From Hackathon to Production: How Teams Win with Cheetah

Over the past few months, we've watched over 50+ teams use Cheetah to build production-ready applications during hackathons. What started as a tool to help developers code faster became something more: a competitive advantage that helped teams ship complete products in 24-48 hours.

The Hackathon Reality Check

Hackathons are brutal testing grounds for development tools. Teams face:

• Tight deadlines: 24-48 hours to go from idea to working product
• Unknown tech stacks: Often working with frameworks they've never used
• High pressure: Competition pushes teams to their limits
• Zero room for error: Every hour wasted is a lost opportunity

This is where Cheetah shines.

Real Success Stories

HealthAI by Team SYMPHONY

The Challenge: Build a chronic wellness management platform with AI-powered health communities.

How Cheetah Helped:

• Generated complete React components for the health dashboard in minutes
• Helped debug complex state management issues in real-time
• Provided instant answers about healthcare data privacy best practices
• Suggested optimal database schema for patient records

Result: Fully functional platform deployed and demoed successfully. Won their category.

AlphaFlow by Team NRB

The Challenge: Create an advanced workflow automation platform with process optimization.

How Cheetah Helped:

• Scaffolded the entire backend API structure in under an hour
• Helped implement complex workflow logic without prior experience
• Debugged integration issues between frontend and backend
• Generated comprehensive API documentation automatically

Result: Production-ready application with clean architecture that impressed judges.

What We Learned

1. Speed Without Sacrificing Quality

Teams using Cheetah weren't just coding faster—they were coding better. The AI caught bugs early, suggested best practices, and ensured consistent code quality even under pressure.

2. Confidence in Unfamiliar Territory

Many teams built features with technologies they'd never used before. Cheetah acted as an always-available expert, providing guidance and catching mistakes before they became problems.

3. More Time for What Matters

By automating boilerplate and routine tasks, teams spent more time on:

• User experience design
• Business logic
• Pitch preparation
• Feature polish

4. Better Documentation = Better Demos

Cheetah's automatic documentation helped teams explain their code to judges and potential users, making demos more compelling.

Key Features That Made the Difference

Instant Codebase Understanding

New team members could jump in mid-hackathon and get productive immediately. Cheetah explained the existing code structure and suggested where to add new features.

Context-Aware Debugging

When things broke (and they always do), Cheetah helped teams debug by understanding the entire context, not just isolated functions.

Smart Refactoring

As projects evolved, Cheetah helped teams refactor quickly without breaking existing functionality—critical when pivoting based on user feedback.

The Numbers Don't Lie

Across 50+ hackathon projects:

• 85% of teams completed their MVP ahead of schedule
• 70% less time spent debugging
• 60% faster feature implementation
• 100% of teams said they'd use Cheetah again

From Prototype to Production

The best part? These aren't just hackathon projects that get abandoned. Many teams continued building with Cheetah after the event, turning their prototypes into real products.

Your Turn

Whether you're participating in a hackathon, starting a side project, or building the next big thing, Cheetah gives you the unfair advantage you need to win.

Ready to build faster, smarter, and better? Try Cheetah today.