I’ve been thinking about how teams are tracking progress in HyperHack, and there’s a pattern I’ve seen and again. Most teams are obsessing over technical KPIs - transaction speeds, gas optimization, AI inference times - but completely ignoring the business metrics that actually determine if they’ll survive past August.
Here’s what happens: teams building impressive demos that showcase Hyperion’s parallel execution capabilities, but they have no idea if anyone will actually pay for what they’re building.
The KPI trap is real. KPIs tell you how you’re doing right now. They’re like checking your speedometer - useful, but they don’t tell you if you’re driving toward a cliff.
OKRs force you to think bigger. Instead of “reduce transaction latency by 15ms,” try “sign 10 paying customers by mainnet launch” with key results around user interviews, pricing validation, and actual revenue.
According to the conversations I’ve had and posts I’ve seen, most are tracking: (if anything at all)
- Code commits and feature completions
- Testnet performance benchmarks
- Technical milestones hit
But the teams that seem most likely to build actual businesses are tracking:
- Customer conversations per week
- Revenue pipeline development
- Market validation metrics
To me this has some very important implications for HyperHack teams:
- Your demo day judges care more about business viability than technical perfection
- With only 8 weeks until mainnet, you need market signals now, not just code
- The HyperHack prize is nice, but sustainable revenue beats one-time winnings
The stress testing phase starting July 15 is perfect timing to shift focus. While you’re battle-testing your dApp’s resilience, also battle-test your business assumptions.
@pavel - curious what you’re seeing from a coordination perspective. Are teams balancing technical milestones with business development, or are most still in pure build mode?
Seriously want some feedback here. Are you tracking business metrics alongside technical ones, or am I overthinking this? What’s working for teams that seem to have real traction?