We are a team of hackers. That is at least what we keep telling the world in our pitches and introductions. However, if you think about it for a while, the definition is actually quite accurate for our team. Regarding to the Merriam-Webster dictionary and the meaning of the word hacker, it means:

1. one that hacks

2. a person who is inexperienced or unskilled at a particular activity (eg. a tennis hacker)

3. an expert at programming and solving problems with a computer

4. a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system

The first notion is definitely true. We are active and as a team our favourite form of activity has traditionally been attending hackathons. For a few years now we have been attending these events as a team to hack together new projects and to deliver working solutions to real problems in short timeframes.

The second part describes our eagerness to improve and to learn. Usually the most interesting problems are the ones you don't have any previous experience on. There is a shit ton of things that we have no experience on, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't try. And fail. And adapt. And learn. And then prevail.

Regarding the third notion, luckily there are loads of things we do already have experience on. The IT world is our oyster, as our 4-man hacking team is the great cocktail of  full-stack web-development, AI/ML-knowledge, sales, product design and a touch of project management. More often than not we have successfully reached the podium and every time we are just as amazed.

I took the liberty of altering the final notion to match us. We don't break rules (and definitely not the law). However we do often explore the limits of set rules and might attempt to hack the system for our advantage. To be honest I think everyone does this. At least they should.

Now that we have established a mutual understanding of us being (successful) hackers, I can share our secret sauce that has successfully taken us through multiple hackathons and other events or competitions. It consists of three simple ingredients:

1. Infinite self-confidence

2. Downplaying your opponents

3. Establishing good relations to the jury

This advice (as the whole post ;D) should be taken with a grain of salt, but there is a real message within. Know what you can do, know what your opponents are doing and know what your customer wants. These are the principles our team continues to work by.

Oh yes, I almost forgot! The startup we are working on now is actually a hackathon project gone haywire. Bulletin.ai is a press release rating tool for news media companies. It eases the finding of newsworthy content from the thousands of press releases newsrooms are flooded with. By utilizing automation and ML, Bulletin.ai saves time, money and nerves by solving an age old problem in media.

Go check our new web pages (https://bulletin.ai) for more information, they were just launched today! And expect to hear more of us as the plot thickens..!

Arttu - Bulletin.ai

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