This quarter has been quite a ride, almost overshadowing everything that happened in 2023. Observing the growth and success of our community members amidst challenges reaffirms our core belief.

This newsletter will share a letter from Jay Shankarpure (Co-founder and CEO of Astra), updates, and highlights that make Astra special.

Letter from Jay:

At the start of 2024, Spark was back at the starting line because of a lack of motivation amongst the entire team to keep working due to individual commitments.

We hadn’t hosted a hackathon in 3 months, the discord community was as dormant as a sub-saharan desert, Twitter was like an ancient abandoned well, and we were at the cusp of falling into nothingness. The collapse of a successful company built from scratch dangled in front of my eyes. I had to do something to change things up for Spark. After all that we had accomplished, I didn't want it all to go to waste. So, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

What began after that was a period of hundreds if not thousands of "experiments", an activity that has been hammered into my mindset by Pranav Menon. Right from hosting daily catch-up calls, hiring new team members like Suhas Sumukh, revamping the company & discord server structure, and starting multiple projects like weekly hackathon announcements, hacker spotlight, etc, we as the entire team of Spark (Me, Kei, Suhas, Andrew, and Michael), not only pulled it out of the debris but helped it regain back it's original position as one of the best ecosystems in the world that solely aim to empower builders!

We're just getting started. We’ve crushed Q1 and have a ton of things planned up for Spark in Q2: a physical hackathon in Bangalore, our in-house platform to host the best experiential virtual hackathons, a recruitment platform to connect hackers in our community with world-class employers, and much much more.

We're united and stronger than ever before. Let's freaking go!

- Jay Shankarpure (Co-founder & CEO Astra)

Community Structure Update:

We’ve made a significant pivot in our community structure. This is aimed at making your journey with us even more rewarding. We've introduced new roles like 1x, 3x, 5x, and 10x Hackers, each offering unique perks and opportunities for growth.

Everyone who joins Spark starts from the 1x Hacker role and levels up by engaging in discussions, sharing their projects and ideas, and helping out fellow builders in the community. Your participation and contributions will be tracked by the Spark XP bot, which will process the XP to help increase your hacker role.

Weekly Hackathon Announcements:

There are many opportunities abound in the tech world, yet many aspiring individuals miss out simply because they don't know where to look. That's why we're excited to introduce our Weekly Hackathon Announcements!

By bringing you updates on the top three hackathons to attend each week, both online and offline, we aim to provide you with valuable opportunities to showcase your skills. Hackathons are a fantastic way to demonstrate these skills, creativity, and problem-solving abilities.

Note: The hackathon announcements are not part of our newsletter but will be shared exclusively on our Discord channel.

Hacker Spotlight:

We're thrilled to announce the launch of our new feature - The Hacker Spotlight. This initiative aims to showcase the remarkable projects created by our talented community members and start-up founders.

We believe in celebrating the creativity, innovation, and hard work of our community members. The Hacker Spotlight provides a platform for individuals to share their projects, receive recognition for their efforts, and inspire others with their achievements.

This will highlight one outstanding project from our community across all our social media platforms and provide valuable exposure and networking opportunities within the tech community.

Numbers

• Total number of members in Q1 2024 - 578 (+48.59% growth since Q4 2023)
• 10,300+ messages
• Average message: 335 per day
• $40k+ raised (+300% since Q4 2023)

General Update:

• New Spark Logo
• Rebranded Name Spark -> Astra
• Say gm! channel
• 1500+ developers onboarded
• New Introduction channel

CrackedDevs X Spark Hackathon 🎉

Highlights from our hackathon, held in partnership with CrackedDevs From March 15 to March 17, 2024, with over 520+ participants & 40+ projects submitted from around the world, it was truly a global gathering of developers, builders, and innovators.

• Grand Prize: $1,000 Cash + Up to $30,000 Investment Offer!
• Exclusive Access: 20 Codedamn.com Pro Subscriptions (Worth $20,000)!
• Career Boost: Guaranteed Job Interviews at Leading Tech Companies

The winners of this hackathon are:

• 🥇 Winner #1: Agriculture_Invest - Empowering farmers and investors in African agricultural projects.
• 🥈 Winner #2: Job Cornerman - Crafting personalized career roadmaps.
• 🥉 Winner #3: TeachifyAI - Revolutionizing online education with emotion recognition technology.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our hackathon! Your creativity, dedication, and hard work made it a huge success.

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Thank you for joining us on this journey through the latest updates and developments at Spark.
Your continued support and engagement are what make our community thrive. Keep building, keep innovating, and remember, the sky's the limit!

Note: Spark is now Astra! - We are happy to announce that Spark has been re-branded to "Astra".
The goal of the organization, to build an ecosystem that empowers builders, not only remains intact but we've also added excellence and freshness to it through the culture of always aiming for the star.