Omondi ’26 Wins Top Spots at Three Hackathons in Three Weeks

In the span of just three weeks in late January and early February, Harvey Mudd senior Alspencer Omondi earned top awards in three hackathons at Y Combinator, a San Francisco-based technology startup accelerator and venture capital firm.

Omondi, a computer science major with a strong interest in entrepreneurship, placed among the finalists (No. 6 out of 80 teams) at Y Combinator’s Jan. 24 Full Stack hackathon and won first place in the Mongo DB Track systems hackathon on Jan. 31. At his third hackathon on Feb. 7, Omondi teamed up with fellow Mudder Ethan Sandoval ’26 to compete in the Better Hack event and won the Founder’s Award for their product, selected as one that Y Combinator founders would most likely use.

“I’ve always wanted to get into startups,” Omondi said. “Hackathons felt like the fastest way to build, test ideas and meet people who want to create things.”

All three hackathons centered on building “agentic” AI tools—software agents that can take a user’s intent and execute complex tasks independently.

At the Jan. 24 Full Stack hackathon, Omondi and his team built an automated web-testing agent. Developers can input a website URL and a prompt, and the agent navigates the site like a real user, identifying bugs and errors before products go live.

“We wanted something that tests continuously, the way an actual user would,” he explained. “It catches issues before customers do.”

At the Jan. 31 systems hackathon, Omondi created a tool that allows AI coding agents to retrieve accurate, real-time data directly from websites. The tool addresses the ubiquitous problem of outdated or incorrect AI responses. His first-place award came with a pair of Meta smart glasses, which he has been enjoying.

At the Feb. 7 Better Hack event, Omondi and Sandoval built an AI agent that automatically tests backend software endpoints, replacing manual tools like Postman. Developers can connect the agent to a GitHub repository, and it identifies, tests, fixes and retests code autonomously. The agent can also integrate with project management platforms like Jira, functioning like an additional “team member” assigned to tasks. In addition to the positive nod from judges (Founder’s Award), their pilot product now has paying customers. Omondi says they have reached $850 in monthly recurring revenue and are aiming to grow to $3,000 in the short-term. They are currently working on raising funds to be able to continue developing the company after graduating in May.

Founding a startup has been a dream of Omondi’s. In addition to his computer science courses, he took two entrepreneurship classes (ENTR 179 A and B) with alumni entrepreneurs Josh Jones ’98 and Bensen Tsai ’06 as well as a human-centered engineering design course with Gordon Krauss, Fletcher Jones Professor in Engineering Design. Omondi also participated twice in Harvey Mudd College’s Summer Entrepreneurship Studio program (EShip Studio), creating prototypes for potential startups. These experiences gave him a foundation for entrepreneurship.

“I learned the processes for how to figure out the customer, get feedback, integrate that feedback and rapidly iterate,” said Omondi.

These skills also proved advantageous at the hackathons, which Omondi enjoys most for their intensity. “You realize you can work under pressure. You build something in 24 hours, and someone actually uses it,” he said. “That feeling is relief, and it’s also achievement.”