My hackathon journey didn't start with winning.

It started with losing.

My first hackathon was BlueHacks 2025. We spent almost all of our time building and very little time understanding the business side of our project. When it came time to pitch, we struggled to explain why our solution mattered. That experience taught me an important lesson:

A great product means nothing if people don't understand its value.

Next came GCash's invite-only hackathon.