At most hackathons, the programmers keep themselves going with cold pizzas and caffeinated drinks. The vibe of Project ElevenLabs, an invite-only, one-day hackathon hosted by AI voice unicorn ElevenLabs and startup accelerator Project Europe, was more of a festival than a coding marathon.
While hundreds of programmers were busy coding inside an old government building in Warsaw, three Santa Claus–attired servers weaved through the crowd. Food trucks lined the road outside, and a flame-throwing artist waited inside to surprise attendees. “This has ruined all other hackathons,” said an exhausted but happy participant. “Normally, we just get a pile of pizza boxes.”
Coding in a Former Censorship Ministry
The venue hosted 130 of Europe’s top developers committing to 20 hours of nonstop building. Once the Central Office of Press, Publications and Entertainment Control, the communist-era censorship ministry, the building was now filled with selfie sticks, camera crews and even a makeshift hallway podcast studio.
The symbolism was not lost on ElevenLabs cofounder Mati Staniszewski.
“It seems a bit mad that many of you will be using ElevenLabs to build your projects,” he told the audience. “Making machines able to speak. To speak freely, without limits and maybe this ministry just being an old memory one day.”
From Hackathon Projects to a $6.6B Company
Staniszewski knows firsthand what hackathons can lead to. In the early days, he and cofounder Piotr Dąbkowskitravelled across Europe competing in similar events. One experimental speech project eventually became ElevenLabs, now valued at $6.6 billion.
“In parallel, we must have built some really terrible ideas as well,” he joked, drawing laughter from the room.
Comfort as a Competitive Advantage
Project Europe chief Kitty Mayo opened the day with an unusual promise: comfort. Bathrooms were stocked with makeup wipes, deodorant, toothbrushes, chewing gum, dry shampoo and even gel eye masks.
“Here you have a comfortable hackathon. People will take care of you,” she told the participants. “It is not normal to have the best of the best of all Europe’s communities in one place at the same time.”
From Sleep Companions to VR Escapes
Once the coding began, ideas ranged from the practical to the absurd. Two teams independently built AI-powered sleep companions. Others worked on research aggregation tools, an accessibility product that converts video into voice notes for people with hearing impairments, and a frustrating VR escape-room game.
The Dating App That Actually Worked
The crowd favourite, however, was a voice-controlled dating app. Before the hackathon even ended, it had successfully arranged a real-world coffee date for two users in the UK.
At the final demo session, its presentation drew the loudest laughs when Mayo herself appeared in the videoanswering the app’s profile questions. “I was going to be an artist, but Harry [Stebbings] told me I should be a venture capitalist instead,” she said. “That’s quite a difference—what was your reaction?” the AI replied. Mayo looked perfectly calm with her career change.
Big Prizes and a Surprise Car
The €10,000 main prize—delivered with an oversized novelty cheque—went to a Warsaw-based team that built a deeply engaging, hyper-personalised game. Two second prizes of €2,500 each went to the meeting automation agentand the dating app.
A surprise bonus prize—a car—was awarded to the team whose platform turned family memories into AI-generated holiday videos.
A Global Mindset from Day One
During the closing fireside chat, Mayo asked Staniszewski what advice he had for the developers. His answer was simple:
“Right from the beginning, you can have a global presence. Your location is not a constraint.”
Then he paused. “But it seems I should be getting advice from you.”
Europe’s Next Builders Take the Stage
For twenty hours in Warsaw—surrounded by code, cameras, flame dancers and the ghosts of censorship past—Europe’s next generation of builders looked ready to take on the challenge.