On Saturday, 7 November, nine teams took over the mindit.io office in Bucharest with one goal: start the day with an idea and finish it with something that works.
The hackathon ran under a simple tagline, “AI, hold my beer. Watch this.” The idea was to put AI to work on real problems and see how far each team could get in a single day. Slides alone didn’t count. The jury wanted working demos.
A week of friendly trash talk first
The competition started before anyone opened a laptop. In the week leading up to the event, every team recorded a teaser video and got a post introducing them to the rest of the company. Most of the posts were warnings to everyone else.
Pipeline Patrol said nothing would get past them. Prompt Busters said other teams’ models were haunted. Mind The Gap said a crystal ball had already picked the winner. MAGC Squad promised to make the trophy disappear from the stage. On Saturday, everyone had to back it up.
The teams
Nine teams of four took part, bringing together engineers, architects, analysts, QA, support and project managers:
- AI for the People
- Mind The Gap
- Pipeline Patrol
- The Spreadsheet Assassins
- Take Your Time
- Ground Control
- Prompt Busters
- MAGC Squad
- The Millennium X
Each team mixed different roles, so every project had to cover the full path from idea to working product: architecture, data, code, testing and the final pitch.
The winners
The scores were close, and the jury had a hard time choosing. Here are the results:
1st place: AI for the People
Mihai Ionita, Alex Jipa, Alex Bancila, Adrian Tepsan
2nd place: Mind The Gap
Cristian Badet, Mihai Chiripuci, Robert Bolborici, Andrei Vasile
3rd place: Pipeline Patrol
Stefan Oncioiu, Silviu Balaci, Cristian Cupcea, Daniel Ciurlica
Jury’s Special Award, shared: The Spreadsheet Assassins and Take Your Time
The Spreadsheet Assassins: Ioana Dovinca, Stefan Patrascu, Alexandru Dovinca, Alexandru Amariei
Take Your Time: Iulia Dogar, Eduard Moroianu, Loredana Mihai, Claudiu Vaida
AI Engineering Efficiency Award: Ground Control
Alexandra Arsene, Maria Bantoiu, Adrian Savulescu, David Rus
A word from the jury
Anamaria Bumbar, Delivery Director at mindit.io, served on the jury and summed up the day:
“A huge thank you to all of you who took part in the hackathon. Thank you for showing up, for building, and for putting your energy and creativity into it.
I hope each of you leaves with at least one new thing you learned and can take forward. Every time we get together like this, we get a little closer. That is what a stronger team is built on: a team that is better prepared to handle whatever comes its way.
Honestly, we wish we’d had more prizes to give. Every team did a fantastic job, and the scores were incredibly close. Choosing was not easy at all.
Congratulations to our winners! For me, this was the best hackathon we’ve had so far. Being part of the jury was an honour, and I’m truly grateful for it. Thank you to my fellow jury members, Laurentiu Amitroaie, Vlad Mihalcea, Andrei Carindatoiu, Maria Ionescu and Alexandru Puiu.
Andreea Cojan, you did a great job. Thank you! A big thank you also to Eliza Ancuta and Emilia Mesteacan, for everything they did for this event and for everything they do every day to make our experiences flawless.
I can’t wait for the next hackathon!”
What we take away
A hackathon is a good test of how a team works under pressure. In one day, people who don’t usually share a project had to agree on an idea, split the work and ship something they could demo. That’s close to what our teams do for clients every day, just faster and with more snacks.
Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to every team that showed up and built something. See you at the next one.
