John Lunn, Senior Global Director, Developer Network, PayPal & Braintree

This past weekend, BattleHack blew into the windy city, and Braintree’s hometown, for the first time. It was held at 1871, an awesome, collaborative space where Chicago’s digital designers, engineers and entrepreneurs join forces. The event showcased a total of 21 hacks that integrated PayPal APIs as well as Braintree and Venmo SDKs.

With alcoholic slushies, hand-brewed coffee, Korean chicken wings and relaxing massages on their side, the hackers braved through 24 hours to bring their code to life and impress our panel of judges.

BattleHack judges awarded the RePOTr app, from Team DWAI (Don’t Worry About It) the first prize. Team members Stefan Aleksic, Eson Musabelliu, Nishanth Samala and Ray Perry created the app using existing mobile technology to locate potholes in Chicago, compile data and find solutions to fill these potholes. The application uses an accelerometer in smartphones to detect potholes when driving and informs the city department of their location throughout Chicago. Moreover, with crowd funding, through the integration of PayPal and Braintree, users can allocate funds towards specific projects that can then be used to fund private contractors and fill the potholes.

Second place winner PayBack created a mobile app that makes it easier for friends to split bills. PayBack uses facial recognition technology and Venmo, to let you divide bills amongst your friends by just taking their photo. In third place was Almost Home, developed by John Geletka, Tyler Travitz and Len Kendall. Almost Home, connects you with people who live nearby and pay them to receive packages for you, when you’re not available.

Team DWAI will now represent Chicago and compete for the $100,000 grand prize in San Jose at the BattleHack World Finals this coming November. To find out more about BattleHack visit: https://2014.battlehack.org/