Get on the live dashboard
As soon as your team has a problem and a first idea, fill in the venture form below. It puts your team on the live dashboard so everyone — including the judges — can follow your progress. Update it through the day.
Submit your venture
Read this first
"Build a landing page for a school food-waste app, dark theme, with an email signup" beats "make a website".
Tell the AI who it's for, the goal, and any constraints.
First answer is a draft. Say what's wrong and ask again.
"Give me 5 different angles" surfaces better ideas than one.
"Act as a startup mentor / UX designer / data analyst…"
AI can sound confident and be wrong. Verify anything important.
Set you & your AI up for success
Three quick exercises to get your team and your tools ready. Format for each: live demo by me, then a quick build by your team.
Watch the demo first. Then ~10 minutes as a team to try it yourselves — get hands on the keyboard, break things, ask questions. You'll use all three of these skills later in the day.
All assistant prompts work in ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini — use whichever you set up.
We're using ChatGPT as our main assistant — set this up first. Copilot (school account) or Gemini work the same way if you prefer. Save it so you can reuse it all day — in ChatGPT create a Project.
You are the co-pilot for [TEAM NAME] at the Sherborne AI Hackathon. We are a team of [NUMBER] students, ages [AGES]. Our team members and what each of us is good at: [NAME — strength, NAME — strength, ...]. The goal of the day: in about 6 hours, pick a real-world problem, design a solution, build a working demo using AI tools (ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Lovable, ElevenLabs), and pitch it live to judges in 3 minutes. We don't have an idea yet. When I ask for help: (1) be concise and practical, (2) give me options, not lectures, (3) push back if something is weak, (4) flag anything you're unsure about, (5) always end with a clear next step.
Based on what you know about our team and the day ahead, what are the 3 things we should agree on as a team in the first 15 minutes? And what's one trap teams like ours usually fall into during a one-day hackathon?
Generate visuals for your product — logo, hero image, mockups, illustrations. Learn to describe what you want, then iterate. Warm-up: make a crest or hero image for your school house.
Generate a [crest / hero banner / poster] for my school house. House name: [HOUSE NAME]. Vibe of the house: [e.g. bold, sporty, mischievous, scholarly, kind]. Famous for: [e.g. winning the swimming cup 3 years running / loudest at house singing / best gardens]. House colours: [e.g. navy and gold]. Animal or symbol: [e.g. stag / phoenix / oak tree]. Motto if we have one: [MOTTO]. Style: [e.g. heraldic crest, modern flat illustration, cinematic photo]. No text in the image.
Keep the same style and colours, but [CHANGE — e.g. make the animal bolder / add a banner shape behind the crest / give me a wide hero version for a website header]. Give me 3 variations.
Take a real CSV and turn it into something interactive — a chart, dashboard, or tiny app. Practice set: 8 years of daily step counts from a real person's phone.
I'm attaching a CSV called steps_daily.csv — it's daily step counts from one person's phone from 2017 to 2025. Tell me: (1) what each column means, (2) the 3 most interesting patterns or surprises (busiest day, quietest months, trends over the years, weekday vs weekend), (3) the single best chart to tell the story, and (4) what kind of person you think this data belongs to, based on the patterns.
Build a simple web app that visualises this step-count data (CSV with two columns: date, steps — about 3,200 daily rows from 2017 to 2025). Show [KEY CHART — e.g. monthly average steps as a bar chart] as the hero. Add stat cards for: all-time biggest day, average daily steps, and longest streak above 10,000. Add a short headline with the most interesting insight. Dark theme, one bright accent colour. Make it feel like a mini product, not a spreadsheet.
Sprint 1 — Research & Problem Discovery
Pick your problem and understand it deeply. Who has it? How big is it? What's been tried? Use AI as a research partner — but check what it tells you.
Ask AI to challenge you. 'What am I missing about this problem?' and 'Who would disagree that this is worth solving?' surface blind spots fast.
Act as a research analyst. I'm exploring this problem: [YOUR PROBLEM]. Explain who is affected, how serious it is, and what's already being done about it. Use clear, simple language and list your key points.
What are the 5 biggest pain points for [THE PEOPLE AFFECTED] when it comes to [YOUR PROBLEM]? Rank them by how much they matter.
Give me 3 surprising facts or statistics about [YOUR PROBLEM] that most people don't know. Tell me how confident you are in each and where I could verify it.
Who has already tried to solve [YOUR PROBLEM]? What worked, what didn't, and where's the gap we could fill?
Sprint 2 — Ideas & Plan
Turn the problem into a solution. Generate lots of ideas, pick one, and sketch a simple plan — who it's for, what it does, why it's different. Then submit/update your venture form.
Don't take the first idea. Ask for 10, then ask the AI to combine the best two. Then ask 'what's the simplest version we could build in 3 hours?'
I want to solve [YOUR PROBLEM]. Give me 10 different solution ideas — a mix of safe and bold. One sentence each.
Take these two ideas: [IDEA A] and [IDEA B]. Combine the best of both into one stronger idea. Explain why it works.
Act as a startup mentor. My idea is [YOUR IDEA]. Help me define: who exactly is it for, what problem it solves for them, and what makes it different from what already exists.
What's the simplest possible version of [YOUR IDEA] that we could actually build in 3 hours and still demo live? What should we leave out for now?
Sprint 3 — Build Your MVP
The main event. Build a real, working product — a web app, landing page, or interactive prototype. Use your AI co-pilot (ChatGPT or Copilot) to write a strong build brief FIRST, then paste that brief into Lovable. Use ElevenLabs for any audio. Aim for something you can click and demo live.
Don't open Lovable cold. Spend 5–10 minutes in ChatGPT/Copilot turning your idea into a detailed build brief — the more context Lovable has, the better the first version. Then iterate in small steps.
Act as a senior product designer helping me brief Lovable (an AI app builder). My idea: [YOUR IDEA]. Audience: [WHO IT'S FOR]. Problem it solves: [PROBLEM]. We have ~90 minutes to build a demo. Write me a clear, detailed build brief for Lovable that covers: (1) one-line product description, (2) the 3 most important screens/pages and what each one does, (3) key features and components to include, (4) the simplest data/content needed (sample copy, sample list items), (5) visual style — dark theme, accent colour, typography vibe, (6) what to deliberately leave out for v1. Before you write it, ask me up to 3 sharp questions if anything's unclear, then sense-check whether this is actually buildable in 90 minutes.
Here's the brief you wrote: [PASTE BRIEF]. Now pretend you're Lovable receiving this. What's ambiguous, missing, or likely to produce a weak first version? Rewrite the brief to fix those gaps. Keep it tight.
[PASTE THE FINAL BRIEF FROM CHATGPT / COPILOT HERE]
Now add [NEXT FEATURE]. Keep the same style.
Write all the text for my product [YOUR IDEA]: a headline, a short description, and 3 benefits. Make it sound exciting but clear, aimed at [YOUR AUDIENCE].
This isn't working: [PASTE WHAT HAPPENED / THE ERROR]. What's going wrong and how do I fix it? Explain simply.
Sprint 4 — Pitch Prep
You have 3 minutes. Tell a clear story: the problem, your solution, a live demo, and why it matters. Practise once out loud as a team.
Ask the AI to be a tough judge. 'What questions will the judges ask, and how should we answer?' Then rehearse those.
Help me write a 3-minute pitch for [YOUR IDEA]. Structure it as: (1) the problem, (2) our solution, (3) how it works / demo, (4) why it matters and what's next. Keep it punchy and confident, not salesy.
Act as a hackathon judge. Here's our idea: [YOUR IDEA]. Ask me the 5 toughest questions you'd ask, and suggest a strong answer to each.
Give me one memorable opening line and one strong closing line for our pitch about [YOUR IDEA].
Demo Day — Pitch to the Judges
Every team presents. Show your live product — don't just describe it. Judges score on creativity, AI use, feasibility, and presentation. Update your venture form with your final output link before you present.
Open by saying who you are and what your product does in one sentence. Demo first, talk second.
Your main build tool. Describe the product in plain English; it builds a real website/app. Start simple, then refine.
Write the words, generate logic, draft content, make a chatbot.
Add a voiceover or narrated demo to your product.
Using AI Responsibly
Never put your full name, address, school details, passwords, or anyone else's personal information into an AI tool. Use first names only or made-up examples.
No personal data about real people, no private photos, nothing you wouldn't put on a noticeboard.
It sounds confident even when it's mistaken ("hallucination"). Always check facts, numbers and quotes before you use them in your pitch.
Use AI as a tool, not a cheat. The ideas and decisions should be yours. If AI made something, be ready to say how.
Don't use AI to create anything that targets, mocks or could hurt a real person. Build things that help.
AI learns from the internet, which has bias built in. Ask "who might this leave out?" when you design.
Only use the tools we've given you. Don't download random apps or click unknown links during the day.
A teacher or helper is always nearby. If anything feels off — a weird AI answer, an account problem, anything — just ask.
By taking part you agree to use these tools kindly and responsibly. Anything inappropriate gets shut down — but we trust you. Go build something brilliant.
Stuck?
Use the help column on the live dashboard — add a note to your venture and a helper will come to you. Or raise a hand. There are no silly questions today.