AI Agents & MCP Hardware Hackathon (Season 2) lands January 10-11 at Frontier Tower SF

On January 10-11, builders will take over Frontier Tower in San Francisco for the ESI x Korea Investments AI Agent, MCP & Sales Hackathon, a two-day sprint designed for people who actually want to ship, not just collect swag and vibes. The format is simple: build real systems, pressure-test them with outreach and traction experiments, iterate fast, then demo what you have.

This event (presented by OffChain Global Events) is structured around the collision of three forces that are rewriting early-stage execution: AI agents, the MCP ecosystem, and modern growth systems. Teams can choose from tracks that span AI agents and MCP systems, growth and sales systems, B2B SaaS growth, hardware and physical products, and applied domains like manufacturing and healthcare, plus an open innovation lane for anything ambitious that does not fit neatly into a category.

The agenda is built for momentum. Day 1 kicks off with check-in at 11:00 AM, followed by founder intros, a sales and growth panel, two build sprints, office hours, and structured networking. Day 2 starts again at 11:00 AM with a traction stand-up, a final execution sprint, a pitch clinic, demos, and judging and awards at 6:00 PM, with post-event networking after. There’s also a DJ afterparty (7:00-10:00 PM) for anyone who wants to celebrate surviving their own deadlines.

And yes, there are stakes: teams will compete for $6,000 in prizes, plus guaranteed investor interviews. Registration is handled through Luma and notes that attendees will be asked to verify token ownership with a wallet, so plan accordingly.

Meet Iman Yael Schaefer, UCSC student and founder of E.S.I.

One of the hosts is Iman Yael Schaefer, a UC Santa Cruz student founder who started Entrepreneur & Startup Incubator (E.S.I.) to give student builders what most campuses still struggle to provide: consistent execution culture, real mentorship, and a community that expects you to ship. Santa Cruz Works covered E.S.I.’s launch in 2025, noting that the first cohort included 30+ student teams meeting daily over a four-week program designed to help founders turn ideas into real businesses, supported by a student team that included Alex Aghili, Ashley Kim, and Bee Schaefer.

Iman’s background sits right at the intersection this hackathon is aiming for: technical curiosity plus operating discipline. Santa Cruz Works has also highlighted her involvement at UCSC as an undergraduate researcher (including work connected to the Sharf Lab), her roles with community and entrepreneurship efforts, and her broader engagement in the local startup ecosystem.

E.S.I. itself positions as a remote student startup incubator with daily accountability (they publicly describe daily sessions and a founder community built around consistent progress).

Why this weekend matters

If you are a founder, engineer, or builder trying to move from “cool demo” to “real traction,” this is the right kind of pressure cooker. Two days. Clear tracks. Office hours. A demo deadline. And a room full of people who are building in the same direction.

A special nod: the event page also thanks Santa Cruz Works and UCSC CIED for supporting the E.S.I. founders community, underscoring the throughline from Santa Cruz’s student-founder pipeline to the Bay Area’s frontier-tech builder scene.

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