Big problems require big solutions!

Coding with a purpose: A look inside the hackathon where developers volunteered their skills to make a difference.

Johann Marquez

3 min read

If you have seen the news, you already know that Venezuela, a whole country with a 30M+ population is facing its most difficult time in history. An incredibly rich country where the people are starving. Sounds crazy but unfortunately, it's true.

For many of us, who had the opportunity to emigrate to a place where life is normal, it has become an internal fight with our own emotions. We feel good because we usually adapt pretty fast, but we worry because as Latinos we grew highly attached to our families and friends. So, we strongly feel the need to Give Back.

This post is not intended to get into politics or deep social issues because that would take us far from the initial goal I wanted to communicate, but for those who want to have a better insight into why I said "a place where life is normal", inferring that what is happening in Venezuela is totally abnormal, you can illustrate your thoughts watching this:

What's Happening in Venezuela

Or a more straight to the point Q&A

Venezuela is facing a hard situation, and being Venezuelan that hurts, but at the same time being an entrepreneur it lets you recognize the opportunity to tackle big problems that require big solutions.

For some years now, I’ve been in the startup world, and I have seen how many entrepreneurs (including myself) had the necessity to express their creativity and sometimes frustrations by starting a business from some specific ideas. Ideas that once you think about it, you could say make sense, but at the end of the day, didn’t solve a painful problem.

So, when talking about Venezuela, one thing you can have for sure is that there are many painful problems, and that’s the starting point to innovate properly.

The best way to innovate is to start collaborating.

Back to our need to "Give back", * last year, I started talking with some friends about organizing a hackathon so we could bring people together to use their talent to find solutions for some of the many problems our people are facing.

Once the conversations started, in a matter of days we found other people who were thinking about the same thing. Actually, we found people who have done it before in New York, where Chloe Potsklan worked hard to get awareness about the topic and was able to launch two Hack for Venezuela gatherings.

As we (Venezuelans) are spread more than ever now in what is called the Venezuelan diaspora, we started connecting, having video calls, and sharing ideas, and a team was formed initially in San Francisco.

Venezuelan friends working/worked for companies like Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Slack, etc. started meeting in person and found a way to execute on making it happen.

Rafa, Marcos, Lumen, Gustavo, Johanna, Jose, and Jesus proactively took the lead in going beyond words and thoughts, settled the date, and started working on the hackathon.

codeforvenezuela.org was born

Initially, it was going to happen just in SFO, so we were all collaborating with the team there, sharing ideas, making introductions, and using our NETWORK.

They made such an amazing effort, that in no time they found initial support, and beyond a date, there was also a place: Airbnb headquarters.

The one happening in Silicon Valley was the initial and only plan, but the feeling of "Doing something" and "Giving back" pushed the need to act for some of the other friends beyond the Bay Area.

We came up with the idea of having complimentary localized hackathons in other cities and we went from one city to six, thanks to:

Anibal in Bogota
Sebastian in Barcelona
Vanessa in São Leopoldo
Raul in Santiago de Chile
and myself in Toronto

A concept based on acting real, having an impact, and keeping continuity.

The idea of helping was good but giving a structure that keeps the momentum was the challenge. We didn’t want to gather tech guys for a weekend to share ideas work hard and go home without generating an impact or potential impact.

The team in San Francisco managed to connect with organizations that are working in Venezuela on the ground that needed help with technology. Many of these organizations trying to do good work, however, they are encountering obstacles because they lack the resources and talent pool to achieve their goals.

And that’s how the intentional magic started happening, where we connected:

To learn more about some of the initial challenges, please check the following GitHub: