​YC's First-Ever Growth Hackathon

​A 24-hour hackathon for GTM engineers building AI growth tools and workflows. $15,000 in prizes.

​Growth Engineering is one of the fastest-emerging functions in tech.

​The intersection of AI, growth, and revenue operations is creating a new category of growth engineer who writes code, runs experiments, automates their work with AI, and owns the entire growth pipeline.

​If that sounds like you, we'd be honored to invite you out to the YC office in San Francisco for the first-ever YC Growth Hackathon.

​Over the span of 24 hours, you'll build on the bleeding edge of growth, GTM, sales, data analytics, and RavOps.

​We are being extremely selective and reviewing every application closely to ensure a high quality bar. Applications with little or no effort will not be considered. We will be turning people away at the door.

​Tracks

• ​Sales Cyborgs: AI-Enhanced Sales

• ​AI Ad Factories: AI Advertising

• ​Reading Minds: Agentic Analytics, Signal Detection, Churn, and Lead-Building

• ​Revenue on Autopilot: Cold Outbound & Pipeline Automation

• ​Zero to One: AI-Enhanced PLG & Onboarding

• ​Algorithm Hacking: AI Social Media & Virality Engines

​Prizes & API Credits

​Hackathon winners will receive >$15,000 in prizes. The overall winner may be invited to interview for Y Combinator's Fall 2026 Batch.

​All participants will receive the following benefits:

• ​$50 OpenAI API Credits

• ​$TBA Cursor Credits

• ​Free access to Nexus by ThirdLayer

• ​Mentorship from some of YC's best growth leads

​Judges & Mentors

​Participants will receive mentorship from growth engineers and founders who have been responsible for millions of dollars in deals closed, thousands of paying users through UGC/astroturfing campaigns, and some of the largest virality campaigns in SF.

​Rules & Logistics

• ​Please plan to arrive on time. We will start kickoff promptly at 5pm. If you miss kickoff you will not receive critical information and will not be eligible to receive API credits.

• ​Judging will take place Sunday starting at 5pm.

• ​Teams may be up to 4 people.

• ​You cannot work on projects started prior to the hackathon.

  • ​You can, of course, work on a feature or tool that would integrate into your pre-existing project, however it must be built in an entirely separate codebase.

• ​Projects must be open-sourced on GitHub for the duration of the hackathon. You are free to close-source after the event is over.