DubHacks: The Founding Story & Keynote Speech - 10yrs Later
Original post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7257393623304974336/
Exactly 10 years ago this month, a group of friends from UW and I witnessed a wild dream of ours come roaring to life. We initially set out to bring all of our smartest, most ambitious, most energetic friends together for an epic night of hacking on cool projects and connecting with each other.
But the dream grew. And grew. And eventually snowballed into a 500+ person, 24hr hackathon on UW's campus - in the heart of the Husky Union Building. It took an intense near year of hard work, relentless vision casting, and working through far more logistics than I could have ever imagined.
But thanks to the tireless work of our fearless founding team, generous corporate sponsors, and 35+ volunteers, DubHacks was born! Earning the title of the largest collegiate hackathon in the PNW, with students in attendance from over 17 countries, and throughout the nation.
From having to pack 100's of Chipotle burritos and giant bowls of guac into my Tahoe, due to a last-minute delivery truck breakdown, through to the nervousness of being on live TV news, it was a truly humbling experience.
A few weeks ago, I had the enormous honor of getting to attend, and co-deliver the keynote speech, at the 10th anniversary DubHacks. It was truly surreal, and is already a cherished life experience.
Standing on the same stage I had stood exactly 10yrs prior. Looking out at 1000+ college students in attendance, and feeling the joy/excitement - wondering whether DubHacks would have a similar impact on them. Will they meet their future co-founders over these two days? Get introduced to a life-long intellectual passion/career? Or maybe even meet life-long friends?
My hope is that the humble origin story of DubHacks, having started and being run to this day by students, would inspire those in attendance to dream BIG. To take bold, relentless action. And to be able to experience waking up 10yrs later to the impact of those dreams and actions.
They truly do compound.
A huge shout out to Sabrina, Andrew, and the entire DubHacks team for building the non-profit into what it is today! I am amazed. And it was a true honor to speak alongside Karan and Grant (and the rest of the founding team in spirit). Deeply inspiring to see the legacy of a decade of incredibly dedicated Huskies, working together to build a bright future. :)
DubHacks 2024: https://dh24.dubhacks.co/
GeekWire's video feature of the inaugural 2014 DubHacks: