4 runners up receive 1 year free hosting - up to 2gb (dv), (gs), or (ve)
• All participants receive 1GB (dv), (ve), or (gs) for 1 month

Microsoft
Best use of Windows 8:

• 1st Place - $3k
• 2nd Place - $2k
• 3rd Place - $1k

NewAer
Project must utilize the NewAer Proximity Platform to be eligible to win:

• $2k in Apple gift cards. ($500 each for a team of 4)

Plantronics
Project must utilize the Plantronics Spokes SDK to be eligible to win:

• $1k
• Opportunity to demo at the Plantronics Demo Pit table for the LAUNCH Festival
• Voyager Legend UC headsets for all winning team members.

Samsung Developers
Project must utilize the S Pen SDK or AllShare Framework to be eligible to win:

• Samsung Galaxy Notes or up to $1k (4 team members maximum, 1 device or $250 per team member)

SAP

• TBD

Tokbox
Project must utilize Tokbox to be eligible to win:

• Three Ostrich pillows
• $300 giftcard to Amazon

Yammer
Project must utilize Yammer Platform to be eligible to win:

• 4 Jamboxes