Judge Intro: Neta Retter

Q&A with Neta Retter — Director of Innovation Programs at Okta. Former Global Hackathon Lead at Meta, where she scaled company-wide hackathons and led Meta's first-ever HBCU Hackathon. Electrical engineer turned innovation leader with 11 years at Broadcom and a deep commitment to inclusive STEM.

What excites you most about what AI agents are becoming?
What excites me most is that agents are democratizing the ability to build solutions. The people closest to a problem, who understand the nuanced challenges, can now build and iterate quickly. That's where the. ost meaningful innovation happens. And as that power becomes more accessible, building securely and earning trust matters more than ever before.

What kind of submissions are you hoping to see? What would make a project stand out to you?
I'm looking for projects that do something unexpected. Forget what agents are supposed to do. Show me something that solves a real problem in a way that makes people go, "Wait, I didn't even know an agent could do that."

What advice would you give to builders who want to push the boundaries of what agents can do?
I think the core principles of building something valuable remain the same, the possibilities are just amplified with agents. Be as close as possible to the problem you want to solve, think really creatively and unleash your imagination on how to solve it and combine conviction with iteration.

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Be as close as possible to the problem you're solving. Think creatively about how to solve it. Then combine that conviction with the humility to iterate. The tools just amplify what's already possible when you get those fundamentals right.