Nicholas Lin

I build software and play music. Most of what I make starts at a hackathon.

Competitions

Ranked #2 globally in the Exonic AI Tournament for DNA sequence optimization.

Hackathons

I've won eight hackathons. Each one taught me something about moving fast and actually shipping.

At the Celebrity Hunt Hackathon in San Francisco, we got a list of 100 names: presidents, CEOs like Jensen Huang and Tim Cook, and famous artists. The goal was to get one of them on FaceTime. We mapped out the people around them, assistants, managers, producers, and collaborators, and pulled phone numbers for over 40 of them. Most hung up. Michael Dell, the 13th richest person in the world, didn't. We were the only team to get someone from the list on a call. We took first place and got mentorship from people at Palantir, Google, and OpenAI.

At Funding the Commons we placed 3rd out of 240 and got invited to a private investor meeting. I also took 2nd at Y Combinator's Hack the Stackathon, which came with a $10,000 prize. I've judged a few hackathons too.

Security

I also do security research. I've found real vulnerabilities in a few venture-backed companies. I think the best way to understand how something works is to try to break it.

Music

When I'm not building, I'm playing piano. I've been at it for nine years. I also play flute and lead the section in my school's ensemble. Music and building have a lot in common: both come down to structure, repetition, and small details.

I'm always up for working on something interesting. Feel free to reach out.