Masterclass: Hackathons for Founders with Youssef El Saadany - ZedCubed
Learn how to use hackathons as a powerful founder tool. Youssef has won over $20k in prizes and turned hackathon projects into real companies. Master the before, during, and after of hackathons to validate ideas, find co-founders, and build momentum.
About This Masterclass
Hackathons are one of the most underrated tools in a founder's arsenal. They compress market validation, fast prototyping, and quick iteration into a single weekend — and the best part? You can walk away with a real company.
Join Oxbridge AI X Hero Youssef El Saadany for a masterclass on turning hackathons into a strategic advantage for founders. Having participated in many hackathons as both a hacker and mentor (mostly ETHGlobal), Youssef has won over $20k in prizes, and some of those projects became real companies — including Proof of Passport (which became Self.xyz) and BackupBuddy.io
What You'll Learn
This masterclass covers the three phases of hackathon success:
BEFORE: Setting yourself up for success
How to pick the right hackathon for your goals
Building and assembling your ideal team
Preparing your toolkit and mindset
DURING: Executing under pressure
Ruthless scoping — doing less, but better
Letting your demo drive everything
Making decisions that maximise impact
AFTER: Turning projects into products
How to evaluate what's worth continuing
Converting hackathon momentum into real traction
Finding co-founders and early believers
You'll leave with a practical framework for using hackathons to test ideas, find co-founders, and get early signals on what's worth building.
About Youssef
Youssef's background spans software engineering, data engineering, and cloud architecture in finance — he previously worked at a quant hedge fund building resilient, fast trading infrastructure running ML-based strategies. Wanting to build products with direct consumer impact, he turned to hackathons as his laboratory for rapid product development.
He's the founder of ZedCubed, an independent product lab and consulting practice focused on new venture development, rapid prototyping, and product-market fit exploration. The firm’s latest focus is BackupBuddy.io, a non-custodial backup solution.
Event Details
📅 Monday, 26th January 2026
🕐 5:00-6:30pm UK Time
💻 Virtual via Microsoft Teams
For Q&A, please introduce yourself and your project. This session may be recorded.
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