It started with 25 attendees to an SF hackathon. Four years later, AngelHack’s community is 50,000 strong, with over 300 hackathons under its belt in 96 cities worldwide. And the company just keeps growing.
AngelHack’s mission is simple: to bring builders, creatives, and developers together to hack their ideas into real products. After 36 hours of intense collaboration, breakout sessions, and high protein snacks, hackers have 3 minutes to present their team’s finished prototype to judges. These hackathons have been hugely successful, and from the company’s forward-thinking ideology of using open source platforms and taking risks, 82 startups have been formed. Who is their target audience? It’s not just programmers or people who can code — it’s anyone with an idea.
For CMO Brian Collins, the community is AngelHack’s soul — without it, the company doesn’t exist. To ensure that AngelHack stays true to its roots, Collins lives as a nomad, telling CMO Radio host David T. Scott that he “doesn’t live anywhere” because he’s constantly traveling to different hackathons and interacting with hackers.
“I want to make sure that I’m growing and building and expanding upon my community, that I’m talking with them,” Collins said. “I’m on the road so much, and I want to make sure that I totally understand our community’s needs because at the end of the day, we’re a community company.”
Other highlights from this week’s episode of CMO Radio include:
- Building a target audience (8:37)
- Understanding your community’s needs (11:38)
- Expanding on successful marketing methods (17:21)
- The importance of face-to-face communication (21:10)
