Forge Sprint 01 · Registrations Open

Build with Claude Code.
Ship in 12 hours.

nmg.labs is launching Forge — a monthly scouting sprint that finds the strongest builders in Delhi NCR. Bring a pod of 1–4. Build something real. Walk away with an NMG apprenticeship, AI tool credits, and a story you'll tell for years.

Register your Pod → Read the brief
Date
Sat 6 June 2026
Hours
09:00 → 23:59
Venue
NMG Gurgaon
Pod size
1–4 builders
"Red is certainty in a world of noise."
— nmg. brand principle
Who's behind this

NMG has been building for the web since 2007.

The NMG Group is based across Los Angeles, London, New Zealand, and India, with our development center in Gurugram. We are an AI + digital marketing firm with 150+ engineers, designers, and marketers across our service brands and product ventures — building for clients from Fortune 500 names to fast-moving startups.

We've also been quietly hiring some of the best engineering talent out of Delhi NCR colleges for the better part of a decade. nmg.labs is the next chapter — making that hiring process a public, builder-first event series.

The nmg.labs initiative

Forge is a talent pipeline disguised as a hackathon series.

  • ▸Monthly cadence. One Sprint a month, single-day format. No 36-hour overnight grinds.
  • ▸Real problems. Every theme traces to a real NMG client problem or product roadmap. No generic "build with AI" briefs.
  • ▸Real outcomes. Champions get a 6-week paid NMG apprenticeship with a path to a full-time role.
  • ▸Forge alumni network. Every Top-10 Pod joins a private community of NCR builders + NMG mentors.
NMG Group ventures

Five brands. One DNA.

Every Forge theme traces back to a real problem we've seen across our service brands and our own product ventures. Builders work on problems with actual users on the other side.

Parent Group
nmg.
Los Angeles · London · New Zealand · India
↓
nmg.tech
Services
Technology & custom software development
nmgtechnologies.com →
nmg.digital
Services
Digital marketing, SEO & growth
nmgdigital.com →
nmg.ai
Services
Agentic AI development for real-world problems
nmgaihub.com →
ProcessHQ
Group venture
Bring operational clarity to your business
processhq.ai →
Ooro AI
Group venture
AI calling agent for sales & service teams
ooroai.com →
Built in public · 8 years

We've been showing up in rooms around the world.

Founder meetups, hackathons, workshops, talks, and conference sessions — Los Angeles to London to Singapore to Delhi. Forge is the next room we're showing up in. Here are some of the previous ones.

9+
Events documented
8+
Cities
6
Countries
2022→
Since
The Build Brief · Sprint 01

Build something useful with Claude Code in 12 hours.

Claude Code is Anthropic's developer agent that lives in your terminal. It writes code, runs commands, reads files, builds whole projects. It's also the most underused AI tool among Indian college builders right now — which is exactly why we're starting here.

We're not asking you to build a moonshot. We're asking you to build something useful — for a real Indian business, a real student, a real workflow — using Claude Code as your primary build tool.

Pick your own problem. Pick your own user. Pick your own tech stack on top of Claude Code. Just ship it by 9:00 PM.

Example problem domains
  • 01A Claude Code skill that audits a website for AEO/SEO readiness and ships a fix-it patch.
  • 02A skill that turns a 90-minute Hindi/English meeting transcript into a structured action-item ticket.
  • 03A skill that generates a complete Google Ads campaign skeleton from a one-line brand brief.
  • 04A skill that scans a startup's GitHub repo and produces a security + code-quality report.
  • 05A skill that builds a monthly client report from raw GA4 + GSC data — in your agency's brand.
  • 06Your own idea. Surprise us.
Why Build with Us

The prize is not the cash. The prize is what comes after.

Champion · 1 Pod

The Apprenticeship

  • ✦₹7,000 cash
  • ✦6-week paid NMG apprenticeship — for every Pod member
  • ✦Path to a full-time NMG role
  • ✦~₹1.5L equivalent stacked AI credits (Anthropic, Ahrefs, OpenAI)
  • ✦Champion T-shirts + stage time at Sprint 02
  • ✦Co-author on the public NMG case study
Runner-up · 1 Pod

The Fast Track

  • ✦₹3,000 cash
  • ✦NMG interview fast-track — skip first 2 rounds
  • ✦₹40K equivalent AI credits
  • ✦Featured in NMG content for 30 days
  • ✦1-on-1 with a senior NMG engineer
Top 10 · 8 more Pods

The Alumni Network

  • ✦Listed on the Forge Champions Board — lifetime
  • ✦Private Forge Alumni Slack — NCR builders + NMG mentors
  • ✦Free 1-hour NMG mentorship session
  • ✦First look at every NMG open role for 12 months
  • ✦Trial credits from each AI tool partner
The Rules

Read these before you register.

01Eligibility

Open to all college students in India — undergrad, postgrad, any branch. Mixed-skill Pods (CS + design + marketing) are encouraged. Recent graduates within 12 months of their final year also welcome.

02Pod size

1 to 4 builders per Pod. Solo builders are welcome, but mixed-skill Pods historically place higher.

03Build tool requirement

Claude Code must be the primary AI build tool. You can use any language, any framework, any other library on top. Free Claude credits will be provided to shortlisted Pods.

04Pre-screen submission

Register by Sunday 1 June, 11:59 PM. Submit a 1-page Pod brief: problem you'll solve + 5-bullet approach + tech stack + what "done" looks like. Top 10 Pods invited to NMG office.

05On the day

9:00 AM check-in. Build 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM. Demos 9:30 PM – 11:00 PM. Champions announced by 11:59 PM. All meals included.

06Final submission

Public GitHub repo + 90-second demo video + 1-page README. Submitted via our Devfolio portal (link sent to shortlisted Pods).

07Intellectual property

Your code, your IP. NMG retains a non-exclusive license to publish a case study about your build (with credit to you). You're free to commercialize, open-source, or fork your project after.

08Code of conduct

Zero tolerance for plagiarism, harassment, or AI-generated submissions misrepresented as your own work. We expect respect, intellectual honesty, and humor under pressure. Violations = disqualification.

The Day · 6 June 2026

A single-day sprint. No overnighters.

09:00
Check-in & breakfast
Pods sign in, wristbands, workstation setup
09:30
Ignition — welcome & brief reveal
Final theme details, judging rubric, AI credit handouts
10:00
Build phase begins
Mentors available throughout. Office hours every 2 hours.
13:00
Lunch
North + South Indian, veg + non-veg
14:00
Build phase continues
Mid-day mentor speed-rounds — every Pod gets 10 minutes
19:00
Dinner
Chai + coffee station open through demo time
20:00
Final Ascent — polish + pitch prep
No new features. Record your 90-second demo video.
21:00
Submissions lock
No exceptions. The discipline is part of the brief.
21:30
Demo Day
5 minutes per Pod — 3 min demo + 2 min Q&A from judges
23:00
Judging deliberation
Mohit + Rohit + Ajay + senior NMG engineer
23:30
Champions announced 🏆
Apprenticeship offer letters extended same night.
The Tool · Claude Code

Never used Claude Code? Start here.

Claude Code is Anthropic's command-line developer agent. You install it once, point it at a project, and it can read files, edit code, run commands, and ship whole features by itself — with your direction.

It's not a chatbot. It's a coding teammate. You can hand it a fuzzy task and it figures out the steps. You can also write "skills" — reusable markdown instructions that make it specialized for a domain (SEO, content, security, finance, whatever).

For this Sprint, every shortlisted Pod gets a free Claude Code starter pack. We'll send setup instructions a week before the event.

Resources to start with
Quick start (in your terminal):
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
claude
Who you'll meet

Judges, mentors & the Forge captain.

M

Mohit Maheshwari

Forge Director · Partner, nmg.

17+ years building for the web. Will judge with one question in mind: could this ship Monday morning?

R

Rohit Maheshwari

Judging Chair · Partner, nmg.

Builds Process HQ and runs NMG engineering. Will look at code quality, architecture, and craft.

A

Ajay

Forge Sprint Captain · nmg.labs

Ex-DTU. Ran hackathons on campus before joining NMG. Your point of contact for everything — from registration questions to "where do I park."

WhatsApp:
+91 99999 99999
Frequently Asked

Quick answers.

Is there a registration fee?

No. Forge Sprint 01 is free to enter. Meals, AI credits, swag, and mentorship are all covered by NMG.

I'm in 1st year. Should I bother applying?

Yes. 2026 hackathon trend: Pods with mixed seniority + a non-coder are 2.5× more likely to place top 3. A motivated 1st-year + a sharp 3rd-year + a designer is the optimal Pod composition.

Do I need to know Claude Code already?

No. Shortlisted Pods get a starter pack a week before. If you can read documentation and have built any web/mobile project before, you'll be fine.

Can I come from outside NCR?

Yes — Sprint 01 is open to all of India. Travel + stay is on you. If shortlisted and you need a nearby hotel recommendation, ping Ajay.

Will my submission be public?

Your GitHub repo will need to be public for judging. After the event, you're free to take it private, open-source it, or commercialize it. NMG only retains the right to publish a case study about it (with credit to you).

What if my Pod doesn't get shortlisted?

Forge runs every month. Sprint 02 in July, Sprint 03 in August. You can re-enter as many times as you want, with the same Pod or a new one.

Are sponsors allowed to recruit?

Forge Sprint 01 is NMG-only. From Sprint 02 onwards, we may invite 1–2 partner companies. They never see your raw submission data without your consent.

Who do I contact if I have a question?

Ajay — Forge Sprint Captain. WhatsApp him directly. Response time under 4 hours during work hours.

Register your Pod

Doors close Sun 1 June, 11:59 PM.

One form per builder. If you're forming a Pod, each member fills this out separately and uses the same Pod name. Solo builders welcome — leave the Pod fields blank.

01 · About you
02 · Your college
03 · Your Pod
Each member should also fill this form independently with the same Pod name.
04 · Your work
05 · The big one
No fluff. We're filtering for clarity of thought, not vocabulary.
06 · Final bits

We'll confirm via email within 24 hours. Pre-screen brief instructions arrive by 28 May.

Register your Pod →