Press

Inc. Magazine – How to Bag a Hacker – January, 2012

That kind of publicity can make all the difference when recruiting ambitious technologists, says Evan Korth, a computer science professor at New York University who also helps run HackNY, a program that connects student developers with start-ups. He points out that transforming engineers into rock stars proved a winning strategy for Google, which maintains an extensive network of blogs about software development. “By bragging about your clever solutions, you get other young developers to see what you do and get excited about it,” Korth says.

Western Carolina University News – Student makes mark on New York ‘hacker’ scene – December, 2011

Western Carolina University computer science student Joseph Randall Hunt has been making his mark on the New York “hacker” scene in recent months, and he’s not done with the Big Apple since a job with a software company located there will be waiting for him after his graduation from WCU.

XConomy – hackNY Connects Future Innovators to New York’s Startup Scene – November, 2011

If you ask ten entrepreneurs in New York City what is the biggest impediment to building a sustainable tech ecosystem in New York City, all ten of them will tell you developer talent. We’re addressing that problem directly. We don’t believe there is a shortage of developers. We believe there is an education problem and they don’t know about the opportunities that exist for them here in New York.

BetaBeat – The Winners from HackNY’s Biggest Hackathon Ever and the Debut of the Hacker League – October, 2011

There were a few factors that made hackNY’s fourth intercollegiate hackathon the one to beat. First, the much-loved local fellowship program got ambassadors from the likes of Pivotal Labs, Foursquare, Code Academy, Twilio and Google (“But I’m not here officially,” said the rep who shall not be named) to hold office hours during the hackathon. They were on hand to help bleary-eyed hackers running on RedBull with the finer points of MongoDB and JavaScript. Then we heard 10gen, Kevin Ryan’s most promising investment, was sponsoring buses to pick up coders all the way from schools like RISD, Carnegie Mellon, and UPenn. But the real clincher was that the hackathon was organized using the Hacker League, which was itself a hack cobbled together last week by three students from Rutgers who skipped class to get it ready in time.

The Next Web – With $100K for hackNY, Raise Cache will be NYC’s hottest tech event yet – October, 2011

This November, one woman, Rebecca Zhou, and her small army are banding together to host Raise Cache, a one-night celebration of New York City’s tech scene, which aims to raise $100,000 for hackNY, a non-profit that nurtures the next generation of New York’s hackers.

New York Times’ beta620 blog – Students Hack the New York Times at hackNY Fall Hackathon – October, 2011

The New York Times was one of fourteen official API-providers, along with groups like Foursquare, Etsy, NYCPlatform (the City of New York’s data site), and tumblr, (plus unofficial API-providers like Google and Twilio) at the hackNY Fall hackathon, held over the weekend at NYU.

New York Tech Blog – hackNY Expands To Accommodate Flood Of Applicants – June, 2011

HackNY ranks as among the most comprehensive, immersive, and generally impressive initiatives to sharpen a few brilliant minds. It’s also great at cultivating tech talent who’ll no doubt play major roles in the scene once they’ve ‘graduated.’

SF Gate – Group Texting Startup GroupMe Launches App For Windows Phone 7 – July, 2011

The WP7 app project was actually headed up by one of GroupMe’s interns, [Michael Bartnett], a developer from hackNY’s Summer Fellows Program.

New York Tech Blog – hackNY Expands To Accommodate Flood Of Applicants – June, 2011

hackNY ranks as among the most comprehensive, immersive, and generally impressive initiatives to sharpen a few brilliant minds. It’s also great at cultivating tech talent who’ll no doubt play major roles in the scene once they’ve ‘graduated.’

BetaBeat – hackNY Conscripts Three Times as Many Students As Last Year to the Startup Life
– June, 2011

Betabeat asked Mr. Korth whether HackNY sees itself in competition for talent with other local, well-heeled initiatives like TechStars. “No,” emailed Mr. Korth. “We see programs like Techstars as part of the ecosystem we hope to help. A 2010 Fellow, Tal Safran, became a TechStars Hackstar after he completed the hackNY program. Monday night we held an event at Pivotal Labs and asked David Tisch to speak to the Fellows about the TechStars program. We would love to see our students go on to work at start-ups in NYC, start their own companies (possibly with the help of incubators or accelerators), and generally kick ass in the innovation community.”

The Street – ‘Good’ Hackers Must Fight Off Labels – June, 2011

“The hackathons are a very collaborative community, and it’s fun being creative to solve technological challenges with other people and to show off what you’ve built,” said Chris Wiggins, an associate professor in applied physics and applied mathematics at Columbia, and one of the co-founders of hackNY.

Wall Street Journal - At Mature Techs, A Young Vibe – June, 2011

In the decade since the previous dot-com boom, start-ups have stepped up their efforts to recruit on college campuses, according to Evan Korth, a computer science professor at New York University.

NYT’s Room for Debate - Grass Roots, Not Government – June, 2011

The hackNY program tries to help young people from a variety of quantitative and technical backgrounds get more involved with New York City’s growing tech start-up community. We’re educating and empowering the next generation of technology innovators.

Crain’s New York - People to Watch in Silicon Alley – June, 2011

When a computer science student with no interest in a Wall Street job said he would have to move to San Francisco to do anything interesting, “it was a dagger in my heart,” recalled Mr. Wiggins (left), an associate professor of applied mathematics at Columbia. 220;I wanted to educate students that going to startups here was another path.”

FINS Technology - Tech Jobs Move East in Silicon Alley Reboot – June, 2011

“It’s easier to tell your parents you’re working for a startup when it’s through a fellowship program that’s going to pay you and provide housing,” said Tal Safran, who graduated in May and interned last summer with Aviary, a New York startup that builds Web tools.

Wall Street Journal – At NYU, Hacking the Night Away – April, 2011

Almost 300 students were up all night on Saturday, but they weren’t drinking anything stronger than Red Bull. Instead of partying, they were frantically hacking the software programs of several New York City start-ups at the hackNY Hackathon at New York University.nity gives students a chance to see inside startup life, but also gives startups a chance to showcase the innovation that’s happening right now in New York (and hopefully woo new hacking talent to the city).

Business Insider - Four Reasons Why The hackNY Kids Are Really Smart – April, 2011

By bus from Pennsylvania and Providence, by train from Hoboken and Boston, hackNY’s Spring 2011 Hackathon drew gaggles of budding designers, technologists and entrepreneurs from the best and brightest East Coast institutions to surrender that gorgeous weekend to create some big over a 24 hour marathon bender of business disruption.

NYU Local - Programmers Unite for 24-Hour Hackathon – April 2011

According to CAS freshman Misha Ponizil, events like Hackathon breed creativity: “I have tons of ideas and I haven’t had time to build any of them, but when you commit 24 hours to sitting down and writing code, you’re going to get something done.”

BetaBeat - Student Coders Do It Live at hackNY Hackathon – April, 2011

Besides being student-focused and un-intimidating, the HackNY hackathons are unusual in that they are focused on building on the platforms and services of New York-based companies, such as Hunch, Foursquare, Boxee, Aviary, Etsy, Yipit and Hyperpublic. Foursquare and Hunch were the most popular A.P.I.s used at the hackathon.

TechCrunch TV: 4Chan’s Christopher Poole discusses hackNY – April, 2011

Poole (aka Moot) also talks about his “boring” Internet habits and how he went to California to recruit the team to build Canvas, his current startup, and brought them back to New York City. In the video below, he talks about how he’s helping to “keep kids off the street” and into startups with HackNY, which is doing a student-only Hackathon this weekend (sign up here), and his work as an adviser to Lerer Ventures.

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• The New York Observer - Mayor Bloomberg Smiles Upon hackNY – February 2011

• The program has gotten recognition from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who highlighted hackNY as one out of an implied many efforts to match young technical talent with entrepeneurs. “HackNY’s expansion is just the latest example of the growing collaboration between entrepreneurs, universities and investors that is key to driving further growth in New York City’s thriving technology sector,” he said in a press release.

• TechCrunch - HackNY Doubles Effort To Match Top Tech Students With NYC Startups – February 2011

• The hackNY summer program is distinct in offering free, NYC-based dormitory housing to its fellows. Co-organized by professors from New York University and Columbia, the program also requires startups to pay selected interns at least $400 a week, and requires its young guns to participate in events and attend lectures by technologists, investors, and startup founders. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis from students via the hackNY.org website, here.

ReadWriteWeb – hackNY Expands Its Internship Program, Matching Student Hackers and NYC Startups – February, 2011

The opportunity gives students a chance to see inside startup life, but also gives startups a chance to showcase the innovation that’s happening right now in New York (and hopefully woo new hacking talent to the city).

Albert Wegner – hackNY Now Twice as Nice – February, 2011

HackNY is a terrific program run by Evan Korth and Chris Wiggins with an awesome set of advisors including Etsy’s Chad Dickerson and Bit.ly’s Hilary Mason.  HackNY brings talented Computer Science students from top programs around the country to New York for the summer to intern at great startups.  Last year’s internships were a huge success with students and startups alike.

Charlie O’Donnell - Excited about hackNY’s funding and growth – February 2011

• hackNY is working on perhaps the single biggest challenge facing NY startups – and we felt it important to participate.  (It was also great to personally have a hand in saying “thank you” to Hilary for sticking with Path 101 as long as she did, despite pay cuts and job offers)  I was glad that the whole First Round team was enthusiastic about finding the resources to be supportive.

Portfolio - More Opportunities to Break Into hackNY – February 2011

The program also requires startups to pay selected interns at least $400 a week, and asks that participants join in events and attend lectures by technologists, investors, and startup founders. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis from students via the hackNY.org website.

The New York Observer – HackNY’s One Year Anniversary – February, 2011

• HackNY fellows work at startups for ten weeks, supplemented by a series of talks by local tech luminaries. Startups pay the fellows $400 a week and they are offered free housing in an NYU dorm. The 2010 fellows came mostly from the Northeast, but the program is open to students all over the country. One 2010 hackNY fellow, Clement Huyghebaert, was hired by his host startup, Buzzfeed; he recently pushed a major feature, a search engine for memes.

• TechCrunch – Students Code The Night Away at hackNY’s Student Hackathon – October 2010

• Tonight, about a dozen ambassadors volunteered to hang out answering programming questions, including David Tisch of TechStars New York, 4Chan‘s Christopher “moot” Poole, Rich Frankel of Track.com and Michael Meyers from the Examiner.com. Students hacked overnight, many fighting off sleep to code up to the deadline, fueled by caffeine, snacks and a round of ice cream served at 3am.

• The Wall Street Journal – Steering Grads to Start-Ups – June, 2010

• Like many other college students, 19-year-old Ian Jennings Jablonowski treks to rock concerts and plays videogames. But the East Brunswick, N.J., native also designed his first website when he was 13. Now, he’s part of a new project trying to reshape New York’s job market.

• The Wall Street Journal – Seven Reasons Tech Start-Ups Are Setting Up Shop in New York – August, 2010
  

  Westheimer commended the work of two professors — Evan Korth, who teaches computer science at NYU, and Chris Wiggins, an associate professor of applied mathematics at Columbia University. Both have teamed up with Bit.ly scientist Hilary Mason to create HackNY, a project that connects New York’s best students with the city’s the startup world.

• Inc. Magazine – The Pros and Cons of Going Viral: More help for New York’s entrepreneurs – June, 2010
  

  Mayor Bloomberg’s NYC Entrepreneurial Fund has already promised $22 million to support tech start-ups in the Big Apple, and now, another organization is coming forward to get young tech entrepreneurs off the ground. According to the Wall Street Journal, HackNY hopes to lead promising computer science and math students away from Wall Street and into new careers with start-ups.

• The Deal – Steering NYC’s engineers to startups – June, 2010
  

  With fewer jobs available on Wall Street, top-tier engineering students are increasingly pursuing careers at New York’s technology startups, reports Chris Wiggins, an associate professor of applied mathematics at Columbia University’s engineering school and co-founder of HackNY.org, a group aimed at educating the next generation of technologists about the opportunities in the city’s emerging tech startup sector.

• NYU News – Tech start-ups link with NYU students – June, 2010
• Yahoo Developer Network – YDN Theater: A Hackathon for Students – May, 2010
• NYC Convergence – HackNY Will Sponsor 2010 Summer Internships for Engineers – May, 2010
• Crain’s New York – Math whizzes turn to tech startups – April, 2010