Before You Start: How to Use AI Today

AI is your thinking partner, not your replacement. Use it to brainstorm faster, sharpen your problem, and mock up ideas — but treat every fact or number it gives you as a guess to test, not truth to repeat. Push back on its first answer, make it ask you questions too, and when it's time to pitch, the story and the words need to be yours.

Use AI to go faster. Don't let it think for you.

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Intellectual Property Policy: “Open by default”

Any intellectual property developed during and within the scope of the hackathon must be open source and licensed under one of the licenses referenced in **https://opensource.org/licenses”.**

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1. Structured networking and team formation.

You will undergo structured networking where we'll set up areas for people to congregate around different fintech problem categories (banking, credit & lending, student loans, saving & budgeting, investing, shared finances, financial literacy, access & inclusion). Before you head to a category area, use AI individually to generate a few problem ideas within each category based on your own experience, then pick the category and idea that resonates most and head to that sticky note to meet others who chose the same one. Once you form teams of no more than 6 people, please enter your team information into the master team roster.

Example AI prompt: "Here are the fintech problem categories: banking, credit & lending, student loans, saving & budgeting, investing, shared finances, financial literacy, and access & inclusion. Based on my life as a college student, generate 2-3 specific, personal problem examples for each category — things I may have actually run into, not generic industry problems. Interview me to help me figure out which one feels most real and frustrating to me."

This lets each person walk into networking with a concrete idea already in hand rather than an abstract category, so when they arrive at the "credit & lending" sticky note, for example, they can immediately compare notes ("I struggled to get my first credit card" vs. "my credit limit never increases") and see if a shared problem emerges fast enough to form a team around it.

2. Problem definition and primary market research.

Now that your team has landed on a shared problem — say, overdraft fees hitting before paychecks clear — use AI to help you sharpen it into a clear, testable problem statement (who has this problem, when does it happen, why haven't existing products solved it). Then talk to at least 5 people per team — teammates and other participants face to face, or friends via video chat — to validate that the problem is real, painful, and does not already have a clear solution. AI can help you draft interview questions, but the answers need to come from real humans.

Example AI prompt: "My team's problem is _____. Help me turn this into a clear, testable problem statement. Who exactly experiences this, when does it happen, and why is this problem not already solved? Ask me any clarifying questions to help me define my target customer. Then draft 5 short interview questions I can ask other students to find out if this is common and how painful it is.”

3. Solution ideation and development

Brainstorm solution concepts with AI to generate more options faster than you could alone, then use AI-assisted no-code/low-code tools to mock up your concept (a simple screen flow, wireframe, or one-pager showing how it would work). You're not writing production code — you're making the idea tangible enough that someone else can picture using it. Use AI to do a rapid market-sizing gut-check: roughly how many people share this problem, and would they pay or switch to fix it?

Example AI prompt: "Based on this problem — ________________ — brainstorm 5 different solution concepts, ranging from a ______ to a _______ to a _______. Interview me to get feedback and iterate. For the top concept, describe a simple 3-screen mockup flow. Again, ask me for feedback then help me iterate.”

Example AI prompt: “Now help me do a rough market-sizing estimate: how many people in the US experience this, what are they doing today, and would they pay for a new solution to solve this problem? Be sure to ask any clarifying questions.”

4. Pitching and storytelling

Use AI to help you structure your narrative arc and tighten your language, but the story and delivery should be yours — AI is a drafting partner, not the presenter.

Example AI prompt: "Help me structure a 2-minute pitch narrative for our solution to _____. I want a hook, problem, opportunity size, solution, validation plan, and a call to action. Give me a tight outline, but I'll write the actual pitch language myself. Write this outline as if pitching at a Y Combinator demo day — punchy and confident. Interview me to ask any clarifying questions. I will give you the final outline. Then help me make the slides.”

5. Develop and practice your 2 minute pitch

Taking all the information available into account, develop a 2-minute idea pitch. You can create your pitch with or without AI. Beautiful AI, Canva, Prezi, GammaApp are common tools. Practice your pitch with a coach 2 or 3 times to practice. As always: make sure the final pass is done by a human and not by AI!

Paste clickable links into the team roster Google Sheet.

Each person will have the ability to vote for your favorite team. One vote per person. Please do not vote for your own team! Thank you.