This winter, Memphis techies showed up with vision. At Hack Memphis 2025, nearly 20 teams gathered to reimagine how data, design, and civic grit could reshape our city. With $5,000+ in prizes on the line, they didn’t just build to win; they built to serve.
🔍 This Year’s Civic Challenges:
Blight Analytics:
AI to Navigate Civic Services/Resources
Strengthening How Local Businesses Partner with Government
Blight Analytics Teams & Their Solutions
How can data help Memphis prioritize blight mitigation more effectively?
Blight isn’t just a visual scar. It’s a signal flare for deeper systemic challenges. For decades, Memphis has fought to reclaim neglected properties. This year, our tech community asked: What if data could help us see the whole story?
📈 Blight Ops
Built a Power BI-powered 311 dashboard with smarter intake and AI image analysis. Turning raw data into actionable insight—and showing how Memphis leads in civic tech innovation.
🧠 Hi-Lo
Created Presley, an AI assistant that helps code enforcement prioritize and route blight response using city and nonprofit data. Smart tech for faster, fairer action.
📊 Pixels (Category Winner)
A student-led team predicting blight patterns by linking crime and neglect. Their app visualizes trends and spots early warnings. Memphis innovation powered by curiosity.
📸 M3
Empowered residents to report blight with a photo. Their AI categorizes and submits issues automatically, turning community engagement into clean, usable data.
🌱 Civic Bloom
Built a Blight Watch app that maps issues, links services, and lets neighbors form clean-up teams. With GIS snapshots and sponsorship tools, they’re giving power back to the community.
🚗 Bit by Bit (Grand Prize Winner)
Developed Tiger Eye, an AI-powered dash cam app that auto-detects blight and replaces the 8-step 311 process with just two. Operational brilliance rooted in Memphis ingenuity.
AI to Navigate Civic Services/Resources Teams & Their Solutions
In Memphis, where access can shape outcomes, techies are reimagining how residents find help. By building smarter, self-serve tools and cleaner directories, they’re making civic resources more accurate, accessible, and empowering. One click at a time.
🌐 LINC901 (Category Winners)
LINC901 built a personalized web platform to fix gaps in 211. With smart search, profile-based recommendations, and user-submitted updates, they’re making Memphis resource directories more accurate, user-friendly, and community-powered.
🗣️ Beale AI
Beale AI created a multilingual chatbot that connects residents to 211, 311, parks, and transit info. With voice, text, and weekly AI updates, it’s Memphis innovation that speaks every language and keeps civic data fresh and accessible.
🍽️ Memphis Resource Reimagined
Memphis Resource Reimagined is a mobile-first platform to help all residents, regardless of language, find vital resources like food banks. It’s a new kind of 211: inclusive, intuitive, and built for Memphis neighborhoods that need it most.
⚙️ MemphisAI5
MemphisAI5 created City Connects, a rebuilt 211 with AI-powered accuracy. From SEO visibility to chat access and weekly updates, their platform ensures Memphis residents don’t miss out on help that’s already available. Making tech a bridge, not a barrier.
📍 4MEMPHIS
4MEMPHIS tackled outdated resource info head-on. Their app validates addresses, checks website status, and uses AI calls to confirm services. Giving residents faster access and freeing up staff from manual verification.
Strengthening Local Businesses Partner Teams & Their Solutions
In Memphis, where small businesses fuel big dreams, techies are building tools to simplify contracts and unlock opportunity. By automating paperwork and guiding bids step-by-step, they’re helping more local vendors compete and win in the city’s innovation economy.
🧠 90What
90What built a civic sourcing app that helps Memphis businesses win contracts. With AI-powered RFP support and vendor alerts, it shows how local bids can drive deeper impact and how tech can make opportunities feel personal.
📍 ExtraM (Category Winner)
ExtraM created an event management platform that automates permits, contractor agreements, and code enforcement. With heat maps and gig tools, they’re eliminating paperwork and unlocking Memphis’s event economy with precision.
📊 ImpactSquare
ImpactSquare built an AI guide that matches businesses to city contracts and codes—turning a mountain of regulations into smart, searchable opportunities. Their saved profiles help Memphis vendors get seen, matched, and hired.
📝 Memphis BBQ (Runner up winner)
Memphis Qualifier app uses AI to transform RFPs: extracting action items, generating executive summaries, and streamlining uploads. It’s a fast-track portal for Memphis vendors ready to compete with clarity and confidence.
📈 TMBS
The Memphis BUSINESS System helps vendors onboard, match with contracts, and track opportunities. TMBS is civic tech built for momentum, giving Memphis entrepreneurs the alerts and tools they need to grow.
🚀 Thrive901
Thrive901 built a supplier portal that walks Memphis vendors through licenses, insurance, and forms. Then helps them find partners and contracts. With AI prompts and uploads, it ensures complete applications and real access.
💼 TeamElite
TeamElite tackled the complexity of doing business with the city. Their web platform simplifies supplier registration and uses AI to analyze winning bids. Giving Memphis vendors a smarter path to success.
💡 Why It Matters
Hackathons are more than caffeine and code. They’re a test of vision, grit, and collaboration under pressure. In just 48 hours, strangers became teammates, and big ideas became working prototypes. What these teams accomplished wasn’t just technical; it was transformational.