​Pop the Bubble Hackathon

​5–7 June 2026 · 36 hours

​https://www.popthebubblehack.co.uk/

​The room

​80 builders. ~12% acceptance, manual review.

​Half are pre-company shipping side projects with real users. Half are ex-Stripe, ex-YC, indie hackers running their own MRR. We filter for your hunger.

​Judged by a16z scouts, OpenAI developers and more.

​Investors and operators in the room from day one

​The prizes

​£10,000 cash · first place.

​Other prizes TBD.

​Top 3 teams join us at the closing dinner Sunday night.

​The test

​Did anyone click, reply, pay, reject you, change a workflow or care enough to argue?

​Three tracks

​Outbuild · find a slow, bloated product. Ship the sharper version. Steal their users.

​Validate · build the evidence pack, dashboard, or report against a company that makes the truth harder to ignore.

​Effect · pick one real person or org. Remove a recurring burden with them, not for them. Get paid.

​How we judge

• ​Economic exchange — did someone pay?

• ​Rejections — proof you asked

• ​Real-world impact — something is different on Monday

​Apply

​If you're done gambling weekends on hackathons that go nowhere, this is the clean test.