Powerful perspectives on tackling society’s big problems
a Hack.Diversity x IDEO CoLab partnership
June 17, 2020 — Despite ramifications created by COVID-19, Hack.Diversity’s 2nd annual de.Hackathon Showcase was a huge success, with about 170 attendees at any given point, coming from the Hack and partner communities as well as the general public (as far as Washington DC and San Francisco!).
Wait, what is de.Hackathon again?
In traditional hackathons, participants are tasked to ideate, prototype, and present on solutions to known problems, business opportunities, or technologies, within 24–48 hours.
Launched in 2019, during the Hack.Diversity de.Hackathon (read — deconstructed Hackathon), Fellows achieve the same design thinking goals, but stretches the experience out over four months to strengthen in-demand technical skills, collaborate in small teams, and gain project life-cycle experience, ahead of their summer internships.
de.Hackathon 2020
In partnership with IDEO CoLab, the de.Hackathon involved a series of five workshops between January and May — ideation, design research, prototyping, synthesis, and pitch practice — to develop technology-enabled solutions to the following challenges at the intersection of the future of work, education, and community development:
- How might geographically distributed teams (including gig workers, folks in different time zones, and companies without brick and mortar offices) collaborate, communicate, and stay synced with core teams throughout a project?
- How might we empower small businesses to upmarket themselves in a neighborhood where early signs of gentrification are taking place?
- How might non-traditional academic experiences garner the same type of reputation as a four-year college degree for employers?
- How might we speed up learning time for new software developer employees on new coding languages?
- How might we help the upwardly mobile be able make strategic, longer term decisions around financial growth, while sustaining their current lifestyles and needs?
15 Teams and Big Prizes On the Line
This year’s 15 de.Hackathon teams competed for 3 opportunities to win:
- Judges’ Favorite — winner will be the team that most successfully demonstrates fulfilled guidelines for: 1) product 2) originality 3) usefulness to end user 4) team effort 5) compelling pitch 6) ease of use/UX and 7) wow factor.
- Audience Favorite — winner will be the team that moves the most Showcase attendees to vote for them and their prototype idea.
- Best Tech — awarded by Lead de.Hackathon Mentors, based on the technical aspects of the product and its ability to be made into a real, successful company
Courtesy of our sponsors and the Hack.Diversity Alumni Leadership Council, winning team prize packs included: AWS swag and $200 in AWS credit, a 1 year VIP membership to Dough, choice of Hack Board Member and Co-Founder Jeff Bussgang’s Entering StartUpLand or Mastering the VC Game, $30 donation to organization of choice, and a work from home bundle to set Fellows up for success in often newly converted, unconventional workspaces.
Most importantly, all 3 winning teams will receive team life lessons and feedback with Hack.Diversity Board Member of choice, Flavio Andrade (Hack.Diversity ’18 and Unpitch alumnus), and local VCs Jason Allen, Bob Mason, and Richard Dulude in order to prepare to apply for the opportunity to represent their team as Hack.Diversity’s 1 guaranteed spot at NEVCA 2021 Unpitch.
And the results are in…
The winners of our 2nd annual de.Hackathon Showcase were:
Best Tech Award
Team 10: Tax Hack, created and developed Christopher Monraz & Alexandre Castro. Tax Hack is a mobile application that tracks and stores the invoices and expenses of the user, helping small business, gig economy workers, and the self employed person achieve financial stability while on the go.
Audience Pick Award
Team 15: Local Picnic Basket, created and developed by Angel Valdez-Martinez, Rania Hakimi, Mickey Martinez, Nadir Sad-Saoud, & Violette Similien Volodkevich. Local Picnic Basket is a monthly subscription box service which promotes well curated, high quality, local products that are sourced directly from small businesses in your surrounding area.
Judges’ Favorite Award
Team 7: Clips, created and developed by Christopher Armand, Abdiel Danastor, Darkenley Minviel, & Jasmine Rose. Clips, the barbershop/hair salon discovery app, helps new residents connect with their community. Clips cuts the friction between you and scheduling your next haircut.
A Peek into the Future of Work, Education, and Community Development: The Topics
Same Pace as Face to Face
“How might geographically distributed teams (including gig workers, folks in different time zones, and companies without brick and mortar offices) collaborate, communicate, and stay synced with core teams throughout a project?”
Highlights included:
- Guest speakers Sarah Case of Echobind (and Hack.Diversity Board Member) and Steven Duque of Catalant spoke about how their companies make remote work work, as well as the challenges they face. Kicking off the Showcase, they also offered some inspirational messages to Fellows as they got ready for their pitches.
DIY Glow Up
“How might we empower small businesses to upmarket themselves in a neighborhood where early signs of gentrification are taking place?”
Highlights included:
- Guest speaker Isabel Strobing of local startup Mainvest joined to discuss her organization’s unique approach to empowering local businesses and communities through crowdsourced investment, and shared her thoughts on further considerations related to small business vs. gentrification.
Street Cred for that Sweet Bread
“How might non-traditional academic experiences garner the same type of reputation as a four year college degree for employers?”
Highlights included:
- Moderated by Rizel Bobb-Semple (Hack.Diversity ’17, Resilient Coders ‘17), guest speakers Dave Delmar, Founder of Resilient Coders, and Tarlin Ray, Co-Founder of Kaplan Labs and Hack.Diversity Board Member, spoke about how they personally launched initiatives to tackle the issue of alternative education pathways and perceptions. They shared some lessons learned and outlined current challenges and opportunities in this space.
Code Switching, Literally
“How might we speed up learning time for new software developer employees on new coding languages?”
Highlights included:
- Moderated by Flavio Andrade (Hack.Diversity ‘18), guest speakers Dan Pickett, Co-Founder of Launch Academy, and Amir Savar, CEO of Skilled Inc., discussed ways that technical education and upskilling are evolving to meet the demands of the tech industry and current and potential employees.
Stuck in the Middle
“How might we help the upwardly mobile be able make strategic, longer term decisions around financial growth, while sustaining their current lifestyles and needs?”
Highlights included:
- Guest speakers Juan Carlos Morales, Founder and Managing Director of Surfside Capital Advisors and Board Member of The Alliance for Business Leadership, and Sharon Scott-Chandler, Chief Operating Officer/Executive Vice President of Action for Boston Community Development, delivered the final Showcase lightning talk remarks, sharing inspiration with the Fellows about their promising trajectories as well as discussing nuanced difficulties related to upward mobility dilemmas.
Huge Thanks to Our Speakers, Judges, and Sponsors!
The speakers — Sarah Case, Steven Duque, Isabel Strobing, Dan Pickett, David Delmar Sentíes, Tarlin Ray, Sharon Scott-Chandler, Juan Carlos Morales, and Jeffrey Bussgang — for bringing expertise, perspective and inspiration to the 2020 de.Hackathon showcase.
The judges — Michael Feinstein, Sarah Hodges, Holly Maloney, and Jessica A. Zeaske.
The sponsors — Amazon Web Services (AWS), IDEO CoLab, SIM Boston, Dough, and Hack.Diversity’s Alumni Leadership Council
Want more info? Check out our de.Hackathon 2020 Showcase event program here.
