Rocket Launch: A USC Builders Night by TroyLabs - #LATechWeek

Friday, Oct 16

12:30pm

PTET

Hosted by

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Rocket Launch: A USC Builders Night by TroyLabs Think of one thing you wish existed. The script that would save you an hour every week. The tool you’d use every day. The tab manager you keep telling yourself you’re going to build. When you walk in, you’ll write your idea on a card and drop it into the payload bin. Then, you’ll be placed in a crew of 4–5 people you’ve never met and handed somebody else’s idea. You’ll have ten minutes to track down the person behind it and figure out what they actually want. Then the clock starts. You’ll have 100 minutes, an empty repo, and free Lovable credits to turn their idea into reality. At the end of the night, one crew will take home a $1,000 award sponsored by B00, the AI platform for collaborative physical design. But there’s a catch: you don’t get to pitch what you built. Instead, the person whose card you drew will walk up and use your software for the first time in their life, live in front of the entire room. It either works or it doesn’t. Everybody watches. This is not your typical hackathon. No 24-hour sprint, no judges, no slide deck, no TAM. Just one evening, one full build, and the chance to make something real for someone you met that night. Who’s on the Crew Engineers, founders, and technical creatives from campuses across LA. CS, EE, ME, robotics, math, design engineering, and anyone else who wants to build something cool alongside some of the brightest students in the city. Any experience level is welcome. You don’t need to bring an idea; you’re building someone else’s. You don’t need to bring a team either; we’ll draw one for you. What You’re Issued - A crew of 4–5 - One stranger’s problem and ten minutes to understand it - Free Lovable credits to help you prompt, build, and iterate - 100 uninterrupted minutes to create - Free boba and cookies - A shot at the $1,000 award Countdown 12:30 PM – Doors Open. Come in, grab some boba and cookies, pick up your payload card, and get the rundown for the night. 12:50 PM– Crew Assignment. Meet your crew, draw the idea you’ll be building, and find the person who submitted it. 1:10 PM – The Build. The clock starts, and you have 100 minutes to turn that idea into something real. 2:50 PM – Launch. Each crew gets three minutes. The person whose idea you drew takes the stage and tries your product for the first time. 3:30 PM – Orbit. Grab some more boba and cookies, meet the other crews, and hang out. 4:15 PM – Doors Close. At the end of the night, the room votes on two things: the cleanest delivery and the most ambitious payload anyone was brave enough to attempt. Flight Rules Your repo must be empty when the build begins at 1:10. Libraries, APIs, models, and AI tools are all fair game. The old project you’ve been working on for a while is not. Your final product must run from a live URL or a working device. No slides, mockups, or anything that only works on your laptop. Someone else has to be able to use it. Logistics USC University Park Campus. The exact location will be shared with approved attendees. We’re keeping the room to 30–40 people, and applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so apply early. Bring your laptop and charger. When you RSVP, tell us your school, graduation year, and what you like to build. Rocket Launch is hosted by TroyLabs, USC’s student-run startup accelerator. We’re a community of 50 builders across 13 majors, and every semester, we run an eight-week accelerator for student founders. Apply by Monday, October 12. Go for launch. (By attending, you agree to be photographed and filmed, and photos may be used by TroyLabs and our sponsors.) Rocket Launch is part of #LATechWeek, a week of events hosted by VCs and startups bringing together the LA tech ecosystem. Learn more at www.tech-week.com.

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