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PRANJUL RATHOUR
PRANJUL RATHOUR

Posted on Originally published at pranjulrathour.scult.in

Mentoring a hackathon team remotely: what works over a call

#mentoring #hackathon #remote #students

Most of the teams I mentor before hackathons are in other cities, so the mentoring happens over calls squeezed between their build sprints. Remote mentoring fails when it is unstructured; it works when the team knows exactly when the mentor appears and what to bring.

Three fixed check-ins

  1. Scoping call, before the event or in hour one. Twenty minutes. Output: one sentence for the problem, one for the user, one for the demo path, roles written down. I ask the scoping question until the team can answer it.
  2. Midpoint call. Fifteen minutes of screen-share on the walking skeleton. I look for a real end-to-end path, however ugly, and for anything being built that is not on the demo path.
  3. Mock pitch, two hours before freeze. The full three minutes with a timer, then Q&A using the questions judges ask, then one strength and one fix.

Rules that make calls useful

  • The team shares their screen, not their slides. I want to see the running thing.
  • One person talks per topic — the person who built it.
  • Questions between calls go in one shared document with context, not as a stream of messages. I answer in batches.
  • I do not write code. I point, ask and suggest. The learning stays with the team, and the rules stay intact.

The shared scoping doc

One page: problem, user, demo path, roles, checkpoints, what has been cut. The team updates it; I read it before every call. It is the single most effective tool for remote mentoring because it forces decisions into writing.

For organisers

Remote mentors work well when the schedule publishes their slots and teams can book them. Assign two or three teams per mentor at most. I mentor and judge remotely for student hackathons anywhere in India; write to pranjulrathour41@gmail.com or see the invite page.

About Pranjul Rathour

Pranjul Rathour pitching with a microphone in front of a projector slide at CSJMU, Kanpur
Pitching at CSJMU, Kanpur

Pranjul Rathour speaking from the podium at VSICS, Kanpur
At the VSICS podium, Kanpur

Pranjul Rathour holding a trophy and a certificate of merit after a win
Trophy and certificate after a win

Pranjul Rathour presenting evaluation criteria — feasibility, innovation, practicality, problem solving — on a projector screen
Walking a room through evaluation criteria

Pranjul Rathour presenting BrandHive on a projector screen
Presenting BrandHive

Pranjul Rathour is a GenAI engineer from Kanpur, India, and CTO at SCULT INDIA, currently shipping production RAG,
fine-tuning and agentic AI systems, mentoring 200+ students through TechVerse Enclave, and judging and speaking at
student hackathons across India. Updated 2026-09-06.

Reach out if you want to talk GenAI, book a campus session, or invite him to judge:

Pranjul Rathour · GenAI engineer, 3x hackathon winner, campus mentor. Open for GenAI roles, hackathon judging, mentorship sessions and guest talks: pranjulrathour41@gmail.com · Invite me to your campus
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