🚀
A working product
Ship something real, not just a mockup or prototype.
Founders Hackathon
Cursor x Sandbox Hackathon | Stuttgart
Be a founder for a day. A one-day hackathon for software founders, and for anyone who wants to find out if they are one. You start at 10:00 with an idea and finish at 17:30 with a product, real customer conversations, a live landing page, and an investor pitch.
When
Saturday, 7 November 2026
Where
Sandbox (HdM Startup Center)
Epplestraße 225/Haus 3
70567 Stuttgart-Möhringen
Teams
1–4 people per team
What you hand in
By 17:30, your team submits these four deliverables.
✅
Validation evidence
Evidence that real people want it — sign-ups, conversations, replies, whatever you can get in a day.
🌐
A live landing page
A public landing page with a working sign-up.
🎬
A 3-minute pitch
Present your problem, solution, traction, and the ask to judges.
Schedule
Breakfast, lunch and drinks are on us. Checked-in attendees can claim sponsor credits in the portal.
Arrivals, check-in, breakfast09:00 – 09:30
Introduction and team forming09:30 – 10:00
Building starts10:00
Lunch12:30
Submission deadline17:30
First round of judging (AI-assisted), top 8 announced17:30 – 18:00
Top 8 pitches and prizes18:00 – 19:30
Judging criteria
First round is AI-assisted from 17:30 to 18:00. The top 8 pitch on stage after that.
25%
Customer Understanding
Evidence of real customer and problem understanding, plus validation learnings.
25%
Product Maturity
How working and complete the product is.
25%
Landing Page
A live landing page with a sign-up, plus its clarity and quality.
25%
Investor Readiness
A clear 3-minute pitch and deck, the business case, and why this team, why now.
Rules
👥
Teams of 1–4
Come alone or with a team.
🆕
Build something new
Use the day to test a new startup idea, not to continue an existing one.
Credit sponsors
Cursor, ElevenLabs, Exa, Wispr Flow, and n8n are backing the day. Claim credits in the portal after you check in at the venue.
AI-powered code editor that helps you write software faster.
Learn more
Voice and audio models you can call from your product.
Learn more
Web search API built for AI apps.
Learn more
Voice dictation that writes into the apps you already use.
Learn more
Workflow automation that connects your apps and APIs.
Learn moreOrganisers
Prizes
Winner codes are emailed after the event.
Overall winning team
Each team member gets 3 months of ElevenLabs Pro (600k credits/month).
$297 value per member
Best project built with ElevenLabs
Each team member gets 3 months of ElevenLabs Scale (1.8M credits/month).
$897 value per member
Resources
Questions / find a team
Join the community Discord if you want a teammate, have a question, or want to keep talking after the event. This is the event Discord, not a sponsor perk channel.
Open the community DiscordAbout Sandbox
Sandbox is Stuttgart's accelerator for digital business models in media, design and software. It is run by the HdM Startup Center at Stuttgart Media University. Founding teams get coaching, coworking space and access to funding such as EXIST and Start-up BW Pre-Seed.
Location
Sandbox (HdM Startup Center)
Epplestraße 225/Haus 3, 70567 Stuttgart-Möhringen, Germany
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