Superhack 2024 — Optimism × Guava

Overview

Guava served as the operational and community production partner for Superhack 2024 — Optimism's flagship online hackathon, produced in collaboration with ETHGlobal. The event was designed to position the Superchain as the ecosystem where builders could find their tribe: a place to discover the right protocol, build meaningful projects, and connect with the broader Superchain community.

Guava's role went beyond logistics — acting as a strategic extension of the Optimism team across programming design, sponsorship coordination, community partner management, marketing communications, and post-event execution.

The Superhack should feel like you can find your tribe within the ecosystem — an opportunity for the Superchain to embody its interoperability.

Event details — the shape of it

Event name	Superhack 2024
Client	Optimism (OP / Superchain)
Platform	ETHGlobal
Format	Online hackathon + in-person summit
Marketing launch	July 5, 2024
Pre-event summit	July 24–25, 2024
Hack	July 26 – August 3, 2024
Judging	August 4–6, 2024
Finale	August 6, 2024 — live, 11:30 AM EST
Producer	Guava · hello@growwithguava.com
OP point of contact	Emmanuel

Objectives

Strategic partnership — serve as an extension of the Optimism team to enhance event execution end to end.
Visibility & engagement — increase OP's visibility within the current and curious developer community through strategic marketing and community interaction.
Operations — work with key decision-makers to manage and oversee day-to-day activity across the full event lifecycle.
Sponsorship & community partner coordination — bring in community partners and bounty sponsors, and work with DevRel on bounty suggestions aligned to the event theme.
Community engagement strategy — strengthen the Optimism community by connecting developers, designers, and creators; define tracks, bounties, mentors, and roles.

Scope of work

Pre-event planning — platform setup with ETHGlobal, participant registration, content capture.
Marketing execution — tweet writing, announcement coordination with OP's JJ and Emmanuel, comms scheduling from OP Twitter.
Sponsorship pipeline — outreach, confirmation, and track alignment for 20+ ecosystem partners.
Programming design — summit agenda, hackathon schedule, speaker and mentor coordination.
Event execution — coordination of workshops, talks, and coding sessions.
Post-event — judging process support, awards ceremony, and follow-up content including case studies and highlight reels.

Hackathon tracks — three doors in

Public Goods

IRL / URL · Governance · Public Greats

Dedicated to developing solutions that benefit everyone — fostering an environment where technology serves the greater good.

Culture Onchain

Media · Gaming · Social

Crafting projects that foster onchain connections. Creating cultural artifacts that define how we represent our vision for the worlds we wish to build and pass on to future generations.

Frontier Tooling

Dev Tooling · Interoperability · AI · Chain Abstraction · Consumer Products

For builders using the OP dev tooling stack. Focused on interoperability, cross-chain communication with the best UX, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible.

OP tech stack highlighted Four pillars

Native interop devnet New ERC20 standard — burn & mint across chains Retro Funding OP Stack

Program — summit to finale

Pre-event summit — July 25
Topic	Speakers / collaborators
Introduction to the Superchain	Founders from Base (Jesse), Mode (James Ross), Optimism (Bobby), Celo, Lisk, Worldcoin
Retro Funding opportunities	Jonas (OP)
From hackathon to million dollar company	Dawson, founder of EarniFi
How to find PMF for your project	Linda, Bountycaster
The value of nontechnical contributors	Shannon, Livepeer
Go-to-market strategy	Guest speaker
Track introductions + team formation	All
Hackathon kickoff	—

Summit day 2 — July 26
Topic	Notes
Tools & starter kit	OP Stack tools walkthrough
OP Stack workshop	Deep dive with the OP team
Chainlink workshop	Sponsor-led technical session
Cross-chain messaging	LayerZero / Hyperlane
Team formation + brainstorming	Open build time

Hackathon week — July 26 to August 3
Date	Focus
July 26–27	Brainstorming, team formation, initial build sprint
July 28	Project feedback session · two technical workshops
July 29	Project feedback · developer office hours
July 30	Morning and afternoon workshops · project check-in #1
July 31	Project feedback · "How to present a killer deck"
August 1	AMA · project feedback
August 2	Project check-in #2 · GTM strategy talk · deck and demo video workshop
August 3	Final build sprint · midnight submission deadline

Judging & finale
Date	Activity
August 4	Async project judging begins
August 5	Screening and shortlisting
August 6	Superhack finale — live, 11:30 AM EST

Partner track alignment
Partner	Tracks
OP Mainnet	All tracks
Base	Frontier Tooling · Public Goods · Onchain Culture
Mode	Public Goods · Frontier Tooling
Celo	Public Goods · Onchain Culture
Zora	Onchain Culture

Metrics for success

Metric	Description
Participant turnout	High turnout of registered hackers across all tracks
Project quality	Creation of high-quality, deployable projects building on the OP Stack
Company formation	Launch of companies and organizations originating from the Superchain
Retro Funding alignment	Projects eligible for or applying to OP Retro Funding post-event
Partner engagement	Confirmed sponsor bounties and mentor participation
Social reach	Impressions from OP Twitter and partner co-promotion

What we learned

What went well

The embedded producer model gave Optimism a dedicated team without the overhead of hiring internally — Guava acting as a true extension of the OP team.
Multi-ecosystem outreach secured a strong sponsor lineup — OP Mainnet, Base, The Graph, Chainlink, Mode, Worldcoin, Celo — spanning all three tracks.
Summit programming balanced inspiration, education, and action in a single two-day format: Superchain vision, OP tech stack, then team formation and kickoff.
Embedding GTM, deck coaching, and PMF sessions into the hackathon week let non-technical founders participate meaningfully alongside developers.
The Retro Funding narrative gave participants a tangible long-term incentive to build on OP beyond the prize pool.

Learnings & takeaways

Superhack 2024 demonstrated Guava's ability to manage a full-lifecycle, multi-stakeholder online hackathon at ecosystem scale — coordinating across ETHGlobal, Optimism's internal team, 20+ ecosystem partners, and hundreds of builders simultaneously.

The event's programming philosophy — that a hackathon should help builders find their tribe within the ecosystem, not just compete for prizes — is a model worth replicating. By embedding GTM coaching, Retro Funding education, and founder mentorship into the weekly schedule, Superhack extended its impact well beyond demo day.

Guava's role as an embedded operational partner, rather than a traditional vendor, was the key differentiator — allowing for faster decisions, tighter alignment with OP's voice, and more coherent execution across marketing, programming, and sponsorship.

The embedded producer model is the right format for protocol-level hackathons: the client gets execution depth, and the producer gets the context to represent the brand authentically.