Backstory
This story starts with a shout-out to Paloma for getting me into Developer DAO.
One thing I am grateful for is the strength of my network and the type of talents that I attract. I sat down thinking Hackathons are a consistent event that happens year in and year out why not form a team where we focus on building in Hackathons, developing our skills and making some money?
All that needed was the right team with the right skillsets so I did this.
I assembled a team, we are called Hackathon Builders where our goal is to build in hackathons and make money. This way, we grow our portfolio, improve our dev skills and get some cash and opportunities. This is something that anyone can start. I am most grateful because if I didn't form this team, I wouldn't be experiencing the joy I am feeling.
How I Picked the Right Team members
Prechy and I are co-leads at SheCodesAfrica OAU where we guide ladies into tech. One thing I admire about Prechy is her execution rate. She brings projects to life and she is a gem to work with so I knew she would be a great addition to the team as a Project Manager.
I met Rahman at Techdreal in OOU and I knew from the moment I saw him, that he was CTO material in the making. There is a way he is obsessed with coding that I know he would be a great Software Engineer.
Chris is a badass full-stack Blockchain engineer whom I connected with on Linkedin. We exchanged contacts and became WhatsApp friends. He has amassed a lot of building experience in the Blockchain space, and I knew that with his technical guidance, nothing was too hard to build.
So I reached out to each of them and told them about the Idea and they loved it so on Oct 23, HB (Hackathon Builders) was born.
ChainBase Hackathon
Being a member of Developer Dao, I got access to the Hackathons page where they announced Hackathons happening. I came across the ChainBase Hackathon, it was for a week so it was a good testing ground to see how best we work together so we got to work.
We began brainstorming different ideas to build in line with the hackathon guidelines. We settled on building a product in the category of Historical On-chain Data.
We settled on building a Historical Wallet Balance Tracer and built a story around it. The idea is that when you input a wallet address on our site, it shows you the flow of ETH in and through the wallet in a tree diagram. Our story revolved around the hacks in the web3 space and the struggle people or companies face in tracking the point of the hack. We built a solution that will trace and illustrate the entire history and destination of funds. No more anon rug pulls since investors will be able to track the origin of eth and be alerted if an address has been linked with a rug pull contract or honey pot.
With this, we had our problem statement and story so we went to research. We needed a library that would illustrate the flow in a tree-like manner and we went through the comprehensive Chainbase docs on how to perform some functions like Get transaction by account and Get token transfers. We listened to a hackerspace on what makes a winning team and we followed the instructions with due diligence.
By the 25th we started building and we settled on react-d3-tree for our illustration. We used rekt news which talks about the hacks in the web3 space where we got a hacked address. The deadline was on the 30th and by Sunday it was tense because we were working faster to get it out. One downside was the internet connection(MTN, well done) — we couldn't sync up and wrap things up faster than we hoped. On the day of the deadline, we submitted an hour before the deadline after days of interactions. I felt a sense of fulfilment, we did it and we submitted it.
This meant more to me because I assembled a team and within a few days, we were able to build a product and submit it. I felt really proud of myself. We had a team bonding call where we got to know ourselves more and played some games.
Now it was time to wait for the results. The results were meant to be announced on Friday but it was shifted till Monday. Monday morning came and nothing was heard until I entered Twitter at night and I had notifications.
The first thing I saw was that we won in the Openness Track. I was glad that for our first Hackathon, at least we won something until I looked through it again and saw
WE CAME SECOND
Over 100 hackers signed up, shipping 32 projects from 14 teams and 18 solo builders, for a prize pool of over $5000 in stablecoins + 1000s of CODE.
We came second place and won in the category of best app in the Openness Track.
I joined Developer DAO in October and within a month, my team and I were winning our first Hackathon together. I am so happy and overjoyed.
What helped us win the Hackathon
Sell stories not just code and make sure the product works — Stories with a working product are what sells in Hackathon.
Build in line with the Hackathon guidelines.
A clean readme goes a long way. (Shoutout to Prechy)
Lessons I have learned from this Experience
That idea in you, just start it - You never know what will happen but you need to take the first brave step. if it fails at least you tried and also you learned some things along the way.
Collaboration is key - on my own, I couldn't have done this but with a team, we achieved this.
Build relationships - Before assembling the team, I had a relationship with every one of my teammates so it was easier to communicate and share the vision with them.
I identify as a Builder - Whether I express this in diverse capacities such as a Web3 Frontend Engineer, Blockchain Engineer, developer advocate, community builder, Public Speaker or whatever labels I fall into.
I would always be found building, either People, Communities, Products, Programs, Businesses and Ecosystems.
I embrace my identity as a Builder and I would never stop building.
This experience is a Big Win for my team and I am so excited for what the future holds for us all. You can connect with me on Twitter to follow my journey closer.
Thank you for reading my story.