When the email came in “Congratulations! Your idea passed the Shark Tank stage and next will be the Hackathon stage…”my first reaction wasn’t to celebrate. It was to start thinking about “logistics”.

Well, it was about what we should bring. Is it Laptops, mockups, power strips? Nope, the real essentials turned out to be: one Nintendo Switch (obviously) 😀 a shared vision, and a team crazy enough to pull it off but the most important thing is to have fun.

That team was us, VOCTA. Yep, this is our team’s name which is actually Voice Call Portable.

We knew the mission: 24 hours of pure hustle—brainstorming, building, pivoting, and pitching. What we didn’t fully expect was how much of it would feel like a crash course in leadership, pressure management, and working together when your energy runs low and the clock runs fast.

Let me introduce the squad behind the purple widget.

 – CCO. Cool, composed, and always able to turn the most complex value prop into a smooth, convincing story. Salesman energy, but make it strategic.

 – CFO. The one who said, “Wait, let’s count the cost model again,” at 2AM. Spreadsheet sensei. Viability police.


Pixel perfectionist. The guy who made sure our widget looked clean, clear, and clickable while we kept breaking things in dev mode. Also the only one who consistently reminded us that “spacing matters.”

 – CEO, Tech Lead, and resident code whisperer. Always saying, “10 more minutes,” while pushing commits and tweaking stylesheets.

And yes because we believe in balance (why so serious :D) we brought a Nintendo Switch and played FIFA between builds.

Rain, Checkpoints, and Late-Night Checkpoints

The venue was Richie Garden, Bogor. It looked like a peaceful villa, until the rain started... and never stopped.

It rained almost all night. But the show went on. Inside the cottage and shared spaces, everyone was coding, mocking up, or nervously practicing their pitch.

We raced between checkpoints, hoping our WebRTC logic wouldn’t crash right when a mentor asked about market validation. Somewhere between debugging a rogue TypeScript error and trying to align buttons in Tailwind, we also made a sprint through the rain to grab Soto Betawi for dinner. Cold toes, warm broth. Perfect combo.

But this wasn’t just about building a product, it was about learning to lead. As CEO, I had to make constant judgment calls: do we fix that UI bug or focus on the pitch deck? Should we rehearse or code? Not to mention the challenging checkpoint at 12AM and 3AM. Sleep wasn’t on the schedule. Neither was comfortable, but we kept on delivering.

I wasn’t the only one switching roles. We all did. That’s what made Team VOCTA special. Alwin pitched with clarity and calm even under pressure. Hamdy kept our numbers sharp and our business model grounded. We jumped between designer, debugger, and storyteller. It wasn’t about being a solo hero, it was about making space for everyone to shine. Because great leadership isn’t about doing it all, it’s about helping your team rise with you. There were pitch practice rounds at midnight.

But that’s where the growth happened, somewhere in that mix of adrenaline, rainwater, and last-minute decisions.

VOCTA was our idea of a real-time voice call widget that lets customers talk directly to a brand, right from a browser. No app installs. No switching to WhatsApp. Just click, connect, and talk.

Imagine a customer visiting a product page or CRM interface. With VOCTA, they can start a voice conversation with a brand agent instantly, right on the spot. That’s the experience we set out to build.

We started from scratch and sprinted for 24 hours to build:

, styled with Tailwind, that sits neatly on any website or CRM page.

, showing agent status (Available, Busy, Offline), call timer, and full WebRTC controls.

, handling offer/answer, ICE candidates, and clean media stream teardown.

, keeping both ends in sync from offer to hang-up.

, using a clone of Buttonscarves.com to showcase VOCTA in a real scenario.

We focused not just on features, but on flow how it feels to click that button, how fast the call connects, and how smooth the experience is from both customer and agent sides.

And of course, we polished the visual details. From avatar priority loading to click feedback, everything was tuned to feel production-ready. Because in a product like this, trust is built in milliseconds.

The result? A working prototype that we could proudly show in a live pitch. Real voice. Real UI. Real potential.

Dinner was Soto Betawi, and I’m convinced it healed our souls. Forget energy drinks—nothing fuels a night of debugging and pitch deck redesign like warm broth and a generous helping of rice. There was an actual buffet. Unlimited coffee. Snacks that mysteriously kept refilling. And yes, they even gave us sleeping tents. Not that we used them, of course we were too busy making our widget work.

And when the brain fog hit hard? We did what any responsible tech team would do: fired up the Nintendo Switch and played FIFA. Just one match, we said. Just one goal, we said. Suddenly it was 2AM and we were yelling “offside!” in the middle of a villa.

Still, somehow, the rhythm returned. Food → FIFA → Flow → Figma. That was the cycle.

It wasn’t just hacking. It was a 24-hour startup simulation with a side of FIFA and laughter echoing through the rain. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

By the end of it all, we stood in front of the judges, sleep-deprived, slightly jittery from too much kopi, but ready. We had working code, a live demo, a solid pitch deck, and a story worth telling.

We talked about the problem: how hard it still is to talk to a brand.

 customer-obsessed businesses across Southeast Asia.

 VOCTA, a simple voice widget that brings real-time conversations back into digital platforms.

 faster resolutions, better customer experience, and more meaningful brand-customer interaction.

Each of us had a role, and each of us delivered.Alwin opened strong, cool and composed, setting the stage like a true CCO—clarity, calm, conviction.

Hamdy followed with the business model breakdown—clean slides, tight numbers, and just enough storytelling to make a spreadsheet sound inspiring.

I wrapped it up with the demo and product walkthrough, balancing between explaining the tech and not breaking it live on screen.

Was it perfect? Not at all. Was it real? 100%.

We didn’t just talk about our idea, we lived it for 24 hours straight. And in that moment, VOCTA felt less like a prototype and more like the start of something bigger.

 wasn’t just a competition. It was a full-blown simulation of real-world innovation, complete with pressure, pivots, checkpoints, and yes… nonstop rain. But beyond the code and mockups, it was a 

. As the acting CEO of Team VOCTA, I had to 

strategize on the fly, delegate under pressure

 even when the clock said 2AM and the checkpoint was in 15 minutes.

, not just a builder. When to push. When to step back. When to say, “Let’s take five and play FIFA.” (Yes, we brought a Nintendo Switch. Best. Decision. Ever.)

Between coding sprints, food trays, soggy shoes, and late-night laughter, we walked away with something bigger than a prototype, 

the experience of leading a team, building under pressure, and having fun while doing it

And honestly? I’d do it all over again.

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Pitch Deck, Code, and Checkpoints: The VOCTA Telintrapreneur Hackathon Saga