$1 Hack: The First Dollar Sprint

What is $1 Hack? Most hackathons optimize for demos.This one optimizes for money entering the system. $1 Hack is a build sprint with a single success condition: Your project must collect $1 of real online revenue. No pitch decks.No fake traction.No “we’ll monetize later”. Just: identify a buyer → ship something → charge → get paid. 👤 Solo builders only💰 $1 from a real, non-participant user🔗 Public checkout required😴 8 hours of sleep is mandatory What Counts as “$1” To qualify, revenue must be: Paid by someone who is not participatingIn exchange for access to a real product or serviceCollected through a public checkout (Stripe, PayPal, Gumroad, etc.) Does not count: Friends “helping you out”Self-paymentsDonations without a productFake or private checkouts If you can’t explain why the person paid — it doesn’t count. What You Can Use to Build TRAE, an AI-first development platform, participants will create intelligent applications, AI agents, and high-impact prompt workflows—faster and smarter. TRAE helps you go from idea to execution with AI-native development, prompt workflows, and agentic capabilities. v0. Ship real apps and not just prototypes by planning your prompts and project plans. What You Can Build Anything that can reasonably collect money in 24 hours: Apify AgentsMicro-toolsPaid Notion templatesOne-page SaaSScripts & APIsPaid waitlistsServices with a clear scope How the Day Runs We’ll do public check-ins, not constant streaming: KickoffWhat are you building?Who will pay?Why would they pay today?Introduction to TRAE AI (15 mins)MidpointFirst user contactPricing decisionWhat changed?EndProof of paymentDemo of what was soldShort post-mortem What You Walk Away With Every participant submits: Proof of payment (or failure)A short demoA 1-page teardown:Who you tried to sell toWhat workedWhat failedWhat you’d do nextPrizes sponsored by TRAE AI, v0, and Apify! If this works, we’ll publish the learnings.If it doesn’t, we’ll still publish the learnings. Who This Is For Builders who want to get better at chargingIndie hackers tired of fake tractionFounders who’ve never made their first dollarPeople who want signal, not vibes If you just want to demo — this isn’t for you. Why We’re Doing This Building is cheap now.Monetization is still hard. $1 Hack exists to compress that lesson into 24 hours —without burning people out. NOTE: To be eligible for TRAE AI, v0, or Apify prizes, you must use either TRAE AI, or v0, or Apify services in your solution - codes will be shared on the day How judging works: v0 track: Submit to be considered for a prize to each track which includes: MarketingGo-to-marketDevDesignProductPractical Agents After the event, the community votes on the best builds via the Community Showcase page.We'll have builds going on all week (Jan 31- Feb 8), so be sure to keep voting for your favorites.Winners per track get featured on v0's social channels. So the more compelling the build + the public post, the better! Apify track: Apify is giving US$ 1500 cash prizes for the winner of the track.You have to build Apify Actors in order to be eligible for the challenge.Use PPE monetization method and publish it on Apify store to put it in front of 25K+ monthly active customers.Learn more in the presentation by Apify on the day of hackathon.