You Can Come to the Hackathon Clueless

Pam Boiros and Luda Kopeikina were standing next to each other at a founders-and-funders event in Boston, listening to women ask how to learn AI, when Luda turned and said: Pam, we should do something about it. Pam says she was too afraid to say no. That was early 2025. A survey on LinkedIn blew up overnight, they put the smartest women they knew in a room, and six months later Women Applying AI launched during Boston AI Week. A year on it's a free, 100% volunteer-run community of 2,500 women, with hubs from Atlanta to Seattle to London and a goal of 5,000 by the end of the year.

This one starts with a disagreement. Mara published a Substack called The New Gender AI Gap the day before recording, and Luda hates the gap framing. It starts from the negative. It puts women on the defensive. It weighs down the exact people who need to hear they're capable. Pam would rather spend the energy creating conditions than diagnosing women. They agree the gap exists. They just won't lead with it. Mara is told she can still be friends with them regardless of her Substack.

Then the thing the episode is named for. Logan admits the word hackathon has never felt accessible to her, and Luda walks through what one actually is: problem statements, teams, one technical person, one industry expert, and everyone else learning as they go. You can come really clueless. Pam adds the permission not to know, and the AI PhD she sat next to who said she felt behind.

Also in here: Mara's failed on-ramp (hours with Andrew Ng on Coursera, "you don't understand me at all"), the give-get of a free community, the 79% of working women in roles exposed to generative AI, why Luda started a women-only organization after a career where she never felt a ceiling, the Atlanta document that failed, 25,000 members who aren't spectators, and a movement rather than a community. Both closing asks are the same one: get your hands on the keyboard. The dust is never going to settle.

Women Applying AI turns one on Thursday, September 24 at The Human Edge: Women Leading in the Age of AI, at MassChallenge in Boston during Boston AI Week. Register here.

What needs womansplaining? Leave us a voicemail at womansplainingai.com/answering-machine or email [email protected]. We're building a segment out of your questions.

In this episode

• 00:00 Cold open: "You can come really clueless"

• 00:14 Our first double interview: two co-founders, one intro

• 01:50 The gap fight: Mara wrote "The New Gender AI Gap" yesterday, and Luda hates the framing

• 02:41 Luda: coming from the negative hurts you; "we are not trying to close the gap"

• 05:27 Pam: spend the energy on conditions, not on diagnosing women

• 06:31 "We can definitely still be friends regardless of your Substack"

• 07:52 Origin story: a founders-and-funders event, and "Pam, we should do something about it"

• 09:33 "Why are more women not in the room?"

• 10:16 A LinkedIn survey blows up overnight; the room that designed the community

• 11:45 "Applying is the most important word in our name"

• 11:57 Logan: the conditions for intrinsic motivation (capable, motivated, a choice)

• 13:24 Pam: members in new jobs, accidental founders, "career security is in our own hands"

• 14:57 Logan admits the word hackathon has never felt accessible

• 15:25 Luda: what a hackathon actually is, start to finish

• 17:18 Mara: permission not to know, and stopping counting after 50

• 18:43 The title line

• 19:17 Pam: the AI PhD who said she felt behind

• 20:15 Luda presents Cowork by admitting she just picked it up; why peer to peer works

• 21:52 Mara: hours with Andrew Ng on Coursera, the wrong on-ramp

• 23:05 Pam: the give-get of a free community

• 23:41 Technical and non-technical women in the same soup; "a stone behind me that is not going any place"

• 25:34 Logan: learning pods, and what made them think this was possible

• 26:20 Pam: 79% of working women vs 58% of men, and pink-collar work at the tip of the spear

• 27:54 Luda: she never felt a ceiling, so a women-only organization was a leap

• 29:24 Brag section: 2,500 members, a goal of 5,000, 30% referred by another member

• 31:17 The Atlanta document that failed, and why they're hubs, not chapters

• 32:26 25,000 members who are participants, not spectators

• 32:37 A movement, not a community

• 33:36 Closing asks: get your hands on the keyboard. The dust is never gonna settle

• 34:16 Luda's toothbrushing songs

About Pam Boiros

Pam Boiros is the co-founder and CMO of Women Applying AI, a free, 501(c)(3), 100% volunteer-run community of 2,500 women that launched during Boston AI Week in 2025. She is a fractional CMO and principal at Bridge Marketing Advisors, where she has run marketing for a range of B2B software companies in HR tech, learning, and employee experience, and she created Marketing AI Jumpstart, an AI upskilling program for B2B marketing teams. Find her on LinkedIn.

About Luda Kopeikina

Luda Kopeikina is the co-founder and CEO of Women Applying AI. She holds a PhD in machine learning, was a vice president at GE and a corporate venture investor, is an MIT Sloan Fellow, and now leads Noventra, which connects AI startups with enterprise transformation. She never felt a ceiling in her own career, which is why founding a women-only organization was a leap. She did it because somebody had to. Find her on LinkedIn.

Resources mentioned

• Women Applying AI

• The Human Edge: Women Leading in the Age of AI, Women Applying AI's first anniversary, Thu Sept 24, MassChallenge, Boston (Boston AI Week)

• Mara Bolis, "The New Gender AI Gap" (Substack, Sept 1, 2026)

• Otis, Delecourt, Cranney & Koning, "Global Evidence on Gender Gaps and Generative AI," Harvard Business School Working Paper 25-023

• Kenan Institute (UNC Kenan-Flagler), "Will Generative AI Disproportionately Affect the Jobs of Women?" (2023): the 79% / 58% figures

• The Kendall Framework, The Kendall Project

• Andrew Ng on Coursera

• Bridge Marketing Advisors (Pam)

• Noventra (Luda)

• EP 25: Bring a Folding Chair (the learning-pods episode Logan calls back to)