Hacking for Homebuilding

2023 Hacking For Home For Homebuiliding Competition Judges Finalists Sponsors on stage with checks

April 9, 2025

Hacking for Homebuilding is a statewide competition offered in partnership by Boise State University’s Venture College, a program in the College of Innovation and Design, and Franklin Building Supply.

In this ‘reverse pitch’ competition, participants choose a problem statement provided by industry partners and refine their solutions into ventures through research, customer discovery, and idea validation. Teams pitch their ideas and compete for cash prizes!

Apply Today!

About the Competition

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Problem Statements

Industry partners identify challenges they face and pose these as problem statements. There are a wide range of problems to solve, relating to: Software, Human Resources, Supply Chain, and more!

View Problem Statements

Who Can Apply?

Open to higher education students across the state of Idaho.

If applying as a team, at least one member of your team must be a registered student at a college or university in Idaho.

We encourage participants to work on interdisciplinary teams, bringing together engineers, marketers, construction managers, artists, and a host of others. We will also encourage students to look beyond their own institution to find the right partners for their team.

If you are applying as an individual, Venture College will help match students to teams when the program begins.

Three Phases of the Competition

1. Sprint

Wednesday, March 26th – Friday, April 11th

During the first phase of Hacking for Homebuilding, participants:

Learn more about the problem they are solving
Work with mentors assigned to their teams
Develop an idea for a solution
Build and test their prototype

While the majority of the sprint is done outside of the classroom, including reviewing on-demand entrepreneur and start-up content, participants should expect the following meetings:

Virtual Kick-Off | Mentor Night
Wednesday, March 26th | 5 – 6:30 PM (MT) via Zoom
Problem Sponsor Night
Thursday, March 27th | 5 – 6:30 PM (MT) via Zoom
Virtual Pitch Practice
Monday, April 7th | 5 – 6:30 PM (MT) via Zoom

2. Preliminary Pitch Competition (Virtual)

Wednesday, April 9th | 9 AM to 1:30 PM
Teams will compete for their spot in the final competition and chance to win cash prizes by pitching their solutions to industry experts, community leaders, and experienced entrepreneurs. The top 3 teams will advance to the final pitch competition.

3. Final Pitch Competition

Friday, April 11th | 10 AM to 12 PM
The SPACE at Boise State University’s College of Innovation + Design

The top 3 teams will pitch to judges made up of industry experts, entrepreneurs, and investors, providing connections to a network that will last well beyond this competition.

Scrap-To-Sculpture Design Challenge

Can you turn a box of homebuilding material scraps into a sculpture or piece of artwork? The Scrap-To-Sculpture challenge is designed for budding artists, craftspeople, or anyone with a knack for building things to do just that!

This challenge is open to high school and college/university students from across Idaho to participate and compete for cash prizes.

Challenge Details:

Franklin Building Supply will supply mystery boxes
Create anything you feel inspired to make
Sculptures to be created only with contents in the box
Incidental items allowed for assembly, for example: glue, nails, screws, and paint
Can be purely aesthetic and/or functional
Will be scored based on creativity, originality, and craftsmanship
Sculptures must be Rated G for all audiences
Sculpture is yours to keep, give away, or sell at the conclusion of the event
Participants encouraged to present their sculptures to the judges, but aren’t required to present as scoring takes place

Bronze-In-Bloom 1st Place Scrap-To-Sculpture Winner

Scrap to Sculpture takes place during Boise Entrepreneur Week, Fall 2025 – dates to be announced!