AI Agents & MCP Hardware Hackathon Sponsored by Google Cloud & OpenAI
The ESI X Korea Investments Growth & Sales Hackathon is a TWO-Day, high-energy build and execution event designed for founders, builders, and early-stage startup ESI x Korea Investments
AI Agent, MCP & Sales Hackathon
📍 Frontier Tower, San Francisco
🗓 January 10–11, 2026
⏰ Daily start time: Saturday 11:00 AM - Sunday 7:00pm
DJ Afterparty 🎆🎉🎈🎊 7pm - 10pm
The ESI x Korea Investments AI Agent, MCP & Sales Hackathon is a two-day, execution-focused hackathon for founders, engineers, and early-stage startups building AI agents, MCP systems, and scalable growth engines. The event blends product building, AI agent development, and sales execution, challenging teams to ship real systems, test them through outreach and traction experiments, and iterate fast.
Participants will build alongside experienced speakers, operators, and renowned judges, connect with startups that are hiring and recruiters, and compete for $6,000 in prizes plus guaranteed investor interviews. This hackathon is designed for builders who want to leave with real progress, traction, and strong connections.
Sponsors
OpenAI & Google Cloud
Tracks
B2B SaaS Growth
Hardware and Physical Products
AI for Manufacturing
AI for Healthcare
AI Agents and MCP Systems
Growth and Sales Systems
Existing Startups Traction Acceleration
Open Innovation
Agenda Overview
Day 1 — Build, Activate, Execute
Start: 10:30 AM — Networking & Refreshments Helen Zeng and Opening Welcome
11:00 AM Check in and arrival
11:30 AM Opening welcome and event overview
12:00 PM Founder introductions and activation icebreaker
12:30 PM Sales and growth panel
1:30 PM Build sprint one and outreach launch
3:00 PM Mentor and technical office hours
4:30 PM Structured networking session
5:30 PM Build sprint two and iteration
7:00 PM Community mixer and optional networking
Day 2 — Iterate, Pitch, and Demo
Start: 11:00 AM
11:00 AM Morning traction stand up
11:30 AM Build sprint three and final execution
1:30 PM Pitch and traction clinic
2:30 PM Final office hours
4:00 PM Final demos and pitches
6:00 PM Judging and awards
7:00 PM Post event networking and next steps
Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner
Provided with diet-friendly Protein & Vegan options
🎯 What to Expect:
Collaborative team challenges + hardware/AI innovation tracks
Google Cloud Hands-on Workshop with Mansi More - Learn to Build, Test, and Deploy Multimodal AI with the New Vertex AI Studio and Gemini
$4,000+ in cash prizes + entry into investment accelerator
Hosted by Iman Schaefer, Bee Schaefer, Ashley Kim, Alex Aghili, and Eric Kim
⚖️ Judges:
Tak Lim Lee | Korea Investment Accele
Andrew McGrath | CEO of REALLM Realty
Helen Zeng | Financial Strategist
Anand Vallamsetla | Founder & CEO of Resilience AI, AI Advisor @ The Why Man, ex-Google
DJ Afterparty 🎆🎉🎈🎊 7pm - 10pm
Special Thank you to Santa Cruz Works & CIED for supporting E.S.I founders community
This event is hosted at the Frontier Tower:
We are transforming a 16-floor tower in San Francisco into a self-governed vertical village—a hub for frontier technologies and creative arts. Tier-one labs presenting AI, Ethereum, biotech, neuroscience, longevity, robotics, human flourishing, and arts & music. These floors will house innovators and creators pushing the boundaries of human potential in a post-AI-singularity world.
Apply here for founding citizenship: https://frontiertower.io/apply
Why should I become a citizen?
Be part of creating the first self-governed vertical village
Connect with the most creative people in the city
Get access to all floors, free event space & movement floor
Website: https://frontiertower.io/
Need more reading? Visit https://frontiertower.notion.site/