Galentine's Day Hackathon builders holding their certificates in front of the sponsor slide

Recap · Feb 15, 2026 · NYC

Galentine's Day Hackathon

For Black History Month, we threw a free, one-day GenAI hackathon for Black women and femme-presenting builders, dressed up in our best Galentine's pinks. Our founder Maria Ashby co-produced it with Kanene Ayo Holder and Abran Maldonado, and Henry Street Settlement opened its doors to us from 12 to 6pm.

Builders picked one of two tracks. The Technical Build track audited algorithmic bias and built "integrity engines" for credit, healthcare and insurance. The Creative Vibe Coding track designed no-code and low-code tools and business models that help people push back on automated decisions.

Volunteers from NVIDIA and Vercel ran workshops and mentored side by side with Create Labs, and winners went home with v0 credits and a few sweet surprises.

Thank you

Venue partner

Henry Street SettlementOpened its doors on the Lower East Side for the day(opens in a new tab)

Winners

The teams who took it home

  • Most Viable Project

    Black Women Wealth Building

  • Most Technical

    Kimberly Inez Mays

  • Most Creative

    Nikisha Roberts

  • Ms. Congeniality

    Donovan Ellis

Photos

From the room

  • A 3percentclub organizer presenting to the room at the Galentine's Day Hackathon
  • Two builders pointing to their Black Women Wealth Building site on the classroom screen
  • Builders on laptops listening as a presenter walks through her project at the front of the room
  • A builder on her laptop watching a slide titled How to Become A Better Dev in a AI Code Era, with heart balloons nearby