Local Business
Software for a real shop, restaurant, salon, or service near you — booking, inventory, ordering, getting found online.
See entries3rd edition · Free to enter
Build something your neighbourhood can actually use.
GatewayHacks 2026 brings middle and high school students together for a weekend of building software that a real shop, nonprofit, or neighbour can use on Monday morning. $1.4 million+ in sponsor credits, mentors all weekend, and no entry fee.
- Submissions due
- Oct 15, 2026
- Where
- Union County, New Jersey
- Format
- Hybrid — in person and online
- Teams
- 1–4 builders per team
- Registrants
- 1,246
How it works
01
Register
Make an account and tell us your school, grade, and whether you need a team.
02
Find a real need
Talk to a business, nonprofit, or group near you. The best projects start with a conversation.
03
Build it
Mentors on hand, sponsor credits available, any stack you like.
04
Submit here
Write it up, add a demo link, and submit before October 15, 2026 at 11:59 PM.
Tracks
Community & Nonprofit
Cut the paperwork for a nonprofit, food bank, library, or civic group so more of their time goes to the people they serve.
See entriesAI 4 Earth
AI that helps the planet in a healthy way, run in partnership with The AEI Initiative — energy, waste, climate, conservation.
See entriesEducation & Access
Tools that make learning, tutoring, or school logistics work better for students who do not already have them.
See entriesOpen / Wildcard
An idea that does not fit the other tracks but clearly helps somebody. Tell the judges who, and why it matters.
See entriesPrizes
First Place
- $1,000 Adaption credits
- $2,000 Momen credits
- $100 AoPS coupon
- $50 Amazon gift card
Second Place
- $1,000 Adaption credits
- $2,000 Momen credits
- $100 AoPS coupon
- $30 Amazon gift card
Third Place
- $1,000 Adaption credits
- $2,000 Momen credits
- $100 AoPS coupon
- $20 Amazon gift card
Everyone gets something
Every participant
No placement required. Yours for entering and submitting.
- $1,000 Adaption credits
- $100 Momen credits
First 100 registrants
Claimed in registration order, so register early.
- $300 Tin Computer credits
How projects are judged
Four criteria, ten points each, forty points total. Every project is seen by at least two judges.
Judges
- Jonathan Chang — Co-Founder & President, Gateway.GS
- David Cao — Director of Technology, Gateway.GS
- Abhishek Shukla — Director of Operations, Gateway.GS
- The AEI Initiative — Track partner, AI 4 Earth
- Partner engineers — Invited judges, Adaption · Momen · Tin Computer · AoPS · GEN.XYZ
Rules
- Teams are one to four people. Everybody on the team must be a registered participant.
- All code is written during the event. Boilerplate, open-source libraries, and starter templates are fine as long as you say so in your submission.
- You may use any language, framework, API, or hardware. Sponsor credits are available for anyone who wants them.
- Your project must be submitted through this site before the deadline. The form locks itself at that moment and late submissions are not judged.
- Your demo video should be three minutes or shorter and publicly viewable without a login.
- Your repository or demo link must be reachable by the judges. Private repos should be made public, or shared with the judging account.
- AI tools are allowed and encouraged. Be honest about what they wrote — judges care about what you built and understood, not who typed it.
- Be good to each other. Harassment of any kind means removal from the event.
Questions? info@gateway.gs
Backing the next generation of community builders
$1.4 million+ in credits for GatewayHacks
Adaption, Momen, Tin Computer, AoPS, and GEN.XYZ provide the credits and prizes behind GatewayHacks, supporting 1,246 registrants as they build products for local businesses and their communities.
Platinum
Gold
Silver
Latest submissions
See the whole gallery
Community & Nonprofit
Medical AI Helper
An AI-powered medical PDF assistant that helps users understand complex medical documents through intelligent analysis and summarisation.
CSSFastAPIHTMLHuggingFace+2
Ronak Visram 1 0
Community & Nonprofit
PocketPath
Learn → decide → apply. Money skills for students, in their own currency, with the learning gain measured.
DockerFastAPIGitHub ActionsPydantic Python+5
favour onilamo 1 0
Education & Access
NoticePilot
Turn confusing academic notices into clear, actionable information.
GroqNext.jsReactTailwind CSS+4
Bhavishya Sharma 1 0
Frequently asked
Do I need to know how to code?
No. Plenty of past winners wrote their first line of code at a GatewayHacks. We run beginner workshops on day one and mentors are on hand the whole weekend.
What does it cost?
Nothing. Entry, food, and workshops are free, and Gateway.GS never charges participants or the local partners we build for.
Can I enter alone?
Yes. Solo projects are judged on the same scale. If you would rather not go it alone, tick “looking for a team” when you register and we will match you at check-in.
Can I keep working on my project afterwards?
Please do. You own your work. The grand prize includes a Gateway.GS sprint specifically to help a winning team get their project in front of a real local partner.
What if I can't attend in person?
The event is hybrid. Online teams get the same mentors, the same workshops over video, and are judged on the same submissions.
What counts as a local business?
Any business, nonprofit, school, or civic group that serves a specific community — ideally one you can walk into and talk to. Judges reward teams who actually spoke to someone.
Ready when you are.
Submissions close October 15, 2026 at 11:59 PM.