New We Build With AI website with user-requested features such as user profiles, events page, project gallery, and resources page
Original We Code With AI website, also made 100% with Bolt
Over 60 hackers attended the Seattle kickoff for the World's Largest Hackathon on 5/20
Over 150 AI Tinkerers members sign up for the Build Night with Bolt on 6/19
Over 70 MBA alumni joined a workshop tailored to kicking off their hackathon project on 6/12

We Build With AI

Inspiration

After hosting six hackathons and deeply engaging with Seattle's startup and AI communities over the past two years, I encountered a persistent challenge: the product execution gap between technical and non-technical founders. Despite my active involvement in organizing events, I often felt like an imposter at deeply technical events due to my lack of formal programming background.

This feeling crystallized during a cofounder matching event I organized for AI founders in December 2024. The imbalance was stark—both technical and non-technical founders overwhelmingly sought technical cofounders, leaving many non-technical entrepreneurs frustrated and unable to launch their ideas. The post-event feedback was telling: numerous non-technical founders expressed exasperation about their inability to build and deploy applications without technical partners.

When AI House launched in March 2025 as a public-private partnership to democratize Seattle's AI community, I was invited as a resident AI expert. With complete creative freedom to shape the community, I founded "We Build With AI"—an organization dedicated to empowering anyone to leverage AI coding assistance for application development and deployment, regardless of their technical background.

The fact that Eric Simons green-lit the World's Largest Hackathon the same week that I published my first workshop provided an even stronger platform to help new users experience Bolt and use the resources of the hackathon to code and deploy their first apps.

What it does

webuildwithai.org serves as the central hub for our community-driven initiative. The platform provides:

Workshop coordination and scheduling for hands-on AI-assisted coding sessions
Resource libraries featuring tutorials, templates, and best practices
Community forums where members share projects, seek help, and collaborate
Event management tools enabling community members to organize their own workshops
Project showcases highlighting vibe coded apps built by community members

The website represents an evolution from my initial wecodewithai.org, reflecting our expanded mission (from coding to building) and growing community needs.

How I built it

The development process followed an iterative, community-driven approach:

Phase 1: Initial MVP Development

Built the original wecodewithai.org entirely using Bolt.new
Conducted user research through workshop feedback and participant interviews
Identified key pain points and feature requests

Phase 2: Comprehensive Planning

Consolidated two months of workshop notes and community feedback
Created a detailed 40-page Product Requirements Document (PRD) using Claude
Collaborated with Bolt community mentors to refine implementation strategy for such a large PRD

Phase 3: Rebuild and Rebrand

Developed webuildwithai.org from the ground up using the refined PRD
Implemented advanced features based on real user needs
Integrated feedback loops for continuous improvement

Challenges we ran into

Massive Initial Prompt Experiment: This project marked my first attempt at using an extremely comprehensive initial prompt. I compiled 14 pages of workshop notes and community feedback into a single document for Claude, then worked with community mentors to break down the 40-page PRD into manageable implementation steps for Bolt.

Scope Management: Balancing the ambitious vision outlined in the PRD with practical development constraints required careful prioritization and phased rollouts.

Community Coordination: Managing input from 500+ community members while maintaining a coherent product vision presented unique challenges in stakeholder management.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Community Growth: Built a thriving community of 500+ members who actively participate in workshops and events
Volunteer Network: Developed a dedicated team of 20+ volunteers committed to expanding the initiative
Leadership Development: Successfully mentored two community members to lead their own independent workshops
Sustainable Partnerships: Secured commitments from multiple sponsors for events throughout summer and fall 2025
Technical Achievement: Demonstrated that complex, production-level applications can be built entirely using AI-assisted tools by non-technical founders
Platform Evolution: Successfully migrated and enhanced the platform based on real user feedback and community needs

What I learned

Technical Insights:

Comprehensive Product Requirements Documents significantly improve development outcomes when building with AI assistance
Future projects should prioritize establishing robust scaffolding (website structure, database architecture, and authentication systems) before developing individual features
Investing time in database design and field relationships upfront prevents lengthy debugging sessions and ensures better backend comprehension

Community Building:

Iterative development based on real user feedback creates more valuable products than assumption-driven development
Community-driven feature requests often reveal use cases that wouldn't emerge from traditional market research
Empowering community members to become leaders creates sustainable growth and reduces single points of failure

What's next for We Build With AI

Immediate Expansion (Summer 2025):

Launch community-led workshop program with trained volunteer facilitators
Roll out self-service event creation tools for community members
Implement advanced project collaboration features

Long-term Vision: With our established community of 500+ members, growing volunteer base, and secured sponsorship commitments, We Build With AI is positioned to become a self-sustaining ecosystem. My focus shifts from direct event management to empowering community members to create their own educational experiences and collaborative projects.

The platform will serve as the foundation for a distributed network of AI-assisted development events, creating pathways for non-technical founders to transform ideas into deployed applications while building Seattle's reputation as a leader in accessible AI education.