Ara
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DayDreamers
DayDreamers will organize a coordinated campus tour across leading US universities to drive awareness and adoption of Ara — the personal AI agent by YC X26 — among student builders and technical communities.
A coordinated campus activation program spanning six university stops across the United States. Each event is a focused, six-hour builder sprint designed to onboard students into the Ara ecosystem through hands-on building, mentorship, and community formation.
The program combines on-the-ground event execution with a persistent online builder community, transforming isolated campus stops into a connected national network of Ara builders.
Ara (YC X26) is a personal AI agent that works 24/7 across WhatsApp, iMessage, Signal, and Telegram. One download gives users access to Claude, GPT, and Gemini through a privacy-first, cross-messenger interface.
Ara is actively targeting the university market — already adopted at Stanford, UC Berkeley, Virginia Tech, and Carnegie Mellon. This campus tour accelerates that momentum across 6 additional top-tier institutions.
We partner with local student communities and technical clubs at each university to organize hackathons and builder events. Each campus activation is supported by 1 to 3 on-site DayDreamers staff members.
Stanford University
Johns Hopkins University
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Pennsylvania
New York University
Columbia University
University of California, BerkeleyAlongside the campus tour, DayDreamers will build the Ara builder community on Discord or Slack. This online community serves as a central hub connecting students, builders, and organizers across all participating universities.
Onboard participants from each campus activation into a shared global builder community.
Enable collaboration between students from different universities working on Ara projects.
Share tutorials, build resources, and project support materials for Ara.
Highlight projects and demos created during the hackathons to inspire new builders.
Maintain engagement after each campus event, extending impact beyond the physical activations.
Each campus stop follows a repeatable six-hour format — short enough for strong student turnout, long enough for real product usage and demos, and easy to replicate across campuses.
| Activity | Duration |
|---|---|
| Kickoff & Live Ara Demo | 30 min |
| Idea Formation & Team Matching | 45 min |
| Guided Build Session | 3 hours |
| Mentor Feedback | 45 min |
| Demos & Judging | 60 min |
| Closing & Community Onboarding | 30 min |
DayDreamers manages the entire process. The Ara team simply has to review the materials.
Direct engagement with student organizations and campus contacts at each target school.
Student organizer recruitment, briefing, and alignment for each campus activation.
Venue, schedule, logistics, and run-of-show planning for each six-hour sprint.
Student-facing outreach, social media, and registration management for each stop.
Day-of execution with 1–3 DayDreamers staff members ensuring consistency across events.
Attendance metrics, project summaries, and community growth data after each activation.
Media Outreach: DayDreamers will conduct media outreach to relevant publications. Any resulting media coverage is dependent on editorial decisions made by third-party media organizations and cannot be guaranteed.
Each 6-hour builder sprint includes a full meal service plus snacks and beverages throughout the event. We work primarily with local food providers near each campus — supporting local businesses while finding the most cost-effective options for the scale of each activation.
Beyond standard catering, we have experience partnering with local eateries and restaurants near universities to create a more authentic, campus-specific food experience. Depending on the venue and location, options range from classic hackathon catering to curated local partnerships.
We source from nearby restaurants and eateries, supporting local businesses while keeping costs efficient. Dietary accommodations (vegetarian, vegan, halal) at every stop.
Meal service plus continuous snacks and beverages throughout each 6-hour sprint. Scaled per event based on expected attendance. All costs included in the $50,000 quote.
DayDreamers will produce Ara-branded event materials that travel across all campus stops. All banners and signage remain with the Ara team after the tour concludes — reusable for future events, meetups, and activations.
Co-branded pull-up banner design
Banner + branded tablecloth with materials
Table display for registration & demos
All banner and signage costs are included in the $50,000 quote. Ara provides brand assets; DayDreamers handles design, production, and logistics. All materials are kept by Ara after the tour.
T-shirts, die-cut stickers, custom pens, tote bags. DayDreamers handles design and production — scoped and billed separately.
The tour runs from April to June. Because May is typically exam season at US universities, events are distributed across the timeline to maximize attendance. Expected cadence: 1–3 campus activations per week.
Campus activation — Tour kickoff
Campus activation
Campus activation — Post-exam period
Campus activation
Campus activation
Campus activation — Tour finale
We have direct connections with organizers across major university hacker communities. These organizers run hackathons, coding clubs, and student tech communities.
| Name | Organization / School |
|---|---|
| Aidan Gu | UC Santa Cruz |
| Jung Hyun Andrew Kim | SFU Surge |
| Ethan Ng | Deltahacks, McMaster University |
| James Cao | Hackathons CanAra |
| Nitish Chaudhary | Codeforge |
| Harshit Malviya | Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies |
| Gregory Ramirez | University of South Florida |
| Leon Xu | Johns Hopkins University |
| Elizabeth Wong | Concordia University / HackConcordia |
| Roland Yang | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Anna Belenko | Computer Science Club / Brooklyn College |
| Matthew Shi | TidalTAMU, Texas A&M University |
| Heli KArakia | University of California, Santa Cruz |
Demo day with 90 startups, 1,500+ attendees, and 300 investors.
200 participants in an AI-focused hackathon exploring assistive technology.
73 participants from 15+ countries, producing 21 projects.
40+ participants, 8 teams, with 75% intending to continue their projects.
50+ students with 20+ participants mentored.
Represented the product at hackathons and workshops, driving adoption among 100+ early users.
Entrepreneur who has organized 400+ events across 17+ cities. Specialist in tech-community intersection.
Johns Hopkins & Stanford Alum. MLH Top 50 honoree. Expert in building high-impact hackathon ecosystems.
Focused on global execution standards and building deep community roots across innovation hubs.
DayDreamers' campus tour model follows the same playbook used by leading AI companies for global developer activation.
| Program | Scope | Timeline | Investment |
|---|---|---|---|
| College Activation | 6 university campus tour + builder community | Apr–Jun 2026 | $50,000 |
Inclusive of all costs except the prize pool and swag.
