Cycling through all six. Tap any point to stop.

Measured on six things

Hackathons and growth programs where builders ship weekly

Security

HTTPS and HSTS are in place with SPF published, but the header probe scores 5/12: no CSP, no frame protection, no Referrer-Policy, no DMARC. No security page or compliance claim anywhere on site.

Screenshots

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HackWithUs

About this app

HackWithUs runs hackathons and growth programs for builders and founders. Participants ship every week, show real traction, and compete on a live leaderboard for cash prizes, with 0% equity taken. The current 8-week program, Accelerate your way to $10k revenue, runs Oct 5 to Dec 5, 2026, with $10K in prizes and distribution through Microlaunch.

Key features

1Zero-equity hackathons and accelerators — participants keep 100% ownership of what they build.
2Weekly shipping with a live traction leaderboard and cash prizes ($10K pool, $1K+ per finalist).
3Distribution through Microlaunch events, plus a public events table tracking applications, sponsors and prize pools.

Target customer profile

Drawn from the product itself, not from a survey.

Demographic

Early-stage founders

Pain points

Need real traction, not just a demo

Primary needs

Weekly shipping, a live traction leaderboard and cash prizes with 0% equity

Demographic

Indie hackers

Pain points

Hard to stay accountable and get visibility for a side project

Primary needs

Ship weekly alongside other builders and get distribution through Microlaunch

Demographic

Builders

Pain points

Want to grow a side project to first revenue

Primary needs

An online program with accountability, prizes and distribution

Scout Review

Written by AI from measured evidence, scored out of 100.

HackWithUs is a zero-equity hackathon and accelerator series for indie founders, currently running an 8-week program from October to December 2026 with $10K in prizes and distribution through Microlaunch. The site is well-branded and the events table is genuinely good design work. The offer is clearly differentiated from Devpost, buildspace and YC — no equity, weekly shipping, a live traction leaderboard. But the product is not yet usable: the entire funnel is a waitlist email, there is no documentation or demo, mobile LCP sits at 14.9 seconds, and the security headers score 5/12 with no DMARC. Accessibility is the standout at 96/100. This is a promising concept with a marketing site that needs performance and security work before the October cohort opens.

Measure by measure

Usability

Navigation is clean and event status/dates are instantly scannable, but the entire funnel is one waitlist email field. No docs, no demo, no pricing page — signup-to-value is 'wait until October'.

Design

Coherent cosmic-gradient branding, a genuinely scannable events table and high-contrast CTAs put it above typical indie hackathon sites. Clipped avatar strip and unreadable micro-footer text hold it back.

Speed

Lighthouse mobile 68/100 and desktop 76/100, with TBT a healthy 39ms and CLS near-zero. But a 14.9s mobile LCP means the hero takes longer to paint than most people's patience.

Security

HTTPS and HSTS are in place with SPF published, but the header probe scores 5/12: no CSP, no frame protection, no Referrer-Policy, no DMARC. No security page or compliance claim anywhere on site.

Accessibility

Lighthouse accessibility lands at 96/100 — strong automated coverage. Two real failures remain: insufficient color contrast and visible labels not matching accessible names. No WCAG statement published.

Growth

A real, specific wedge: zero-equity accelerator with weekly shipping, a live traction leaderboard and Microlaunch distribution. Clearer positioning than Devpost or YC for indie founders — but the prize-and-cohort model doesn't compound.

Improvement areas

Mobile LCP of 14.9s — the hero asset needs compression and preloading before the October cohort opens.
Security headers score 5/12 with no DMARC, no CSP and no frame protection on a site collecting applicant data.
Onboarding is a single waitlist email field repeated four times — no docs, demo, or program preview.

Design & Usability

The homepage is the strongest part of HackWithUs. A purple-to-pink cosmic gradient ties the logo, hero and cards into one coherent identity, and the events table is genuinely well-built — status dots, date ranges, sponsor logos, application counts and prize pools all readable in a single glance. The problems are at the edges: an avatar strip that clips into the hero, footer text so small '0% tiun fees*' reads as a smudge, and a page that stretches vertically into empty space. Usability is thinner. Navigation is clean and event status is instantly scannable, but the entire conversion path is a waitlist email field repeated four times on one screen. There is no pricing page, no documentation, no demo, and no way to experience the product before October 2026. For a program selling accountability and weekly shipping, the signup experience offers neither.

Speed & Security

Speed is a split verdict. Lighthouse desktop scores 76/100 and mobile 68/100, with Total Blocking Time at a healthy 39ms and Cumulative Layout Shift at 0.004 — the page is stable and responsive once it arrives. The problem is arrival: mobile Largest Contentful Paint is 14.9 seconds, roughly six times Google's 'good' threshold, which points at an unoptimized hero asset. On a landing page whose only job is capturing a waitlist email, that is a lot of people lost before the first pixel settles. Security is middling. HTTPS is enforced with HSTS, and an SPF record is published, but the header probe scores 5 of 12: no Content-Security-Policy, no frame protection, no X-Content-Type-Options, no Referrer-Policy, no Permissions-Policy, and critically no DMARC — meaning the domain collecting founder emails can be spoofed in phishing campaigns. There is no security page, no compliance claim, and no bug bounty. For a site handling applications and personal data, that is table stakes left on the table.

Accessibility & Growth

Accessibility is the quiet win: Lighthouse scores 96/100, with only two failing audits — insufficient background/foreground contrast and visible text labels that don't match their accessible names. Both are cheap fixes and neither undermines an otherwise well-built page. What's missing is a published accessibility statement or any WCAG commitment, which matters more once real applicants start using the platform. Growth is the interesting question. The positioning is sharp and specific: 'the first zero-equity accelerator,' with weekly shipping, a live traction leaderboard, $10K in prizes and distribution through Microlaunch. That is a genuinely different offer from Devpost (a hackathon listing board), buildspace (a cohort program) and Y Combinator (which takes equity). The target customer is named clearly — indie hackers who need traction and accountability, not another demo day. The limit is structural: prize-and-cohort programs don't compound. Every cycle starts from zero, the reward caps at $1K per finalist, and there is no network effect or data advantage that makes the tenth cohort easier than the first. It is a good wedge with a low ceiling.

Conclusion

HackWithUs has the hardest part figured out: a clear, differentiated promise in a crowded category. Zero equity, weekly shipping and a live traction leaderboard is a real answer to a real problem, and the site communicates it well. What it lacks is the operational polish to match — a 14.9-second mobile LCP, missing security headers, and a waitlist-only funnel will cost applications before the October 5 start date. Fix the hero asset, add the missing headers and DMARC, publish a real onboarding flow, and this becomes a program worth applying to rather than a page worth bookmarking.

Suggestions for improvement

Compress and preload the hero image — mobile LCP of 14.9s is costing you waitlist signups on every visit.
Add CSP, X-Frame-Options, Referrer-Policy and DMARC; five of twelve headers is not enough for a site collecting applicant data.
Replace the four repeated waitlist CTAs with one clear path plus a real preview of the program — schedule, leaderboard, past winners.
Fix the two failing accessibility audits (contrast and accessible names) and publish a short WCAG statement.

How we score

Alternatives comparison

Named competitors, point by point. Nobody paid to appear here or to be left out.

	HackWithUs	Devpost	Buildspace	Y Combinator
Equity taken from participants	0% equity — full ownership retained	0% equity — hackathon listing platform	0% equity — cohort program	~7% equity for standard deal
Cash prizes / funding offered	$10K pool, $1K+ per finalist	Varies by host; platform takes no cut of prizes	No cash prizes; program access only	$500K investment for equity
Weekly shipping accountability	Yes — weekly ship cadence with live traction leaderboard	No — event-based submissions only	Yes — cohort-based build sprints	Yes — weekly growth check-ins during batch
Distribution / audience access	Microlaunch event and partner distribution	Large public hackathon audience and sponsor network	Cohort network and demo day exposure	YC alumni network, Demo Day, investor access
Program duration	8-week program (Oct 5 – Dec 5, 2026)	Event-based, typically days to weeks	Multi-week cohort (nights & weekends style)	3-month batch plus ongoing alumni support