It's May in Indianapolis, with the 500 and Memorial Day and summer sitting just ahead of us.

It's also nearing the end of fundraising season for us here at Indy Hackers.

Our "Race to $10k" is nearing the finish line, and we've been energized by the outpouring of community contributions. We’re, at the time of this writing, at 37% of our goal.

But, if we want to reach that goal, we need to find corporate sponsors as well.

So, we have a bunch of nerds on keyboards engaged in our flavor of Serious Business:tm: right now - hopping on Zooms, talking about synergies, that sort of thing.

We're out there changing the paradigm. (Ed. This is supposed to be read sarcastically)

And the thing that keeps us at it is knowing the impact we can have on the state of Indiana and our community of software, marketing, customer support, design and product folks (nonexclusive).

We're raising this money to do more:

• To do more to support community meetups
• To engage and support communities across the state
• To put together more programming and events to support and grow our community
• To grow our community to help build - or rebuild - a sense of place that can power more friendships, more careers, and more opportunities

If you know of a company that wants to support our community - or just earn some Very Special Swag, we'd love to chat with them.

And if you'd like to chip in personally, keep in mind that we're a bona fide 501(c)(3) - our treasurer, Josh, files all the paperwork and everything - so you might be eligible for a tax deduction or a corporate match with you employer.

The Other Networking

Speaking of more programming … We have a thing coming soon.

Everyone tells us the way to get ahead is to network. Come learn how to do that!

A lot of us here at Indy Hackers would rather solve a hard problem than make small talk.

Walking into a room full of strangers and starting a conversation? Different kind of hard.

Here's the thing: relationships are how careers, companies, and communities actually move. The next job, co-founder, mentor, hire, or customer is almost always one or two conversations away. The good news... networking is a skill, and like any skill, it can be learned.

On Thursday, June 18, 2026, from 6-8pm, we're partnering with Brooksource for a practical workshop built specifically for technologists, introverts, and anyone who'd rather ship code than work a room. No hustle-culture energy. No "just be more confident!" advice.

Real tactics for how you're actually wired.

Meetup. Of. The. Fortnight!

Agentic AI: "Oh, You're Right" Is Not a Review

You've run a 20-page contract through AI and watched it miss the clause that mattered. You point it out. The model says, "Oh, you're right." That's not a one-off. AI gets fuzzy in the middle. Join Calvin Hendryx-Parker (Six Feet Up CTO, AWS Hero) and Whit Morriss (Six Feet Up Sr. Architect) on YouTube Live, Thu, May 28 at 2pm ET for a live walkthrough of an agentic review system built with SQLite, ChromaDB, and Python subagents that route, validate, and escalate findings. No chat-style demos. Just a live system proving what it checked.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Code and Tea - May 24 at 4:00 PM
• Fishers Code and Coffee - May 26 at 7:00 AM
• Zionsville Code and Coffee - May 27 at 8:00 AM
• Virtual Code and Coffee - May 27 at 8:00 AM
• AI in Engineering Meetup - May 27 at 6:00 PM
• Free Code Camp Indy - May 27 at 6:00 PM
• Carmel Code and Coffee - May 28 at 7:00 AM
• Downtown Code & Coffee - May 28 at 7:00 AM
• Code and Tea - May 31 at 4:00 PM
• Fishers Code and Coffee - June 2 at 7:00 AM
• Zionsville Code and Coffee - June 3 at 8:00 AM
• Broad Ripple Code and Coffee - June 3 at 8:00 AM
• Indy .NET Consortium - June 3 at 6:00 PM
• Central Indiana Linux Users Group - June 3 at 6:00 PM
• Carmel Code and Coffee - June 4 at 7:00 AM
• Downtown Code & Coffee - June 4 at 7:00 AM
• BSides Fort Wayne - June 6 at 9:00 AM Also Highly Recommended
• Code and Tea - June 7 at 4:00 PM
• Fishers Code and Coffee - June 9 at 7:00 AM
• Zionsville Code and Coffee - June 10 at 8:00 AM
• Virtual Code and Coffee - June 10 at 8:00 AM
• AgileIndy - June 10 at 6:00 PM
• Indy.rb - The Indianapolis Ruby Brigade Meetup - June 10 at 7:00 PM
• Carmel Code and Coffee - June 11 at 7:00 AM
• Downtown Code & Coffee - June 11 at 7:00 AM

Is there an event you would like to announce here? Let us know at [email protected] and we'll get it added to the calendar.

NEW ON THE JOB BOARD

• Cloud Infrastructure at CleanSlate Technology Group
• AWS Cloud Infrastructure & Network Engineering Technical Manager at CleanSlate Technology Group
• Senior DevOps Engineer at CareerPlug
• Senior Data Engineer at SEP
• Head of Product Activation at Terebinth Ventures Inc
• Engineering Manager at Entegrata
• Principal AI Engineer at MISO
• Senior Director Software Engineering at MISO
• Lead Developer, Technical Cofounder at Inklude 
• Lead Software Engineer at SalesAi

The IndyHackers job board is free to companies and the community. Our goal is to help as many community members as possible land jobs they love at companies based here in Indiana, growing the community of hackers throughout the state.

If your company is hiring, post your job here.

If you're hunting for a job, the full job board is here or you can follow along in #jobs in our Slack. Or: Just reply to this email with what you're looking for.

One More Thing

We've been talking about it for years now, but our first open Board Meeting was a smashing success.

We had a highly engaged group of folks and as a Board, we walked away simultaneously jazzed by the energy of the community and humbled by the magnitude of the work we have ahead of us.

We're at an inflection point for our field and community.

And we're positioned at the pivot for these changes - representing the people that are tasked with figuring out how AI and the general advance of technology affects how the work gets done.

How careers unfold.

How we can build the next generation of our field, and have an environment that invests in their growth.

How to build community in a world increasingly inundated with slop.

We don't have all the answers, yet.

But, I'm more excited than ever to tackle all these problems with all of you.

Let's get after it!

- Chris Vannoy (Board President, Indy Hackers)