Overview
AI × GTM Day is Local Align’s hands-on event about how AI products find users, build distribution, and generate revenue. It combines a growth hackathon with founder and operator talks, startup demos, networking, coffee chats, food, and social activities. Attendees can take part in the hackathon or come just to learn and meet people; no hackathon experience or pitch deck is required.
The event is for founders, engineers, growth and go-to-market professionals, creators, marketers, students, and anyone curious about AI, startups, and product growth. Topics include SEO and generative engine optimization (GEO), organic content, developer growth, product-led growth, community building, outbound, automation, creator marketing, and AI-powered go-to-market strategies.
Talks and speakers
The listed speakers include Lucy Ye, co-founder and COO of JobWizard.ai, whose session focuses on SEO/GEO, organic content, and AI-native growth. Her company’s search work generated more than two million Google Search impressions in two months, alongside more than one million organic video impressions, without paid acquisition. Weijia, founder and CEO of LingCode, will discuss developer growth, product-led growth, and community. LingCode reached more than 1,000 users in its first month, and Weijia has grown coding education content and a platform to more than 10,000 students. Additional founders and GTM operators are to be announced.
Hackathon challenges
Participants will work on real products and growth problems rather than build another demo. The five challenge areas are LingCode, an AI developer tool; Tennistry, a tennis community; TurboNIW, a high-trust service for STEM professionals and researchers preparing for the EB-2 NIW process; MaxWorth, a consumer credit-card management app; and SxeneMixer, an AI short-drama generation platform. Teams can experiment with tactics such as content, SEO/GEO, referrals, community, outbound, automation, creators, and product-led loops, aiming to move practical metrics such as users, leads, signups, traffic, or conversions. Each challenge offers a $200 cash prize, and participating teams can access more than $3,000 in shared Alibaba Cloud AI/API credits. Hacker passes are free but require approval; challenge materials are provided in advance.
Schedule
Doors open at 11:00 AM for check-in, coffee, and networking. The hackathon kickoff and challenge introductions begin at noon, followed from 12:30 PM by hacking, talks, startup booths, and social activities. The afternoon includes founder and growth talks, coffee chats, food, and building time. Submissions are due at 6:30 PM, final pitches begin at 7:00 PM, and awards and closing are scheduled for 8:00 PM.
Location and tickets
The event takes place Saturday, October 24, 2026, in Santa Clara, California. The listed address is 3120 Scott Blvd; the page says attendees must register to see the exact location. General admission includes talks, booths, coffee chats, social activities, food and drinks, and final pitches. Listed prices are $45 early bird through October 9, $55 standard, and $80 at the door. Students with a .edu address can use code LAEDU15 for 15% off before October 9. Hacker registration closes October 15.
