How An Online Hackathon Helped Flipkart Engage With Nearly Half A Million Engineering Students?

It was in 2007, the year of disruption and change when a path-breaking idea ignited a revolution in the online shopping experience of consumers. Two IIT Delhi graduates and ex-Amazon employees - Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, held the beacon of light and laid the foundation of an online bookstore - Flipkart, the first of its kind in India. Little did they know that their small startup would go on to become India’s most treasured e-commerce business, which would later be acquired in a grand $16 Billion deal by Walmart! 

Goals And Challenges

Today, Flipkart is an e-Commerce platform that has more than 400 Million users and 150 Million products across 80+ categories. But to ascend the ladder of success further, the team at Flipkart was in need of newer perspectives and fresh talent. The hiccups arising within the organization called for a futuristic outlook, which is when Flipkart decided to take a detour and instead look for novel solutions beyond the confines of the organization. 

The Flipkart team pondered the idea of reaching out to college students and giving them a look and feel of the “Day in the Life of a Flipkart software engineer". The company realized an emerging need to conceptualize a campus engagement that would bridge the prevailing gap between them and the student community. And this is where Unstop came to the rescue!

Outlining The Solution

In no time, the team at Unstop devised a one-stop solution to help Flipkart reach out to a wider and more diverse audience. They knew that the only way to connect with students was to engage them in a live business scenario that unravels the real picture of the corporate world in front of them. The idea behind the engagement was clear, students had to be given an opportunity to be a part of Flipkart, to help them better understand the organization and its work culture. 

The stage was set and the road not taken lay ahead of Flipkart and its execution partner, Unstop. With a foolproof strategy in hand, the two decided to take the fall. And the results, as it later turned out, were astonishing! 

The Proposed Solution

The team at Flipkart along with Unstop conceptualized the framework of a hackathon, which essentially acted as a doorway to Flipkart for budding engineering students of today. The hackathon, based on live case studies, provided college students with an opportunity to work on real-life problem statements and interact with the senior leaders of the organization, thus giving them a holistic picture of the e-Commerce company and the values it believed in.

In terms of the implementation of the Flipkart hackathon, the team at Unstop handled the Promotion and Execution which included the following: 

• Competition Landing Page 
• Online Registrations
• Hackathon Platform
• Quizzing and Testing Platform
• Marketing 
• Content Creation
• Communication Plan
• Help Desk
• Social Media outreach, among others. 

Flipkart GRiD - The Online Hackathon

Once the challenges were laid out for the Flipkart hackathon, the path ahead was rather simple. The online hackathon, which ignited a spirit of competitiveness amongst young college students, launched its first season Flipkart GRiD – Te[a]ch The Machines which revolved around Machine Learning. 

With a rise in the number of stakeholders, Flipkart GRiD 2.0 - the online hackathon commenced on a whole new level. Divided into two distinct tracks for participants to choose from (Software Development Track and Robotics Track), the challenge attracted talented programmers and developers to craft excellent solutions. 

The third season widened the canvas and painted a bigger picture altogether. Flipkart GRiD 3.0, kicked the excitement up a notch by welcoming all the engineering colleges across the country and introducing a new track to the existing ones (Information Security Track).

In the fourth season, Flipkart sprung into action with force and made its way across the globe.  Flipkart GRiD 4.0 invited software developers from ALL the colleges across India and USA.

Flipkart GRiD 5.0 introduced a new category - Health+, which attracted over 32,000 registrations out of a total of 468,312 from the four tracks.

Highlights from Flipkart GRiD Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4, and Season 5:

• Launched in 40 engineering colleges in the first season.
• Spread its wings to accommodate as many as 98 engineering colleges in Flipkart GRiD 2.0
• Became the talk of the town in Season 3 by opening the competition to all the engineering colleges in India and adding a new track to the existing one.
• Flipkart expanded its footprint to the USA in Season 4
  
• In Season 5, it broke all the records and gained 70X registrations compared to Season 1.

• The first chapter witnessed registrations from 6,737 students.
• The count reached a total of 28,901 with over 1,73,000+ impressions in the second season.
• In the third season registrations went through the roof, with 1,02,163 students enrolling for the hackathon.
• The fourth and fifth seasons added many more registrations and reached 4,68,312 registrations!

As is evident from the numbers, Unstop went over and above the initial projections of net impressions on the landing page. In large numbers, students visited the Unstop platform to register for the Flipkart GRiD hackathon. And in a matter of four seasons, the count exploded! 

While the hackathon was up and running for a period ranging between a month and a half to three months, Unstop wielded the scepter of promotion and execution of Flipkart GRiD, taking care of online registrations and preliminary rounds on the platform, marketing, and help desk, in addition to managing the social media handles. 

Outcomes 

With the curtains drawn to all four seasons, a number of factors came to light. 

• Not only were the students more than excited about their participation in Flipkart GRiD hackathon, but their interaction with senior leaders from the organization also left a profound impact on them.
  
• With a comprehensive understanding of the ins and outs of Flipkart, many realized their goals and figured out how their ambitions aligned with the company’s values and objectives.
  
• This increased the aspiration quotient of the organization.
  
• Also, the winners took home humungous cash prizes along with pre-placement interviews for internships and full-time opportunities. 

The company, on the other hand, benefitted from this ordeal too. 

• Flipkart found talented candidates among budding engineers, who not only possessed the will to join the organization but also had the capability to solve the prevailing issues faced by Flipkart.
  
• Also, the novel ideas, presented by the participants during the online hackathon, gave the jury and thus the team at Flipkart a fresh perspective to resolve the complications faced by the company.
  
• Flipkart was able to hire full-time employees and interns from across India and USA at just a fraction of the cost.

Flipkart GRiD - the online hackathon, has witnessed a glorious close in all its seasons. This riveting hackathon left an indelible mark on the students of engineering colleges, leaving them enchanted until the next season knocks at their door. Flipkart GRiD, in association with Unstop to date, stands amongst the best hackathons in India conducted by corporate organizations. We hope to onboard Flipkart for many more seasons of GRiD in the future!

To be a part of such successful hackathon projects contact sales@unstop.com, +91 9311777388