Fix.ly — Winning Team of Hack:Trash:NYC Hackathon
Oct 27 — It’s the time of the year again for trick-or-treats and how best to celebrate Halloween in the Big Apple? Rather than going round the city dressed up to scare others (more like getting scared by others) or join in the parades heralding the arrival of what is also known as the festival of Samhain, two NOC students, Brenda from NY8 and Jun Yi from NY7 decided to spend the weekend taking part in Hack:Trash:NYC.
What is the competition about?
Organised in partnership with the NYC Department of Sanitation, Hack:Trash:NYC, is a three-day hackathon that aims to help the city reach the zero waste goal by 2030. This year’s theme was reuse, and teams made up of participants from all walks of life were invited to develop either a business model, product, service, education campaign or policy that will aid in raising the awareness of reusing in NYC, thereby resulting in a meaningful reduction in waste. Held at Galvanize NY, the event was open to anyone to sign up, and had approximately 100 participants that included engineers, product designers, environmental lawyers and students coming together to develop innovative solutions to curb NYC’s ongoing waste issue. After the participants broke into their respective teams, they were given two and a half days to brainstorm and develop their ideas with several “mini-pitches” in between to refine or pivot their concepts based on the feedback given by expert consultants and design strategists from the Global Design firm Designit.
The final day saw 17 teams , given only 5 minutes each, come together to present their pitches in front of a diverse panel of judges including Bridget Anderson, deputy commissioner for recycling and sustainability at the New York City Department of Sanitation; Margot Kane, chief investment and financial officer for the Closed Loop Fund; Mikal Hallstrup, founder and global CEO of Designit; Peter Raymond, principal at The New Bureau, and Aude Broos, strategist at Co:Collective.
What prompted the decision to sign up for this Hackathon?
Brenda: “I encountered over the listing for this hackathon on EventBrite. It was interesting to me as this hackathon had a very specific theme. Also this is an open hackathon where anyone from working professionals to students could participate in. Compared to the usual student hackathons such as HackNY or HackPrinceton, I thought that this hackathon could offer me a different experience. I was initially put off by the $10 registration fee, but when I told Jun Yi about the hackathon, he voiced out his interest as well. Both of us decided to join this hack to see what it is all about! No regrets!!”
Jun Yi: “Similar to Brenda, I was also browsing for hackathons to join on Devpost and came across this and coincidentally Brenda was interested in it. Trash was a topic that Singaporeans like us can relate to given how we were taught the 3Rs since young and despite Singapore being a relatively clean city, we still had our flaws in terms of what can be done to educate people these days. Back in school, I also dealt with trash related projects before so I thought this particular hackathon’s theme was kinda interesting. And this being my first hackathon, I didn’t really think much or was held back by anything and thought it should be a good experience.
How did the team come about?
Both of us were actually intending to work on an idea of our own but were also open to hearing the ideas that other people had. During the team forming session after the event opening, we were approached by 3 enthusiastic participants after talking to several people and were piqued by the idea those 3 individuals had. Eventually, after bouncing feedback and ideas off one another, the Fix.ly team was formed.
What is Fix.ly about?
Fix.ly was essentially created with the idea of giving items that we love a second chance by offering a repair concierge service for small goods like shoes, accessories and small electronics. It is an app-based service that utilises chatbots to ensure a quick and seamless experience so that people can easily extend the lives of their favourite items and help reduce the amount of waste we generate. The process is simple. One can simply tell the individualised bot what he or she wants to repair, and the bot will follow up with a list of curated repair shops to choose from. Upon selecting the desired repair shop, a courier will be scheduled to pick up the item at a time chosen by the user and then have it back repaired in no time.
How did the idea come about?
Brenda and Jun Yi: “Our team mates, were especially intrigued by several on-demand services that they have used in the past and was especially impressed by the concept of a chatbot-based app that is personalised and thoughtful at the same time for the end consumer. Given the theme of the competition being reuse, and we felt that there is an ongoing problem that modern millennials hardly have time to worry or research how to repair their items, often choosing to discard these items rather than giving them second chances. We therefore decided to come up with a solution to help convert an age old habit of buying new replacements into having the habit of fixing and reusing their items instead.”
Lessons learnt
Brenda: “It was good exposure for both of us to work with a different group of people. In this program, we often do not get to interact much with others outside of the NOC circle (apart from your colleagues of course). Also 2 of our team mates were working professionals and they were able to give good feedback and advices on the ideas and directions that the project was heading towards. Personally I learnt a lot more about the trash situation in New York and it was really interesting to meet so many others that are passionate about keeping NYC’s trash situation sustainable.
Jun Yi: “This being my first hackathon, it was definitely an eye opener. Essentially, it was like doing our NVC module in the span of two and a half days compared to months. No doubt, events like these force you to be on your toes 24/7 and personally, I love working under pressure so in a way it was fun. I think one fortunate thing about this hackathon was that it wasn’t restricted to just students and we both got to meet and talk to working professionals such as lawyers, designers, people who have wealth of experiences to share. Cliche as it may sound, learn to step out of your comfort zone and sometimes you just won’t know what it will bring you. I actually intended to work with Brenda on our own idea since we didn’t have to care about working with people we don’t know. We decided to take the leap of faith and turns out our group was a pretty good mix and I’ve certainly learnt a lot from them!
The competition eventually concluded with three winners, with Fix.ly (Co:Collective Winner) being one of them and the other two being Surplus Food Catering (The New Bureau Winner) and The Milkmen (Designit Winner), earning themselves the opportunity to attend strategy and development sessions at Designit, The New Bureau and Co:Collective, and also a chance to pitch their concepts at a VC roundtable.
Happy Halloween 👻🎃
