OpenAI Build Week Community Hackathon - Tel Aviv
We're excited to announce Israel's first Codex hackathon!
This is an official OpenAI event with over $50,000 in prizes and credits! Every person who attends gets $150 of credits.
Thank you to Echo and Xsolla Club for hosting!
We have space for 100 people in teams of 3 to 6.
Don't have a team? Register anyway, and we'll place you with others.
Due to high demand, not everyone who registers will be approved. Registering early gives you the best chance.
The event runs from 5 pm to midnight on July 21st.
Everyone who attends will receive $100 in Codex credits and $50 in OpenAI API tokens.
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What you'll build
A hands-on evening hackathon for people who want to build with Codex. Start something new or meaningfully improve an existing project. What matters is what your team builds, changes, and can demo by the end of the night.
Build categories:
Apps for your life
Work
Productivity
Developer tools
Education
Games
Who it's for
This event is for anyone who wants to build, whether you write code, design, shape products, or make the case for an idea. No prior Codex experience is required.
Teams and registration
Each team member registers individually. If you already have a team, use the same team name on the form.
Solo applicants are welcome as long as you're willing to join or form a team before the build sprint.
All participants will receive Codex credits to help them build during the hackathon.
What We Are Looking For
Practical products, not just ideas
Clear users and workflows
Working demos that can be tested and understood
Responsible and useful AI implementation
Projects that can continue after the hackathon
By the end of the night, each team should be ready to share a working demo and explain what they built or improved during the hackathon.
Judges and mentors
We'll have top-tier judges from industry, plus mentors on the floor throughout the night to help you get unstuck and sharpen your build.
The last 2 hours are reserved for judging. First, judges visit each team at their table. Then the top 5 teams present on stage to the whole room before winners are announced.
Judges
Eliezer Steinbock - Founder, Inbox Zero
Eylam Milner - Co-Founder & CTO, Echo
Itay Shmool - VP, Wix
Natali (Erel) Shtulman - Head of AI Enablement, Papaya Global
Ophir Peled - Xsolla
Rom Iluz - MongoDB; Founder, AI Agents Community
Udi Doron - Engineering Lead, Echo
Mentors
Alon Valadji - Co-Founder, OneQ
Avi Wolicki - CTO, Profile Intel
Guy Bary - Technical Lead, Wix; Creator of Octocode
Ilan Benborhoum - Stealth Startup; Moderator, GenAI Israel
Omer Vexler - Founder, Second
Tom Enden - Software Architect, Wix
Schedule
5:00 pm: Doors open and check-in
5:30 pm: Kickoff
6:00 pm: Build sprint begins, with mentors on the floor throughout
10 pm: Build sprint ends. Judges visit teams at their tables
11 pm: Top 5 teams present to the full room
11:50 pm: Winners announced and closing
Prizes
1st place: $10,000 in OpenAI API credits
2nd place: $3,000 in OpenAI API credits
3rd place: $2,000 in OpenAI API credits
Top 5 teams will also receive 6 months of ChatGPT Pro for each team member ($600 value per person).
How we're judging
Four things, weighed however the judges see fit:
Works - Did it run in front of them? A rough thing that works beats a polished thing that doesn't.
Useful - Does it do something someone would actually use?
Original - Did it surprise them?
Craft - How much did you pull off in the time, and how well?
Explaining your build well matters, so help the judges see what it does and why it's good. But we're scoring the thing, not the polish of the pitch. A clear demo beats a slick deck. And in the end, judges trust their gut. If something's clearly the most impressive thing in the room, that wins.