Mobile payments hackathon: A huge success!

On Saturday October 19, CardFlight and Stripe threw a full-day Mobile Payments Hackathon at the Alley NYC. The goal of the Hackathon was to encourage the development of mobile payments technology and provide developers with the tools and inspiration they need to build awesome products that improve the payments industry.

The event was a huge success with lots of participants and teams building awesome stuff. About 50 hackers participated and created unique projects using the Stripe API and CardFlight SDK. At the end of the Hackathon, they had three minutes to present their demos in front of a panel of mobile payments experts, including John Frankel of ffVC, Josh Abramowitz of Deep Creek Capital and Matt Witheiler of Flybridge Capital.

We had 13 teams present demos, including the CardFlight and Stripe teams. CardFlight created “BouncerBid”; an app that allows bouncers of nightclubs to receive bribes from people waiting in line, and allow those who are bribing the most to skip the line and enter the club. Stripe built “PigeonPayer”, a digital credit card roulette app, where you swipe cards through the CardFlight reader which stores them, then the app randomizes and chooses however many people you want to pay the bill and automatically charges them. Obviously, neither team was eligible to win.

Here’s the full list of hacks that were demo’d:

1. CeeJay – A food-ordering platform that lets you search by product (ie. 2 medium lattes) and finds local restaurants with that product.
2. SellNow – A simple marketplace app that allows you to enter the product you want to sell, shares a QR code and let’s you pay through the Stripe API
3. KarmaSwipe – A socially good payments platform for fund raisers and canvassers on the street. You add name, information, donation amount and cause, and swipe the card for the donation.
4. CabIQ – An app that allows you to share a cab with others that are waiting in a queue and splits the total fairly.
5. ElNerdo – An interactive shopping site that allows you to scroll through products with your hands using leap motion and the Stripe API.
6. FaceValue – A facial verification payments platform that allows you to make a successful charge with your photo.
7. UO.me – An app that allows you to sell things to your friends right off your back, through NFC and OAuth.
8. Formation – An mix between google form and Stripe, which allows you to create an event, share with your friends and charge each event goer for their share.
9. iNPO – A simple fundraising app that allows you to enter contact info, swipe the card and thank you for the commitment.
10. MoveEasy – A marketplace for movers and movees that uses Stripe’s Advanced Payments network. You set your maximum price, bid for the task and shows a listing of top movers available.
11. StripeCash – A simple app that allows you to send money through email, using Stripe to debit account.

The winning hacks were:

3. UO.me

2. StripeCash

1. KarmaSwipe

Thank you for everyone who came out to our event! We can’t wait to see you next time. And congratulations to all the winners!

The winning teams!

Click here for more photos on our event.