Opening Ceremony

What do you want to do when you grow up?

As a young boy walking down the streets of Hong Kong, I recall asking myself this question, and imagining all day long. Perhaps I could study and teach about dinosaurs. Perhaps I could be an astronaut. I thought I could do anything, as long as I could dream it.

And yet, somewhere along the way, we lose sight of these dreams.

In their place, we replace them with grades. Academics. Results. We are told to wake up to the real world. To find a stable job. Earn an income. Support a mortgage. To climb the prestigious social hierarchy and ladder.

You get good grades to get into a good college. You get a good internship to get a good job.

But for what?

Have you ever stopped to think — why are you doing what you are doing? Is it because someone told you to? Or perhaps it is just something you are good at. Does it make you happy?

Growing up in Hong Kong, I always felt as if there was this overwhelming force pointing me in the direction of banking, law, or medicine. Amongst my peers, it felt as though there were only four possible paths in life: doctor, banker, lawyer — or failure. Everyone rushing to get into that coveted IB position, or become a doctor, or go into consulting, anything that would secure you the high-paying cheque.

I too once carried that mindset.

Until I discovered the freedom of just doing what I want.

I remember the first time I walked into a room full of hackers, building literally anything they wanted. Back then, there was no AI. It was a lot harder. But the excitement. The freedom. The vast sense of opportunity. That is something I will never forget.

And I want to tell you four stories about what happened next. Because none of them made sense at the time. They only connect looking backwards.

Story One: The Research

I was sitting in class one day and this guy Marcus — who sat next to me — knew I was a coder. He turned to me and said, “Hey Chinat, I have this great idea but I don’t know how to build it. Do you want to help me out?”

I said sure, let me see what I can do. That weekend, at a hackathon, I prototyped the whole thing. We ended up winning the overall best prize. We won an Xbox.

But I did not stop there. I went back and kept building. That project became ClinicalMindAI — an AI system for training medical communication skills. It grew into a real research effort. Twenty schools started using it. And it led me to secure a research position at Stanford, where I got to work with Carl Wieman — a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who spent his career rethinking how students learn science.

A hackathon gave me my first research opportunity. I never could have planned that.

Story Two: The Startup

At TreeHacks 2023, I was with a crew of really sharp friends, including Carter. We spent the weekend building a project called FlowPilot. We had no idea what would come of it.

But one of the prizes we won was a meeting with Pear VC. I kept in touch with them after the event. And when I started my next company, they were the ones who backed us. We raised a million dollars.

A hackathon gave me my first startup. I never could have planned that either.

Story Three: The Job

At a hackathon, a guy named Adam walked onto stage and showcased a product called Magic Loops. I was immediately hooked. I was so excited about the product that I started using it in my own hackathon build. I could not stop thinking about how to make it better.

That excitement turned into a real opportunity. I joined Magic Loops as a founding engineer and spent the next year building alongside Adam.

A hackathon gave me my first real job. I definitely did not plan that.

Story Four: Why We Are All Here Tonight

A few months ago, at the Google DeepMind hackathon in San Francisco, my teammate Douglas and I built PlushPilot — an AI tool for a twenty-seven-year-old family toy business called Adorable World. We placed second out of seven hundred applicants. Won over ten thousand dollars in prizes. And now we are turning that hackathon project into a real paid pilot with the business.

A hackathon is now giving me my first real client. And it is a family business — the kind of business that Hong Kong is full of.

You cannot connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards.

Research. Startups. Jobs. Clients. Every single one of those came from the same place: a room full of builders, a weekend of building, and the willingness to follow what excited me instead of what was expected of me.

To me, entrepreneurship is where dreams come true. And hackathons are the best pathway for you to explore that.

And so I say to you:

Take off that jacket.

Take off that mask.

And put on this builder mindset.

There will be those who mock you. Who point their fingers at you. Who try to snuff you out. But as long as you are solving a real need and a real problem — you will find a way.

We are not here today to pad up our resumes. We are not here for the free food — though, who knows. We are here to build.

Ask not what AI can do for you. Ask what you can do for Hong Kong and the broader society with the help of AI.

The challenges you will work on today did not come from a prompt generator. They came from real operators, real businesses, real problems that need solving.

Try things. Break things. There is no one here holding you back except yourself.