Team Formation
Pick teammates who cover four roles, and build a steady squad if you want to keep winning.
Find Your Persona
Eight questions to find the role you fall into by default.
TL;DR Know your default role so you can recruit teammates who cover the other three.
What's Your Hackathon Persona?
8 scenario-based questions. No wrong answers. Discover which role you naturally gravitate toward in hackathon teams.
The Four Personas
A hackathon team has four jobs. One person can take more than one, so you don't need a big team.
TL;DR Before you commit to a team, put a name next to each role. If one is blank, recruit for it or make it someone's second job.
Strengths
- Carries online judging, where your screenshots are the project
- Simplifies complex features so they're easy to follow
Watch Out For
Polishing past the point where "good enough" would ship.
Spot them: they open Figma before VS Code.
On Dispatch AI, my teammate Spike O'Carroll delivered our whole 4:34 pitch video. It opens on understaffed 911 call centers and saves the live call to our AI dispatcher for the last 77 seconds. See the breakdown.
Strengths
- Fits the story into whatever slot the event gives, sometimes 90 seconds before questions
- Takes the hard judge questions in Q&A. When I judged LA Hacks, each team had five minutes, and 3.5 of them were questions.
Watch Out For
Promising features you haven't built, or prepping the pitch instead of helping build.
Strengths
- Prevents integration failure. If the frontend and backend never connect, there's no demo.
- Cuts scope so the project fits the time you have
Watch Out For
Building for scale when you need to build for demo.
Strengths
- Runs short check-ins and time-boxes debates, so everyone stays on one plan and timeline
- Owns logistics and the submission so the builders can keep building
Watch Out For
Over-planning and rigidity. Too much process slows a 48-hour sprint.
Meredith Belbin — management researcher, Henley Management College
“Nobody is perfect, but a team can be.”
Belbin identified eight team roles at Henley and found that teams covering different roles beat equally talented teams with overlapping strengths. The personas map loosely onto his roles: the Pitcher to his Resource Investigator, the Architect to the Monitor Evaluator, and the Strategist to the Co-ordinator. The Designer fits least, since his Plant is an idea generator rather than a visual designer.
— Belbin's often-quoted maxim; team roles from Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail, 1981
Where to Find Teammates
Six places to look. Use more than one.
TL;DR Hack with someone once at a low-stakes event before you team up for one you want to win.
Hackathon Discords
Join the event's team-matching channel early. Post which role you cover and which ones you need.
Hackathon Communities
WeCracked (4K+ members), MLH groups, and local clubs. I co-founded WeCracked, so I'm biased.
University Clubs
CS clubs, ACM chapters, and hackathon orgs, where people already build things outside class.
Devpost Scouting
Browse past winners and message the people whose projects impressed you.
Fun Hackathons
Build something with someone once and you'll see how they handle a deadline.
Social Media
LinkedIn groups, Twitter/X tech communities, and hackathon subreddits.
TL;DR Pick attitude over raw skill. In 24-48 hours, a brilliant teammate who causes friction costs more than they add.
“Hire character.
Train skill.”
— Peter Schutz, CEO of Porsche AG from 1981 to 1987, his often-quoted hiring maxim
Look for teammates who
- Speak up when stuck instead of going silent
- Pivot when the plan isn't working
- Back the team decision even if it wasn't their first choice
- Stay calm when the build breaks late at night
Google Project Aristotle
Across 180+ teams over two years, Google found that how members interacted mattered more than who was on the team. Psychological safety was the #1 predictor of performance, ahead of dependability, structure, meaning, and impact. It means people can admit a mistake or ask a question without being embarrassed or punished.
How serious are you about hackathons?
Most people do one or two for fun, and everything above is all you need. The squad-building system below is for people chasing repeat wins.