The Art of the Hack: From Suspicion to Submission

This is a submission for the World's Largest Hackathon Writing Challenge: Building with Bolt.

🎯 Playing with Records...

The Bolt Hackathon caught my eye for a few reasons (yes, money was one of them), but my motivation ran deeper. I wanted to be part of the Guinness World Record attempt for the “World’s Largest Hackathon” and create something with the brilliant women of BWIT. My goal? Build a team, have fun, learn, grow, and—of course—tinker with Bolt.new as a total BOLT newbie.

🕵🏽‍♀️ Suspicious by Nature

Let’s just say I didn’t dive in blindly. My last hackathon ended in disappointment when the sponsor ghosted on their prize money, despite teams (including mine) being shortlisted. So this time? I read the rules and TOS like five times. I needed to know this one was legit before bringing others on board.

🧠 Too Many Brains, Not Enough Time

We vibed hard—so much that our evening work sessions often ran 45 minutes over just from deep convo and idea-jamming. We meticulously explored every corner of our app concept. In hindsight, we should’ve split ideation and execution in half. But no regrets. We had fun, and every single one of us learned something new.

🤖 Bolt Was Giving Junior Dev Energy…

At first, Bolt felt magical. A platform that codes for you? Sign me up. But reality hit. Fast.

We relied only on Bolt instead of leaning into our actual dev skills, and that meant dealing with his "quirks." He hallucinated code, claimed success while delivering nothing, and gobbled up tokens like Pac-Man. Images were broken, the database didn’t write properly—and no, we’re still not okay about it.

Instead of fixing it ourselves, we honored the rules and left his mess intact. It wasn’t perfect, but it proved one thing: AI can be a great assistant, but it can’t replace us...yet.

On the upside, I got a crash course in Vite and dash of React. I’m not a React girl, but clearly Bolt is—and his code made that obvious. I do wish there were other options available.

🤝 Team + Work

Despite the tech chaos, our team came through. Even when we lost a teammate due to a personal emergency, we picked up the slack and kept it moving. Leadership means stepping in when needed, and this was one of those moments. Everyone gave it a go, trying to tap in. That mattered more than the bugs.

💥 10x Creativity, Even Without Submitting

In spite of said challenges I still managed to build ten of my own apps during the process. Yes, ten. Some of those ideas had been sitting in my digital notebook collecting dust. Watching them take shape—flawed or not—was super rewarding. A few are even client-ready. Others will launch soon. Bolt may be chaotic, but it cleared that innovation backlog like Roto Rooter after Thanksgiving.

🛑 Then… the Plot Twist

After the hackathon, someone (a weasel) cloned our app almost verbatim and launched it—same concept, same domain. It was shady, but it reminded me of one important thing: protect your work.

🔐 Pro Tips for New Hackers:

1. Use code names—don’t expose your real brand or product.
2. Don't wait til the last minute, the hackathon might end early.🥹
3. Copyright your work before sharing it.™️
4. Read the fine print—if your IP isn’t protected, proceed with caution.
5. Don’t hesitate to issue takedown notices or DMCA claims. It’s your work. Defend it.

# 💡 Final Thoughts

I still say, what I said going into this. This year is the summer of innovation. We have opportunity right now. Who knows what next year will bring. Its time to try a hackathon at least once yeah but don't do it to win, do it learn, build and connect.

So show up. Show Out. Submit, submit, submit.