For more than a year now, Aditi and I have been thinking of doing something together. The किडा of building something. Our primary model was trading wild “what-if” ideas over WhatsApp. And then, Aditi came across Pune Agri Hackathon in late March this year. We aggressively scrambled our resources, consulted some patient advisors, bullied Claude into doing the research, and concluded that we could use our extensive software background to pitch proposals in themes 8 (Geospatial & GIS-Based Crop Survey System) and 9 (AI for Smart Agriculture  Administration).

We took the plunge with a passion to solve real problems but without any background in the domain. We submitted two proposals in a record week’s time, putting Claude’s usage limits to the test! Only time would tell if any of the proposals stood any chance.

We had a month till the results were announced to work on these projects. I ran with the theme 9 project, and Aditi started building the theme 8 project. And oh boy! What fun it was! In a month, I could build an entire product from scratch with integration points for government systems, using bff Claude. Being in a career transition break definitely helped, as I got sucked into the world of putting AI agents to do the coding work while I focused on real problems that the agents could not touch. In the meantime, Aditi had built the complex geospatial pipeline for the complex Theme 8 project while juggling her day job and other responsibilities.

The prep!

When the results were announced on April 30th, we found out भू-दृष्टी (visit the website to understand what it does) had made the cut! It was selected for the final round! We were elated for about 5-minutes. Then we realized we had 15 days to turn our digital blueprint into a fully functioning spaceship. With only 15 days left to make an impactful end-to-end product with real value, we focused all our effort and time on validating the use cases.

We held a demo of our solution for our technology advisors in the first week of May. It felt like showing a cardboard spaceship to NASA. But when our advisors saw potential in what we had built, we felt confident.

We started seeking user feedback. I was able to connect with my uncle, who owns a farm. He also connected me with an agriculture officer who works at the ground level with farmers. If my uncle gave us a map of the terrain, the ground-level agriculture officer gave us the inside codes. This validated our thinking. We also concluded that our cardboard spaceship needed more heft and support for real-world use cases. So we latched a disaster assessment module to our spaceship within a week! In parallel, our creative team helped us build a satellite replica. We were also building posters, videos, pitch decks, and a website. Our scrappy team was all set for the liftoff, aka the event!

The event

Bringing any new idea to the world always feels exciting and scary. Exciting as you get to solve real problems, improvise, recalibrate, and pivot. Scary as you worry if you’ll be able to translate all this to real users, buyers, and investors. Armed with our minimal agritech street cred, we set out on a 3-day learning journey!

The entire event and the venue’s scale were colossal. The realization hit us: we weren’t just playing in the sandbox anymore-we were in the deep end of a very serious pool. After formal inauguration, a jury and super-jury would visit the booths to judge their solutions!

Around us, there were solutions designed by engineering students, researchers, registered companies, and start-ups. We were a bit intimidated, to be honest. We also had some minor hiccups in our booth setup. With some creative solutions, we salvaged the day and decided to focus on engagement with the visitors. We started seeing a mixed crowd at our booth. Since we were there to learn and validate our solution, we loved every interaction! Farmers from small villages would stop by and ask how भू-दृष्टी could help them. Some had curious questions. Some gave genuine feedback and shared their real-life problems. People from academia, from professors to students, also stopped by to just listen or share insights. We also had a bunch of government officers stop by. They were intrigued and then excited as they learned this was designed for them for better governance! They also shared a lot of validating feedback. Day 1 was progressing well. Our jury round happened post lunch. We were able to convey the value prop, but there was still something missing. We were left disappointed by our own effort. Aditi and I, being optimists, started strategizing how to do this better for the next round, if there was to be one. Day 1 ended on a lukewarm note. We knew what our weakness was, and we also had ideas around how to handle that. We just needed another chance!

We started day 2 well rested and ready to take on newer interactions. Our friends started trickling in, given it was the weekend. That helped keep the mood fun. Our handmade satellite prop also went into orbit thanks to P and H’s timely help! Our booth was now looking nicer. Once again, we started getting more visitors as the day progressed. From family, friends, to people from all walks of life, it was the best of the 3 days. The jury visited us again! This time, we did a better job at working through the flow and calling out what was missing. That settled our minds. As the day’s end drew nearer, more friends visited us. In addition to the serious business of staying in character for the event, seeing familiar faces cheering for us, clicking pictures, felt comforting.

The last day of the event was to culminate with the Chief Minister’s visit and prize distribution. It was supposed to be another busy day. From morning, we started seeing good footfall at our booth. Friends and family kept trickling in. Seeing us work passionately outside of our comfort zone was exciting for them, too!

As a team who have worked on software products and development for a long time, taking the germ of an idea from concept to MVP to users for live interaction, with a like-minded teammate was the cherry on top of this spaceship-shaped pie!

The winners in our theme were announced soon after. We didn’t win a prize. We came back with a lot of learning and ideas for where we wanted to take भू-दृष्टी.

Next Steps

We have seen भू-दृष्टी‘s potential via real user feedback. We have identified the next steps and will continue to work on this project on the side. Stepping out of our comfort zones to build this was an absolute leap of faith, but it turns out that taking a bet on yourself can lead to wonderful outcomes. We are walking away from this experience with full hearts, a validated product, and the joy of building something from the ground up that can have real impact. We are richer and happier for the trouble and effort we put ourselves through. Our spaceship is closer to reality, and it’s geared for its next phase!