The #Shipaton Writing Contest

How to Enter

Win a Share of $2,500, Plus Shipaton's $700K+ in Official Prizes

by RevenueCat & HackerNoon

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Build It. Ship It.
Share Your Story on HackerNoon.

Prizes

The #Shipaton Writing Contest Prizes will award a total prize pool of $2,500 as follows:

1st Place: $1,200
2nd place: $800
3rd Place: $500

*These awards are separate from the official Shipaton prizes, including over $700k in cash prizes, meaning participants can compete for both. See full list of Shipaton prizes here

Contest Timeline

Submissions open - August 1, 2026

Submissions close - September 30, 2026

*The #Shipaton Writing Contest runs in parallel with the RevenueCat Shipaton 2026

How To Enter

Contest Overview

Shipaton 2026 is RevenueCat’s global mobile hackathon for builders ready to move beyond prototypes and launch real apps on the App Store, Google Play, or Samsung Galaxy Store.

From August 1 through September 30, developers, founders, designers, and student builders alike, from around the world, are challenged to turn an idea into a new mobile app, launch it on a real app store, and show the world what they shipped.

As Shipaton’s official Build-in-Public partner, HackerNoon is inviting participants to document the work behind their apps through the #Shipaton Writing Contest.

Publish build logs, technical deep dives, growth experiments, launch stories, and lessons learned throughout the hackathon for a chance to win from an additional $2,500 Writing Contest Prize Pool.

*These awards are separate from the official Shipaton prizes, including over $700k in cash prizes, meaning participants can compete for both.

How To Enter The #Shipaton Writing Contest?

Step 1: Register for Shipaton 2026

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Join Shipaton through its official Devpost page.

Read the participation requirements carefully and make sure your project follows the appropriate Shipaton category and submission rules.

Step 2: Create Your HackerNoon Account

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Step 3: Start Building in Public

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You do not have to wait until your app is finished to start writing.

Introduce your idea, share your progress, explain the decisions shaping your product, and document the challenges you encounter along the way.

Start your first HackerNoon draft.

*You are encouraged to publish multiple stories throughout Shipaton. Every eligible story published during the contest period can be considered, so return whenever you reach a meaningful milestone, learn something valuable, run an experiment, or encounter a problem worth explaining. All stories must be submitted with the #shipaton tag.

Step 4: Complete Your Official Shipaton Submission

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Publishing on HackerNoon does not replace your Shipaton entry.

You must still submit your app through the official Devpost process before the Shipaton deadline.

Who Can Enter The #Shipaton Writing Contest?

The writing contest is open to registered Shipaton 2026 participants who are documenting a real Shipaton project.

To qualify:

Your article must be original
It must be published on HackerNoon between August 1 and September 30, 2026
It must include the #shipaton tag
It must comply with HackerNoon’s editorial guidelines
Your project must comply with the applicable official Shipaton rules
You may enter as an individual or as part of a team
You may publish multiple eligible articles

Each participant or team may receive a maximum of one writing prize.

Eligibility for the HackerNoon contest and the official Shipaton competition remains subject to applicable laws and the final contest rules. Shipaton’s current guidance notes that participation or prize eligibility may be restricted in some jurisdictions.

What Can You Write About?

Your story should help readers understand what you built, how you built it, and what happened along the way. The following are some potential angles:

Introduce Your Idea: Explain the problem you are solving, who yout app is for, and why you decided to build it.
- Example: Why I’m Building [App Name] for Shipaton 2026

Publish a Build Log: Document a sprint, feature, milestone, or week of development.
- Example: How I took [App Name] from Idea to Prototype: Lessons from Week One of My Shipaton Build

Share a Technical Deep Dive: Break down your architecture, frameworks, APIs, infrastructure, engineering decisions, and technical trade-offs.
- Example: The Technical Architecture Behind My Shipaton App
- We’re big fans of Technical detail on HackerNoon. We’ve written about why technical details are non-negotiable for anyone building in public and also shared some tips on how to write a strong technical story here.

Explain Your RevenueCat Integration: Show how you implemented subscriptions, in-app purchases, pricing, trials, paywalls, entitlements, or ads.
- Example: How I Integrated RevenueCat Into My First Subscription App

Share a Pivotal Product or Design Decision: Discuss your approach to onboarding, accessibility, navigation, user experience, app-store presentation, or feature prioritization.
- Example: How User Feedback Changed My App Before Launch

Publish a Postmortem: Review the complete Shipaton experience, including what worked, what failed, and what you would do differently.
- Example: My Shipaton 2026 Postmortem: Mistakes, Metrics, and Next Steps

*These aren’t fixed templates, just some examples of the kinds of articles we’ll be looking out for from our winners. The best stories will come from the real decisions, experiments, setbacks, and breakthroughs shaping your project.

How #Shipaton Writing Contest Stories Will Be Judged

RevenueCat and HackerNoon will jointly review the eligible entries and select three winners.

Stories will be evaluated based on:

Usefulness: Does the article help other builders?
Depth: Does it meaningfully explain the project, process, decisions, or results?
Originality: Does it offer a distinctive perspective or approach?
Transparency: Does it honestly discuss the challenges and changes behind the build?
Evidence: Does it include relevant screenshots, demos, code, data, or concrete examples?
Storytelling: Is it clear, engaging, and well structured?

We are not only looking for the most successful app.

A technical breakthrough, intelligent pivot, failed growth experiment, difficult integration, or well-documented mistake can produce a winning story.

Show the work.

How to enter

Join Shipaton 2026, build your app in public, and tell the story on HackerNoon for a chance to win from an additional $2,500.

Join Shipaton 2026

Start Writing on HackerNoon

Learn More About Shipaton 2026

Learn More About RevenueCat

Learn More About HackerNoon

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