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Earlier in March, a group of ten dedicated students from Frankfurt School went on an exciting journey to St. Gallen, Switzerland, to participate in START Hack, Europe’s most entrepreneurial hackathon.
The initiative was organized through FS Coding, the university’s student tech community, which recently launched GDG on Campus – supported by Google. This group aims to spark interest in software development, artificial intelligence, and digital innovation by org anizing tech events such as career talks, coding sessions, and FS’s very first own Hackathon.
START Hack is one of Europe’s biggest hackathons, hosted annually in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Each year, it brings together over 500 ambitious students from around the globe to solve real-world business and social challenges by using all the tools technology provides them with in just 36 hours. Unlike traditional hackathons, START Hack emphasizes entrepreneurial problem-solving, so the submitted work can actually be used after submission.
Organized by START Global, the event connects students with industry-leading companies and creates an environment for collaboration. Participants gain access to industry mentors, cutting-edge tech cases, and a platform to pitch their ideas in front of corporate and startup leaders. The ultimate goal: turn ideas into scalable, impactful solutions and at the end of iit, the final team wins a cash price of 10.000 CHF.
After meeting at Frankfurt School, our team hit the road for a four-hour drive through scenic Swiss villages and past Lake Constance. For many of our international students, the journey itself was a memorable experience. Once in St. Gallen, we divided into smaller teams, quickly claimed one of the few available mattresses in the communal sleeping area (spoiler: we didn’t use them much), and prepared for an intense and exciting weekend.
Companies sponsoring the hackathon presented a wide range of real-world challenges, and we had to quickly assess which case best fit our skills, time, and available data. Topics ranged from:
· Creating a digital, AI-powered heating system
· Analyzing land use changes using satellite imagery
· Improving energy efficiency for heating pumps
· Creating insightful dashboards for different companies
· Creating business models for companies expanding to new countries
We received our selected case and immediately launched into brainstorming, planning, and coding.
Beyond the cases, there were also various side quests such as a finance competition, chess tournament, and business plan competition.
Once the clock started, the energy was high. Teams organized their approach, divided tasks, and dove into programming. Sleep was minimal. The following day included insightful expert talks, more development time, and ongoing conversations with our case sponsors to clarify requirements.
In the final night, we powered through with no sleep to finish our pitch decks in time for the 8:00 AM submission deadline. Then came the final step: delivering a convincing 3-minute pitch summarizing our solution and insights. After, we fell asleep on our desks, exhausted but feeling accomplished.
While none of the FS teams came away with a prize this year, the knowledge we gained, the experiences we shared, and the inspiration we took home made the journey well worth it. After the closing ceremony, we packed up and returned to Frankfurt – tired but proud. On the way back, weh ad great conversations, thereby making new friends from different tracks, intakes and programs.
This experience wouldn’t have been possible without the financial support from the Frankfurt School. Thanks to this backing, we were able to represent our university in full strength, explore new technologies, and form valuable connections.
We look forward to returning to START Hack next year – even better prepared, even more inspired, and with new ideas ready to bring to life to hopefully take home a prize!
Frankfurt School gGmbH
Adickesallee 32-34
60322 Frankfurt am Main
