Judging at the Singapore Institute of Management Hackathon: Innovate to Impact

Shubhrendu Khoche • December 18, 2025

Shubhrendu, Co-Founder & CEO, with the hackathon teams.

What, me judge?

Was invited to be a judge at the Singapore Institute of Management hackathon last Saturday with the umbrella theme: Innovate to Impact.

My clear message to the teams was that only customers judge you. If they pay, and repeat, you have won.

In the words of one James Hetfield, nothing else matters! For those other than your paying customers, “never cared for what they say, never cared for what they do”.

Four observations from the interactions with the hackathon teams:

1. The mix of backgrounds from computer science, business management and design made the presentations come alive. They were real solutions to pressing problems.

2. It was heartening to see Near Field Communication (NFC) being used in multiple user stories.  Yes, there is a reason I get excited when I see terms like “inlay” and “ferrite shielding” in a university pitching competition. Solutions that flow from the digital to the physical and vice versa are more naturally positioned to become a part of daily lives in Singapore. But then, there was a defensive bias to score them lower given the topic was close to my heart, and to my formative career.

3. The three themes of fintech, smart cities and sustainable businesses are not standalone islands. Those who did better connected more than one dot to make a solution.

4. When everyone approaches a topic the same way and is going right to left, you can make a bigger contrarian impact going left to right as long as the customer is at the centre.

There were excellent ideas and high energy to soak in and get inspired from.

Near-real time micro interventions using phone sensors and predictive analytics to nudge you away from needless impulse purchases and drifting into a consumption wormhole. Or the ability to alert the local authorities about public utilities and assets with just a tap of your phone.

To choose to round up your spend to save the change either in a higher yield account or to invest in liquid funds. Or to form social groups that collectively help you form a savings habit and reward you with both digital and real-world gifts and perks. Think of Pokémon meeting Acorns.

Congratulations to the participating teams, the SIM Young Entrepreneur Network organizers and to the Singapore Institute of Management.

It was inspiring to see the maturity, attention to detail and the hard work put in just two weeks to get to working prototypes, near-perfect pitches and thinking through first and second order questions.

The future of Singapore is in good hands.