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PRANJUL RATHOUR
PRANJUL RATHOUR

Posted on Originally published at pranjulrathour.scult.in

What I look for in a two-minute lightning pitch (it's not what a ten-minute pitch rewards)

#hackathonjudging #lightningpitch #rubric

A two-minute lightning pitch format compresses everything a ten-minute pitch would cover, and judging it with the same expectations produces unfair scores — there simply isn't time to demonstrate everything a longer format rewards.

What actually separates entries at two minutes

  • Clarity of the one-sentence problem statement — teams that waste 30 seconds on setup have already lost a quarter of their time.
  • One sharp, specific demo moment rather than a rushed feature tour — showing one thing well beats mentioning five things vaguely.
  • A confident, rehearsed close that states clearly what was built and what's next, without needing extra time to wrap up.

Adjusting the rubric for the format

Weight presentation and clarity somewhat higher than in a longer format, since the format itself is testing communication under pressure as much as the build. Tell teams this expectation upfront.

See a hackathon judging rubric organisers can copy.

About Pranjul Rathour

Pranjul Rathour in a shirt and tie holding a microphone in front of a career-opportunities slide
A career session for students

Pranjul Rathour presenting with a microphone in front of a slide reading 'Now what's the conclusion?'
Presenting to a room

Pranjul Rathour on stage presenting a requirements-gathering and user-flow slide
Requirements gathering, on stage

Pranjul Rathour seated in a black jacket and white turtleneck with an event lanyard
Pranjul Rathour

Pranjul Rathour presenting KrishGyan — farming advice in your voice and language — in front of a projector screen
Presenting KrishGyan

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 2026-09-07.

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
Portfolio & blog · LinkedIn · X · Instagram · Bluesky · GitHub · Dev.to

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