NYC Voice Agent Hackathon with Take2AI & Reach Capital

Most voice AI tools fall apart the moment someone interrupts, goes quiet, or asks something off-script. This afternoon, you’ll build one that doesn’t.

Take2’s engineers run AI phone interviews in production every day, and they’ll show you what they’ve learned: how to wire up speech-to-text, an LLM, and text-to-speech into a pipeline fast enough to feel like a conversation. Then you and your team get three hours to build your own, with Take2 mentors on the floor.

The challenge: Build an agent that does one job on a real phone call, like booking an appointment or screening a candidate. At demo time, your agent takes a live call from our judges. One of them will be a difficult caller.

What you get

A starter kit and API credits for LiveKit, Deepgram, Gemini, and Cartesia

Hands-on mentoring from engineers who ship voice AI at scale

A working voice agent you can keep building on

Dinner, drinks, and a room full of NYC builders

Prizes include a fast-track, in-person interview with Take2, an opportunity to pitch to investors at Reach Capital, and others to be announced.

How you’ll be judged

Did the agent do its job on the call?

How did it handle interruptions, silence, and curveballs?

Did the conversation feel natural, with good response time and turn-taking?

Were the design choices deliberate?

Schedule

3 PM: Welcome & Voice Agent Seminar4 PM: Build7 PM: Live Demos8 PM: Awards & Networking

Who should come: Engineers who want hands-on time with real-time voice AI. Come solo or bring a team of up to 4. You don’t need voice AI experience, just comfort writing code and a laptop. Spots are limited to 50.