Origin House O1 Summit Hackathon 2026

Our thoughts

The O1 Summit was the public launch of Origin House, a new Minneapolis venture studio. Nearly 120 engineers, designers and makers spent 24 hours building, then demoed to judges from Target, Best Buy, Mayo Clinic, DigiKey and the University of Minnesota. FlowDevs was a sponsor, and Justin Trantham and Caleb Anderson mentored through the weekend, helping teams sharpen ideas, work through technical roadblocks and get to a working demo. What the teams built: 1st place, Manifest: a non-invasive communication interface that lets ALS patients talk and control apps using jaw and blink signals, at a fraction of what current devices cost. Built by Anh Do, Archit Lal, Sophia Pung and Sami Beg. 2nd place, Aegis: an AI agent that lets people raise banking disputes instantly, with no phone menus or transfers. 3rd place, Overfitting, Inc.: real time AI video monitoring for operating rooms that flags contamination and protocol mistakes. Stylography: upload a photo of an outfit and find similar pieces at Minnesota thrift stores. Nova: predictive routing that tells Twin Cities service fleets when and where to refuel. Our takeaway: the Minnesota builder community is serious, fast and aimed at real problems. Teams that scoped tightly around one painful workflow shipped the strongest demos, which is exactly how we approach client work.