We're a community of design-centered builders and entrepreneurs who believe the best products start with people who care how things feel — not just how they function.
Most hackathons reward the fastest demo. We reward the sharpest idea, well-made. In our hackathon, you'll go from a blank canvas to a working product, with mentorship, design critique, and the kind of room where good taste compounds.
Designpreneurs is where design becomes a business. Where the person who sweats the details also pitches the vision.
Designpreneurs was born because the gap between "designer" and "founder" should be a weekend, not a career. And we're just getting started.
Founder
Sally Chung is the founder of the Designpreneurs Hackathon — and a founder, educator, and venture ecosystem builder based in NYC, working at the intersection of AI, design, and entrepreneurship.
Sally started the Designpreneurs Hackathon with a simple goal: help her design students build real product portfolios in a single weekend. What she saw on the other side was bigger — real product-market fit, designers becoming founders, and ideas turning into companies. Today the hackathon brings designers, engineers, and founders together to build, ship, and validate AI-driven solutions in 48 hours. It's stayed intentionally small and hand-picked — every sponsor, judge, mentor, and hacker is selected — and the results speak for themselves: one startup raised $4M, another was acquired, and 70+ designers have landed roles through the community.
The hackathon is the front door to Designpreneurs & Co., a broader ecosystem at the convergence of venture building, design education, and talent — built on a singular belief: the best companies are built by designers who think like founders, and founders who think like designers. Through Designpreneurs, Sally partners with startups and Fortune 1000 companies to validate new products through AI-driven design and rapid experimentation, while creating direct pathways for designers to become founders and early team members.
Sally serves as the first AI Advisor to Parsons School of Design's Communication Design program and teaches AI and startup design at Parsons and SVA. She is a judge and mentor for several AI accelerators, supporting early-stage founders at the product and talent frontier. Previously, she led experience design at BCG.X in NY, launching 12+ ventures; co-founded AI startup HelloAva; and shaped early digital experiences at Saks Fifth Avenue. She holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design.
Organizer
Vlad Dukhnov is an award-winning product designer and Design Lead at Hello Robo, where he shapes digital products at the intersection of robotics, AI, spatial intelligence, and human-centered interaction. His work spans complex operator interfaces, autonomous systems, fintech products, and early-stage startup platforms, with a focus on turning advanced technology into clear, usable, and scalable product experiences.
Before Hello Robo, Vlad worked as a product designer at Tinkoff, one of the largest financial technology companies in Eastern Europe, where he contributed to loyalty and personalization products used by millions of customers. He also held design roles at Humbleteam, collaborating with international startups across mobility, audio, gig work, and consumer technology.
Vlad's work has been recognized by Awwwards and Behance, and he has been invited to contribute as a design critic, judge, and guest speaker for academic and creative communities. Originally from Belarus and now based in New York City, Vlad brings a global perspective to designing products that connect emerging technology with real human needs.
Organizer
Meijie Hu is an award-winning interaction designer at Meta Reality Labs, where she shapes the interaction experience for Ray-Ban Meta Display glasses — one of the most advanced AI wearables on the market. Her work sits at the convergence of spatial computing, embodied interaction, and AI-powered product design. Before Meta, Meijie served as a design strategist at TCL driving product localization and premium industrial design in North America, and as a lead XR experience designer at Lucid Reality Labs.
Meijie holds a Bachelor of Design with a minor in HCI from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master's from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. She has delivered guest lectures at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Washington Seattle, South China University of Technology, the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and the Designpreneurs Hackathon NYC.
Advisor
Strategic advisor and early champion of the Designpreneurs community. Ian brings deep experience in product strategy and growth, helping shape the program's long-term direction, key partnerships, and the networks that make every event possible.
I didn't set out to build a hackathon. I set out to solve one problem for my design students.
I teach interaction and startup design at Parsons and SVA, and I kept seeing the same gap. My students were brilliant on the screen — beautiful interfaces, sharp instincts — but they'd never shipped anything into the real world. No exposure to real users, real constraints, real stakes. So I gave them a challenge: one weekend, take an idea from blank canvas to a working product. I just wanted them to walk out with a portfolio piece.
Then I saw what was happening on the other side. The products were finding real product-market fit. Founders in the room were learning to think design-first instead of leading with a business model — and their ideas got sharper for it. The weekend I built to teach a portfolio turned into something that drives real business impact.
Since then, one startup from this community raised $4M. Another was acquired. More than 70 designers landed jobs through the platform. We've stayed small and selective on purpose — every sponsor, judge, mentor, and hacker is hand-picked — because quality compounds and the room is everything.
I believe there should be far more designer-founders in the world. The gap between "designer" and "founder" should be a weekend, not a career. That's what we're here to close.
— Sally Chung, Founder, Designpreneurs
Judging at Designpreneurs was one of the most energizing experiences I've had in years. The teams weren't just designing interfaces — they were wrestling with real problems and making real bets. That kind of creative courage is rare, and this community cultivates it.
Meijie
Judge & Speaker, Designpreneurs Hackathon
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Design-Driven, Business Minded
We cultivate the next generation of entrepreneurs, through building, shipping, and testing.