Genesis:
Team DeCharge began working on the problem statement since February when the market opportunity in the EV mobility industry was recognized, especially in the charging infrastructure industry
With only 1 charging station per every 140 vehicles in a country like India, it was a no brainer of a problem statement for the hackers to come together
Range Anxiety is real
Inadequate EV charging infra is real
The need to scale infrastructure to meet global demand is real
DeCharge was born to meet this clarion call for a greener planet & entered the Colosseum to battle against the greatest minds of Solana!
We embarked on a journey of innovation and purpose with DeCharge as we aimed to tackle the pressing challenges of a real world problem faced in the EV mobility infrastructure. Born from a recognition of the stark disparity between charging stations and active vehicles (a compelling ratio of 1:140), the Decharge hack stood as the beacon for a greener future.
Hacking across borders
From the bustling streets of Hyderabad to the tech hub of Bangalore, our team was driven by a singular mission to revolutionize the EV Charging Infrastructure. With relentless dedication, our hardware and software experts joined forces, each contributing their expertise to a common vision.
Our recipe for the EV charging MVP:
- Have less moving parts
- Be as close to the source of power
- Allow for potential self-hosting by any layman that knows to setup an electrical hardware
This helped us assemble the hardware specs in a matter of 6 weeks while also being deployment ready in controlled environments.
Nexus of Innovation:
In the electrifying atmosphere of the buildstation at Bangalore hosted by Superteam, ideas collided and innovation flourished. Surrounded by like-minded teams, we exchanged insights and inspiration, fueling our determination to make a difference. Amidst the chaos, a symphony of creativity emerged, propelling us towards our goal with unwavering momentum.
DevEx:
The developer experience of building on Solana was immense as we pushed through codes that enabled us to build the crypto rails of payments for a tokenised charging station model, wherein customers would also be able to receive rewards in tokens. It certainly helps to build on Solana, where we can focus on what makes a successful startup pitch without having to worry about which rollup we would have to deploy it on!
The Solana Hackathons are also about realising that code is very essential but it is not everything to base the success of your submission purely on code since it’s very important to establish how important your problem statement is. The secret sauce lies in minimising the demo timeline by attaching a quick product demo link along with GitHub links where applicable, which can help save yourselves sometime in explaining the real pitch.
Crafting the perfect pitch!
While it’s difficult to nail the perfect pitch, it is important to recognise what are the most important pointers that one should focus on as a team while maximising the potential from all the contributors.
As veterans of the hackathons past, we understood the importance of clarity and conviction in our pitch. Armed with real-world statistics and a laser focus on our problem statement, we captivated our audience with a compelling narrative that is very hard to ignore. After all, how can you ignore problem solving for climate positivity?
Thanks to the invaluable guidance from Solana community, our pitch deck exuded confidence and clarity, setting the stage for success.
Having been in multiple hackathons, we knew what we were getting into for the Colosseum Hack. The goal was not to build the most unique code out there for a consumer app for DePIN, it was to clearly communicate the problem statement that we were building on.
What was worth reinforcing during the pitch was to keep the last week of the hackathon purely on problem statement pitch in clear words that anyone can understand without any buzzwords. Real world statistics definitely help, if enunciated well in terms of how huge the problem statement that you’re working towards.
The key to landing a good pitch deck, as we realised was keeping a 70% clarity on what we are talking about from
- A clear take on the problem statement perspective, with key words in bold whilst avoiding redundant texts that no one’s ever gonna read
- Important stats to back your claim
- Tangible product demo that helps any of the judges understand what we are doing
Shout out to the pitch materials provided by Superteam, especially the primer on pitch presentation. The most important part of the deck is always the first slide one-liner of the problem-solution fit that you intend to describe in further detail. A wise man once said, 90% of the successful startups have a killer one liner on their pitch deck to begin with.
The Submission!
The most nerve-wracking part of the presentation is to jointly describe your pitch as if it were an investor pitch. While attempting to do a perfect pitch within the time limit, we realised it was slightly okay to go over the time limit but also be very conscious of the Judges listening to it.
They are not gonna want to listen to a pitch where you’d need 90% of the time before arriving at the real crux of your hack!
Post submission progress:
If you’re serious about building in terms of product and community, you should also be continuing to build on your project well beyond the hackathon. In our case, we managed to scale up the devices to about 50 charging pod devices with stronger internal testing prior to a scaled up deployment.
A Triumph of Innovation
In the exhilarating climax of our journey, we presented our submission with passion and precision. Balancing brevity with substance, we delivered a pitch that resonated with investors and judges alike. Though the road was fraught with challenges, our unwavering determination and strategic approach propelled us towards victory.
Join us in celebrating the culmination of the DeCharge Solana Hack journey — a testament to the power of innovation, collaboration, and relentless ambition.
Together, we pave the way towards a brighter, greener future for all.
To further understand our earnest attempt in making the pitch happen, here’s the link below to our Renaissance Hack presentation.
Founders desk:
“ At DeCharge, our vision is to revolutionise the EV economy by transforming charging points into multifunctional community hubs. This vision is crucial for our team as we innovated for the Solana hackathon, turning ideas into reality with a solution that is immediately deployable at scale.
While our eyes are set on the future, this hackathon has been an opportunity to validate our vision through practical implementation, reinforcing the problem statement and focusing on building strong fundamentals. Solana’s ethos of guiding founders towards a north star vision while emphasizing robust, foundational development has been our guiding principle. We deeply appreciate the constant encouragement and support from the entire Solana ecosystem, Superteam India, and the Colosseum Team who have all been instrumental in our success. We thank the community for believing in our journey and supporting our mission to power the future of the EV economy.” — Mohan
“Laser sharp focus is severely underrated in Startup competition styled Solana Hackathons. Building towards a larger vision is always paramount. Most young developer teams can tend to get distracted while attempting to win multiple side-tracks, whilst we focussed on the singular DePIN category, which helped us bag the second spot in the DePIN track. This was the most essential factor preceding the interview assessments that led to the accelerator interest from Colosseum” — Dr. Prakash
