MondoHack III — A wonderful Hackathon
A few weekends ago Mondo (the bank of the future) held the third MondoHack in their Old Street Office and, speaking as an attendee, it was absolutely amazing.
We built a bot for Slack that acts as your Mondo bank teller. You can ask it how much money you have, what accounts you own, and display the most recent purchases. Unlike a traditional bank, it is always there for you.
Unfortunately, the Mondo team hadn’t quite realized the powers of conversational UI and we weren’t chosen as one of the top teams to present.(Or maybe we spent too much time on 2-layer OAuth, funny responses, and command-line python hacks)
But anyway, back to the main topic. The hackathon itself. It was great! I go to a lot of hackathons (10 in the past four months), but this one was different. Different, in a really good way.
This hackathon didn’t have the large quantities of food and the excess of swag that some other hackathons define themselves by, but it did have something that is much more important: An epic atmosphere with the most qualified mentors you could ask for.
The system you are building on top of, the API you are using, and the functionality you require were all built by people present in the room. It’s absolutely amazing to be able to go up to the CTO and ask why OAuth was implemented the way it was or whether this one system is deployed or not.
Have a problem with the API? “Oh, let me just fix the code and re-deploy.” Could you explain this feature to me? “Sure, I built it!” These kind of conversations are just plain wonderful to have. Especially when you regularly deal with the vast, undocumented mess that some companies call an API.
Another awesome part was the general availability of cool stuff happening around the place. It’s not everyday that you actually get to see an Amazon Echo (It still hasn’t launched in the UK), especially not when someone re-programs it to include banking functionality. Amazing things happen when your bank provides an API!
And then there was this other guy. He hooked up his TESLA to the Mondo API, so that when a transaction is processed, the doors are unlocked and the engine starts. WAT!?! Maybe not particularly useful, but super cool!
In addition to all of these awesome thing happening throughout the hackathon, Mondo got all of the basics right. They had good and regular food, drinks and WiFi.
Something else that is probably underappreciated at hackathons is music. The music at MondoHack III was super chill and relaxing. I’m not sure who curated that playlist, but thank you Sir 🙏! Music is sooooo key in creating a good atmosphere.
So, if you’re a small to medium stage startup and want to grow a developer ecosystem, run a hackathon! It can be absolutely amazing for everybody involved.
Thanks Mondo ❤
