#hackomotive

Hackomotive took place last Tuesday at Edmunds’ headquarters in Santa Monica, CA.  This three day contest brought together 18 teams comprised of innovators and entrepreneurs with products designed to improve the car shopping experience. 

Teams worked with industry experts to strengthen their product and compete for cash prizes worth $35000.

Edmunds’ CEO Avi Steinlauf kicked off the event Tuesday morning and welcomed contestants, mentors, speakers, and judges.  

Edmunds’ Keri Wise assumed emcee duties and outlined the event details which included product pitching, fireside chats with industry experts, surprise challenges, and more.

Guest speaker Sam Lamagna, Intel’s Director of Advanced Driving Technologies, spoke about self-driven cars in the fireside chat session.

Innovation coach Matt May held his “Where to Play How to Win” workshop later in the day.  Contestants in this session learned about business strategy and solving complex problems.

On Wednesday, returning teams “I’ll Buy It” and “CarcodeSMS” participated in the Alumni panel.  They shared their experience from last year’s Hackomotive, their involvement with “Fastlane” (Edmunds’ accelerator for startups), and the launch of their business.

Later in the day, contestants were placed in a simulated showroom challenge marketing and selling their product to real consumers.   

On the final third day of competition, contestants pitched their business to students in a future shopper’s challenge won by team “CARmera” with their camera app for recognizing cars and car features.

Team “ZipFlip” won the Hackomotive first place prize.  This application helps users price and sell their car with a ZipFlip sticker and/or online.

The “Dash” team’s car diagnostic application won the 2nd Place Prize, and "Backlot Cars” won the 3rd Place Prize with an application for the wholesale marketplace driven by subscriptions.

An honorable Mashery mention goes to team “Leasify” and their app which creates a deal score for users negotiating a car lease.

Special thanks goes to Intel’s Sam Lamagna for his awesome fireside chat and for helping participating Hackomotive teams.

I want to thank Ismail Elshareef and the Hackomotive team for organizing this event and providing support to attendees throughout these three days.  Lastly, congratulations to all the qualifying Hackomotive teams.