Introduction
Most of Kini's engineering work happens out of sight: connectors that move jobs and applications between systems and keep running long after go-live. On 13 May 2026, Kini's tech team spent a day building somewhere else, at a Google hackathon for AI startups in Berlin.
Julia Komkowski, Kini's co-founder and CTO, went with the team. This throwback is deliberately short. It covers what the event was, what the organisers shared publicly and why a recruiting integration company spends a day at an AI hackathon. Kini has not published what the team built, so this page does not describe it.
TL;DR
- What: the Build with Google AI Startup Hackathon, a hackathon for AI startups run by Google Cloud's startup team, which called it its "AI Hackathon".
- When and where: 13 May 2026, at Google's office in Berlin, Germany.
- Kini's role: participating startup. Julia Komkowski, co-founder and CTO, took part together with Kini's tech team.
- Format: a Founders Padel tournament opened the programme, followed by the technical part, where teams took their own concepts to working AI prototypes in a short window, according to the organisers.
- What we can share: Kini has not published its project, a ranking or prizes. The observations below come from the organiser's public recap.
What was the Build with Google AI Startup Hackathon?
It was a hackathon for AI startups, organised by Google Cloud's startup team at Google's office in Berlin on 13 May 2026. Kini knows it as the Build with Google AI Startup Hackathon. Google Cloud's startup team referred to it on LinkedIn simply as "our AI Hackathon", and we did not find a public event page, registration page or press release.
The hackathon was part of a week in Berlin that the team opened with a Founders Padel tournament, before, in the organiser's words, "diving into the technical topics at our AI Hackathon". The organiser's recap thanked everyone who joined the team in Berlin "to build, learn, and play" and credited Benjamin Trollope of Google with hosting the hackathon. Another participating team wrote publicly on 13 May that it had just finished the hackathon and had built on Google Cloud, Vertex AI and Vision AI.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Event | Build with Google AI Startup Hackathon (Google Cloud's startup team called it "AI Hackathon") |
| Organiser | Google Cloud startup team |
| Date | 13 May 2026 |
| Location | Google's office in Berlin, Germany |
| Format | Hackathon for AI startups, opened by a Founders Padel tournament |
| Kini's role | Participating startup: Julia Komkowski with Kini's tech team |
Who from Kini took part?
Julia Komkowski, Kini's co-founder and CTO, went with Kini's tech team. Kini took part as one of the participating startups, not as a sponsor or speaker.
Julia's public trace from that week comes from the padel court. She reached the final of the Founders Padel tournament with a founder from another startup as her partner, and she commented on the organiser's recap afterwards:
Loved it - great energy on and off the court!
Julia Komkowski, Kini, commenting on Google Cloud's recap post
What the team built, how projects were judged and whether there were prizes has not been published by Kini. This page leaves it out rather than guess.
What stood out, according to the organisers?
The public material comes from the organiser's side. These are Google Cloud's observations, not Kini's own notes.
Concepts had to become prototypes quickly. The recap put the point of the day in one sentence:
[...] bringing their concepts to working AI prototypes in such a short window.
Daphne Trent, Startup Account Manager, Google Cloud
Networking came first. The padel tournament was, in the organiser's words, "the perfect way to connect with the ecosystem" before the technical part began.
Why does a recruiting integration team spend a day at an AI hackathon?
Kini is a managed connectivity layer for recruiting. It connects applicant tracking systems (ATS), job boards and recruiting agencies, and operates the ATS integrations as an ongoing service: monitoring, retries, recovery and connector maintenance are included. For Kini's engineers, the work does not end when a connector goes live. It carries on every day the connector runs.
AI is already part of how Kini runs that work. As the Kini homepage puts it, AI flags broken integrations before customers notice. A day of hands-on building next to other AI startups, hosted by Google's team, is a practical way for the people behind that operating layer to try new tools as a team.
For ATS platforms, job boards and recruiting agencies, the point is the reverse. Every new partner costs roadmap weeks when internal teams maintain one-off connectors instead of building product. Kini takes that layer off the partner's roadmap and runs it. If you want the longer argument, read Managed Recruiting Connectivity explained, browse the integrations Kini operates or check the Kini FAQ for EU hosting in Frankfurt and the data processing agreement.
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Where can I find more about the event?
- Organiser recap: the LinkedIn post by Google Cloud's startup team from 15 May 2026, including Julia's comment.
- Event page, agenda, recording: we did not find any.
If you lead product or engineering at an ATS platform, job board or recruiting agency and want to see how Kini would run your ATS integrations, book a demo with the team.
