October 3, 2026Profound, San Francisco40 spots

Marketing Engineering Hackathon: San Francisco

40 builders. One day. $40,000 in prizes.

Applications
Applications closed

A new discipline emerges

This past April, Profound introduced Marketing Engineering to the world. Since then, companies like Google have already hired their first Marketing Engineers. Our inaugural hackathon in NYC this June was 5x oversubscribed and brimming with talent. Now, a whole community is thriving.

For the second iteration and our first in San Francisco, this hackathon will push the limits of this new discipline and ask: how do you build systems and agents that let one marketer produce the work of a hundred?

Your challenge

Prompt

Find a marketing process that's inhuman in scope or scale, and ship a system or agent that runs it.

The Hackathon problem statement will be announced during the Kickoff session.

House rules

Stack

Open platform

Build with whatever platform or tool you want. Everyone gets a Profound instance, but using it is optional

Premise

Solo building, and no pre-builds

No teams and you must build on the day. The thesis is that one Marketing Engineer can 10x the productivity of an entire marketing team.

Evaluation

Judged by demo

Builders pitch their projects to judges through two rounds of a 4-minute demo format.

Agenda of the day

  • Saturday, October 3, 2026
  • 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM PDT
  • Profound, San Francisco
Start
Marketing Engineering Hackathon: San Francisco
40
Doors open
9:00 AM PDT

Badges, coffee, pastries. Get settled in.

Output
roomReady
Kickoff
9:30 AM PDT

A quick welcome, and the problem statement is revealed.

Output
briefLoaded
Iteration · Build loop
Step 1/3
Start
Hacking begins
10:00 AM PDT

Heads down. Everything you demo gets built today, no pre-builds.

Output
agentRunning
Lunch is served
12:30 PM PDT

No break in building. Food shows up next to your laptop.

Output
fuelTopped
Judges walk the room
4:00 PM PDT

Judges walk around to ask questions and get a sense of what's being built.

Output
judgesObserving
End
Output
shippedAgent
Submissions close
6:00 PM PDT

Submit your demo for judging. The first round of demos begins.

Output
submissionsLocked
Top demos on stage
7:00 PM PDT

The top demos from the first round are judged on stage in front of everyone.

Output
topDemos
Winners announced
8:00 PM PDT

Both the Best Agent Overall and Best Profound-native Agent receive $10,000 cash and $10,000 in Profound Agent credits.

Output
winners
After-hours hangout
8:30 PM PDT

Stay for drinks, food, and music to celebrate a successful hackathon.

Output
afterpartyOn
End
Hackathon concluded

Judges

A panel of leaders hiring Marketing Engineers at top companies

Panel

Coming soon

Conditional
Hackathon winners
contains
You
If true
Top prize
Best Agent Overall
Top prize

$10,000 in cash, $10,000 in Profound Agent credits, and an interview offer at Profound.

Output
bestAgentOverall
Top prize
Best Profound-native Agent
Top prize

$10,000 in cash, $10,000 in Profound Agent credits, and an interview offer at Profound.

Output
bestProfoundNativeAgent
If false
More prizes
Coming soon

Additional prizes revealed as we get closer to the date.

Output
surprise

Frequently Asked Questions

We're seeking aspiring and practicing Marketing Engineers. You're building with agents, experimenting daily to solve real marketing challenges and opportunities, and you have proof of your expertise to show us.

No. Every builder gets a Profound instance, but you can ship with whatever stack you want: Cursor, Claude Code, Python, n8n, Replit, your own framework. We keep the playing field clean by giving the Best Profound-native Agent its own prize.

From 10 AM to 6 PM PT. You must submit your demo for judging at 6 PM PT, and your workflow must be built on the day of the hackathon, no pre-builds.

No teams. The thesis is that one marketing engineer can 10x the productivity of an entire marketing team.

Applications close on at 11:59 pm ET on September 20. Selected builders will hear from us the week of September 21.

Nothing. Just bring your laptop, your taste, and the willingness to ship something memorable.

No.

No, this is an in-person hackathon.

See you on October 3

Applications closed on September 25. Follow along for the announcements.