/ About this event
Rocket Launch: A USC Builders Night by TroyLabs.
You build the rocket. Someone else flies it to orbit. You walk in and write down one thing you wish existed. The tab manager you keep meaning to make. The script that would give you back an hour a week. The dumb little tool you'd genuinely use on Monday.
Then you put the card in a bin, because you're not the one building it.
At 6:50 you get drawn into a crew of five people you've never met, and you draw somebody else's card. Ten minutes to interrogate them about what they actually meant. Then a hundred minutes on the clock, a shared pile of AI tooling and deploy credits, and an empty repo.
At 8:50 you don't pitch. You hand over the keyboard. The person whose card you drew walks up and uses your software for the first time in their life, cold, in front of the whole room.
It works or it doesn't. Everybody watches. That's the entire point.
This is not a hackathon. No 24 hours. No judges, no rubric, no slide deck, no TAM. Nobody going home at 3 AM with a half-finished repo and four LinkedIn requests. One evening, one full build, and people you will still be talking to in November.
Who's on the pad
Engineers, founders, and technical creatives from campuses across the city. CS, EE, ME, robotics, math, design engineering, plus anyone who wants to build something in a casual setting with the coolest students in LA. Any experience level. You don't need an idea - you're getting someone else's. You don't need a team - we draw them.
What you're issued
- A crew of 4-5 - One stranger's problem, and ten minutes for clarification - A shared pool of AI tooling and deploy credits, free - 100 uninterrupted minutes to build - Food and snacks
Countdown
6:30 – Rollout. Doors, food, payload cards, briefing. 6:50 – Crew Assignment. Meet your team. Draw your payload. Find your person. 7:10 – The Build. 100 minutes. A real idea developed from scratch. 8:50 – Launch. Three minutes per crew. The requester drives. 9:30 – Orbit. Food, time to freely chat. 10:15 – Doors close.
Two things get voted on at the end: cleanest delivery, and the most ambitious payload anyone was brave enough to attempt.
Flight rules
Empty repo at 7:10. Libraries, APIs and models are fair game; a project you started last week is not. Deliver from a live URL or a running device. No slides. Nothing that only works on your laptop.
Logistics
USC campus, University Park – exact room sent when you're approved. 30-40 people, reviewed on a rolling basis, so apply early. Bring a laptop and a charger. Tell us your school, grad year, and what you build when you RSVP.
Hosted by TroyLabs, USC's student-run startup accelerator – 50 members across 13 majors, running an 8-week accelerator for student founders.
Apply by Monday, October 12. Go for launch.
This event is a part of #LATechWeek—a week of events hosted by VCs and startups to bring together the tech ecosystem. Learn more at www.tech-week.com.
