Welcome to the August edition of the DD Newsletter - the place to go for your round-ups, updates, and everything in between. Here we'll round off what has been happening in our community and look ahead at our upcoming events and initiatives!
As usual, the newsletter is jam-packed with updates, lots of stuff to share, and a few cool thingsworth checking out. This edition includes information about upcoming events and campaigns, a Community spotlight, interesting reads, and our favourite meme of the month. You won't want to miss it.
Stay safe and in good health!
🚀 Launching Deen Developers in Central Asia 🇰🇿
This month, the Deen Developers team ran our first Hackathon in the heart of Central Asia by supporting the Hajj Hack in Kazakhstan!
We were thrilled to partner with Hickmet Travel, Sajda App, Nur-Mubarak University, and Bahandi to host a groundbreaking Hackathon focused on addressing the unique challenges faced by Central Asian pilgrims during Hajj & Umrah.
With over 100 participants and 30+ teams from across the region, the event was filled with creativity and innovation with solutions that could deliver real value to pilgrims. Among all the products, the following teams stood out and received awards in different categories:
🥇 1st Place: CoUmrah – An app connecting Central Asian pilgrims to specialised experiences. Thanks to Hickmet Travel, each team member will be gifted with a fully covered Umrah experience to validate their MVP on the ground with real users! (Alina, Dina, Makhmujan, Almas, Asanalikhan)
🏅 Deen Developers' Choice: Musafir – A QR-powered system to ensure no pilgrim gets lost during Hajj. The team will receive an entry into our Batch 3 Buildathons program and a £500 grant to further their project! (Ismail, Mukhammed, Daria)
🏅 Sajda App's Choice: Team 31 – "Dua for Relatives platform". Sajda App will invite the team to see how they can integrate this idea into the Sajda roadmap for 5 million users. They will also receive the recently launched Sajda Plus subscription, proudly becoming Sajda Ansars! (Abdulgafur, Shyngys, Yerkebulan)
🏅 Bonus Prize: Birge APP – The first hardware product to be built at a Deen Developers hackathon! We’ll be introducing the young team to key hardware players in the Kazakh market so they can learn and build on their idea! (Сансызбай, Аман, Адил)
A special thank you goes out to our Central Asia team: Muammar, Zhuldyz, Almas, and all our volunteers who helped facilitate such a memorable and meaningful hackathon in an entirely new continent.
Deen Developers events sell out quickly so make sure to follow us across all our social platforms to stay up to date with our latest events and activities
Buildathon Batch 3 applications are closing soon so make sure to apply now with your idea!
Buildathon Batch 3 interviews have started taking place as we move to the next phase of the application process.
Onwards towards Uzbekistan 🇺🇿
After the Hajj Hackathon in Kazakhstan, the Central Asia journey didn’t stop there for the Deen Developers team. Supported by Startup Garage, who are tech leaders and ecosystem players in the area, we then headed to Tashkent, Uzbekistan 🇺🇿, for a Buildathon launch party in Central Asia.
The event attracted over 100 attendees who came to learn about Deen Developers, our mission/ journey, and hear about all the different programmes that we’ve run over the past 5 years. After our intro, teams were able to pitch their startups and ideas to us and a panel of judges. Once again we were blown away not just by the ideas but by the immense potential of the region’s startups and founders ecosystem.
Beyond our events, we connected with key players in the region, listening to their stories and gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges faced in the region, as well as embracing the local culture, sights, and food.
Looking ahead, we’re excited to continue our work in Central Asia, starting with our Buildathon Programme this September—the first global programme where we will have three bases, including one in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
We see Central Asia as a hotbed of talent and opportunities, and we’re eager to contribute to the ecosystem in the region through our work at Deen Developers.
Did you know that API Product Managers earn, on average, £18k more than general Product Managers? Sai knew this based on several years’ experience as an API Product Manager, and after a lot of success helping/coaching people he decided to package up his knowledge and experience into a single 2 hour course.
The course helps guide you from zero to mastering APIs, learning how to collaborate effectively with engineers to design and deliver customer-centric, monetisable, and scalable API products. Some of the things you’ll learn include:
🌐 - Overview of APIs
🧾 - JSON format (most common language of APIs today)
💻 - How APIs are used to create dynamic webpages
🔀 - API types
📍 - Endpoints
📤 - API requests and responses
🚀 - API-first approach to product management
📚 - API documentation for product managers
📈 - API long-term strategy
The next cohort is on the 23rd of August, and is designed to be both informative and engaging, with a mix of practical examples, hands-on exercises, and essential theory to ensure you have an enjoyable and effective learning experience.
