TechTO Hackathon
Get ready for a 12-hour Hackathon from 9AM to 9PM designed for builders, dreamers, and doers!
Welcome to the Future of Interaction!
Join us for the TechTO Hackathon!
Tired of clicking, tapping, and swiping? So are we. This hackathon is your invitation to rethink how we engage with the world. Go beyond the screen - explore voice, gestures, agents and ambient signals that anticipate and delight. Reimagine daily routines and build the next generation of human-computer interaction.
Expect a high-energy day filled with innovation, problem-solving, and connection. You'll have access to mentors, workshops, and plenty of opportunities to network with fellow hackers, developers, and creatives.
Come solo or with a team — just bring your passion and curiosity. It's not just about the code; it's about the people, the process, and the potential. Let's build something great together!
Let's talk prizes!
Toronto bragging rights (of course)
$1000 giant check to the winning team
1 month of Framer Basic to all participants
1 year of Framer Pro to top 3 teams
3 months free of Eleven Labs Creator tier for all participants
3 months of the Eleven Labs Pro Tier for the winning team
3 months of the Eleven Labs Scale tier for best project built with Eleven Labs
1 month of Lovable Pro 1 for all participants
Another month of Lovable Pro for the winning team
1 year membership to TechTo for the winning team
2 Labubu's to giveaway!
Agenda
9:00am: Doors open, check in and grab coffee
9:45am: Welcome speech and walkthrough of agenda of the day
10:00am - 5:00pm: Hackathon time! Lunch will be provided at 1:00pm
5:00pm - 5:30pm: Voting and Pizza time!
5:30pm - 6:30pm: The top 3 teams will be selected for the judge panel. Play video-demos and Q&A
6:30pm - 7:00pm: Judges discussion
7:00pm - 7:30pm: Awards & Celebration
7:30pm - 9pm: Social & End of the Event
Meet Our Hosts:
Nael El Shawwa is a software craftsman and hands-on product and engineering leader with 20 years of experience delivering impactful web-based products across advertising, retail, and finance. He has led diverse teams of engineers, product managers, designers, and data scientists, fostering growth, experimentation, and excellence. At Perpetua, he scaled the engineering team from 10 to 70, drove ~5x revenue growth, and navigated three acquisitions, including a $150M sale to Ascential. Previously, he helped build Flashstock, acquired by Shutterstock for $50M, and led product engineering at Veriday and BMO. Nael is also the co-founder of #DevTO, a thriving tech community in Toronto.
Samit Khalsa is the Co-Founder of Penseum, which is an AI-powered learning platform built to help every student study smarter, especially those who feel left behind by traditional learning tools. Samit built it because school felt broken growing up, and he wanted to fix that. He is here trying to help students learn faster and stress less.
Meet Our Judges:
Joe Shearman is the Co-Founder of Planbase, a Y Combinator and LocalGlobe-backed startup building AI-native tools for healthcare operations management. Planbase supports healthcare organizations with over $1B in combined annual revenue, helping them automate scheduling, licensing, payroll, and analytics through customizable, AI-generated UIs and agentic workflows.
Ivan Tsarynny is the CEO & Co-Founder of Feroot – A data protection intelligence software company. Feroot is behavior-based web security monitoring platform. It analyzes actual behavior of scripts and third-party tools and their level of access to data on web login, credit card payment pages, and other pages with high-value data. This helps detect potential data skimming breaches from unknown threats in real-time.
Jake Sinclair is a design leader specializing in brand, campaign, and digital product design. With over 10 years of experience, he’s helmed creative strategy, visual identity, and multichannel campaigns for high-growth SaaS and consumer tech companies. Jake is a certified Framer Expert, which underscores his deep proficiency in building interactive, designer-friendly prototypes and high-fidelity interfaces. Passionate about storytelling through design, he balances hands-on craft with strategic impact, shaping brands that stand out and experiences people enjoy.
Mahbod Moe Sabbaghi, Founder of The Intelligent Search Company (TISC), bringing the fastest possible search to time sensitive workflows in any industry: From data backed and fast play calling in football to getting answers for support agents in under a second. Mahbod has an eye for design and user experiences and has raised millions to solve the current state of searching for things and is happy to help students find their way to a business viable and delightful product.
Kenson Chung is Co-Founder of Origami, a YC-backed startup building AI research agents that help sales teams discover high-intent leads. Previously, he served as CTO at an enterprise sales platform, where he engineered research workflows adopted by billion-dollar companies.
Thank you for our sponsors
If you would like to know more about our sponsor, please visit:
NEXT Canada
ElevenLabs
Framer
Lovable