Judges & mentors
Not a panel that turns up at the end. These are designers, engineers and founders who have shipped the things you are about to try to ship, and each of them is the person to ask about something specific.
01aka ONYX Design
Senior Product Designer at Commercial Bank of Ethiopia
Berket is a very talented UI/UX designer who has worked with many local and international companies and clients. He is currently a Senior Product Designer at Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) HQ.
He will be a very good mentor and judge for anyone who wants to sharpen their UI/UX skills while building their next project.
02aka Frosty
Software Developer at Chromaway
Tsion is a talented software developer working at the intersection of blockchain and AI, building on-chain infrastructure and fullstack decentralised applications at Chromaway.
She also works on applied AI, focusing on evaluating and testing the capabilities and security of large language models.
She will be a very good mentor and judge for anyone who wants to improve their technical skills in AI, ML or blockchain.
03aka Tech Nerd
Software Engineer, Indie Hacker and Founding Engineer
Yeabsira is a talented software engineer, full stack developer, indie hacker and founding engineer who has built and worked on many exciting products.
His work includes Roggy AI, a Shopify for AI chatbots; Pine AI, an AI-powered form builder; Rize, a focus and productivity app built around gamified deep work; and Batman, a full stack SaaS boilerplate for shipping products fast.
He will be an awesome mentor and judge for anyone who wants to improve their software engineering and learn how to actually ship.
04aka Naty
Web and Brand Designer, Founder
Naty is an excellent and talented web and brand designer, founder and UI/UX designer who has worked on many international projects as well as local clients, although he will happily tell you he prefers the international market.
He is probably one of the best known people for cracking X's algorithm to go viral, with hundreds of thousands of views on most of his posts, some of them crossing half a million, and with real retention behind the numbers.
His designs are unique, and one glance tells you how much effort went into them.
He will be a great mentor and judge not just on the look and feel of your design, but on how far the thing you build can actually travel.
05aka Sapphire
Software Engineer, former Technical Manager at ZemenayTech
Ruhama is a software engineer and full stack developer known for her relentless learning, for explaining programming topics and stacks like they are the alphabet, and for shipping real products at a startling rate.
Every day is an opportunity for her to learn something new, pick up a developer tool, form an opinion about it and then try to make it better. That is exactly what she did with DBStudio, an AI based database workspace, and Docklet, a lightweight desktop client for Docker. You may also know Flow, an AI powered drag and drop scraper, and Hooklet, a self hosted webhook replay and capture engine.
She has been at this a long time and is expert at seeing how things are put together and getting into the details, which is what made her a Technical Manager at ZemenayTech Outsourcing PLC.
If you want a judge who genuinely cares about what you are making and will give deep technical guidance on how to make it better while holding the industry standard, that is Ruhama. It is an honour to have her judging the official STARK Hackathon.
06aka Robi Makes Stuff
Developer and indie maker, currently at AY Automate
Robel is a very talented developer who has worked with multiple international companies and made a real mark on every team he has been part of. He is exceptional at design and at building unique interfaces, to the point of having his own design psychology: you can look at a product and say, that was made by Robi.
He has helped a lot of developers improve through his design video series Bespoke UI, where he breaks down the principles behind good interface design and how to think about building better products.
Robel is the creator and indie maker behind Odit and Links. He previously worked at IDs.Company and Better Auth, and is currently at AY Automate. He has also built SMA and plenty of other products and experiments along the way.
If you want to impress him, do not turn up with the usual AI slop. Pay attention to your UI, your usability, your details and the whole experience. Follow his design principles and your project is already better for it.
07aka Dagmawi Babi
Founder of ScholarXIV, developer and content creator
Dagmawi is a developer, founder, content creator, podcaster and public figure, best known as the founder of ScholarXIV and for his work supporting developers across the Ethiopian tech community.
He has worked with both international and local companies and is building his own startup alongside that work. But what makes him stand out is not only what he builds, it is how much he cares about what everyone else is building.
Through his platforms, and especially his Telegram community of more than nine thousand people, Dagmawi has helped countless developers get their products in front of an audience they would never have reached alone. He does not simply promote things either: he is known for detailed, honest product feedback that tells you what is missing and how to take the thing further. Stark.et itself owes part of its reach to his support.
Beyond ScholarXIV he also leads Ruthful Hearts and Benaiah.
If you want a judge who will genuinely care, check in on your progress and push you to make your work better, that is exactly the kind of person he is.
08aka Major John
Game Developer, co-founder of Muqecha
Yohanes is a software and game developer with a passion for building interactive experiences that make people think, feel and start conversations.
He co-founded the indie game studio Muqecha, where he leads programming and technical direction, working closely with artists and designers. One of his notable projects is Lomi, a game set during Timket that explores real social issues such as catcalling and harassment through an interactive experience.
He is also deeply interested in AI, automation and the creative process behind building products, and shares what he learns through writing, talks, workshops and boot camps. He genuinely enjoys mentoring, helping people understand not just how to build something but how to think about what they are building.
Because Major John is joining us, game submissions are now open too: you can compete with a full stack project or with a game.
Registration is open for teams and for people who need one. Build something these eight would want to look twice at.
STARK