Journal Entry
Today was an exciting day as I attended the hackathon at Factory Berlin, organized by Factory Network and Tech:Berlin. The event was sponsored by Mistral, Weaviate, LumaAI, and a few VCs—Atlantic Labs, JVentures, and Balderton. I went with my friends, Jonathan Nye and Axel Nordfeldt.
During the lunch break, we gathered around a table with food and drinks. The atmosphere was lively, with people excitedly sharing their ideas and progress. I had a chance to chat with Johan Torssell from a small VC firm about his experiences moving from being a developer to working for a VC firm.
The event kicked off with a presentation by Emanuel Jöbstl, one of the organizers. He introduced the rules and agenda for the hackathon, emphasizing his excitement about the first hackathon in this space. His enthusiasm was infectious and set a positive tone for the day.
Our team, consisting of Jonathan, Axel, and me, worked on a tool called JournalAIst, designed to help write blog posts, stories, or journal entries. We sketched out our plans on a whiteboard, outlining all the components we wanted to put together. The most challenging part was getting the conversation loop to feel natural, which is the most critical part of the build.
Throughout the day, Jonathan was hard at work on his laptop, building JournalAIst. I’m not sure what exactly he was doing at the moment the picture was taken, but I imagine he was either trying to find a satisfying prompt or wrestling with Streamlit.
Overall, the hackathon was a fantastic experience. Playing around with the tools provided and seeing what others were creating was incredibly inspiring. Although we made it to the final round and ended up in the top 6, we didn’t win any of the prizes. However, the learning and camaraderie made the day truly special.