APRIL 17-18, 2026 · OAKLAND · THANK YOU

That Was One for the Books.

Code & Capital - the whole room, April 2026

Builders, investors, mentors, and strangers walked into a room in Oakland. They left with teams, prototypes, and investor meetings. Thank you to every single person who showed up and shipped.

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The Power of Convergence

In 2011, a handful of strangers boarded a bus with laptops and an idea. 72 hours later, they had built Segment. Twilio bought it for $3.2 billion.

StartupBus alumni have since raised over a billion dollars. The pattern is boring at this point: put the right people in one room, take away their excuses, and something ships.

$3.2B

Segment acquisition

$55M+

LISNR raised

$1B+

Alumni total

These companies didn't succeed despite the 72-hour timer. They succeeded because of it. The clock made them cut the fat. The room made them find each other. The shared stakes made them stay.

We ran that playbook on a Saturday in Oakland. And it worked.

The room converged. Something real got built. That's all we ever wanted.

What Happened

On Friday night we drank. On Saturday we built things VCs told us they'd fund. That was the whole pitch -- and it worked.

🥂

Friday Happy Hour

Friday April 17 · Open bar · No pitch deck required

People showed up. They met the builders, the investors, and the mentors. No badges. No panels. No "networking." Just the humans who'd be building together the next day.

⚡

Saturday Hackathon

Saturday April 18 · 9 AM to 6 PM · Meals and Gemini credits included

One day from blank page to pitched concept. VCs presented the problems they'd write a check for. Teams picked one, built, and pitched. The winning team earned a meeting with Google's AI Futures Fund.

The Briefing

Industry experts presented validated pain points
VCs presented white space they're actively looking to fund
Domain experts shared market insights
Teams formed around real opportunities

The Build

9 hours of focused building with the room on your side
Access to mentors, VCs, and domain experts
Google Labs Gemini API credits
Food, coffee, and the people who can fund what you make

The Pitch

Teams pitched to a judging panel of VCs, operators, and domain experts
Winning team pitched Google's AI Futures Fund
Follow-up funding and mentorship opportunities
People left with founding teams, validated concepts, and investor contacts

The Saturday Judging Panel

Three VCs. One Room. Your Pitch.

Most hackathons promise "investors in the room" and deliver a panel of angels who haven't written a check since 2021. We didn't. These are three active, check-writing investors flying in to hear your Saturday pitch — and one of them leads the fund that just decided who gets Google's AI Futures Fund meeting.

Enzo Cavalie

Principal, Reach Capital · Host, Startupeable

Invests in AI for work, learning, and health. Portfolio includes GPTZero, Preply, and Coderhouse.

5 years at Reach Capital — the fund backing AI-native learning and workforce tools
Creator of Startupeable, the #1 Spanish-language startup podcast (5M+ downloads)
Has interviewed the founders of Mercado Libre, Nubank, Vercel, Auth0, and Kavak
Reads pitch decks in three languages before breakfast

What he's looking for: founders building AI that actually moves human potential — not demos, outcomes.

James Norman

Managing Partner, Black Operator Ventures · CEO, Pilotly

Lead-check seed investor. Serial founder since age 16. Operator who has actually shipped.

Leads seed rounds at Black Operator Ventures, backing under-capitalized founders solving real-world problems
CEO of Pilotly, the consumer-insights platform used by the world's largest content studios
Chairman of Transparent Collective — 10+ years opening Silicon Valley doors for Black and Latino founders
Two issued patents. One weekend to decide if yours is next.

What he's looking for: builders with an unfair insight into a market nobody else is serving.

Ashtan Jordan

Principal, Precursor Ventures · Stanford GSB · Kauffman Fellow

Pre-seed check-writer at one of the Bay's most respected first-money-in funds.

Principal at Precursor Ventures, Charles Hudson's pre-seed powerhouse
Kauffman Fellow (Class 30) — the training ground for the next generation of GPs
Former Head of Product at McDonald's McD Labs, shipping ML across the drive-thru after the Dynamic Yield acquisition
Ex-Citi investment banker, Warby Parker operator, Stanford GSB MBA, Howard University alum

What she's looking for: day-one teams with the clarity most founders don't find until round two.

The Math Is Simple.

Three active VCs. Roughly eight pitch slots. This Saturday, April 18 — that's the day after tomorrow. If your name isn't on the confirmed list by tonight, you will watch someone else pitch the exact idea you were going to build. The form below takes under two minutes. The door closes in hours.

Apply to Pitch Them →

Your Mentors

The People in Your Corner All Weekend

These aren't observers. They're operators, founders, and investors who've already done the thing you're about to attempt — and they'll be with you Friday night and all day Saturday to help you ship it.

Diana Muñoz

Founder, AI Stealth · ex-Ontop (YC W21)

Third-time founder building an AI stealth startup in SF. Previously led AI product at Ontop (YC W21) and co-founded two AI companies to $1M+ combined ARR.

Three-time founder — shipped two AI companies past $1M in combined ARR
Led AI product at Ontop, the YC-backed global payroll platform
Connector in the LATAM-to-SV pipeline via Latam in Silicon Valley and Colombia Tech Week
Knows what an AI product needs to look like on Monday morning — not just demo day

Indra

Engineering Leader, Meta · WhatsApp Business Integrity

Scales ML-driven safety systems protecting billions on WhatsApp. Career spans Autonomous Vehicles, EdTech, and Social — from Founding Engineer and CTO to Product Manager and AI Engineer.

Hired the first core teams for multiple zero-to-one startups
Builds integrity systems that hold up at billion-user scale at Meta
Specializes in products that don't crumble under modern AI demands
Ask him about: AI/ML architecture, product, zero-to-one shipping, and scaling

Felipe Levi Gurgel

Investor, Actions Capital (fka K50 Ventures) · Duke MBA

Early-stage investor at Actions Capital backing founders across the Americas. Combines investor pattern-matching with operator instincts, sharpened through a Duke MBA.

Writes early-stage checks at Actions Capital (formerly K50 Ventures)
Cross-border perspective on the U.S. ↔ LATAM founder pipeline
Duke Fuqua MBA — built the muscle for breaking down a thesis fast
Ask him about: framing your raise, investor narrative, and what early-stage VCs actually look for

Amit

Principal Engineer, BlackRock · Agentic AI & FinTech Platforms

Strategic engineering leader architecting high-scale financial technology platforms at BlackRock, with a deep focus on Agentic AI and Large Language Models. Career spans Retail, EdTech, and Enterprise Finance — from developer to Principal Engineer and People Leader.

Re-architected mission-critical legacy portals serving millions of users
Built automated wealth management systems from the ground up at BlackRock
Designs resilient platforms that don't crumble under massive scale
Ask him about: bridging technical execution and product strategy, weaving AI into SaaS without creating tech debt

Want to mentor? We're still accepting applications — email us with what you've shipped and how you'd help.

Apply as a Mentor

Want to know when the next one happens?

We're already thinking about what's next. Drop us a line and we'll make sure you're first to know.

Stay in Touch

Questions

When was the event?

April 17-18, 2026 in Oakland, California. Opening reception on Friday evening, hackathon build day on Saturday.

Will there be another one?

We're figuring that out right now. Email staff@joincodecapital.com to be first to know.

Where are the photos?

Coming soon. We'll share them on Twitter and LinkedIn when they're ready.

Who sponsored the event?

Google Labs and Rubber Duck made the whole thing possible -- free food, drinks, venue, and Gemini API credits for every team.

I want to sponsor the next one.

We'd love to hear from you. Reach out at staff@joincodecapital.com.

The Organizers

Meet the Team Behind Code & Capital

Michelle Dhansinghani Limon

Co-Organizer · Former Investor, Top Tier Capital Partners

5 years in venture capital across growth-stage companies, venture funds, and secondaries — with a generalist lens spanning infrastructure, cybersecurity, fintech, and AI.

Founded and scaled a business in Latin America — rare dual perspective of operator and investor
Runs a community of 1,100+ investors across the US
Brings not just capital expertise, but the connections that turn weekend projects into venture-backed companies

Margrethe Williams

Co-Organizer · Product Manager, Google DevAI

A decade of experience spanning growth strategy and technical infrastructure. Currently scaling high-impact developer tools and cloud solutions at Google.

Strategic roles at Deloitte and edtech startups — bridges complex engineering and user-centric product
MBA from Columbia Business School, BS from UNC-Chapel Hill
Co-founded a coffee roastery sourcing exclusively from women-owned farms and co-ops worldwide

Gonzalo "Glo" Maldonado

Co-Organizer · CTO & Technical Founder

15+ years building AI infrastructure, developer platforms, and high-reliability systems across startups and Fortune 500 companies.

CTO & Co-Founder at Mocksi (now Brief) — AI simulation platform backed by a16z Speedrun SR005
Led hypergrowth infra at Nextdoor, shipped at FireHydrant, Yammer, and YouTube
Conference speaker (QCon SF, Conf42 SRE), open-source contributor, fractional engineering leader

Steven Imes IV

Co-Organizer · Startup & Venture Fund Advisor

Helps leaders shape go-to-market and fundraising strategy, leveraging his background in venture capital, data analytics, and building startups.

Former investor at BAG Ventures & the Estée Lauder Family Office — early-stage startup and fund diligence
Built data-driven investment frameworks and syndicated investment opportunities
Both invested in and co-founded a startup — brings a practical, founder-friendly perspective to evaluating products, teams, and technical execution
Excited to connect with engineers, founders, and students pushing ideas from concept to reality