GUNNAR at AngelHack LA & SF: 21st Century Hacking with AngelHack Accelerator Hackathons

The tech world has come a long way from the time when the world “hacker” brought with it a general sense of fear and computer insecurity. Where the hacker was once a force of evil when it came to computer security, the hacker has become something of a necessity for the same reasons. This has spawned a subculture and successful economic realm of hackers, all looking to prove their skills and land high-paying jobs in the tech sector.

From that, Hackathons became the annual norm around the world, in which collectives of hackers would compete for jobs or just to show off their skills. AngelHack, one of the most prominent hackathons, has always had a very global business model, with their events taking place all over the world. This year, they are putting on 52 events, with the winning team from each event winning a paid trip to Silicon Valley (to the AngelHack headquarters) where they will be given the chance to improve on their designs and pitch them to business investors. From this they hope to find and fund the “next big thing.”

This is all part of the AngelHack Accelerator. The winning teams finding themselves in Silicon Valley will have the chance to pitch to investors (after pitch training). Previous winners have gone on to successful careers at many different startups across Silicon Valley and beyond. AngelHack founder Greg Gopman said that the goal of the accelerator is “to be the largest funnel of seed-stage technical talent into incubators and investors around the world.”

Each hackathon event allows the participating teams 24 hours to come up with their best application/program which is judged by their panel of tech moguls. These tech moguls are not just a random assortment of judges. Most of them were a few years ago in the same position as the competing hackers, as part of a team trying to present their most amazing and functional ideas.

To assist these winning teams of hackers, GUNNAR has partnered with AngelHack to educate these hackers and mathletes about Computer Vision Syndrome and the solutions that are available to them. Each winning team will receive a pair of GUNNARS for their entire team. GUNNAR was at the AngelHack event in Los Angeles (check out the photo gallery here) and will be attending the San Francisco event this weekend hanging out and interacting with developers, educating them on the benefits of wearing proper eye protection whilst hacking.

As long term supporters of eSports, GUNNAR views partnering with AngelHack events as a natural progression and another perfect forum of hard core computer users. These events enable GUNNAR to showcase the benefits of our eyewear and gather valuable feedback while expanding our endorsement of collaborative innovation and technology entrepreneurs.

Check out the full list of hackathon locations here and read more about the accelerator here.