AI Founder Zirong Chi on What Makes an Idea Worth Building

As China's midyear hackathon season intensifies, AI founder Zirong Chi, also known as Vivian Chi, brings her operational perspective to the She Nicest Motherboard event. Chi, CEO of NxCode, is no stranger to the AI scene, having moved through roles in education, product development, accelerator backing, and ecosystem leadership.

With the calendar already packed, the focus has shifted from weekend demos to identifying a worthy problem and turning an early prototype into an enduring solution. At the May 9-10 Motherboard hackathon in Beijing and Shanghai, participants tackled real human issues and were tasked with moving from lived experience to a working prototype.

Chi, a judge at the Shanghai event, shared insights on what it takes to succeed in AI entrepreneurship: technical fluency, product judgment, capital discipline, and a clear understanding of the technology's intended users. Chi's path to entrepreneurship was not the expected one, as she eschewed the conventional route of becoming a software engineer upon graduation.

Instead, she pursued a product-focused career, developing Bibabo, an AI learning tool aimed at making AI and coding more accessible. NxCode's platform allows non-technical founders to describe an app in plain English and have the AI system plan, build, test, and deploy it. By 2026, NxCode had garnered recognition, including a spot in MiraclePlus's F25 accelerator cohort.

The judging criteria at the Motherboard event reflect the challenges Chi faces as a founder: resonance, innovation, and practicality. To succeed, a team must start with a genuine problem, innovate beyond adding an AI label, and ensure the solution remains practical beyond a hackathon setting.