I normally fill this blog space with handy tips about using KumoMTA, but this one is a bit different. I want to talk about something every successful entrepreneur should always have in mind: Giving back.
Recently, I was approached by a local teen who was looking for a bit of help with a hackathon he and his friends wanted to pull together. I heard the pitch, and I was immediately reminded of my own journey from after-school hacker to successful tech entrepreneur. There was zero hesitation with my "Yes, of course I will help - tell me what you need."
KumoMTA sponsors and attends a number of events every year that are primarily focused on email transport and security, but as an open-source company, we also do quite a bit through our code and Discord to encourage startups, developers, and other entrepreneurs who want to build interesting new things. Helping this group of kids seems to be a perfect use of the event budget, even if we are not attending in person.
As it turns out, this local hackathon is part of a much larger network of youth hack groups largely driven by teens for teens all over North America. From the marketing material, "Daydream is the world's largest Game Jam event for teenagers, happening simultaneously in over 100 cities. Participants with all levels of experience come together for 24 hours to socialize and develop a game from scratch."
When I was a teen, the word "hackathon did not even exist. (seriously)
And apparently, it was invented right here in Calgary in 1999. - cool trivia tidbit :)
I was writing my own games, rewiring my own computer and sharing wins and failures on text-based dial-up BBS systems with other like-minded geeks wherever I could find them, which was pretty rare back then. I am actually pretty jealous of kids today who have so much access to tech, support resources, and masses of people who have access and interest in building cool things.
If you are a teen and you are interested in collaborating with others on building games, learning code and exploring open-source, click on one of those links and find a club you can join.
If you are a more senior geek like me and want to help support the next generation of hackers, builders and dreamers, you can invest in their future right here.
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