Welcome to the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight, curated by HackerNoon’s editors to showcase noteworthy tech solutions to real-world problems. Whether you’re a solopreneur, part of an early-stage startup, or a developer building something that truly matters, the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon is your chance to test your product’s utility, get featured on HackerNoon, and compete for $150k+ in prizes. Submit your project to get started! Welcome to the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight, curated by HackerNoon’s editors to showcase noteworthy tech solutions to real-world problems. Whether you’re a solopreneur, part of an early-stage startup, or a developer building something that truly matters, the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon is your chance to test your product’s utility, get featured on HackerNoon, and compete for $150k+ in prizes. Submit your project to get started! Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight Proof of Usefulness Hackathon Proof of Usefulness Hackathon $150k+ Submit your project to get started Submit your project to get started Today, we are interviewing Raviteja Nekkalapu, the creator of Risk Mirror. Risk Mirror is a stateless privacy firewall designed to let developers and professionals use AI tools safely by preventing the leakage of PII, API keys, and production data. Risk Mirror What does Risk Mirror do? And why is now the time for it to exist? Risk Mirror is a stateless privacy firewall that lets developers and professionals use AI tools safely without leaking PII, API keys or production data. It scans documents and logs, detects 152+ sensitive data types, and generates "twin" synthetic replacements while preserving structure but eliminating real information. Already serving 28 paying subscribers on RapidAPI with a 4.7★ rating and 49ms latency. Now’s a good time for Risk Mirror to exist because as AI adoption accelerates, the risk of accidental data exposure through simple copy-paste actions is becoming a critical compliance liability for individuals and enterprises alike. What is your traction to date? How many people does Risk Mirror reach? Risk Mirror reaches approximately 500+ monthly active users through the web app and API combined. The RapidAPI listing (PII Firewall Edge) has 28 active subscribers generating consistent API traffic. The primary reach is developers and security conscious professionals who need to use AI tools without exposing sensitive data. Who does Risk Mirror serve? What’s exciting about your users and customers? Developers debugging production issues without leaking API keys or user data. Startups and enterprises that need to use AI assistants but have compliance requirements like GDPR, HIPAA, SOC2. HR professionals and job seekers who want to use ChatGPT for resume optimization without sharing personal contact information. Security teams that need synthetic "twin" datasets for testing without using real production data What technologies were used in the making of Risk Mirror? And why did you choose ones most essential to your techstack? The platform leverages a modern, high-performance stack built with FastAPI for the backend and React + Vite for the frontend. Deployments are handled via Vercel and Cloudflare, ensuring low latency (49ms) and edge-ready availability essential for a real-time privacy firewall. What is traction to date for Risk Mirror? Around the web, who’s been noticing? Risk Mirror has successfully validated its market fit on RapidAPI (listed as PII Firewall Edge), where it maintains a 4.7-star rating across 16 reviews and serves 28 active paying subscribers. The system is production-ready, successfully processing requests with a 49ms average latency while detecting 152 distinct types of sensitive information. Risk Mirror scored a 71 proof of usefulness score (https://proofofusefulness.com/reports/risk-mirror) Risk Mirror scored a 71 proof of usefulness score (https://proofofusefulness.com/reports/risk-mirror) https://proofofusefulness.com/reports/risk-mirror What excites you about this Risk Mirror's potential usefulness? Every day, millions of people paste sensitive data into AI tools without realizing the privacy implications. Risk Mirror solves a problem that will only get bigger as AI adoption accelerates. What excites me most is that this isn't theoretical but developers are already paying for the API because the pain point is real and immediate. The tool lets people keep using AI productively while maintaining privacy and compliance. That's a genuine win-win that scales with the AI industry itself. Meet our sponsors Meet our sponsors Meet our sponsors Bright Data: Bright Data is the leading web data infrastructure company, empowering over 20,000 organizations with ethical, scalable access to real-time public web information. From startups to industry leaders, we deliver the datasets that fuel AI innovation and real-world impact. Ready to unlock the web? Learn more at brightdata.com. Bright Data: Bright Data is the leading web data infrastructure company, empowering over 20,000 organizations with ethical, scalable access to real-time public web information. From startups to industry leaders, we deliver the datasets that fuel AI innovation and real-world impact. Ready to unlock the web? Learn more at brightdata.com. Bright Data: brightdata.com Neo4j: GraphRAG combines retrieval-augmented generation with graph-native context, allowing LLMs to reason over structured relationships instead of just documents. With Neo4j, you can build GraphRAG pipelines that connect your data and surface clearer insights. Learn more. Neo4j: GraphRAG combines retrieval-augmented generation with graph-native context, allowing LLMs to reason over structured relationships instead of just documents. With Neo4j, you can build GraphRAG pipelines that connect your data and surface clearer insights. Learn more. Neo4j: more Storyblok: Storyblok is a headless CMS built for developers who want clean architecture and full control. Structure your content once, connect it anywhere, and keep your front end truly independent. API-first. AI-ready. Framework-agnostic. Future-proof. Start for free. Storyblok: Storyblok is a headless CMS built for developers who want clean architecture and full control. Structure your content once, connect it anywhere, and keep your front end truly independent. API-first. AI-ready. Framework-agnostic. Future-proof. Start for free. Storyblok: Start for free . Algolia: Algolia provides a managed retrieval layer that lets developers quickly build web search and intelligent AI agents. Learn more. Algolia: Algolia provides a managed retrieval layer that lets developers quickly build web search and intelligent AI agents. Learn more. Algolia: Learn more
