This is a submission for the World's Largest Hackathon Writing Challenge: After the Hack.
🎯 The Bottom Line Up Front
HalfonLife isn't ending with this hackathon, it's just beginning. After 8 years of dreaming and 18 days of brutal, beautiful creation, I've finally realized that the technology has caught up to where I needed it to be. What started as a YouTube ad discovery has become my complete trajectory transformation from someone who thought they'd need 20 years and millions of dollars to build this dream, to a developer who's ready to change the world. I got a feeling this is only the beginning, and HalfonLife is going to be a household name.
🔧 First Line of Business: Bug Hunt Season
So, after the hack, my first line of business is to track down and destroy those bugs I didn't have any choice but to submit with my project due to the deadline for submission for the hackathon.
Next, there might be a little bit of refactoring involved partially due to the bugs, but partially due to some new ideas that I've had since submission. And then, it's just moving on into the future with the HalfonLife app.
I intend to realize this dream that I've been carrying in my mind for the last eight years. I finally, finally was able to start working on it. The technology finally caught up to where I needed it to be to be able to do this fated application, and I'm just ready to go with it.
It's an amazing feeling that I'm finally able to realize this dream. And I'm just not going to stop or give up on it until something happens with it, man. I know that this is going to change the way people go about handling their expenses and also give people the opportunity to be able to enjoy more of life.
🚀 The Vision: From 50 Tables to World Domination
I got so many great ideas that I've come up with over the years that I'm going to try to implement into this app. Right now, there's 50 database tables in Supabase, and I may end up doubling it before it's all over to that 147.
The Feature Explosion Coming
- Background checks and vetting systems for different people
- Content moderation to handle offensive content on the app
- Legal contracting systems to make everything official and protected
- Enhanced conversational AI I want people to be able to conversate with the app, much like we're conversating with generative AI apps like ChatGPT today
Geographic Domination Strategy
I plan on starting out in my area, which is a very large the DFW metroplex - and then expanding to infinity and beyond..lol.
I think this app is going to be a watershed moment for us as people, trying to make it work with life and everything becoming more expensive with inflation and wage stagnation. I think this is going to be a boon for people to finally have something to address these issues.
🌟 What Excites Me Most: The User Creativity
I can't wait to see all of the unique ideas that people have for going half and publishing splits on the app. It's going to be amazing to see how people take the app and transform it into what is ultimately really needed for their particular group or situation. It's going to be amazing to see.
The community is going to surprise me in ways I can't even imagine yet. When we give people a platform to say "I got 5 on it" instead of "I can't afford that," the creativity that emerges is going to be incredible.
💼 From Employee to Entrepreneur: The Startup Launch
Yeah, I'm going to continue development, but I also plan on launching a startup on this application. I think that once people hear about it and try it, it's just going to take off from there.
🔄 New Bag: The Big Shift
Before: The 20-Year Plan That Never Was
I really thought I would have to eventually pay someone to do it and that it was going to cost millions of dollars. I was going to have to work for 20 years before I could save up enough money to pay somebody to help me develop the code and build this application.
That timeline just got obliterated.
During: This Revolutionary Moment
Thanks to the advances in technology and AI, the dream was realized sooner. I was able to do all of this virtually alone, and I learned so much and gained so many skills during these 18 or so days of just super intense creation, trying to meet this deadline and trying to get all of my thoughts and ideas for this app out onto the monitor, so to speak.
After: Complete Trajectory Change
It just led to a total transformation in my trajectory. Now, I've always been headed in the direction of developing - I like DevOps, so I figured that I would head in the direction of DevOps engineering, that way I can get some of the front end and back end of development. I knew that one day, eventually, I would gain enough skills to help me push this project along.
But these tools made it go a lot faster.
It changed my whole trajectory because I feel like I am a developer now, i mean, I did just develop this app right? With the help of AI, I have made it to developer status, which I wasn't really going for. But since I've gotten my hands on some of these tools, I've developed multiple apps already.
🛠️ The New Me: Builder Identity
I'm going to be building all kinds of apps. I've always been a tinkerer, and I always have these ideas about things that would be helpful or useful. I've always been able to kind of figure out how things work. And so now, with these tools and these skills that I've gotten and this new outlook, I already know I'm going to be just building things left and right that are going to be so impactful and useful in my life, if no one else's.
Skills Gained Through Fire
- AI-Powered Development: Thinking in prompts, not just code
- Crisis Management: .boltignore disasters are just Tuesday now
- Rapid Prototyping: Ideas to working apps in days, not years
- Full-Stack Capability: Front-end, back-end, database design, AI integration
- Startup Mindset: From employee to entrepreneur overnight
The Confidence Shift
Old Identity: "I need to save money to hire developers"
New Identity: "I AM the developer, and I can build anything I envision"
Old Timeline: 20 years to afford building my dream
New Timeline: 18 days from idea to working prototype
🌍 The Bigger Picture: Changing How America Lives
This isn't just about building an app though, it's about fundamentally changing how people interact with financial stress in America. When 110 million Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, HalfonLife becomes more than a convenience, it becomes a necessity.
Social Impact Vision
Every time someone says "I got 5 on it" instead of "I can't afford that," we're:
- Building community instead of isolation
- Creating shared experiences instead of individual struggle
- Turning financial stress into collaborative opportunity
- Proving that together we can access what we can't afford alone
The Ripple Effect I'm Planning
- Dallas first: Prove the concept in DFW metroplex
- Top 25 cities: Scale the community-building model
- National expansion: Become the go-to solution for expense sharing
- Global impact: Export the "I got 5 on it" mentality worldwide
🎢 Reflecting on the Wild Ride
It's been a wild ride working on this application, trying to meet this hackathon deadline because I started like two weeks late. It was only for 30 days and I didn't really get started until like the 17th or 18th, and so it's really been an intense couple of weeks.
What Made It Possible
I was most excited about the tools that I was using and the new capabilities, thanks to generative AI, that allowed me to be able to get farther than I thought I would ever get on my own building this app. The YouTube ad that started it all wasn't just about a hackathon, it was about discovering that the future I'd been waiting for had already arrived.
The Mindset Revolution
Before: "Someday, when I have enough money and time..."
During: "Holy shit, I can actually build this RIGHT NOW"
After: "What else can I build? What other problems can I solve?"
🚀 What's Next: The Unstoppable Momentum
The future? I got a feeling that this is only the beginning. I'm just getting started. HalfonLife is going to be a household name and this is going to change the world. I can feel it.
Immediate Next Steps (Next 90 Days) after the judging is over ofcoarse
- Bug elimination: Clean up the submission and make it production-perfect
- Feature expansion: Implement those new ideas that came during development
- Startup formation: Legal entity, business plan, investor conversations
6-Month Vision
- User base growth: 10,000+ active users in DFW
- Feature completeness: All core functionality polished and scaled
- Partnership pipeline: Integration deals with local businesses
- Revenue validation: Proven business model with sustainable growth
2-Year
- National presence: Operating everywhere
- Cultural impact: "I got 5 on it" becomes part of American vocabulary
- Financial ecosystem: Full suite of community-driven financial tools
- Exit strategy: Either IPO trajectory or acquisition by major fintech player
💫 The Moment Everything Changed
There was a specific moment during this hackathon when everything clicked. I had just finished building the "I Got 5 On It" marketplace and loaded some test splits into the database. When I pulled up the marketplace and saw those splits displayed real opportunities for people to share costs and experiences, that's when I knew.
In that moment, despite all the .boltignore disasters and 3 AM debugging sessions, I realized this wasn't just working it was working beautifully. This wasn't a hackathon project that would be forgotten in a month. This was the beginning of something that could change millions of lives.
The old me would have thought: "This is cool, but real businesses take years to build."
The new me knew: "This is the beginning. Everything starts now."
🎯 The Vision That Drives Everything
My vision is to help 110 million Americans say "I got 5 on it" instead of "I can't afford that"
My commitment is absolute.
The hack is over. The real work begins now.
This hackathon didn't just give me a working app it gave me a new outlook, a new trajectory, and the unshakeable confidence that I can build anything I envision. In a world where AI can handle the technical complexity, the only limiting factor is the size of your vision and the strength of your commitment.
Mine are both infinite.
Built with: 8 years of vision, 18 days of creation, and infinite determination
HalfonLife
👋 Welcome to HalfonLife
See how HalfonLife helps you cut costs and upgrade your lifestyle
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