Drafts
To write and review the challenge before publishing it.
€0
Write a challenge freeIncludes
- MARA AI writes the challenge from a role or a problem
- You edit brief, criteria, deliverables and timeline
- No live challenge
Internal hackathon: how to run a company hackathon for employees.
An internal hackathon is a time-boxed competition where your employees, alone or in teams, work on a real company problem and submit a concrete proposal. On MARA you describe the problem and MARA AI writes the full challenge, which you share through a private link. Participants submit on the platform, and your people evaluate the submissions on criteria set in advance.
- Free drafts, you pay only when it is live
- Your people evaluate, not the AI
- A verifiable certificate for everyone who submits
Used at
What is an internal hackathon?
It is a hackathon open only to your own staff, with a brief, rules, a deadline and an internal jury. It lasts from half a day to two days on site, or one to two weeks online. Participants already know your products, customers and processes.
When does an employee hackathon make sense?
It makes sense when you have a specific problem and want several points of view in a short time, for example:
- a slow internal process nobody has time to rethink;
- a new service to test before investing in it;
- departments that rarely work together;
- people to watch on a practical task outside their usual role;
- AI in work where nobody codes, for example to automate a weekly task or redesign a process.
More ideas are in the hackathon themes guide.
Is it right for you? Answer yes or no.
- Do you have a specific problem you can explain in a few lines?
- Can people take part on company time, in place of their normal work?
- Can taking part stay truly optional?
- Will a named person follow up on the best ideas, with a date to decide?
- Is your date clear of holidays, the financial close and peak weeks?
Any "no"? Fix that point before you announce the hackathon.
How do you get management and colleagues on board?
Five things to settle before you pitch it.
A concrete reason
"It's a company initiative" convinces nobody: you need a problem with a cost. For management, use the hackathon business case guide.Company time
The hackathon replaces normal work on those days: ask management to tell team leads in advance. Put the submission cut-off time in the schedule, for example 6 pm.Truly optional
If someone notices who did not sign up, the invitation becomes an obligation.A clear brief up front
Publish the challenge a few days before the event. Request access to data and systems early.Follow-up with a name and a date
Write down beforehand what will happen to the projects. At the awards, name an owner for each idea that moves forward and set a decision date 30 to 60 days out. The plan is in the after the hackathon guide.
If you run your internal hackathon on spreadsheets and email today, what changes?
On MARA the brief, sign-ups, questions, submissions and certificates sit in one place.
| Today | On MARA |
|---|---|
| The brief circulates by email in different versions | One challenge with brief, rules, criteria and timeline, approved by you |
| Sign-ups from a form, copied into a spreadsheet | Colleagues join through the private link, alone or in teams |
| Questions in private chats | Announcements and Q&A inside the challenge, visible to all participants |
| Submissions as attachments or in scattered folders | All submissions in one place |
| After the event the projects are scattered across email and folders | Statuses in the participant list, set by your team, and export to Excel or ZIP |
| Certificates made by hand, or none | A verifiable certificate and a portfolio of the work for everyone who submits |
How do you run an internal hackathon on MARA?
01
Describe the problem.
MARA AI asks a few questions and proposes two directions.02
Review the challenge.
In minutes MARA AI writes the story, brief, rules, criteria, deliverables and timeline. You edit everything, and nothing goes live until you approve it.03
Set the rules and the prize.
For example, a day with the leadership team. Also write down what will happen to the projects.04
Invite employees.
Send the private link to the colleagues you want to involve: anyone with the link can join, so do not post it anywhere else.05
Your people evaluate.
They use the same criteria for everyone. MARA gives no scores, does not rank anyone and recommends no one. Everyone who submits gets a verifiable certificate.
How much does an internal hackathon cost?
Launch
To publish your first challenge.
€67/month
Everything in Drafts, plus
- 1 live challenge
- MARA community, a university’s students or private link
- Workspace and participant submissions
- Evaluation by your people on criteria set in advance
- Verifiable certificates for everyone who submits
- Export to Excel or ZIP
Growth
RecommendedFor teams that run several at once.
€109/month
Everything in Launch, plus
- 3 live challenges at once
- About €36 a month per challenge, instead of €67
- Announcements, questions and candidates of every challenge in one place
EnterpriseOn contract
For large companies and programmes with many challenges live at once.
VAT excluded. No publishing fee and no fee per participant. Participants never pay.
Has MARA been used for a hackathon before?
Yes. H-FARM's H-ACK "Robots in Action", a 24-hour hackathon held on 11 and 12 April 2026, ran end to end on MARA: 157 participants, 30 teams, 6 judges. The numbers come from the H-FARM College article. MARA was also used for a business game by H-FARM College with The Lux Collective and for CX Campus.
For the format in general, read the hackathon page and the guide on how to organize one. Back to the home page.
- 157participants
- 30teams
- 6judges
Frequently asked questions.
01Should an internal hackathon be mandatory?
That is your call, but it works best when it is truly optional and runs on company time, in place of normal work.
02How do I pitch the hackathon to management before spending anything?
Drafts on MARA are free and unlimited, so you can show the full challenge, with criteria and timeline, before you subscribe to a plan. Nothing goes live until you approve it. The hackathon business case guide covers costs and arguments.
03What happens to the projects after the event?
You decide beforehand and write it into the challenge, with the name of the person who will follow up on the ideas you pick. Submissions stay in one place: your team sets statuses in the participant list, and you can export everything to Excel or ZIP. You can also send individual notes to people who submitted.
04Who owns the ideas from an internal hackathon?
Ownership of the work is set in the challenge rules, which colleagues see before they join: write it there clearly. Everyone who submits keeps their certificate and portfolio either way.
05How much does an internal hackathon on MARA cost?
You pay the subscription only while the challenge is live: Launch at €67 a month for 1 live challenge, Growth at €109 a month for 3 at once, VAT excluded. Drafts are free. There is no publishing fee and no per-participant fee, and employees pay nothing.
Your next challenge can start today.
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