Deploying the power of convergence
April 17 & 18, 2026 · STAK Space, 1920 Broadway, Oakland, CA
Deploying the power of convergence
April 17 & 18, 2026 · STAK Space, 1920 Broadway, Oakland, CA
In 2011, a group of entrepreneurs boarded a bus with nothing but laptops and an idea. 72 hours later, they had built Segment—acquired by Twilio for $3.2 billion.
StartupBus proved something remarkable: when you bring extraordinary talent together under the right constraints, with the right energy, something magical happens.
$3.2B
Segment acquisition
$55M+
LISNR raised
$1B+
Alumni total
These companies didn't succeed despite being built in 72 hours on a moving bus. They succeeded because of it.
The compressed timeline forced clarity. The physical proximity sparked chemistry. The shared intensity created commitment.
We believe we can do better.
We're not running a typical hackathon. We're launching an experiment in what's possible when you combine the best engineering talent with the sharpest market minds under one roof for one weekend.
Brings together the most brilliant minds in markets ready for disruption—founders who've scaled companies from zero to hundreds of millions, investors who've spotted patterns before anyone else, domain experts who understand where industries are breaking and what comes next.
Transforms those insights into venture-ready concepts. In 1.5 days, start with a Friday afternoon reception to meet other builders, then spend Saturday from 9am to 6pm building MVP mockups, developing basic business models, and creating investor-ready pitches.
Most hackathons result in "solutions looking for a problem." Code & Capital flips the script:
Code & Capital is limited, curated, and intense. If you're ready for the right moment, the right team, the right problem—this is it.
April 17–18, 2026. Opening reception with programming on Friday, April 17. Hackathon build day on Saturday, April 18.
Oakland, California. Both events at STAK Space, 1920 Broadway — directly above the 19th St BART station.
Free to attend. Limited spots available—applications required.
No. We'll help with team formation based on interest forms and skills.
We need business-focused participants! Teams benefit from diverse skillsets.
Laptop, chargers, and ideas. We'll provide food, drinks, and technical resources.
Yes. Awards in multiple categories + winner pitches AI Futures Fund for potential investment.
Co-Organizer
Michelle brings 5 years of venture capital experience to Code & Capital. Most recently an investor at Top Tier Capital Partners, she has invested across growth-stage companies, venture funds, and secondaries—with a generalist lens spanning infrastructure, cybersecurity, fintech, and AI.
Before venture, Michelle founded and scaled a business in Latin America, giving her the rare dual perspective of both operator and investor. She understands what it takes to build from the ground up and what investors look for when they write checks.
Beyond investing, Michelle runs a community of over 1,100 investors across the US and maintains a strong network of founders and operators. She brings not just capital expertise to Code & Capital, but the connections that turn weekend projects into venture-backed companies.
Co-Organizer
Margrethe is a Product Manager with a decade of experience spanning growth strategy and technical infrastructure. She is currently at Google DevAI, scaling high-impact developer tools and cloud solutions.
With a background that spans strategic roles at Deloitte and edtech startups, she specializes in bridging the gap between complex engineering and user-centric product strategy. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS from UNC-Chapel Hill.
Beyond tech, she co-founded a coffee roastery that sources exclusively from women-owned farms and co-ops across the globe.
Co-Organizer
Gonzalo "Glo" Maldonado is a CTO and technical founder with 15+ years building AI infrastructure, developer platforms, and high-reliability systems across startups and Fortune 500 companies. Most recently, as CTO & Co-Founder at Mocksi (now Brief), they built an AI-powered simulation platform that cut environment staging from a 12.5-day bottleneck to ~30 minutes self-serve and helped secure ~$1.8M in pre-seed backing via Andreessen Horowitz's Speedrun SR005 and Character Labs.
Previously, Glo led hypergrowth infrastructure and growth engineering at Nextdoor (including the March 2020 surge), shipped orchestration and observability improvements at FireHydrant, and built real-time systems at Yammer and YouTube. They're also a long-time fractional engineering leader, open-source contributor (including foundational infra work with Oracle), and a conference speaker (QCon SF, Conf42 SRE).
Glo earned a CSEE from Universidad Iberoamericana and brings CDMX heat everywhere they go.