Built at a run. Made to make you laugh.

Laughter Circle was born on September 24, 2026, during Running Hackathon v.02 in Barcelona — the second edition of the event, following the first Running Hackathon in London. Participants ran through the streets of Barcelona building with voice AI, starting and finishing at the Claude Community House, with demos (and a rooftop party) at the finish line.

The challenge was radical: build an entire product while running, hands-free, using only voice instructions — that was the rule. That's exactly how the first version of Laughter Circle was created: entirely in motion, using voice from start to finish.

Somewhere along the route, between strides and voice prompts, an idea took shape: laughter is the most contagious sound in the world — so why not build an app that spreads it? A few hours later, Laughter Circle took third prize.

Built while running. Built by voice. Third prize a few hours later.

Strava map of the hackathon run: laps along Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta beach in Barcelona

Strava screenshot taken during the Running Hackathon in Barcelona.

The run, on Strava

11.96 km. 1 hour 33 minutes. Zero keyboard.

The Strava trace tells it all: for an hour and a half I ran in circles next to the beach, along Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta — laps of about 300 meters, because looping a small stretch made it easier to keep building while moving. With Lovable open on my phone and earbuds in, I dictated every instruction for the next iteration out loud, in full stride.

11.96km running

1:33hours on the move

~300mbeachside laps

Running while building

The whole first version was created in motion, talking to AI instead of typing — km after km through Barcelona.

Ten voices, ten laughs

Each guide has a custom-designed voice, aura and signature laugh — from Carlos's warm chuckle to Big Walt's Texas guffaw.

Laughter yoga for everyone

A structured 8-minute session: warm-up laughs, dynamic exercises, a free-laughter finale and a calm breathing cool-down.

The project was built with Lovable — one of the hackathon's sponsors — and the guides' voices were designed with ElevenLabs, another sponsor of the event. Fittingly, an app about voice and joy was created almost entirely by voice, on the move.

What started as a hackathon experiment is now a little corner of the internet with one simple mission: help you laugh out loud for eight minutes, wherever you are.