Mark Moriarty — EB-1A

Claim F. Judge of peers

Last editedProgress
March 1100% done.
(Mark not planning further submissions.)

Defining terms:

  • A “hackathon” is an event typically lasting 1-3 days where participants (often called “hackers”) build something from scratch, using the latest technologies. These events attract the brightest students and builders (they typically are held at/near a weekend, so folks with a full-time job can participate). Since they produce some cutting edge applications of new technologies, it’s attractive for tech companies to sponsor these competitions, and to encourage participants to build using their product/technology. In Claim E (Prizes and Awards), we discussed how Mr Moriarty has in the past won prizes at hackathons, including winning the SVI hackspace prize on Stanford Campus in 2011, and coming 2nd in the “Hacking Agentic Finance” hackathon in November 2024. Here in Claim F we share examples of Mr Moriarty being “on the other side of the table”, judging the work of others. Below we list four hackathons where Mr Moriarty was a judge in the past 12 months. Hackathons are common, but not all hackathons are equally prestigious. The below hackathons were some of the most high-profile events in the recent San Francisco calendar, including at the AGI House, a rare hackathon at YCombinator headquarters, and a Stanford University hackathon that paid the best and brightest stude
  • “Interviewing for Stripe” means that Mr Moriarty was on the hiring panel for jobs at Stripe. Here we emphasize Mr Moriarty’s role in job creation in the United States, as well as his position as a judge of those in the industry. Mr Moriarty helped conceive of the creation of a new team called “Experimental Projects”, created at the end of 2024, which now employs 15 US citizens across America. In addition to interviewing candidates for this team, Mr Moriarty was also on the hiring panel for three other teams, which means he voted to hire or not hire many other candidates across other teams in Stripe (namely Partnerships, Internal Communications and Corporate Strategy).
  • “Angel investing” is the term used when a private individual invests their personal savings in a startup. Mr Moriarty has done this for four US-based startups since moving to California in 2022.

In summary, Mr Moriarty has operated at multiple levels of the startup ecosystem “stack” — as a founder, a key senior employee in one of the most prominent firms in Silicon Valley, a competitor (and winner) in hackathons, a judge at other hackathons, a founder (winning VC and angel investment) and as an investor himself. This “full stack” experience is precisely what makes him a valuable mentor to other founders, a trusted judge at hackathons and judge of candidates who apply to Stripe. It’s also key to the “special sauce” that makes Silicon Valley so esteemed at creating new technology and GDP growth.

1. April 2025: Judge and speaker at “AI × Commerce” hackathon in AGI House

See https://app.agihouse.org/events/ai-commerce-20250405.

Mr Moriarty was a speaker, presenting live demos of Stripe’s latest agentic tools. In addition, he was a judge, evaluating the participants’ final submissions and awarding prizes. AGI House is a respected institution in Silicon Valley, attracting some of the brightest entrepreneurs and founders.

^Download image to use inline: Replit-hackathon-1-cropped-annotated.jpeg

𝕏 posts:

^Download image of 𝕏 posts: agi house X post.png (Additional images in appendix below)

2. 2025: Judge and speaker at Replit Stripe Hackathon

On 18 October 2025, Mr Moriarty was a judge at the “Stripe x Replit x SV Angel Generative AI hackathon”.

Event page: https://luma.com/55g5zwcg This was an exclusive invite-only hackathon, with over 100 attendees.

^Download image to use inline: Replit-hackathon-1-cropped-annotated.jpeg

X post (aka “tweet”): https://x.com/MbyM/status/1979825090662678817 Download image of 𝕏 post: replit-hackathon-tweet.png 𝕏 post: https://x.com/MbyM/status/1979825090662678817

(Full set of images in appendix below)

3. November 2025: Judge and speaker at “agentic commerce” hackathon in YCombinator

Last November, Stripe was a sponsor of the “Locus × YCombinator” Agentic Payments hackathon. Mr Moriarty was the sole Stripe judge for this exclusive hackathon held in YCombinator headquarters. Mr Moriarty:

  1. Wrote the Stripe track: instructions guide for participants (written by Mark Moriarty)
  2. Judged tens of submissions.
  3. Selected the top three submissions to win prizes worth $6,000.
  4. Spoke to the entire participant pool on behalf of Stripe, in addition to awarding the three prizes.

LinkedIn post: URL of LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/moriartym_hackathon-yc-sanfrancisco-activity-7402439098571141120-zWzZ Or download image for appendix: YC Nov hackathon linkedin.png

Here’s the Notion link(https://petalite-creator-ade.notion.site/Agentic-Payments-Hackathon-2aa8f277791880d295fed41a45f3a330) of all the tracks That site lists Mark Moriarty as the one judge representing Stripe.

4. February 2026: Judge at Stanford “Tree Hacks” hackathon in Stanford

Links:

This year, Mr Moriarty was the only Stripe employ at this hackathon. Again, he was attending in the capacity of a judge.

TBD if this helps the point: “Stripe was not a sponsor (the organisers literally turned down Stripe’s offer of sponsorship because they were full up!) but nonetheless Mark was invited to be a judge anyway – based on his individual reputation, not “just because he works for Stripe”.

𝕏 post from Mark: x.com/MbyM/status/2023198536452497452

(Additional details in Appendix)

5. Interviewer at Stripe

Over the past 12 months, Mr Moriarty has hired for four different teams at Stripe:

  1. Corporate Strategy
  2. Experimental Projects
  3. Internal Communications
  4. Global Partnerships Across these interviews, Mr Moriarty has interviewed over 50 candidates and 19 roles have been filled.

The fact that multiple teams rely on Mark’s judgement for whom Stripe should hire or decline hiring is testament to his peer set looking up to him for judgement and evaluation of the work of others.

ToDo: Re-phrase with better legal language more closely matching the requirement for this claim.

6. Angel investor

Given his prominent position in Stripe, and regular appearances as a speaker and thought leader at events, Mr Moriarty is regularly asked for advice by founders. Occasionally, founders will also pitch Mr Moriarty for investment.

As such, Mr Moriarty is now on “the other side of the table” as an “angel investor”, investing his personal savings into nascent startups.

His most recent investment was a personal $80,000 investment into the startup behind GetASAP.us, “enabling sub 8-hour delivery of farm-fresh produce”.

Similar to evaluating hackathon entrants when deciding who to award prizes to (paid for by the sponsors), Mr Moriarty also evaluates founders who pitch him for person investment. In 2024, Mr Moriarty invested in one startup, and in 2025, Mr Moriarty invested in three more startups.

All the companies that received investment from Mr Moriarty are US-based C-Corporations (incorporated in Delaware, as is most common for early-stage startups).

All four startups Mr Moriarty has funded are pushing innovation forward using new technologies, including AI, namely:

  1. Jump ‘n’ Pass: Mobile Self-Checkout For Modern Retail
    • Website: jumpnpass.com
    • Legal entity: Kiakia Inc., a Delaware C corporation (T/A Jump ‘n’ Pass)
  2. Parachute AI: Infrastructure for hospitals to monitor and deploy clinical AI
    • Website: parachute-ai.com
    • More details: ycombinator.com/companies/parachute
    • Problem it’s solving: AI mistakes cost lives, while deployment delays cost millions. Parachute prevents both.
    • Legal entity: Parachute Inc., a Delaware C corporation.
  3. Astor: AI advisor for retail investors
    • Website: JoinAstor.com
    • About: ycombinator.com/companies/astor
    • Legal entity: Gauss Inc., a Delaware C corporation (T/A Astor)
  4. GetASAP: Tech-Enabled Produce Distributor for Global Retail
    • Website: GetASAP.us
    • Legal entity: Blaze Market Inc, a Delaware C corporation (T/A GetASAP)

Investment document:

Maybe reference this in the section of “Why Mr Moriarty is good for the USA”. There’s a nice point here about “when he makes money, he turns right around and invests it back into other US startups” (as opposed to, for example, remitting earnings home to a country overseas)

— — —

Appendix (more images or proof I was a judge)

Appendix F.1 = AGI House:

Event URL (still online): https://app.agihouse.org/events/ai-commerce-20250405

Download:AGI Commerce hackathon landing page.png

^Download image to use inline: Replit-hackathon-1-cropped-annotated.jpeg

Download: AGI Commerce hackathon speakers annotated.png

Download image of email: Email to judges - Judging Sheet.png

PDF of this email (showing it was sent to [email protected]): Email to judges - Judging Sheet.pdf

Appendix F.2 = Replit hackathon

Luma event page.png ^Download: replit-hackathon-tweet.png

^Download Replit-hackathon-1.jpeg

^Download Replit-hackathon-2.jpeg

Download Replit-hackathon-3-highlighted.jpeg

^Download Replit-hackathon-4.jpeg

Appendix F.3 = YCombinator (Locus) hackathon

Above: annotated. Below: original.

Appendix F.4 = TreeHacks Stanford hackathon

Here are some examples proving TreeHacks was a prestigious hackathon:

👆 https://x.com/hackwithtrees/status/2018066931136516465

Robert Scoble described it as “the best hackathon in the world”. 👆 𝕏 post from Robert Scoble: https://x.com/Scobleizer/status/2023088062188953772

Another 𝕏 post from Robert Scoble: “the best of America”: 👆 https://x.com/Scobleizer/status/2023695200292626471

It’s worth noting that over 15,000 students applied to partake in the hackathon, and only the top students were accepted.

^That’s from https://x.com/hackwithtrees/status/1967945674500231669

TreeHacks official account on 𝕏: https://x.com/hackwithtrees Website: https://treehacks.com/

Appendix F.5 = Interviewing for four teams

As evidence, it’s probably simplest to include this in some letter?

Appendix F.6 = Investing in startups

As evidence, I could include copies of the investment documents.

Or, it might be cool to show the landing page of some of the startups. Less emphasis on proving Mark really invested, more emphasis on making it look cool and cutting-edge. “Mark is investing in cool new tech”.

GetASAP

Parachute AI

Screenshot of bank transfers to startups in September

Graph View

Backlinks