The lessons learned during my journey of FinTech Service Hackathon…
A year and a few months ago, I had the privilege of attending a One Money Financial Service hackathon as a participant, which was a product of the partnership between FinMark Trust, NetOne, TelOne, Elevate Trust and ZimHack. The competition aimed to promote product innovations for inclusive financial services within the mobile financial services sector, with a particular focus on poor and rural populations of Zimbabwe.
So, what is a hackathon? A hackathon is generally defined as a codefest, a social coding event that brings computer programmers and other interested people together to build a new software programme (Briscoe and Mulligan, 2014). However, a hackathon does not have to be limited to software projects and it can be any event of any duration where people come together to solve problems (Tauberer, 2014). Haaga-Helia and some other Finnish universities are pioneers in using hackathons. However, numerous universities around the globe are unfamiliar even with the term and are far less likely to use it as a tool for teaching entrepreneurship.
In my curious and fun research career, this was probably one of the very few times that I experienced such passion among the youths. It was heartwarming to observe how productively and diligently the youths worked. They were driven and passionate, and most of them showed great potential and displayed various entrepreneurial traits such as a knack for problem-solving and analytical skills.
I strongly believe that all Higher Education Institutions and the Government can benefit from using hackathons as a tool for entrepreneurship education and empowering women and youths. Such efforts can prove beneficial in improving the entrepreneurship programmes in Zimbabwe as well as abroad. After all, the whole point of including entrepreneurship programmes in the education curriculum is to inculcate entrepreneurial spirit among the students, fuel their innovativeness and creativity, help them solve problems and make the world a better place. Therefore, using varied learning methodologies that pave the way for developing entrepreneurial competencies among youths and women becomes imperative.
Here are seven lessons that I have learned on my journey at the One Money Financial Service Hackathon.
- Imbibing entrepreneurial mindset
An entrepreneurial mindset in the participants allowed me to develop resilience and withstand everyday challenges. Such a mindset helped me to move forward in life, and experience growth and productivity. Skills like problem-solving, critical thinking, risk-taking, flexibility, creativity and innovation and spotting opportunities, are needed and further developed at hackathons — a fun way to foster the entrepreneurial spirit.
- Creative learning environment
Youths need an environment in which they feel free to experiment and share ideas, an environment that sparks creativity and gets their creative juices flowing. Creative spaces help in boosting “out of the box” thinking. Hackathons are such creative learning environments as they are mostly organised at different locations other than the regular business forums. This has helped me to start thinking creatively and being able to solve problems.
- Experience in pitching business ideas
Entrepreneurs must learn the skill of delivering simple yet unforgettable pitches. Pitching your business idea convincingly to investors is important, as entrepreneurs need to seek funding and expand their businesses. Persuasive pitching is the result of practice, and during hackathons, students learn this essential skill.
- Diversity encourages wide-ranging business ideas
As James Surowiecki, author of “The Wisdom of Crowds” points out, diversity is one of the most important elements required to form a wise crowd. During hackathons, students from various backgrounds and cultures gather and form diverse teams. As we are aware, different perspectives enrich the understanding of problems and increase the richness of business ideas. Diverse teams tend to be more resourceful and innovative.
- Gateway to entrepreneurship
During hackathons, participants get an opportunity to innovate various inspiring business ideas. Thus, hackathons could act as gateways to entrepreneurship and churn out great candidates for exploring entrepreneurship. On the one hand, the best business ideas generated may be given the opportunity for further growth hacking. On the other hand, hackathons instil an entrepreneurial mindset in students and propel them to pursue their own business ideas.
- Opportunity to get feedback from a wider audience
As hackathon coaches and judges evaluate the business ideas generated, the teams receive a considerable amount of constructive feedback that significantly improves their initial idea. The feedback allows the participants to clarify the scope of their business ideas and improve them. Thus enhancing the possibility of delivering realistic business ideas.
- Cooperation with the business community
Inviting company representatives to the hackathons can be a win-win for all parties. The companies get access to innovative business ideas and solutions, and participants get the chance to work on real problems and get immediate feedback for their ideas.
One might wonder whether using a hackathon as a tool for entrepreneurship education and youths and women is a practical option, especially when the business forums are struggling with funding issues. I think that the hackathons do not have to cost fortunes and they do not have to involve extravagant trips. The idea is to give the youths and women an eye-opening and a fantastic learning experience. This could be the first pillar towards financial inclusion in Zimbabwe as the empowerment of youths and women on the best practices of entrepreneurship will help them to build problem-solving solutions and can be exposed to investments. Final thoughts, I would want to take the opportunity to thank the sponsors for the event and also for the participants that were present to make my experience a memorable. Besides the competition environment, one could come up to have a lot of fun and lessons which are really practical in the life of an entrepreneur!!!
