DW

#HackQuantum at London FinTech Week

Jul 11, 2018

AB
Stage· 53 messages
Jul 11, 2018
DW

Decade Of Women · 5:35 PM

This chat will begin at 1:40 ET / 6:40 BST. Leave a comment and it may end up in the conversation! #WeUniteWe #WomenInBlockchain
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 5:39 PM

Welcome to the #HackQuantum at London FinTech Week chat with Decade of Women
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 5:39 PM

I'm your host Abdul Haseeb Basit, Co-Founder and Principal at Elipses, a research, advisory and investment firm. Could I please ask our other guests to introduce yourselves?
AM

Andrea Marmolejo · 5:43 PM

Hi Abdul
AM

Andrea Marmolejo · 5:46 PM

I am co-founder and Managing Partner at Blue Topaz Capital. We are advisory firm focused on integrated environmental, social and financial performance and we are keen on integrating technology to find solutions and scale businesses targeting SDGs
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 5:47 PM

This weekend the 2nd #HackQuantum Challenge took place in London. Can you tell us a little about the challenge?
AM

Andrea Marmolejo · 5:48 PM

Sure, the #HackQuantum Hackathon targeted new ways of leveraging women and blockchain technology to eliminate global hunger.
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 5:49 PM

What were your impressions of some of the ideas developed over the weekend? Which ideas stood out for you?
AM

Andrea Marmolejo · 5:51 PM

The weekend was amazing. The energy level in the room was contagious and the ideas that came out were extremely interesting. So much so that we had two winners and 3 runners up. Ideas were very varied, and in two days all teams managed to have a working demo .
DG

Darshita Gillies · 5:51 PM

Hi! Darshita here.
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 5:52 PM

Hi Darshi, please introduce yourself to the audience.
DG

Darshita Gillies · 5:52 PM

I’m CEO Blu Dot Advisory.
DG

Darshita Gillies · 5:53 PM

Career spanning across Finance, Leadership Development, Planetary Sustainability and Technology
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 5:53 PM

What were your impressions of the #HackQuantum challenge in London this weekend?
DG

Darshita Gillies · 5:53 PM

I agree with Andrea... weekend was energetic and inspiring
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 5:54 PM

Any standout pitches for you?
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 5:54 PM

I agree about your comments regarding the energy. Hackathons are a great place for like minded folks to connect and start their entrepreneurial journey.
DW

Decade Of Women · 5:55 PM

https://cdn.tawkers.com/tawkers-media-tawk-comment-image-ff808181-643403ea-0164-8a7b8425-0d6b.jpgimage
DW

Decade Of Women · 5:56 PM

★ Spotlighted from Cristina Victoria

“That's impressive, to have working demo in only two days of work! I'd like to know more about what kind of solutions were created.”

AM

Andrea Marmolejo · 5:56 PM

There were a couple of pitches that were particularly interesting but what I liked the most was the creativity and the breath of the answers spanning from education to farming,increasing water distribution, reducing food waste and others
DG

Darshita Gillies · 5:56 PM

I loved same challenge brought out such diverse applications and ideas. Each pitch had something special and unique. I really lived the Global Abundance Program. They were very neat and systemic and together. And their idea has the salient features that make it scaleable.
DG

Darshita Gillies · 5:57 PM

Abdul, which was your favourite pitch?
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 5:58 PM

All of us have engaged further with some of the teams from the weekend during London FinTech Week. What's even more encouraging is the appetite to pursue their ideas and build them further into fully fledged solutions.
AM

Andrea Marmolejo · 5:59 PM

Apart from the 5 pitches mentioned, I very much liked Shuri, which is a peer to peer learning platform. It would be great to harness all of the ideas and to continue to mentor all of these teams and I think we can do this going forward
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 5:59 PM

I especially like the winners WasteCurb as they took existing models, applied frontier technology and created a double impact solution to reduce food waste and loss in both developed and developing countries.
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 6:01 PM

The challenge was the curtain raiser to London FinTech Week and today was Blockchain Day! Darshi, you were on the Women in Blockchain panel. What were your key takeaways from the panel?
AM

Andrea Marmolejo · 6:02 PM

It was also great to see how many women signed up for the challenge and how diverse all of the teams were, with a lot of people coming from different countries and some of them not even living in the UK
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 6:03 PM

I agree Andrea, the gender mix at the hackathon was encouraging.
AM

Andrea Marmolejo · 6:04 PM

This is the second #HackQuamtum after the one in Nigeria and we are having great results so very much looking forward to the next ones!
AM

Andrea Marmolejo · 6:05 PM

Completely out of topic, but England just scored its first goal and everyone is very excited here!
DG

Darshita Gillies · 6:05 PM

My key insight from the panel today was the energy in the room. So many people afterwards including on LinkedIn asking how they could help empower and steer more women into DLT space
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 6:06 PM

It's coming home Andrea!
DG

Darshita Gillies · 6:06 PM

Oh wow! I’m missing it!!
DG

Darshita Gillies · 6:06 PM

Oh wow! I’m missing it!!
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 6:06 PM

Anyway back to the topic at hand.
DG

Darshita Gillies · 6:07 PM

I think we definitely sparked a theme around Women and Blockchain
DW

Decade Of Women · 6:07 PM

https://cdn.tawkers.com/tawkers-media-tawk-comment-image-ff808181-643403ea-0164-8a86e248-0dbc.jpgimage
DW

Decade Of Women · 6:07 PM

Here are pictures of the winning teams!
DW

Decade Of Women · 6:07 PM

https://cdn.tawkers.com/tawkers-media-tawk-comment-image-ff808181-643403ea-0164-8a871187-0dbf.jpgimage
AM

Andrea Marmolejo · 6:08 PM

I agree Darshita and it also demonstrated the versatility of blockchain technology and how much can be done to increase equity around the world particularly to those most marginalized of which women are a large percentage
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 6:10 PM

You're both supporters of #DecadeofWomen, why is the initiative important to you?
DG

Darshita Gillies · 6:11 PM

Oh yes! Andrea and I both met at the Launch in NYC
DG

Darshita Gillies · 6:11 PM

We both support fully!
DG

Darshita Gillies · 6:11 PM

What grabs you about the #DecadeofWomen Abdul?
AM

Andrea Marmolejo · 6:13 PM

Because women are wired to be the best supporters and implementers of SDGs and empowering women will elevate and improve everyone in the planet.
AM

Andrea Marmolejo · 6:15 PM

If you were to think of it as an investment, you could argue that women are an undervalued asset class and you want to invest in them knowing that results could only be positive
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 6:16 PM

That brings us to the end of the chat. We look forward to seeing both of the London #HackQuantum winners pitch tomorrow morning at London FinTech Week. Thank you both for your time and enjoy the rest of FinTech Week.
DG

Darshita Gillies · 6:16 PM

I think it’s an important initiative because we live in a world that adores and respects Yang principles and discounts the Yin principles or shall I say feminine qualities of compassion and care etc. We also live in a world of gross unequal treatment of sexes in some concerts
DG

Darshita Gillies · 6:16 PM

Thank you Abdul
AM

Andrea Marmolejo · 6:16 PM

Thank you Abdul and Darshita, great chatting with you and I look forward to more exciting news from #DecadeofWomen.
AB

Abdul Haseeb Basit · 6:17 PM

I agree, women are half the world's population. Imagine what could be achieved if they are fully empowered by tech or otherwise? That's a powerful argument.
DW

Decade Of Women · 6:18 PM

Amazing job, thank you all for your great insights!
DW

Decade Of Women · 6:18 PM

Want to show your support of gender equity worldwide? Start by signing the #WeUniteWe Pledge at decadeofwomen.org