ChallengePost

Originally founded as ChallengePost in 2009 by Brandon Kessler, the company now known as Devpost serves as a prominent platform for software developers. Kessler, who previously founded Messenger Records while a student at Columbia University, was inspired to create the platform after observing an online competition to run Windows on a Mac. He envisioned a centralized marketplace to facilitate similar innovation challenges.

Initially, ChallengePost hosted a wide variety of competitions, including collaborations with former First Lady Michelle Obama on the "Apps for Healthy Kids" challenge and with New York City for the NYC Big Apps contest. Over time, Kessler recognized that the most impactful challenges were software-based and pivoted the company to focus exclusively on this segment. This strategic shift culminated in a 2015 rebranding to Devpost, reflecting its sharpened focus on the developer community. The company secured a significant milestone in August 2011, raising $4.6 million in a Series A funding round from investors such as Opus Capital and Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs.

Devpost's core business revolves around hosting and managing software competitions, known as hackathons, for a diverse client base that includes corporations, government agencies, non-profits, and universities. The platform provides the infrastructure for both in-person and online hackathons, which organizations use to market their developer tools and platforms to a global community of software engineers. This serves as a key revenue stream, with customers like Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google leveraging the platform to engage with developers. For the developer community, Devpost is a free resource to discover hackathons, build new products, practice skills, and showcase their work in portfolios which can be used for career opportunities.

The platform's primary service is facilitating these software competitions, offering tools for promotion, participation, and project submission. It has evolved to become a community hub where developers can connect, collaborate, and find inspiration. Features include portfolios for developers to display their projects, a feed of hackathons and community activity, and, more recently, a platform called Devpost for Teams, designed for companies to run private, internal hackathons to foster employee innovation. This focus on developers helps them find fulfilling work, aligning with the company's stated mission.

Keywords: hackathon platform, software competitions, developer community, coding challenges, developer marketing, innovation challenges, tech recruitment, developer engagement, API competitions, internal hackathons, developer relations, software development contests, Brandon Kessler, virtual hackathons, developer tools, portfolio platform, tech challenges, programming competitions, developer jobs, Devpost for Teams