At Product Hunt's first hackathon, we'll have hackers of all skill levels & ages attending - let us know if you'd like to serve as a mentor (around to answer questions and give feedback). Or let us know other ways you want to help! What makes Product Hunt special is our community - all of you - so this is a chance for us to all build together and get to know each other better. We we're geeked out just reading what you all wanted to build, and we can't wait to see it all come to life. 

We'll be using ChallengePost to review and judge all the hacks, and we'll showcase them to the community on a special featured page on Product Hunt.


Aerospike:
Aerospike is the world’s fastest database. An open-source, flash-optimized, in-memory NoSQL key-value store that operates with unprecedented speed, unlimited scale and unmatched reliability. With Aerospike, developers can rapidly build a new class of Internet-scale, data-driven applications that have the ability to process millions of transactions per second with sub-millisecond response times. Entrepreneurs and enterprises like AppNexus, Chango, eXelate, and InMobi rely on Aerospike so they focus on scaling their business, without the complexity of building and maintaining a high velocity database. These disruptive apps run Aerospike in pure RAM or a hybrid RAM/SSD configuration, scaling with the economics of flash. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Aerospike investors include NEA, CNTP and Alsop Louie. Download the open source Aerospike Community Edition at www.aerospike.com and follow @aerospikedb.

Hired:
Hired is on a mission to help talented knowledge workers build their dream careers. To do that, we've built a marketplace where talented people who fit our criteria receive multiple detailed offers from 1500 vetted venture-backed and public clients. If you'd like to checkHired out, CalHacks attendees are eligible for a "double signing bonus" of $4,000 with this promo link: http://hrd.cm/phhack!

Mashape:
Mashape is the worlds largest API marketplace with over 10,000 APIs. We give you the ability to make money from your API while monitoring all requests with real-time analytics. You can test any API using an in-browser test console and look at JSON responses before getting into your code. 

Make School:
The MakeSchool Gap Year is a 1 year college supplement that prepares students for a career as a founder or developer. Students learn mobile and web development, computer science theory, and development focused career skills. The Gap Year culminates with an internship at a tech startup. Students frequently meet founders and developers to build a network in Silicon Valley. Our first class of 11 students is ongoing in San Francisco. The next class of 50 begins in September 2015.

Sendgrid:
SendGrid makes it super easy for developers to send and receive emails in their applications. Sign up for a free account here - https://sendgrid.com/user/signup and find our docs and library for your favorite language here - https://sendgrid.com/docs/Integrate/libraries.html.

Namecheap:
Namecheap is an ICANN-accredited domain registrar and web hosting company, based in Los Angeles, California. They are large sponsors of Net Neutrality and Hackathons across the country. They also sponsor nc.me , a service providing free domains to university students!

Sinch:
Sinch makes it easy for developers to add voice calling and instant messaging into their apps. We SDKs for  iOS, Android, and web, and will have a mentor in Mountain View this weekend to answer questions. We are offering a $1000 cash prize to the hack that uses Sinch in the most innovative way!

Pebble:
For those who haven’t kept up with the wearables market over the last year or so, you may not be aware of Pebble. Pebble is the smartwatch that 68,000+ people brought to life, crowdfunding a record $10.3MM on Kickstarter, and put wearable technology on the map. With a vibrant developer community and thriving ecosystem, Pebble is the platform for the best and brightest wearable apps. Pebble SDK 2 invites developers to build unique, delightful, and practical apps that push the boundaries of what smartwatches can do.

• Product
  50% of the project will be judged based on the product/idea. The use cases. Awesomeness. Etc!
• Technical
  50% of the project will be judged based on the technical aspect of the project.