Lillypad SPRINGBRK VIBECODE Trihackathon: AI Humans Connected Wearables-RIP Hackathons (1990-2025) -1 week, 1 hour daily after work. weekly
Natural Selection of Teams and Ideas
Lilly pad Cambridge street, and online Trihackathon uses a daily evolution process where teams and ideas improve through artifact creation and peer evaluation. No computers monday to friday. Just drinks, discord, open mic, great music and ideation. NO TECHNICAL SKILLS NEEDED
The goal of this process is to ensure that by Saturday only one final team remains to build the product.
The exact number of teams eliminated each day depends on how many teams start the week, but the system always converges to one final team by build time.
All scoring, team transitions, and ownership calculations are automatically managed by the Trihackathon app.
Daily Evolution Cycle
Online or In person at the Lilly pad, Cambridge st. No computers just phones and drinks. Ideation on discord. Will send link later. But yes Easy. We ideate. RSVP
Each day follows the same loop:
Teams create system artifacts.
Each team evaluates two other teams using evaluation criteria they define.
The Trihackathon system calculates scores.
The lowest performing teams dissolve.
Members of dissolved teams may join surviving teams.
Participants who join a new team receive an asterisk (⭐).
This process repeats daily until only one team remains.
What the Asterisk (⭐) Means
Each time a participant’s team is eliminated and they join another team, they receive one asterisk (⭐).
The asterisk represents that the participant was part of a losing team during that round.
The system uses this as a fair signal of team stability over time.
For example:
Participant who stays on a winning team the entire week → 0 stars
Participant who moves teams once → ⭐
Participant who moves teams multiple times → ⭐⭐ or more
The more stars a participant accumulates, the smaller their ownership share becomes when the final startup is formed.
This encourages:
strong teamwork
good collaboration
thoughtful decision making
while still allowing people to continue contributing after a team dissolves.
Example Evolution (10 Starting Teams)
Day 1 — Monday
Problem Definition
10 teams begin.
After peer evaluation:
Lowest 3 teams dissolve.
Remaining teams: 7
Members from dissolved teams join surviving teams.
Each of those participants receives ⭐.
Day 2 — Tuesday
System Architecture
7 teams submit architecture artifacts.
After evaluation:
Lowest 2 teams dissolve.
Remaining teams: 5
Members move to new teams.
Those participants receive another ⭐.
Some participants may now have ⭐⭐.
Day 3 — Wednesday
UX & Human Interaction
5 teams submit UX artifacts.
After evaluation:
Lowest 2 teams dissolve.
Remaining teams: 3
Participants from those teams join surviving teams and receive ⭐.
Day 4 — Thursday
Data & AI Pipeline
3 teams submit AI system artifacts.
After evaluation:
Lowest 1 team dissolves.
Remaining teams: 2
Members from the dissolved team join the remaining teams and receive ⭐.
Day 5 — Friday
Governance, Ethics & Integration
2 teams submit final system artifacts.
After evaluation:
Lowest team dissolves.
Remaining teams: 1
This final team now contains most participants from the entire process.
Truncation
If a participant’s team dissolves and they are not recruited by another team, they are considered truncated.
Truncated participants:
leave the active team pool
do not participate in the final build
do not receive ownership in the startup
This ensures natural selection of:
ideas
teams
contributors
Saturday — Build Day
Saturday is the full build day.
The final team builds the prototype.
The team should contain at least 90% of the participants who survived the evolution process.
Deliverables include:
working prototype
system architecture documentation
design artifacts
product vision
The goal is to release a working prototype, ideally deployed to iOS TestFlight.
Ownership Distribution
Ownership is calculated automatically using the Trihackathon Asset Navigator system.
Participants begin with equal standing.
However, the number of asterisks (⭐) affects the final ownership share.
Example concept:
0 stars → highest ownership share
1 star → slightly reduced share
2 stars → further reduced share
3+ stars → smaller share
Participants who remained on strong teams longer retain larger ownership stakes in startup created or prize money.
This ensures that:
strong contributors are rewarded
team stability matters
the process remains fair
Why This System Works
This natural selection model allows:
ideas to evolve through peer review
teams to grow stronger through knowledge transfer
contributors to continue participating even after team loss
Instead of one team winning early, the best people and ideas converge naturally into the final team.