Can VC hackathons attract women? Norrsken just proved they do: ‘Not your typical tech guys’

Norrsken’s weekend “fixathon” – part of its AI-for-impact initiative Prompt What Matters – drew around 200 participants to the foundation’s Stockholm hub over the weekend for a 24-hour push to develop AI tools for climate, health, and other societal issues.

According to organisers, about 40% of attendees were women and girls, far above the average share for hackathon-style events, which typically have a low female participation of 11-28%, according to one recent study.

“It went beyond all expectations,” Judith Wolst, the prominent Swedish author who runs the Prompt What Matters initiative at Norrsken, told Impact Loop on Monday. “We’ve received so many nice words afterwards, especially from people who don’t usually feel like they get to be part of these kinds of events.”

How did they do it?

When asked how she thinks they managed to achieve such an unusual gender balance, Wolst responded: "It's about the way we've communicated, the types of challenges we're trying to solve, and what kind of team we are that's organising it."

Amalia Berglöf, a co-organiser of the fixathon, agreed that a lot had to do with how they communicated the event to potential attendees.

"A lot of people still associate ‘hackathons’ with sitting in a terminal and hacking away - and that’s already a part of the tech industry where we’re missing a lot of women," she said in a prepared statement. "Some are still of course exactly that - but a lot of them aren't anymore."

"We wanted to shift that mental model, to show that modern creation involves collaboration, product thinking, and tools like Lovable," she continues. "And diverse teams are an important factor in that. That communication really paid off."

An outlier

Norrsken’s fixathon stands in contrast to another hackathon Impact Loop attended in August, organised by Lovable (who also co-hosted the fixathon with Norrsken) and early-stage investor Project Europe. There, the vast majority of attendees were male.

"I don't try to get more women or more dropouts or more Asian people or more Buddhists, because that would be discriminatory against everyone else,” Harry Stebbings, one of the event organisers and Project Europe founder told Impact Loop at the time. “I will try and get the best people.”

‘Not typical hacker, tech guys’

The participant group was notably broad, ranging from students and public-sector employees to senior managers and experienced developers.

“What we’re most proud of is that it’s not just the typical hacker, tech guys,” Wolst said. “We have a wide range… and it’s everything from students to people who have worked for a long time in high management positions.”

Several 16–17-year-olds also took part. Wolst highlighted that some were “real stars,” noting one team with “two 17-year-olds and a 64-year-old who stayed up all night building.”

The fixathon covered five tracks, including climate, nature and oceans, health, social issues, and the economy. Economics drew strong interest, partly due to a prize involving a presentation at Riksbanken. “Mental health was also one of the areas that many chose to build in,” said co-organiser Amalia Berglöf.