Hacks archive

Future in 48 — Nairobi

Forty-eight hours. That was all it took for some of the sharpest builders in East Africa to go from blank repos to working products. Future in 48 was b54's first in-person hackathon — held in Nairobi, powered by Cohere, and fueled by an energy that no virtual event can replicate. Teams formed fast. Some came with squads, others found their people in the first hour. By midnight on day one, the room was alive — keyboards clacking, whiteboards covered in diagrams, and the kind of focused chaos that only happens when builders are locked in. People were shipping features at 3 AM like it was the most natural thing in the world. What the teams built was remarkable. AI-driven health platforms, smart educational tools, developer utilities that solve real pain points. These weren't demo-day toys — they were the seeds of real products, built by people who understand the problems because they live them every day. But the best part wasn't the code. It was the community. Strangers became collaborators. Mentors jumped in to unblock stuck teams. The energy was electric and the connections forged over those 48 hours will outlast any single project. This is what b54 is about — bringing builders together and watching what happens when you give them space to create.