AppFollow Spring '26 hackathon highlights

In 2024, Anatoly Sharifulin, co-founder and CEO, was tracking dozens of apps and struggling to keep up with app store reviews. He and Pavel Vlasov, CTO and co-founder (that’s me!), built a small tool to pull reviews directly from the App Store, which ended up winning that hackathon. A few people saw it, liked it, and from there, the idea of AppFollow started to take shape.

Fast forward to today, a company of 70+ people scattered all over the world, does them twice a year. It’s part of our company's identity; everybody gets a chance to create something interesting and compete for a nice prize.

So, last month, we ran our Spring '26 internal hackathon, with teams working across four hubs in three countries. Pretty good turnout, and even better results.

What went down

Teams had two full days to dig in, with specialty coffee, shawarma, ice cream, and team dinners keeping everyone going. There was plenty of behind-the-scenes content coming from the hubs, too.

Five nomination categories:

• Sources
• AI Replies & Reviews
• AI Agent
• ASO
• Other

Some of those ideas are already being cleaned up and prepped for release. MCP, Chat with Reviews, and the ASO Agent are all in the works. Big thanks to everyone on the AppFollow team who helped organize this, especially the hub heroes who found solid coworking spaces and nearby hotels along the way.

Come build with us

At AppFollow, creative freedom and the desire to build are cherished qualities. We’re always looking for like-minded people to join in and build something awesome. In the case of AppFollow, it’s a solution that helps millions, if not billions, of app users and gamers be heard by their favorite developers. You can be a part of that, too.

Our next hackathon is in September. If this sounds like somewhere you'd want to work, check out open roles at https://appfollow.io/jobs or send me a DM on LinkedIn.

Cheers, and hope to hear from you soon.

- Pavel