From 16-18 October, more than 50 participants from different backgrounds and cultures came together at kood/Jõhvi for the Garage48 Empowering Women Hackathon. What made the weekend especially exciting was the diversity of people in the room. Alongside local participants, we welcomed people from different parts of Estonia and beyond, including expats, digital nomads, and newcomers who are still building their communities here.
We were also happy to see so many first-time hackers. Welcome to the Garage48 community! And to those who have joined us before, whether at previous Empowering Women hackathons or other Garage48 events, thank you for coming back. It's great to see familiar faces alongside so many new ones! 😍
Some arrived with startup ideas they had been thinking about for months. Others came simply to learn something new, meet people, and see what a hackathon is actually like. That's one of the things we love most about Garage48 events. You don't need to have a business plan, a startup, or a technical background. Sometimes all it takes is curiosity and the willingness to show up.
Why Empowering Women in Ida-Viru?
But just as importantly, we want to create a space where people can meet like-minded individuals, exchange ideas, and build meaningful connections. While the program focuses on empowering women, interest reached far beyond that. Participants of different ages, nationalities, and professional backgrounds joined the event, and many men also took part as team members, mentors, and supporters. One thing became very clear during the weekend: good ideas rarely grow in isolation. They grow when people come together.
Teamwork plays a big role in this. Most participants arrived without a ready-made team. They met new people, found common interests, and started working together, often with people they had only met a few hours earlier.
And that's a valuable experience in itself. Learning how to work with different people, combine skills, listen to each other, and move towards a common goal is something you can take with you well beyond the hackathon.
How did it start?
The weekend kicked off on Friday evening with 16 ideas pitched on stage. The topics ranged from education and career development to logistics, safety, sports, wellbeing, and artificial intelligence. Some participants already had early prototypes, while others arrived with little more than an idea and the motivation to see where it could go.
Teams formed on the spot, bringing together people with different skills, backgrounds, and experiences. As first-time hackathon participant Arielle Solnson (team SPARR) shared:
"This was such a cool experience! I had never been to a hackathon before, but now I actually know where to start if I have a good idea."
Several participants who initially planned to work on their own ideas eventually joined other teams instead. Later, many of them said it turned out to be one of their best decisions of the weekend. Kadri Juhkam from team BLOOM was surprised by how much her team managed to achieve in such a short time. They went from an early idea to a prototype, user research, and financial calculations in just one weekend.
"I realised how much you can actually achieve in just 48 hours. Sometimes a good idea stays in your head for months or even years, but here you have the chance to finally turn it into something real."
Team Foodloop and mentor Jelena Oshepkova. Photo by Maido Parv.
Meet the teams behind the ideas
After an intense weekend of brainstorming, testing, prototyping, mentoring, and pitching, our teams presented their solutions to the jury on Sunday. And the winning teams are…
🥇 DuoTale - a bilingual audio storytelling platform for children that encourages imagination while helping families reduce screen time.
Winning team DuoTale. Photo by Kaido Parv.
🥈 Sparr - a platform connecting people through local sports activities and events.
Team SPARR. Photo by Maido Parv.
🥉 SIS. (Safety & Sisterhood) - an app designed by women, for women, helping users feel safer during nights out and journeys home.
Team SIS. Photo by Maido Parv.
And of course, there were plenty of other great ideas developed over the weekend! From helping people find new career opportunities to making everyday life easier and safer, our teams worked on all kinds of different challenges.
Meet our other cool teams:
⭐ SkillCompass helps young people discover education and career opportunities based on their skills and interests.
Team SkillCompass. Photo by Maido Parv.
⭐ BLOOM supports women during pregnancy and postpartum by bringing together useful information, expert guidance, and community support.
Team BLOOM. Photo by Maido Parv.
⭐ TALENT connects job seekers and employers through skills-based matching, helping people find opportunities beyond traditional CVs.
Team TALENT. Photo by Maido Parv.
⭐ FreightShield AI uses artificial intelligence to help prevent fraud in European road freight logistics.
⭐ Forcuts is developing a recipe platform to make finding and using recipes easier.
Team Forcuts. Photo by Kaido Parv.
Growth happens outside your comfort zone
One of the best parts of the weekend was seeing participants challenge themselves and discover what they were capable of. For the winning team DuoTale, the experience wasn't only about taking first place. As the team lead, Marie Pohlak shared...
"The hackathon really pushed me beyond my comfort zone. I might not have dared to build an app or experiment with AI tools on my own, but here I found the courage to try."
Similar reflections came from participants across different teams. Iana Iarovaia from team SIS. described the experience like this:
"The whole 48-hour experience was incredibly valuable. I learned so much, made huge progress with my project, built a great team, and hopefully made connections for life."
And that's another great thing about hackathons. People from different backgrounds come together, often knowing very few people in the room, and leave with new teammates, friends and shared experiences.
For Reem Bayoumi from team SIS., meeting new people is one of the reasons she keeps coming back to hackathons:
"What I love most about hackathons is the adrenaline, the adventure, and meeting new people. Every time I come back, I have a new idea and meet new teammates. You never know where it might lead!"
That's probably the best description of a hackathon. You arrive not knowing exactly what the next 48 hours will bring, and leave with experiences, connections, and ideas you didn't have before.
Mentors who challenge, support, and inspire
No Garage48 hackathon would be complete without our amazing mentors! Throughout the weekend, mentors challenged assumptions, asked difficult questions, helped teams validate their ideas, and encouraged participants to think bigger, and prepare for the final pitches.
But mentors aren't there to give you all the answers or build your product for you. Sometimes their feedback makes you rethink your original plan, and that's part of the learning process. As Kadri Juhkam from team BLOOM shared:
“Come with an open mind and be ready to receive feedback and change your plans. If you're too attached to your original idea and aren't willing to adapt, you'll have a difficult time at a hackathon.”
Not every piece of feedback is easy to hear at first, but it can become much clearer as your idea develops. As DuoTale's team lead Marie Pohlak shared:
“At first, I wasn't sure how to apply the mentors' advice because our product wasn't technically ready yet. But once we had made progress, everything started to make sense.”
The hackathon is over, but the journey continues!
The weekend might be over, but the journey is only beginning for many of our teams. Over the course of 48 hours, participants tested ideas, built prototypes, received feedback, and pushed themselves far beyond what they thought was possible. Now it's time to take those next steps.
The Garage48 Empowering Women Accelerator continues from October to December 2026, offering workshops, mentoring, and practical support to help participants develop their ideas further.
For the winning team DuoTale, the experience also encouraged them to think bigger.
As team lead Marie Pohlak shared:
"The experience made me think much bigger. I started asking myself how we could scale our solution, develop it further, and eventually bring it to more people."
Of course, not everyone needs to start a company or turn their idea into a business.
But new skills, confidence, connections, and fresh perspectives can open doors in unexpected ways.Whether participants continue building their ideas, discover a new career direction, or simply leave with more confidence than they arrived with, every step forward matters.
A huge thank you to everyone who made it happen!
A big thank you to all our mentors for sharing your time, knowledge, and experience with the teams throughout the weekend. Our wonderful host Mayri Tiido and amazing mentors: Jelena Oshepkova, Maret Kruve, Ilya Vasilyev, Marju Sokman, Maido Parv, Olena Stoliarova, and Natia Kukhilava! 💖 A big thank you to our wonderful jury members for listening to all the pitches, asking thoughtful questions, and making those difficult final decisions! Our jury: Jelena Oshepkova, Ilya Vasiljev, Jaan Eerik Branno, Peep Noorkõiv! 😍
A very special thank you to Anna Kinberg Batra, former leader of the Swedish opposition and the first woman to lead Sweden's Moderate Party, for joining us online! Anna shared a very personal story about her journey, the challenges she has faced both in her career and personal life, and how she has kept going despite the difficulties along the way. Her message about not giving up and believing in yourself was especially valuable for our women.
Thank you, Anna, for taking the time to be part of our community, sharing your experiences and encouraging our participants to keep moving forward! ❤️
Thank you to kood/Jõhvi for welcoming us and hosting the weekend, and to our supporters: RTK, the Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Estonia, Heavenly Lemonade, Latitude59 and sTARTUp Day.
A special shout-out to our photographers, Maido Parv and Kaido Parv, for capturing the best moments of the weekend!
Thank you, Heavenly Lemonade, for keeping our participants refreshed throughout the event! Photo by Maido Parv.
And finally, a big thank you to every single participant! Thank you for showing up, sharing your ideas, stepping outside your comfort zones, and making this weekend so special. We hope to see you again soon! 🩷
See you at the next Garage48 Empowering Women accelerator!🚀
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The hackathon is part of the kood/Garage48 Empowering Women project, run by Garage48 together with kood. The project is co-funded by the European Union under the Just Transition Fund.
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