From a Late-Night Idea to HackIndia Spark 5's Top 15
Two nights before HackIndia Spark 5, Sanjay pitched an untested idea to a teammate: build a blockchain safety app, despite never having touched Web3 before. Twenty-four hours later, Team Gorkhe had a working prototype and a Top 15 finish out of 150+ teams.
Top 15 of 150+ teams, first hackathon
Two nights before HackIndia Spark 5, I casually discussed an idea with Samir. We had never touched blockchain or AI before, but I said, "Let's do it." He said, "Okay." And just like that, Team Gorkhe was born: myself as team lead, with Samir Khanal, Gopal Singh and Sunil Shrestha — teammates who trusted my every call.
For 24 hours, we learned Web3, IPFS, Ethereum and AI chatbots from scratch, fought through bugs including one where the blockchain storage broke entirely, and worked through the night without sleep to get a working MVP out the door.
We built SafeHer, a decentralized safety companion for women, using Ethereum and IPFS: one-tap SOS alerts with live location sharing, tamper-proof evidence stored on-chain, an AI chatbot for emergencies, and instant access to nearby police stations, hospitals and helplines.
Out of 150+ teams, we placed in the Top 15 — at our first hackathon. I pitched SafeHer to the jury myself, first time presenting to one, and it held together.
Team Gorkhe
- Sanjay GuptaTeam Lead
- Samir Khanal
- Gopal Singh
- Sunil Shrestha
Mentor: Stephen Simon · Organised by: Chitkara University ACM Student Chapter
Thanks to HackIndia Spark 5 for the opportunity, to Stephen Simon for mentoring us, and to the Chitkara University ACM Student Chapter for organising it. This was the start, not the end, of building.