What Hope X does

Hope X is the legal entity HOPE On Planet Earth (EIN: 99-3298651), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1994 and headquartered in Setauket, New York, that produces the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conference series. The organization runs what is one of the longest-running and most established hacker community events in the world, featuring speaker sessions, workshops, contests, vendor areas, social spaces, performances, and live radio broadcasting. Beginning in 2025 the conference shifted from a biennial to an annual cadence, with HOPE_16 at St. John's University and HOPE 26 scheduled for August 14-16, 2026 at the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan.

The organization's product surface centers on the live conference, supplemented by a mobile conference program app (Android, Google Play and F-Droid), a free livestream of speaker tracks, a collaborative HOPE Wiki, Radio Statler (an event radio station), and an archive of talks distributed via YouTube. There is no proprietary technology platform; the offering is fundamentally a community-driven educational gathering.

Revenue is generated through three streams: ticket sales priced at $200 for in-person weekend access, $99 for virtual attendance, and $250 for on-site sales; tax-deductible donations; and a specific A/V Fundraiser channel hosted on Zeffy. Tickets are sold primarily through the 2600 store online, with a Ticket Scholarship Program allowing donors to fund attendance for lower-income community members. Marketing and community engagement operate through 2600.com mailing lists, Bluesky, Mastodon, X/Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, the official hope.net website, and word-of-mouth within the hacker community.

Name

Hope X

Legal name

HOPE On Planet Earth

Website

https://hope.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

1994

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

HOPE On Planet Earth is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1994 that produces the Hackers On Planet Earth conference series for hackers, makers, and technology enthusiasts. Revenue comes from ticket sales, donations, and a dedicated A/V fundraiser supporting annual in-person events.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Technology Conferences and Events

NAICS

Convention and Trade Show Organizers (561920), Convention and Trade Show Organizers (56192)

akta.pro primary industry

Academic & Education Conference Organizers (THAHACAE)

Keywords

• Hacker conference series
• Technology education events
• Community conference hosting
• Digital rights advocacy
• Cybersecurity training events

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Conference Tickets: Primary revenue from ticket sales for HOPE conferences. Weekend tickets typically priced around $200, with virtual tickets at $99 and on-site sales at $250.
2. Donations: As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN: 99-3298651), HOPE accepts tax-deductible donations to support the conference.
3. A/V Fundraiser: Specific fundraising efforts for audio/visual equipment and production.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

HOPE On Planet Earth operates the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conference series, hosting multi-track events featuring speaker sessions, hands-on workshops, performances, contests, vendors, and social spaces for hackers, makers, and technology enthusiasts. The organization sells weekend conference tickets ($200 in-person, $99 virtual, $250 on-site), runs a free YouTube livestream of speaker tracks, offers a ticket scholarship program for affordability, and operates supporting community infrastructure including a mobile conference app, HOPE Wiki, and Radio Statler event broadcast. Founded in 1994 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, HOPE transitioned from a biennial to annual event schedule beginning in 2025.

Product overview

Hope X / Hackers On Planet Earth is a nonprofit organization running the HOPE conference series - one of the most diverse hacker events in the world since 1994. The primary offering is the biennial (now annual) HOPE conference featuring multiple speaker tracks, workshops, performances, contests, vendors, and social spaces. Supporting products include a mobile conference app, live streaming services, a collaborative wiki, ticket scholarship programs, and Radio Statler - an event radio station. The conference has evolved from in-person Manhattan events to include online-only formats (HOPE 2020 during COVID) and new venues (St. John's University).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• HOPE Conference Series Biennial (now annual) multi-track hacker and technology conference featuring speaker sessions, hands-on workshops, performances, contests, vendors, and social spaces for hackers, makers, tinkerers, experimenters, artists, and educators.
• HOPE 16 Mobile Application Android mobile application providing conference program, schedule, and session information for HOPE_16 attendees, available via Google Play and F-Droid.
• Free Live Stream Free live streaming of HOPE conference speaker tracks accessible to the public without registration, with post-event recordings archived for ongoing access.
• Ticket Scholarship Program Donor-funded scholarship program providing complimentary HOPE conference tickets to attendees who cannot afford ticket prices.
• HOPE Wiki Collaborative wiki documentation platform for HOPE conference workshops, villages, and additional community resources.
• Radio Statler Event radio station broadcasting live during HOPE conferences to deliver programming and announcements to in-person attendees.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• ShmooCon: ShmooCon is an annual hacker conference held in Washington, D.C., organized by The Shmoo Group. It shares HOPE's small, community-driven, hacker-focused ethos with multiple speaker tracks and a focus on security research and digital rights.
• DEF CON: DEF CON is the largest annual hacker conference in the world, featuring talks, workshops, villages, and contests across security, privacy, and hacker culture. It is the closest direct peer to HOPE, targeting the same hacker community with a similar event-driven, community-organized model, though at significantly larger scale.
• Chaos Communication Congress (CCC): CCC hosts the annual Chaos Communication Congress in Germany, one of Europe's largest hacker gatherings covering security research, digital rights, and maker culture. It mirrors HOPE's positioning at the intersection of hacking, civil liberties, and community, with similar village/workshop structures.
• BSides: BSides is a global network of community-driven security conferences organized by local chapters. While individually smaller than HOPE, BSides collectively targets the same security researcher and hacker community through free/low-cost events with community-led talks and workshops.
• ToorCon: ToorCon is a long-running hacker conference founded in San Diego with a community-driven, talk-and-workshop format similar to HOPE. It targets a comparable audience of hackers, security researchers, and technology enthusiasts.
• The Last HOPE / A New HOPE / HOPE_16 (HOPE internal events): The earlier iterations of HOPE itself (The Last HOPE 2008, A New HOPE 2022, HOPE_16 2025) serve as internal historical comparables. Each iteration offers a useful benchmark for ticket pricing, attendance scale, and content structure within the HOPE brand.

Broad incumbents

• Black Hat: Black Hat is a long-running commercial security conference series (USA, Europe, Asia) with corporate sponsorship, vendor exhibitions, and paid training. It competes with HOPE for the security researcher segment but operates at a much larger commercial scale with a different, more industry-focused audience.

Others

• DEF CON Communications Village / HOPE Villages (villages model): Village-style sub-conferences (e.g., DEF CON's Aerospace Village, Hardware Village, Biohacking Village) share structural similarity with HOPE's village and workshop model. They represent a peer pattern for distributed, community-organized content within larger hacker events.
• EFF Pioneer Awards / Electronic Frontier Foundation events: The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a leading digital rights nonprofit that participates in HOPE as a recurring partner (Ask EFF sessions). While not a conference organizer in the same form, EFF is a comparable nonprofit that hosts community events around digital rights and privacy, often overlapping with HOPE audiences.
• 2600 Magazine: 2600 Magazine is the closely associated hacker publication that shares mailing list infrastructure with HOPE and operates the 2600 Store ticketing platform. It is not a direct competitor but a sibling organization in the hacker community ecosystem that helps drive HOPE's audience and ticket distribution.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/hopex
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/Channel2600
• Facebookfacebook.com/hopeconference
• Instagraminstagram.com/hopeconf
• TikToktiktok.com/@hopeconf
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hopeconf

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hope X