Hackathon with Kelechi Alozie: Build an App from Zero in 60 Minutes
Hackathon excitement is in the air, and I’m thrilled to share my journey with you! I’m Kelechi Alozie, a Marketing Manager Apprentice at Pfizer and a passionate AI enthusiast. With a long-standing love for coding, taking part in the Hackathon felt like a natural fit for me.
In this article, I’ll be sharing my personal experience of the Hackathon, what I learned, what surprised me, and why I think it’s such an incredible opportunity. I hope it sparks your curiosity and maybe even inspires you to get involved in future events.
What is the Hackathon?
When I first arrived at the Hackathon, I’ll be honest: I didn’t know exactly what to expect walking into a room with 100 students from universities across the UK. But that’s precisely the nature of this event.
The Vibe Code Hackathon, hosted by Base44 and Collabor8, convened some of the most driven student minds in London for a single afternoon. After a 20-minute walkthrough of Base44’s platform, the challenge was deceptively straightforward: one hour to ideate, build, and pitch a working application.
One hour. Clock ticking. Let’s go.
Building “Penny”: A Personal Finance AI Coach
My team, comprised of myself (Kelechi Alozie), Konstantinos, Aman, Dan, and Tom. Within minutes, we had converged around a problem we all knew intimately: students struggling to manage their Student Finance England payments alongside the pressures of everyday budgeting.
The result was Penny, a personal finance AI coach designed specifically for student life.
Penny was not simply another budgeting application. It was engineered to reflect the distinctive financial rhythm students navigate irregular loan disbursements, impulsive spending, and communal savings goals. The platform gave users a transparent view of their daily safe-to-spend figure, surfaced behavioural spending patterns, and delivered personalised, AI-driven coaching to support genuine behavioural change rather than passive tracking.
Four cans of Pepsi and a bottle of water later, we were standing in front of the judges presenting our case. Group 6/20 not bad for a first attempt.
Credit: Kelechi Alozie, the Penny App
Credit: Kelechi Alozie, The Hackathon
More Than the Build
What elevated the day beyond the technical challenge were the conversations it generated. I had a valuable opportunity to connect with Joshua and Yuvraj on how we might strengthen student networks across the UK, an ambition I find genuinely compelling. Events of this calibre demonstrate what becomes possible when students are given the right tools, a real constraint, and the freedom to innovate.
A sincere thank you to Base44 and Collabor8 for the invitation and for curating an event that felt energetic, purposeful, and practically relevant. I look forward to more.
If you are a student who has ever stared at your bank balance, wondering where it all went, Penny was built with you in mind.
Credit: Kelechi Alozie, Group 6 at The Hackathon
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Author: Kelechi Alozie
Kelechi Alozie is a Marketing Manager Apprentice at Pfizer, currently studying at Cambridge Marketing College following his time at Warwick University. Sitting at the intersection of marketing, AI and healthcare, Kelechi brings a sharp commercial perspective to the fast-evolving world of tech.
He is a member of the AI Youth Council, a collaborative initiative by CERSI-AI, NIHR, and Great Ormond Street Hospital, where he helps shape the ethical future of AI in healthcare. He also competed in Base44s Vibe Code Hackathon, where his team built Penny, an AI-powered personal finance coach for students.
Kelechi is committed to ensuring AI is not only innovative, but trustworthy and built with people at its centre.
Location: London
