Hackathons are like a university ‘freshers fair’ for entrepreneurs to come together and discuss and pitch their ideas. Usually, a hackathon lasts a few days and is focused on tech-based solutions for business-related problems. Sophie Benoit and Caitlin Hafer decided to create their own hackathon company and organise hackathons that tackle sustainable and ethical issues in workplace environments.

Benoit and Hafer first met while attending the Startup Weekend Immigration event in Dublin in March, 2019. Supported by Dublin City Council and Leo Dublin (Local Enterprise Office) this event aimed to introduce migrants to entrepreneurship and help to solve the problems affecting them. After that experience, they decided to go into business together. 

Benoit, who is French, and Hafer, who is American, launched What the Hack just eight months after meeting at the event.

Under their What the Hack brand, they have already hosted three unique hackathons looking at fast fashion, how to make remote working more accessible and recently looked at the issues small businesses are facing during Covid-19.

This latest one took place during the last weekend in May 2020.

The question is, how do you host a hackathon during a pandemic lockdown?

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HackBack was What the Hack’s third event. It took place remotely because of Covid-19 restrictions. “The topic of this hackathon was to tackle the challenges small businesses will face during the Covid emergency,” says Benoit.

This is the second time they have had to stage a remote event. The previous event called HackRemote took place in March 2020 and addressed the issues of accessibility and isolation associated with remote work.

“The benefits of having a small team is we can do things really quickly, where the big guys can take months,” says Hafer.

Hafer and Benoit expected an increase in attendees for the weekend event HackBack, compared to HackRemote which took place during a weekday. For their last HackRemote, 110 people registered for the event and 48 people attended. This time 55 people registered and 37 participated. Hafer believes the drop in numbers can be attributed to fewer students signing up.

“People actually had to apply this time and we had a lot more professionals than students,” says Hafer.

Numbers were not as high for HackBack compared to HackRemote, but a higher percentage of the people who signed up were in attendance this time around.

The event was free as both co-founders did want to force people into spending money on “something that is not essential at this time of year”, says Benoit.

“We didn’t want to put the financial barrier boundary first,” she adds.

Sponsors put up €2,500 to support HackBack. Microsoft gave €2,000 of this sum while he rest came from The Hammond Institute in the US.

“People don’t carry their ideas forward after hackathons,” says Benoit.

The main prize from the event was a mentoring session with a tech leader from Web Summit and tickets to the next Collision tech conference. Other prizes included a free licence for Miro, a cloud-based digital whiteboard tool to promote collaboration in businesses, and free desk space at Dublin’s Business Innovation Centre (BIC) was up for grabs as well.

There were some minor tech issues at the beginning of the hackathon with Zoom, however the two co-founders of What the Hack consider the event a success.

“We had people from Auckland and Singapore joining, which would not be possible if it was a physical event,” says Benoit.

Once lockdown is over, Hafer and Benoit are considering adding a remote layer to their hackathons to enable everyone, wherever they are based, to participate.

Setting up a hackathon company

Hafer and Benoit created What the Hack to help entrepreneurs develop partnerships that would enable them to bring their ideas to market.

“People don’t carry their ideas forward after hackathons,” says Benoit.

“The tools are out there, you just need to put them together in a useful way,” says Hafer.

Their business aims to create hackathons with prizes which will further develop the ideas of entrepreneurs rather than leave them at the pitch stage.

They also use specific themes for each hackathon. Benoit and Hafer address ethical and sustainable issues in the economy through these themes. Entrepreneurs participating in a What the Hack hackathon will then tailor their product to suit the theme.

For example, their first hackathon, entitled HackFast, tackled the topic of fast fashion and encouraged innovators to come up with solutions to improve sustainability within the fashion industry. The hackathon was backed by Oxfam Ireland, Proudly Made in Africa and Dublin City Council.

This hackathon was the first of its kind to take place in Dogpatch Labs, an accelerator for start-ups.

Technology such as WhatsApp, Zoom and Google Drive allowed the event to take place remotely

“The tools are out there, you just need to put them together in a useful way,” says Hafer.

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Benoit has a background working with start-ups before setting up on her own with Hafer. She also previously worked with Deliveroo as their Engagement Manager.

Hafer, on the other hand, has a background in the arts. As a dancer for three years before What the Hack, Hafer travelled across the globe. While dancing for a company in Jerusalem, Hafer saw the conflict in Israel first-hand and compared some of that experience to the pandemic lockdown.

“When a terrorist attack was happening, you’re meant to stay inside and stay away from crowded places which are basically the same advice you get for lockdown. That would last for a week or two,” she says.

Luck brought both Hafer and Benoit together to create their Irish based company What the Hack, which is reaching people worldwide through Hackathons. After graduating, Benoit decided to go on holiday to Ireland and she never left. Hafer’s husband is Irish, plus she “accidentally got into Trinity”, where she studied digital marketing strategy. 

What’s next?

Having just finished their HackBack hackathon, Benoit and Hafer are already focusing on their next two confirmed events.

They are collaborating with Proudly Made in Africa again to create a hackathon around how Ireland can fairly trade with the continent of Africa. This hackathon is planned to take place between September and November 2020.

What the Hack is also working on a Stem (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) related hackathon with a London based volunteer group called StemvCovid who are looking at Stem solutions to combat the impacts of Covid-19.

Hafer and Benoit have been brought in to help with the logistics as they have now held two completely remote hackathons.