AI × GTM Day: Growth Hackathon, Talks & Social

Building an AI product has never been easier. Getting real users, distribution, and revenue is still hard.

Local Align #3 is a hands-on day for people who want to learn how modern AI products actually grow - from SEO/GEO and organic content to developer growth, community, outbound, automation, and AI-powered GTM.

Learn from real growth stories.

Hear founders break down how they went from 0 → 1,000+ users, built communities of 10,000+, and generated millions of organic impressions without relying on paid acquisition.

Put it into practice.

Choose from 5 real products with 5 different GTM problems - AI DevTools, consumer community, high-trust services, FinTech, and generative AI - and use AI, code, content, or automation to move real metrics: users, leads, signups, traffic, and conversions.

Meet the people building around you.

Not hacking? Come for the talks, startup demos, Coffee Chats, board games, food, and an afternoon with founders, engineers, creators, students, and GTM operators from across the Bay Area.

Come to learn. Come to build. Come to meet your next collaborator, customer, cofounder - or simply someone worth knowing.

You do not need to compete to attend.

No generic startup advice. Hear real 0→1 growth stories from founders and operators who have built audiences, acquired users, and turned distribution into a system.

Lucy Ye - Co-founder & COO, JobWizard.ai (https://JobWizard.ai)

SEO/GEO × Organic Content × AI-Native Growth

Built a 0→1 SEO engine that generated 2M+ Google Search impressions in 2 months, plus 1M+ organic video impressions with zero paid acquisition. Learn how an early-stage AI startup turns search, content, and AI automation into repeatable distribution.

Weijia - Founder & CEO, LingCode

Developer Growth × Product-Led Growth × Community

Built content reaching millions, grew a coding education platform from 0 → 10,000+ students, and took LingCode from launch to 1,000+ users in its first month. Learn how technical founders can turn product, content, and community into an organic growth engine.

More founders & GTM operators to be announced.

Most hackathons ask you to build another demo.

Here, you'll work on a real product with real users and a real GTM problem - then use AI, code, content, outbound, SEO/GEO, automation, communities, or whatever else you can invent to move the numbers.

AI Developer Tools - LingCode

How do you win developers when every week brings another AI coding tool?

Grow an AI-native IDE through developer communities, technical content, product-led loops, GEO, creators, or your own growth automation.

Learn: developer GTM, PLG, community growth, and how technical products earn adoption.

Consumer Community - Tennistry

3,500+ users. 1,500+ real tennis matches. How do you create the next 1,000?

Tennistry connects tennis players in real life. Test local acquisition, referrals, ambassadors, events, creators, and ways to prove which users you actually brought in.

Learn: consumer growth, network effects, referral loops, local/community GTM, and attribution.

🇺🇸 High-Trust Services - TurboNIW

How do you acquire customers when the decision is expensive, complex, and built on trust?

TurboNIW helps STEM researchers and professionals prepare for the EB-2 NIW process through structured educational materials and guidance. Unlike a casual app download, customers may spend $1,000+ and are making a high-stakes career decision - making trust and intent central to acquisition. TurboNIW (https://www.turboniw.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

Learn: high-intent SEO/GEO, trust-based funnels, educational content, lead qualification, and customer acquisition for high-consideration services.

Consumer FinTech - MaxWorth

30,000 users already. What becomes the next scalable growth channel?

MaxWorth is a North American credit-card management app entering its next stage of growth. Explore finance content, SEO/GEO, creators, referrals, communities, partnerships, or new product-led acquisition loops.

Learn: consumer FinTech GTM, lifecycle growth, referral mechanics, content distribution, and scaling beyond early adopters.

Generative AI × Entertainment - SxeneMixer

A new AI creative product is starting from zero. Where do the first 100 real users come from?

SxeneMixer is an AI short-drama generation platform. Find the creators and communities most likely to care, then experiment with UGC, viral formats, creator seeding, social distribution, and product-led sharing.

Learn: 0→1 launches, creator GTM, UGC, viral loops, and consumer AI distribution.

Pick the problem you want to learn. Build the growth experiment. Run it on a real product. Show us what happened.

More challenges will be revealed.

$200 cash prize per Challenge

$3,000+ shared Alibaba Cloud AI/API credits available to participating teams

LingCode - IDE Partner & Challenge Owner

API Sponsor - Alibaba Cloud

Hacker Pass is FREE and requires approval.

Not hacking? You're just as welcome.

Come for:

Founder & GTM talks - Startup booths - Coffee chats - Board games - Food & drinks - Final pitches - New people

You'll meet founders building their first company, engineers exploring what to build next, growth operators sharing what's working, students breaking into AI/startups, and people who simply want to meet interesting people in the Bay Area.

No pitch deck required. No hackathon experience required.

11:00 AM - Doors Open - Check-in - Coffee & Networking

12:00 PM - Hackathon Kickoff - Challenge Introductions

12:30 PM - Hacking + Talks + Startup Booths + Social

Afternoon - Founder/Growth Talks - Coffee Chats - Food - Building

6:30 PM - Hackathon Submission Deadline

7:00 PM - Final Pitches

8:00 PM - Awards & Wrap

Hackers receive the Challenge briefs, company information, tools, KPIs, and preparation materials before the event, so you can come ready to execute.

Founders looking for better distribution.

Engineers who want to learn what happens after shipping.

Growth / GTM people looking for tactics they can actually use.

Creators & marketers interested in AI-native growth.

Students looking to meet and learn from people building in the Bay Area.

Anyone curious about AI, startups, and how products actually find users.

Come to hack. Come to learn. Or just come meet someone interesting.

Hacker Pass - FREE

For Hackathon participants. Approval required. Registration closes Oct 15.

General Pass - $45 Early Bird through Oct 9

Includes talks, startup booths, Coffee Chats, social, food & drinks, and final pitches.

$55 Standard - $80 Door

.edu students: LAEDU15 for 15% off before Oct 9.

Saturday, October 24, 2026

3120 Scott Blvd, Santa Clara

Partners & Supporters

Alibaba Cloud - LingCode - More to be announced

Build something. Grow something. Meet someone.