PayPal's BattleHack comes to 1871 this weekend

PayPal's BattleHack comes to 1871 this weekend

John Lunn, PayPal senior director and Braintree developer relations (Kevin Abosch / PayPal photo)

PayPal will host its weekend-long hackathon, BattleHack, at 1871 on Saturday and Sunday. This is the program’s second year — and its first time in Chicago. The 280-ticket event is sold out, organizers said Friday at the offices of Braintree, which was acquired by PayPal parent eBay in 2013.

“We wanted to come to the home of Braintree,” said John Lunn, senior director of the developer network for PayPal and Braintree and leader of the BattleHack program. “There are great startups in Chicago. It’s a very fast-growing startup city, and we want to go where the startups are.”

Unlike other hackathons, BattleHack will not reward participants for their business plans, Lunn said. He described it as a “pure” hackathon that will focus on finding the best developer in the world. Throughout the year, PayPal will host BattleHacks in 14 global cities. Come November, the winning teams from each city will meet for a final battle royale at PayPal’s headquarters in San Jose, Calif. The winners will go home with $100,000 and an axe.

In early June, David Marcus abruptly left as PayPal CEO to head up Facebook Messenger. EBay CEO John Donahoe has stepped in as interim CEO and is looking for the right person to take over. Braintree CEO Bill Ready is “an option,” Dunn said.