Lakshya Jain retweetledi
𝗪𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮’𝘀 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁-𝗿𝘂𝗻 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝟯 𝗵𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗺𝗲.
Last week, @LNMHacks 8.0 became a benchmark for student-led events in India. 1,450+ organic registrations · 160+ submitted projects · 500 builders on campus, $9,000+ prize pool · Actual products launched not just demos.
But the part no one sees is the 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘺 𝘮𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦.
For the last 5 months, I was running sponsorship, social, and a huge chunk of the operations.
That meant:
• Cold DM’ing founders from London to San Francisco
• Taking calls at 2 AM, closing deals at 4 AM
• Chasing college permissions (anyone who has done this knows the pain)
• Getting rejected and ignored and still showing up the next day
• Managing one of the most chaotic 72 hours of my life.
When unexpected rain hit on Day 1 morning, I genuinely thought the event might collapse.
But 500+ hackers still walked in.
That’s when I knew: this community is built different.
For 72 hours straight, I was everywhere: organizing, hosting, mentoring, handling crises, debugging projects at 3 AM, answering endless queries, and making sure 500 people had food and accommodation.
I didn’t sleep. Not on Day 1. Not on Day 2.
And it was worth every second.
Because we didn’t just run a hackathon.
We built a builder culture.
We saw first-timers ship polished projects.
We saw teams iterate relentlessly.
We saw actual products being launched on campus.
We saw mentors blown away by the raw talent and hunger.
Some words that will stay with me:
“𝘐’𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 10+ 𝘩𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘴 - 𝘐’𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴.”
“𝘏𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥, 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵, 𝘱𝘪𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘥 - 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭.”
“𝘊𝘪𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳’𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘔𝘐𝘛 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱𝘴.”
“600+ 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴, 170+ 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 - 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘦𝘣3 𝘪𝘯 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢.”
And all of this started with a student community (@cipher_lnmiit ) that once had to fight for every permission slip. In Indian colleges, admin support is rare. Most of us build in spite of the system, not because of it.
But that’s exactly why student-led movements matter.
LNMHacks 8.0 proved one thing:
High-agency students with zero support can still create experiences that rival global events if they’re willing to take ownership.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗪𝗲𝗯𝟯 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗿𝘆.
- Harshit Nayan
English
