This past weekend I had the opportunity to kick off RocketHacks, a 24-hour hackathon hosted by engineering students at The University of Toledo. I was invited largely because of my day job in technology leadership at Ally, but also because of a few community ventures many of you know well; UpLyft Toledo and, of course, Toledo Money.

Walking into that room felt like a collision of worlds: business, technology, philanthropy, and mentorship all wrapped into one overnight sprint. Dozens of students locked themselves inside the building for 24 straight hours building products, testing ideas, and pushing prototypes forward using tools like AWS and other modern development platforms. Two thoughts hit me almost immediately: first, I do not have the same energy I had in college… and second, our economy would be well served if we funded more of these ideas and hired more of the people building them.

What stood out most was the level of creativity and urgency. The students weren’t waiting for permission to start something; they were building. That’s the kind of energy that creates companies, careers, and eventually entire industries.

Which brings me to a thought: Toledo Money might sponsor a track at RocketHacks next year, asking students to “hack” real economic or business problems facing our region.

Because after seeing the talent in that room, one thing became very clear: there’s incredible innovation happening at our local universities. And if more business leaders in Northwest Ohio saw it up close, they’d support it until they were blue in the face.

Owens Corning | $OC ( ▼ 1.17% )

Dana Incorporated | $DAN ( ▼ 1.24% )

The Andersons | $ANDE ( ▼ 0.25% )

Owens Illinois | $OI ( ▼ 1.55% )

Welltower Inc. | $WELL ( ▼ 1.49% )

Marathon Petroleum Corporation | $MPC ( ▲ 0.43% )

First Solar | $FSLR ( ▼ 2.49% )

This past weekend at The University of Toledo, dozens of students locked themselves into a building for 24 hours with one goal: build something that didn’t exist the day before.

That’s a hackathon.

At its core, a hackathon is a compressed sprint; teams form quickly, choose a problem, and spend a defined window of time designing, building, and presenting a solution. There’s no luxury of over-analysis. No drawn-out timelines. Just a clock, a problem, and a group of people willing to figure it out.

And that constraint is exactly what makes it work.

Urgency tends to be rewarded the most. Ideas moved fast. Decisions happened quickly. Progress was visible by the hour. It’s the kind of environment where momentum replaces perfection, and execution matters more than polish.

That same model exists inside companies too.

At Ally , hackathons are used to bring together cross-functional teams—technology, product, operations; to solve real business problems. Not hypothetical ones. The type of challenges that impact customers, employees, and performance every day.

The expectation is a working solution.

And when you give teams permission to move that fast, interesting things happen. Ideas that might have taken months to surface get built in days. Concepts turn into prototypes. Prototypes turn into tools. In some cases, they turn into intellectual property. My team alone has two pending patents that originated from this exact environment.

Hackathons remove friction. They force prioritization. They create space for people to think differently and act quickly. When you combine that with the right mix of skills in the room, you get outcomes that feel disproportionate to the time invested.

Which is why they’re more than just a college exercise.

Watching students at RocketHacks felt familiar because the formula is the same whether you’re in a university lab or inside a Fortune 500 company. Give people a real problem, a tight timeframe, and the autonomy to solve it, and they will.

There’s a broader opportunity here.

If more organizations across Northwest Ohio adopted this mindset—hosting hackathons around real operational challenges, partnering with universities, or even opening up local problems to be solved; we’d accelerate more than just ideas. We’d accelerate talent, innovation, and execution.

Because at the end of the day, a hackathon isn’t really about hacking. It’s about building, faster than you thought possible.

And if you’ve ever watched one unfold, you’ll walk away with two realizations:
first, there’s more talent and creativity in this region than we give it credit for…
and second, you probably don’t have the same energy you did in college.

(Some of you might. If so, we should talk.)

When people think about Ohio manufacturing, they picture steel, glass, and assembly lines. Now add autonomous drones, AI-powered systems, and next-generation defense platforms to that list.

Because that’s exactly what’s taking shape in Columbus.

Meet Anduril Industries, a fast-growing defense company founded by Palmer Luckey, who previously built Oculus and sold it to Meta. Today, he’s building something entirely different: a modern defense platform designed for speed, scale, and technological advantage.

And now, that vision is landing in Ohio.

Anduril is focused on developing autonomous systems—drones, surveillance platforms, and AI-enabled defense tools—that can be produced at scale and deployed quickly.

Their mission is straightforward:
Build advanced systems efficiently enough to strengthen deterrence and maintain stability.

This is where software meets manufacturing. Where artificial intelligence meets real-world production. And where speed becomes a strategic advantage. We are talking about drones flying with no humans, and making decisions all based on algorithms.

Ohio has always known how to build. What’s changing is what gets built; and the level of technology behind it. Anduril’s investment reinforces a few things:

This is the kind of company that attracts:

And when those three show up together, ecosystems form. Projects like this extend beyond a single facility. They tend to create opportunities across:

For Northwest Ohio, that opens the door to participate; whether through manufacturing expertise, workforce development, or simply staying connected to where innovation is happening. We know of a few local folks contributing to this work, it’s worth mentioning.

Here are a few headlines we are snacking on

Money is usually discussed in whispers, especially in the Midwest. Salaries, investments, mistakes, and the real math of building a life tend to stay behind closed doors.

The Money Confessional exists to open that door a little. Not to compare or judge, but to give readers a clearer look at how professionals in our region actually earn, spend, invest, and occasionally screw up along the way.

Every story carries a lesson. Sometimes it’s a smart decision worth copying. Sometimes it’s a mistake that others can avoid. Either way, the goal is simple: make the conversation around money a little more honest.

Interested in sharing your story for the benefit of others, check this out.

Age: 23

Industry / Role: Public school teacher

Income: ~$45,000

Location: Toledo area

Family Situation: Single, living in an apartment (briefly considered roommates… chose peace instead)

Rent: $1,050/month

Car Payment: $350

Student Loans: ~$100/month

Investments: Whatever I can manage after everything else; usually $50–$100/month

Largest Monthly Expense: Rent + loans

Guilty Pleasure Spend: Coffee, Amazon, and way too many “quick” Target trips (also classroom supplies that somehow become my responsibility)

I’ve wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember, so getting my own classroom feels surreal.

The job is everything people say it is; rewarding, exhausting, and a lot more work outside of school hours than I expected. I spend most nights planning lessons or grading, but the relationships with the kids make it worth it.

I’m learning quickly that no two days are the same, and that’s kind of the best part.

Right now, I’m just trying to stay on top of everything.

I have a steady paycheck and good benefits, which helps, but there’s not a lot of extra room. I’m focused on paying my bills, keeping a little cushion, and slowly getting into the habit of saving; even if it’s not much yet.

Living in a place I can actually afford.

It’s not my “forever” setup, but it gives me enough breathing room to not feel stressed every single month.

Thinking small purchases don’t matter.

They definitely do. It’s the random $10–$20 spends that sneak up on me more than anything else.

It feels manageable to start here.

I have friends in bigger cities making more money but paying double in rent. Here, I can at least keep my head above water while I figure things out.

Don’t panic if you’re not “ahead” yet.

Focus on being consistent—pay your bills, save a little, and give yourself time to grow. Also, don’t underestimate how far a stable job and low cost of living can take you over a few years.

And if you can avoid the daily iced coffee habit… you’re already doing better than me.

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