Invitation · Mentors, judges and speakers
We'd like you in the room.
HackMeridian is two days of building in Lisbon — Genesis for people shipping a first idea, Scale for teams turning a prototype into a product. You've been invited to help, either alongside the builders or on stage.
October 2026
Two ways to take part
Choose the role that fits you. Or do both.
HackMeridian brings experienced builders, operators, founders, investors, designers and technical experts into the room to help teams move faster. You can join us as a Mentor & Judge, a Speaker, or both.
Mentoring and judging are one combined role: the people helping teams on Sunday are also part of the group reviewing what they build on Monday. Speaking is a separate commitment.
Help teams on Sunday. Review what they built on Monday.
- What you'll do
- On Sunday, you'll spend time directly with teams. They might come to you with an architecture decision, a contract that won't deploy, a product question, a security concern, a pitch that isn't landing, or a problem they've been debating for four hours. Your job isn't to solve it for them — it's to help them get unstuck and keep building. On Monday, you'll join the judging process and help evaluate what those teams created.
- The commitment
- Roughly four to six hours of mentoring on Sunday 25 October, plus the judging session on Monday 26 October. If you can give more, great. If you have a tighter window, tell us what's realistic in the form — we'll build the mentor schedule around everyone's availability.
- What we're looking for
- We match mentors with teams based on what they actually know, so we'll ask about your areas of expertise. That could include payments, blockchain infrastructure, smart contracts, security, AI, product, design, developer experience, go-to-market, fundraising, growth — or something entirely different. Experience with Stellar or Soroban is especially useful: it can be the difference between diagnosing a problem in ten minutes and spending an hour getting context. Preferred, not required — we want a strong mix of technical and non-technical perspectives in the room.
- Conflicts of interest
- If you're an investor in, advisor to, employed by, or otherwise closely connected to a team that may compete, tell us in the application. It does not disqualify you. It simply means you won't be assigned to judge that team.
Bring something useful to the room.
- Who these talks are for
- HackMeridian talks are for builders in the middle of making something. We're looking for speakers who can teach, challenge, explain, demonstrate, or share something that makes the people in the room better at what they're building.
- The shape it can take
- A technical session, a practical workshop, a founder story, a live demo, a teardown, or a strong point of view on where technology is heading. We care less about polished conference speeches and more about whether the session will be genuinely useful to the people attending.
- What we'll ask for
- Tell us what you want to speak about, who it's for, and what someone should walk away knowing. We'll also ask for a link where we can see or hear you speak — it doesn't need to be professionally produced. We just want a sense of how you communicate.
Before you apply
Three things worth knowing.
These roles are for HackMeridian on 25–26 October. They're separate from the Meridian conference programme on 28–29 October, which has its own speaker and participation process.
If you're selected, the headshot, title, company, bio and links you provide build your profile on the HackMeridian site and programme. Take a minute to submit them exactly as you'd want them published.
Choose Mentor & Judge, Speaker, or both. The application automatically shows the questions relevant to the role or roles you select.
After you apply
Here's what happens next.
- Submit your applicationIt should take around ten minutes. Have a headshot ready — and if you're applying to speak, a link to a video or recording of you speaking too.
- We review itApplications are reviewed by the HackMeridian team, including representatives from Guava and Stellar. Speakers are reviewed on the strength and relevance of the proposed session and their ability to communicate it; mentors and judges on expertise, fit and availability.
- You'll hear from us either waySpeaker decisions begin going out in late September. Mentor and judge confirmations continue through October, with earlier confirmations where possible.
- We make it officialIf you're selected, we'll ask you to confirm your details and availability, then add you to the HackMeridian site, programme and relevant schedules.
Ready?
Tell us how you want to be part of HackMeridian.
Choose your role below and we'll take it from there.
Questions we get
Before you ask.
Can I mentor without judging?
Not really — they're one commitment here. The value of judging is that the people scoring already spent Sunday with the teams and know what a project actually overcame. If Monday genuinely doesn't work for you, apply anyway and say so in the availability question.
I don't have a decent headshot.
A recent phone photo against a plain wall is honestly fine, and usually better than a low-resolution crop from a conference photographer. Square if you can, at least 1000 pixels, under 5MB. No group shots and no screenshots — it goes on the site at full size.
Can I bring a co-presenter?
Yes. Name them on the form with their title and email. If we go ahead, they'll each fill in their own form — we need their details and permissions the same as yours.
What happens to what I submit?
Guava Global handles it as organiser. If you're accepted, the publishable parts — name, photo, title, company, bio, links — go to the site with your permission, which the form asks for separately. Everything else, including your email and anything you tell us in confidence, stays internal. Full detail is in the privacy notice.