Dial

SpeedHacks — Judging Criteria

October 11, 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM, 2026 · San Francisco

How projects are scored. Built for teams using Dial as their core stack.

TL;DR

Score every project 1–10 on three things. Each one rewards going all-in on Dial — a team can't win an axis by treating the phone layer as an afterthought.

  • 1Impact & Market — would this be a company? Does it reach real users over voice/SMS?
  • 2Execution & Dial Depth — is it well-built, with Dial as the core runtime (not one API call)?
  • 3Innovation — is it only possible because of a programmable phone layer?

1–3 weak · 4–6 fine · 7–8 strong · 9–10 exceptional. Three scores add up to a /30 total; we average across judges.

1. Real-World Impact & Market Potential

/ 10 pts

The investor lens — would this exist as a company?

Does it solve a real, painful problem for a real audience, with a believable path to users and revenue?

Dial angle: The phone is the most universal, highest-intent channel — no install, works for anyone with a number. Reward teams that use Dial to actually reach end users (an AI that calls customers, an SMS loop that closes, voice/OTP as a real touchpoint) and unlock a market a pure-web demo couldn't.
8–10Clear problem, real or simulated users reached over voice/SMS, obvious “who pays.”
1–4Clever idea with no audience, or Dial used as a gimmick disconnected from the value.

2. Technical Execution & Depth of Dial Integration

/ 10 pts

The builder lens — is it actually well-engineered?

How robust, complete, and thoughtfully built is it? Does the demo work end-to-end, and is the architecture sound?

Dial angle: Depth, not presence. Reward teams wiring together multiple Dial primitives — inbound and outbound calls, SMS, event handling / wait-for, the SDK or CLI as the backbone — and handling the hard parts (latency, call/SMS state, graceful failure, real-time events). Dial as the core runtime, not one API call bolted on.
8–10Dial is the spine of the system, used across several capabilities, working live under demo conditions.
1–4One-shot SMS send, brittle demo, Dial swappable for anything.

3. Innovation & Phone-Native Creativity

/ 10 pts

The originality lens — the “I haven't seen that before” factor.

How novel and surprising are the idea and its execution?

Dial angle: Reward builds only possible because of a programmable voice/SMS layer — the phone as an interface a screen can't be. An agent that negotiates on a call, voice as an accessibility unlock, autonomous agents coordinating over real numbers, SMS as a control plane. Ask: would this be impressive without the phone?
8–10A genuinely new interaction made possible by programmable telephony.
1–4A standard app that happens to text you a confirmation.

Three criteria, 10 points each — 30 points total. Scores are averaged across judges.

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