Shipping with Shipathon: My first global hackathon

The barrier to entry

I've heard about many hackathons happening near me, but I never attended one. They sound great and fun, but for someone with social anxiety, coming up with a new project in 48 hours is the least of the problems.

Meeting people, being shy, feeling comfortable, those are the things that have stopped me. I've never had a bad experience. I actually love meeting people and learning from others. But the anticipation is too much, and I always end up staying home.

This time was different.

Why Shipathon

www.shipaton.com

Shipaton 2026

RevenueCat’s global hackathon for builders shipping real apps to real stores.

I found out about Shipathon 2026, RevenueCat's global hackathon running August 1 to September 30. Since I'm a big fan of RevenueCat and use it in all my projects, I decided to give it a try.

But here's what made it possible: it's completely remote. No room full of people. No social friction. Just me, my laptop, and a deadline.

The rules are simple: ship a brand-new app between August 1 and September 30, integrate the RevenueCat SDK for monetization, and compete for over $1 million in prizes

. The submissions are open for two full months, so there's actual time to build something real.

There are also in-person Shipaton IRL events happening around the world from August 1 onwards. Tokyo, New York, London, and more. So if I want that human connection later, it's there. But I don't have to have it to participate.

My goal (and why it's small)

To be honest, I'm not here to win. I'd love to, but looking at last year's winners and how creative people can get, I prefer to keep my goals grounded and achievable.

My goal is to:

Participate and finish. Start a project and actually submit it. Close that loop.
Join the community. Participate in the online activities. Maybe catch a Shipaton IRL event if there's one near me.
Get the experience. Next time I join another hackathon, I'll have done this once. The anticipation won't be as scary.

In other words: survive, ship, and show up.

The idea: Tabs

I didn't spend weeks overthinking the perfect idea. Time is limited, and that endless loop of planning, the trap we've all fallen into, is a luxury I can't afford right now.

Since I normally build apps for myself, I decided to solve one of my recurring problems: I have dozens of tabs open that I never read, never close, and just collect without knowing why.

So I came up with Tabs: an app where you share links to read later.

I know what you're thinking: "This app already exists. Pocket, Instapaper, Raindrop, they dominate this space. You'll never compete."

You might be right about the competing part. But Tabs isn't the same as those apps.

What makes Tabs different is that links expire.

You don't just save links and collect them forever like you do in Safari or Chrome. On Tabs, they're waiting for you, but after a few days, they get archived. It's designed to create a routine where you actually finish things instead of leaving them for later indefinitely.

You're not building an infinite list. You're creating a task for the future. Tabs reminds you before it expires.

Why RevenueCat matters for this

RevenueCat is a requirement for Shipathon, but it's also the right choice for Tabs. I need a system that can track subscriptions, manage free trials, and handle promo codes for judges.

I've been using RevenueCat in all my projects and have never had problems. Their documentation is solid, and there's a huge community of developers building alongside them.

Plus, RevenueCat has codelabs and preparation guides specifically for Shipathon participants, so the integration is straightforward.

The plan

Build Tabs during August. Publish it to the App Store in September. Submit to Shipathon around mid-September.

And as always, I'm documenting everything here on my blog and on Twitter. This isn't just a project, it's a public journal of the entire journey.

Are you participating?

If you're on the fence about Shipathon like I was, I get it. The barrier isn't the building, it's everything else. But Shipathon 2026 is remote, it's generous with time, and there's a real community around it.

You don't have to be a genius to participate. You don't have to have the next billion-dollar idea. You just need to ship something real and use RevenueCat to monetize it.

If you're thinking about it, here's my ask: do it. Register. Pick an idea. Start small. Document it. The community is there.

And if you do, let me know. I'll follow your journey.

Ready to ship?

Head to Shipaton.com to register. The deadline is September 30th, 2026.

Let's build something real.