Ahmad Rizvi is a hackathon connoisseur. By the time our Civic Hackathon 2020 rolls around, he has already participated in 15 local and international hackathons and business competitions. He even organized one with the support of IEEE at Karachi University, where he was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer science.

“It is a great way to acquire new technical skills and learn stuff outside of the classroom,” he says when I ask him why he’s so fascinated by hackathons.

What’s apparent is that he’s also driven by competition.

Along with Ahmed on the hackathon scene was Jibran Yousaf, a fellow Hackathon enthusiast who also happened to be in the same university as Ahmed. The two were on good terms, open to sharing ideas and giving feedback on each others’ projects, but although they were happy to bounce ideas off of one another, one thing was clear: each was captain of their own ship, playing to their own strengths and with their own teams.

Both were leaders and formidable opponents.

Ahmad was more of a techie and Jibran’s focus was on marketing. Ahmad had always felt his original team lacked a marketing specialist, someone who could think about growth hacking and scalability of the product. As time wore on, so did that niggling feeling. When Code for Pakistan and Telenor Velocity announced their Civic Hackathon 2020, Ahmad had a radical proposal for Jibran and asked if Jibran would join him to form a team.

The two competing teams formed a supergroup, Team Solution Seekers. It was a perfect mix for a team heading into a hackathon, made up of a Moez Salahuddin, UI/UX designer; Muhammad Hamza, UI/UX developer; Taha Asif, Mobile App Developer (Flutter); Ahmed Rizvi, product manager; and Jibran Yousuf, marketing specialist.

As the Civic Hackathon 2020 guidelines were shared with the participating teams, the first step for Solution Seekers was to brainstorm ideas. They bounced 40 ideas off of one another before one stuck. They settled on ‘Faryad’, a mobile application which provided access to financial services — such as transaction of funds or providing loans — for the underprivileged, in cases of medical emergencies.

After fleshing out the basics of their idea, the team was assigned two mentors.

Their first mentor, Habib Saqib, Head of Digital Lending, Insurance and IR at EasyPaisa / Telenor Microfinance Bank, believes that entrepreneurship and innovation are the best tools to address social issues in a sustainable and meaningful manner.

Their second mentor was Hannia Zia, Product Manager at Google, whose passion for public health led her to take a sabbatical from Google to volunteer with former Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, Tania Aidrus, to facilitate COVID awareness.

Habib Saqib helped the team understand the financial regulations that may hinder their execution. It can be tricky to navigate through most regulatory policies, and Team Solution Seekers were outsiders to the digital financial industry. Hannia shared her industry knowledge to help iron out user experience of the app, as well as issues related to the verification process of cases uploaded.

The sessions with mentors helped further shape their solution, and days later, the judges announced that Team Solution Seekers had won third place. The judges had been bowled over by the team’s product and pitching.

It’s now a year later, and I ask Ahmad what advice he can offer for future participants, given that we have our GovTech Hackathon 2021 around the corner. It came as no surprise that as a veteran of hackathons, Ahmad had clear directions for anyone who is considering taking part in a hackathon.

• Come with an Intention to Learn

“Don’t enter Hackathon for the prize money! It is an opportunity to learn new skills, build your confidence, and get exposure in a new and professional setting”

• Figure Out a Team Combination

Ahmad considers this single most important ingredient to Team Solution Seekers’ success. He went in with his bases covered, identified the skills required for a complete hackathon team, and even joined hands with his rivals to achieve it.

• Keep an Open-Minded

“Be open and free to share ideas within the team and then confident enough to share it with mentors. Then it is important to listen to what the mentors have to say.”

• Have an Execution Plan Ready

When you have the right intention, the right team, and the right mindset, the only thing that is left is execution. Use each member to his or her strength, and work with them in close coordination.

Winning a Hackathon comes along with a number of perks: media coverage, better connections, and future opportunities. It wasn’t surprising that Ahmed benefited from all of these following Team Solution Seekers’ win. Ahmed made some important connections on LinkedIn, and a few companies reached out to him about employment opportunities.

The Civic Hackathon 2020 helped Ahmad brush up his technical skills and gain valuable leadership experience. Putting to use this experience, he joined a technology company as a Product Manager, with a team of software developers and UX/UI designers working under his supervision.

I ask Ahmed what has become of Jibran, curious to know whether or not he found similar successes through his win? Ahmad chuckles in response.

“That is one of the real benefits of participating in the hackathon!,” he says. “The healthy rivalry we had pushed us both to learn more and level up our skills. He is still a leader and leads the marketing team. We are still rivals, but now we both work as colleagues at the same company!”

To register your team for this year’s GovTech Hackathon, taking place in Peshawar, Oct 8–10, presented by Code for Pakistan, the KP IT Board and the World Bank, make sure to fill in this application form by October 3.

Click here to learn more about the Civic Hackathon 2020, presented by Code for Pakistan and Telenor Velocity.