Two nights, almost no sleep: building STROT in public

Over 48+ hours in December 2025, my team worked through system design, dashboards and flows, UI and logic, and pitch prep to bring STROT — a hackathon project aimed at breaking the cycle of generational poverty through what we called "BAL. BUDDHI. VIDYA." — to life.

What building in public actually captures

Not a demo, not a pitch — code flying, designs changing, logic breaking and getting fixed, all while the clock keeps ticking. The moments worth sharing are the grind, not the polished five-minute version of it.

The reminder that stuck

Products aren't born in slides. They're forged in late nights, debates and lines of code — and that's true whether the hackathon ends in a trophy or, as this one did, in a lesson about pitching instead.