VerifyAI

One day, four people, one job. I scoped the work down to what had to run, and we took 1st of 28 teams.

The Ivy College of Business hackathon gave us a day. I led four people. We shipped VerifyAI, a way to flag a phone call that may be a cloned voice, and took first in the technical track out of 28 teams.

Problem

Hackathon scope fails by addition. Everyone can name a platform. Almost nobody can name the one action the demo must complete. Voice-cloning scams are a wide problem. A day is not wide.

Process

I wrote the job in one line: a person on a call gets a warning if the voice looks fake. Capture, check, and alert were the only tasks. Pitch material was written from that line. Anything about a consumer subscription, a network of banks, or a second modality was a no for the day, said out loud, so the team did not build it halfway.

Solution

• A one-sentence scope, repeated when new ideas showed up.
• Four people on three tasks, with a midday check that we still had a path to a demo.
• A pitch that matched the thing that ran.

Results

• 1st Technical track
• 28 Teams
• 4 People
• 1 day Fixed deadline

Justin Moran · Project Manager · Chicago, IL · LinkedIn · Resume (PDF)