At 7pm on July 22, 30 Pursuit Builders filed out of a potluck and into Pursuit's sixth Mini Hackathon. Builders coming from every stage of the AI-Native Program, L1 through L3+, were put on cross-cohort teams for a single challenge. Two hours to ideate and build based on the theme of Summer in the City. A hard requirement to deploy. A two-minute lightning round to prove it worked. The event is a small one on paper. What it revealed about how Pursuit's model actually works is a different story.
Teams weren't formed by cohorts or friends. They were assigned on the spot, mixing Builders who had just started the program with Builders several levels ahead. That's deliberate. Pursuit's model is built on two beliefs: newer Builders learn faster alongside people a few steps ahead, and confidence grows fastest when you're in the room before you feel ready.
This hackathon happened to land just weeks after a new cohort joined, so the room skewed heavily toward L1 Builders. Some teams were made up entirely of them. A few had come in planning to watch. Instead, they built and shipped full products, on the same deadline as everyone else.
Every team in the room had to submit a live, working build link before the 9pm cutoff. Teams shipped a range of ideas tied to the Summer in the City theme: a randomizer for planning a night out, an NYC bucket-list bingo card, a summer concierge tool, a city guide. Whatever the idea, the bar was the same: it had to actually run. A panel of judges reviewed each build and picked the winner.
The night's top build came from Bo Moldenhauer, Dikshyant Giri, and Michael Fehdrau, Team CYA on the Other Side, who built the Choose Your Adventure NYC App, a randomizer that generates a custom NYC night out based on your vibe, your crew, and your budget. Congratulations to the team for pulling off the night's strongest build under the same two-hour clock as everyone else.
A two-hour deadline doesn't leave room to wait until you feel ready. That's the point. Hackathons exist to compress the learning curve and put the skills Builders are developing on display, so people at every stage can prove what they're capable of, whether you're three days in or three cohorts ahead. Confidence isn't built by waiting for the right moment. It's built by shipping before you feel prepared to.
Pursuit's approach to learning is not one expert to many students, but builders at every stage teaching and learning from each other simultaneously. Mini Hackathons create that environment deliberately, and what emerges is always the same: people doing more than they thought they could. When you're surrounded by peers who are figuring it out alongside you, the bar rises. And so does everyone in the room.
Interested in what Builders are shipping right now? Learn more about Pursuit's AI-Native Program at pursuit.org/ai-native-program.
