Cursor x Sandbox Hackathon | Stuttgart

Be a founder for a day.

This is a one-day hackathon for software founders, and for anyone who wants to find out if they are one. You start at 10:00 with an idea and finish at 17:15 with a working product, real customer conversations and an investor pitch.

What you hand in (by 17:15):

Your pitch deck (required)

Your GitHub repo (required)

One pitch + demo video, up to 3 min (required). Share it as a YouTube link (unlisted is fine) or a Google Drive link anyone can view.

Optional: a link to your working product, a landing page, and what you learned from talking to customers

You will be judged on (25% each):

Problem & Customer: is the problem real, and did you validate it with real people?

Product: did you build something that works and solves it?

Business Potential: who pays, how big is the market, why now, why you?

Team & Pitch: can your team execute, and can you pitch it clearly and handle tough questions?

The top 8 teams pitch live on stage: 5 min pitch and demo, 3 min Q&A. We cut you off when time is up.

Schedule for the day:

09:00 - 09:30: Arrivals, check-in, breakfast

09:30 - 10:00: Introduction and team forming

10:00: Building starts

11:30: Team lock-in

12:30: Lunch

17:15: Submission deadline

17:15 - 18:00: First round of judging

18:00 - 19:30: Top 8 pitches, prizes

Prizes:

1st: $500 in Cursor credits + 3 months of ElevenLabs Pro for each team member ($297 value)

2nd: $300 in Cursor credits

3rd: $200 in Cursor credits

Track prize, Best use of ElevenLabs: 3 months of ElevenLabs Scale for each team member ($897 value)

Breakfast, lunch and drinks are on us. Every team gets credits for the tools to build their idea out, and Sandbox coaches are around all day for mentoring.

Rules:

Teams of 1-4. Come alone or with a team.

Build something new. Use the day to test a new startup idea, not to continue an existing one.

Credit sponsors:

Cursor

ElevenLabs

Exa

Wispr Flow

n8n

Google for Developers

Organised by Sandbox and CREATORS.

About Sandbox:

Sandbox is Stuttgart's accelerator for digital business models in media, design and software. It is run by the HdM Startup Center at Stuttgart Media University. Founding teams get coaching, coworking space and access to funding such as EXIST and Start-up BW Pre-Seed.