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Most weekends from 2015 to 2022, I was at a hackathon.

Building a prototype in 48 hours, pitching it to a jury, and every now and then, winning.

Perttu and teammates working around a table of sticky notes at Kuohu
Perttu taking a selfie with teammates holding Fiskars gift bags
Perttu and his team celebrating their win on stage at EEHack in Berlin
70+
hackathons and pitching competitions
40
of them won
8
seasons, 2015 to 2022

Every event, year by year

The 52 I still have records of. Some were excellent, some not so much, but I always learned something.

2022

1 event, 1 won

2019

1 event, 0 won

  • Digital innovation hackathon focused on sustainable technology solutions.

2018

13 events, 5 won

  • Student hackathon at Royal Holloway, University of London. 24 hours of building and pitching.

  • Baltic energy and environment hackathon. Won with a smart grid optimization solution.

  • Vatican-sponsored hackathon focused on social good and humanitarian challenges. Placed second.

  • Student-run hackathon at Eindhoven University of Technology.

  • Energy company hackathon focused on revolutionizing living comfort and smart home solutions.

  • Fintech hackathon focused on debt collection and financial services innovation.

  • The first sprint of Finland's largest hackathon series. Won in three different categories.

  • Won the TechCrunch hackathon at VivaTech Paris. Built Kaara, a car-sharing prototype that got featured by TechCrunch.

  • Tax and accounting hackathon. Won with an automated VAT processing solution.

  • Oulu Healthhack

    Won

    Healthcare innovation hackathon in Oulu, Finland. Won with a patient monitoring solution.

  • Youth hobby and activity platform hackathon organized by the Finnish government.

  • European Union open data competition focused on using public data for social good.

  • Insurance and pension hackathon focused on making life insurance more accessible.

2017

26 events, 12 won

  • Built an Airbnb-style app for renting out garages and storage spaces, integrated with YIT's property management infrastructure.

  • Metsäideakilpailu

    Forest innovation competition. Built a beginner-friendly forest guide app for urban residents exploring Finnish nature.

  • Health Hack

    Designed a social competition app for quitting smoking. Friends pool money and only get the prize if everyone quits successfully.

  • Pension fund hackathon. Designed a web service that calculates and visualizes your future pension.

  • Won the "World's Stupidest Hackathon" with an app where you could only communicate using emojis.

  • Agricultural hackathon. Helped design a farm-to-consumer marketplace for local produce.

  • Won at Finland's premier hackathon series for the second consecutive year.

  • Bluetooth beacon hackathon focused on indoor positioning and proximity-based experiences.

  • Smart building hackathon. Won with a solution for optimizing building energy consumption.

  • Fiskars-sponsored IoT hackathon. Won with a smart plant monitoring system that "talks" to gardeners.

  • Won the 10,000€ main prize at Finland's 5G innovation hackathon, plus two honorary mentions. They wouldn't let us take prizes in all categories we qualified for.

  • NASA Europe Challenge

    European edition of NASA's Space Apps Challenge. Built solutions using space data and satellite imagery.

  • Medical research hackathon focused on improving healthcare through better access to scientific data.

  • Won the logistics and cargo handling hackathon with a smart loading optimization solution.

  • Design hackathon celebrating Finland's 100th anniversary with the iconic Finnish design brand.

  • VR/AR hackathon using Nokia's professional OZO 360-degree camera at Mindtrek conference.

  • Helsinki Fintech hackathon focused on payment innovation and financial technology.

  • Municipal hackathon with the city of Tuusula focused on improving public services.

  • Won the legal tech hackathon by making legal information more understandable for citizens.

  • Design-focused hackathon combining UX, UI, and product design challenges.

  • Won at Aalto University's creative industries hackathon focused on art and technology.

  • Energy sector hackathon focused on smart lighting and energy efficiency solutions.

  • Won with a productivity solution that helps knowledge workers focus on meaningful work.

  • Won the second sprint of Ultrahack 2017, continuing the winning streak.

  • Won at this health and wellness hackathon focused on mental health and wellbeing apps.

  • Won with an education technology solution helping students choose the right study path.

2016

8 events, 1 won

  • DOA-kilpailu

    Finnish design and architecture competition focused on urban development.

  • Futurice Algorithm Hackathon

    Algorithm and optimization hackathon hosted by Finnish digital consultancy Futurice.

  • Helsinki public transport hackathon focused on improving the tram experience.

  • Building permit and construction industry hackathon with Finnish government.

  • Hackathon focused on emotion recognition and affective computing technologies.

  • Summer of CX

    Customer experience hackathon focused on improving digital service design.

  • Forest industry digitalization hackathon sponsored by OP Financial Group.

  • Won at Finland's premier hackathon, marking the start of a multi-year winning streak.

2015

3 events, 0 won

  • Senseg Touchscreen Hackathon

    Haptic technology hackathon exploring tactile feedback on touchscreens.

  • Social media innovation hackathon at University of Helsinki.

  • Graffathon 2015

    Computer graphics hackathon focused on demoscene and visual programming.

Want the playbook behind the wins?

The strategy my teams followed, written down.

Read the playbook

Or see what I build now.