A few weeks ago, Jessica Cao and Sue Harnett came to speak at HackBeanpot, Inc 2026.
Jessica Cao, a Stanford University student and founder of World37, a platform leveraging AI to bring narratives to life within games, delivered an engaging session on pitching hackathon projects effectively. She emphasized the importance of clearly identifying the problem your project addresses and letting numbers and visuals speak for its impact, using her own startup as an example of how to go about articulating this. Our hackers were also given the opportunity to practice their pitches during the workshop before presenting them to our judges.
Additionally, we also welcomed Sue Harnett, the founder and CEO of Rewriting the Code, a nonprofit organization dedicated to uniting and empowering women in tech. Sue offered a unique perspective of how to go about navigating technology and AI in a rapidly evolving industry. In our panelist workshop, she also spoke about the personal challenges she faced in her transition into tech, and how she overcame them, leaving our hackers with an honest, yet inspiring perception on what it takes to have a meaningful career in this field.
We are incredibly grateful to Jessica and Sue for dedicating their weekend to HackBeanpot 2026 and for sharing their expertise with our community. Events like this would not be possible without speakers who are willing to invest their time and passion in the next generation of builders.