UCHA VEKUA: "Give yourself a shot!" Hackathons are the new proving ground for creatives

I’m starting to understand that a hackathon event might be the best platform where the builders, creatives, and experts of different sorts can give themselves and their crazy ideas a real shot. Especially nowadays. 

Trends always come and go. If you think about it, there have been too many trends over the past couple of years – blockchain, crypto, NFT, Metaverse, AI, vibe coding… all this stuff that attracted crazy noise in all the industries. 

But one thing I strongly believe helps anyone stand out in this noise is the art of trying, a.k.a “giving your ideas a shot.” 

From my experience, a hackathon is the best type of event to do that, plus meet other people who want to do the same. It’s sort of like a playground where different creative people come together to experiment with their ideas. 

I think this is why hackathons are so relevant and important now: all the new tools that keep coming out. But let’s not forget that they were also relevant before all these AI builder themes became so trendy and accessible. 

Let me give you some context. 

I moved to Estonia 10 years ago as an international student at TalTech. Back then, the country was very different – Wise was Transferwise, Bolt was Taxify, and Veriff was a small startup nobody knew about. 

One thing that really stood out for me in Tallinn was this unique entrepreneurial spirit everyone had in the city. 

There was a reason for that, though – lots of startup and tech events were happening in different universities and other places around Tallinn. 

One particularly popular type of event for the local community here was hackathons. It’s a three-day-long event where you form a team with strangers and build a working prototype of your startup idea with limited time and resources. 

I loved going to hackathons. As a newcomer, these events helped me meet like-minded people in the community, improve my skills while building different solutions (or at least trying to), and test different ideas. 

Those events and experiences really helped shape the first steps of my career here in Estonia. 

Fast forward to 2024 and 2025; many things had changed in the local startup community here. 

Many companies that were startups back then had already become so-called “unicorns”; the economy was growing as well, but sadly, this unique entrepreneurial spirit was almost gone. Or at least it wasn't like what I had experienced in 2016.

Not too many hackathons were happening anymore, and most of the startup events here were a bit more advanced than “some idea-people hanging out and building cool stuff.” 

So, at the beginning of 2025, I wanted to tackle this problem – I went around the community, wrote to some interesting people, had some conversations, and put together a team to organise a hackathon that would bring back those old builder vibes to Tallinn.  

That is how the idea for the first Techstars Startup Weekend in Tallinn was born. 

Let me recap the first Techstars Startup Weekend in Tallinn

Bringing back the old hackathon vibes in Tallinn wasn't easy. 

We wanted to design an event that would give students and startup enthusiasts a platform to test their ideas, connect with each other, and improve their skills along the way. 

So, we teamed up with Estonian Business School, Startup Garage, and other organisations from the Estonian startup ecosystem to make it happen. Everyone seemed enthusiastic and supportive throughout the process. 

Hackathon kicked off! 

From the 2nd to the 4th of May, the entire 4th floor of the Estonian Business School was transformed into a fancy atelier where individuals attempted to bring their craziest ideas to life. 

And boy did it work! Check this out: 

• 57 participants showed up on the first day 
• They pitched a total of 19 ideas on the stage 
• Formed 10 teams to develop products 
• All 10 teams managed to present a live demo on Sunday 

You just had to see the excitement all around the event during those days. Mentors, participants, volunteers, and other attendees were all discussing cool ideas with each other. 

During the finals, it was fabulous to listen to all those teams passionately pitch their projects and showcase their demos. 

All 10 teams successfully built high-quality prototypes and delivered strong pitches in front of an audience. We saw a wide range of solutions on stage, and that was the very goal of this hackathon from the beginning. 

It felt like a celebration of creative approaches and bold ideas. But I just didn’t know that it would kick off something much bigger than one hackathon event.  

I feel like we couldn’t have organised this hackathon at a better time, because it fell during the period when the term “Vibe Coding” and the whole process of building tools with AI started gaining popularity. 

Throughout the summer of 2025, I saw some of our hackathon participants trying out these new tools and building interesting solutions with them. 

So, we thought – maybe there is a way that these enthusiastic people could somehow come together every month to share their creative ideas and new approaches with each other? Maybe it's an interesting idea? Say no more! 

Enter the Vibe Code Atelier monthly meetup event series for builders 

Tons of new and exciting tools launch every week in this world of vibe coding. The bar has never been lower for building your own tool and getting started with this so-called “one-person-startup.”

Different tools serve different needs too – people now can build their own SaaS solutions, platforms, automations, and everything else they can think of. 

So now, a classic “builder” archetype can sit in their room and ship products in a matter of hours (well, minutes, actually). 

Here’s where it gets challenging, though. 

Yes, we can ship new products every day, but how do we make sure they have value? What’s the use of those tools? And will these “startups” get actual customers over time? 

I think the key component is validating ideas and understanding whether there is an actual market for whatever vibe coders are building. In other words – are there people who would pay for these products? And do they solve real problems? 

There are many ways to answer these questions, but one is meeting other like-minded builders and getting real feedback from them. 

So, together with Skaala and LIFT99, we started hosting in-person monthly meetups where vibe coders can take the stage and demo a solution they’ve been developing lately. 

We’re calling it Vibe Code Atelier, a community where builders, dreamers, and innovators come together, share ideas, and go home more inspired to build “cool stuff.” 

The event typically kicks off with a fireside chat featuring a founder of a more established tech company who shares their experiences with the community. After that, we open up a stage for 3 vibe coders to come and share whatever they built – 8 minutes each. 

We kicked off this event series in October 2025, and the community response was a resounding YES! 

Companies that have joined the fireside chat part of this event include Pactum AI, Bilt me, Haut AI, Glassity, and more. 

On average, about 70-90 attendees show up at each of our events. Vibes have always been top-notch, and it really feels like builders are connecting with each other on another level. 

And that’s when more builder focused hackathons come in handy…

As we have already organised 7 editions of Vibe Code Atelier meetups at LIFT99, it is only logical to bring our expanded community together and give them a space to lock in & build cool solutions over the weekend. 

That’s exactly where the name of our brand new hackathon “Lock in & Build” is coming from – it’s literally a description of the process of what we will do on 26th and 27th of September. 

Lock in & Build hackathon is for builders, founders, vibe coders, indie hackers, designers, marketers, Claude Code nerds, PhDs, lego fans, original tech bros, and everyone else who is just obsessed with building things. 

Imagine a weekend at Tallinn Business Incubator, where all of us come together, connect with each other, share out ideas, team up, build prototypes, ask feedback, iterate, burn all of the AI credits, get vibes us, and leave with this proud feeling of – “wow, I built some cool sh*t last weekend.” 

And that’s really the whole idea. 

Because new AI tools like Lovable, n8n, Eleven Labs, and others give us unlimited ways to experiment, create something valuable, and bring our crazy ideas to life. If you ever had an idea to build anything, now it’s the perfect time to do that. 

But back to the first point in this article: experimentation is the key to understanding what types of projects and initiatives you want to work on. 

The more you f*ck around, the more you find out. Period. And what better place to f*ck around than the event that is specifically designed for f*cking around?  

Yup, that's a hackathon for ya! 

Feel free to register if it resonates with you. (Note Sept 16 deadline!)

Bottom line 

I believe that now more than ever it is important to organise hackathons. 

We need creatives to be creative. We need industry experts to share their expertise. We need builders to build. And we need students to share their fresh perspective. 

This is a golden era to unite as a community and build solutions through joint effort. A hackathon is the perfect platform for all that. 

This is like being in Paris in the 1920s, when the Hemingways, Picassos, Scott Fitzgeralds, Dalis, and other world’s most creative minds came together to share a drink or two. 

Hackathon is undeniably a place where your unimaginable startup adventures could start. 

If you want to be part of this journey, join us. 

Let’s build the future we want together! 

Ucha is a writer and content marketer based in Tallinn, and loves to share his international stories and startup adventures. In his free time, he enjoys organising hackathons and vibe coding events that help builders bring their craziest ideas to life.