10 months ago

Highlights from Shipaton’s first week

Hi everyone,

Week 1 in 60 seconds: #BuildinPublic is buzzing, with standout posts from Camilo Peñalver, Hidetaka Homii, and Nikolai Ukolov. Vancouver’s IRL meetup is this Sunday. Virtual currency is live (a HAMM Award game-changer). Perttu Lähteenlahti kicks off his How to Win Shipaton series. Catch last week’s livestreams or join us for two new ones next week. Full schedule.

We’re only a week in and the #BuildInPublic energy is already off the charts. A few standouts worth a follow:

Camilo Peñalver — short, inspiring Gurwi build updates on X (example)
Hidetaka Homii — “$60K in 60 days” YouTube series (playlist)
Nikolai Ukolov — daily shorts (channel)

Livestreams: watch now or join next week

Last week’s replays:

Intro to Shipaton 2025 — Charlie and Perttu lay out the rules, prize categories, and storytelling tips for submissions. How to make judges care, why clarity beats complexity, and the value of showing real functionality. Includes live Q&A.
Winning the OneSignal Boost Award — Charlie, Brennan Knotts, and OneSignal’s Joshua Hollander unpack how onboarding, retention flows, and smart messaging can win users (and judges). Real case studies, quick-win examples, and award criteria covered in depth.

Coming up:

Full schedule + replays: shipaton.com/live

IRL: Vancouver this Sunday

If you’re near Vancouver, join us August 10 at Core Coffee — RSVP here.

Check the IRL calendar for events near you, or host your own — we’ll even send a box of fun swag for your community.

How to win, from someone who’s done it 45 times

Perttu Lähteenlahti — who’s won 45 of ~70 hackathons — just dropped Part 1 of his How to Win Shipaton series. His framework: build something you need to build, solve a real problem, and launch a Minimum Lovable Product that users can actually enjoy, not just test. Early feedback + polish = edge.

Virtual currency: now available to everyone

RevenueCat’s virtual currency feature is now in public beta, letting you sell coins, credits, or tokens alongside subscriptions — fully integrated across platforms and already battle-tested with several big apps.

This could be the move that lands you the HAMM Award. Hybrid models (subscriptions + consumables + bonuses) can boost creativity, flexibility, and revenue in one go — and you might make more money while you’re at it.

Ship Kit updates

Allow 48 business hours after registering to receive yours
OneSignal perk redemption is now one-click
Bloom + vibecode discount codes are fixed
Manus AI codes are gone for now — more coming later this month, so keep your eyes peeled
ElevenLabs has launched a React Native SDK

Quick reminders

Join the Discord to ask questions, share posts in #post-engagement-boost, find Google Play testers, and get feedback from other builders
Post your progress using #Shipaton — and browse the hashtag for inspiration

See you next week,

Peter
Content @ RevenueCat