BSocBarker Business Society
Barker Business Society / BarkerHacks

Built by
builders.

Barker Business Society—BSoc—is a student-led community built to give ambitious young people the environment, tools and industry access to turn meaningful ideas into working products.

Its directors bring practical experience across product engineering, AI, robotics, games, business and company-building — and handle every partner conversation directly.

01 / Our vision

A generation that does not wait for permission to build.

We want students across Sydney to see AI as more than a shortcut. Used thoughtfully, it is leverage: a way to research deeper, test faster and turn strong judgment into products that genuinely help people.

01

Broaden access.

Give ambitious students the modern tools, practical mentors and builder community that are usually difficult to reach at school.

02

Raise the standard.

Challenge teams to build useful, thoughtful products around real needs—not technology demonstrations without a meaningful purpose.

03

Create momentum.

Help every participant leave with stronger skills, greater confidence and relationships that continue long after the final demo.

02 / The directors

Meet Peter
and Steve.

Two complementary builders leading BSoc and the first edition of BarkerHacks from outreach and partnerships through to the student experience.

Founder / Petrex

Peter
Starodubtsev

  • 7 years of game development experience
  • Founder of Petrex, a six-figure ARR game development marketing agency
  • Head Artist of Chained, with about 8 million weekly visits
  • Raised a six-figure pre-seed at 10% equity
  • Worked with NBC Universal, Samsung, Sam's Club, Jurassic World
Founder & CTO / YAIOS

Steve
Zhu

  • 7 years of robotics engineering experience
  • Founder and CTO of YAIOS, a software automation agency
  • 2 years of AI and agentic engineering
  • 600+ hours on solo builds across 2025-2026
  • Works with SMBs operating 6-8 figure ARR
Why BarkerHacks

Give builders
a place to begin.

The goal is simple: help students discover that modern AI has lowered the barrier to execution, then challenge them to choose worthwhile problems and build thoughtful solutions.

Sign up for BarkerHacks