Shipyard
A community that runs app-building hackathons and shipathons with influencer-supplied ideas.
- Tens of thousands of participants
- Fewer finished apps
- Lower quality bar
- 15% as many participants
- Twice as many finished apps
- Much higher quality bar
15% of the participants, twice the finished apps
From Shipyard hackathon vs summer shipathon
What was said about Shipyard
A smaller Shipyard hackathon shipped twice as many finished apps. Shipyard's hackathon had 15% as many participants as its summer event but delivered twice as many finished products, with a much higher quality bar.
The summer shipathon draws tens of thousands of participants. Because vibe-coded apps can look finished, polish no longer separates winners. Product depth and breadth, distribution and community still do, and network effects and data network effects make apps hard to copy. As Rik Haandrikman put it: "The apps that manage to make people feel something and bring people together, that's just a very difficult thing to build from scratch."
Insights from RevenueCat’s 2026 State of Subscription Apps Report
Its hackathon had 15% as many participants as the summer event but delivered twice as many finished products, with a much higher quality bar. The summer shipathon draws tens of thousands of participants.
A smaller Shipyard hackathon shipped twice as many finished apps. Shipyard's hackathon had 15% as many participants as its summer event but delivered twice as many finished products, with a much higher quality bar.
The summer shipathon draws tens of thousands of participants. Because vibe-coded apps can look finished, polish no longer separates winners. Product depth and breadth, distribution and community still do, and network effects and data network effects make apps hard to copy. As Rik Haandrikman put it: "The apps that manage to make people feel something and bring people together, that's just a very difficult thing to build from scratch."
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