Conner Hawkins

@DevenPatil_007 Scalar Field, a trading platform where traders can backtest, automate, and deploy strategies without writing code. YC-backed. Check it out: scalarfield.io

Founders/builders! 👋 Drop your product/SaaS below, let's connect and grow together!🤝

First full-time month working on Scalar Field and we're already deep in brokerage API conversations. This is the fun part of building, when everything feels possible before the hard stuff hits.

@TPmarketwatch Let’s call tomorrow!

@connerhawkin5 Let's work on it right now. you busy?

If you're a founder, let's connect. Reply with what you are building.

@TPmarketwatch Super cool stuff! Would love to learn more.

@connerhawkin5 Stock trading algorithms and formulas.

@TPmarketwatch I’m studying Finance & Computer Science. Great to connect!

@connerhawkin5 Hey! I'll be starting there next fall as a transfer student. Im doing a double major in stats and math. What about yourself? I've also been working on a stock trading algorithm. Let's connect!

first year at UIUC down. came in thinking I knew what hard work looked like. Champaign had other plans. wouldn't trade it

everyone's shipping AI wrappers while the actual infrastructure holding markets, payments, and real software together is barely touched. the unsexy stuff is where the opportunity is

The Scalar Field Content Competition is live. We're giving away $400 in cash to the best Scalar Field ads on X. 1st place: $300 2nd place: $100 Scalar Field is a trading platform backed by Y Combinator. Backtest your options strategies and run live automated trading, all in one place. We want you to tell that story. To enter: Post a video promoting Scalar Field with #ScalarFieldChallenge. Keep your account public. One entry per creator. Submissions close May 27. Winners picked by engagement.

What will be the next world-changing innovation after AI?

How did you get your first 10 users? Reply with your story.

I grew up in rural Illinois. No finance connections, no network, no roadmap. I just kept stacking reps. 3 jobs. 15 AP classes. A business I built from nothing. Now I'm at a YC startup working on a problem I genuinely care about. The path doesn't have to make sense to anyone else.

The best traders I've talked to aren't slowed down by their ideas. They're slowed down by the time it takes to test them. Build the signal, write the logic, backtest, iterate. That cycle takes way too long with the tools most people are using. That's the gap we're closing at Scalar Field.

Most people wait until they feel ready to start. The ones who actually build something figured out that ready is a feeling you get after you start, not before. Ship the thing. The feedback loop does the rest.

Cursor didn't replace engineers. It just made the good ones 10x faster. The same thing is about to happen in quant trading. The bottleneck for most researchers isn't ideas. It's infrastructure, tooling, and the time it takes to go from signal to strategy. That's the problem we're solving at Scalar Field. The cursor for quant. Check it out at scalarfield.io

Markets don't shift gradually. They shift all at once, then everyone acts like it was obvious. The edge isn't in seeing the move first. It's in building systems that adapt before most people realize a new regime has started. React fast enough and you're a genius. React one cycle late and you're early to the next idea.

@MicroLaunchHQ Working on tools that let quant researchers move at the speed of their ideas. Think Cursor, but for systematic trading. Early days but the momentum is real.

What are you building this week?

@DanielSmidstrup Building at the intersection of AI and quant trading at Scalar Field (YC X25). Always looking to connect with people working on serious problems. Following you now.

If you're building with AI, let's connect