Last week, amid the conversations and energy of the exhibitor hall at OWASP Global AppSec in Washington, D.C., something uniquely extraordinary was happening at the Endor Labs booth.

Yes, there was the laughter coming from our AI photobooth, the experience that transported you into an iconic movie cover and sent you home with a nostalgic retro DVD case featuring you as the star.

But right alongside that, something even more meaningful was unfolding. A steady stream of people gathered at our booth to meet a high school junior from San Antonio who once had a dream of bringing a game to DEF CON, and who now finds himself surrounded by a growing community of makers and security professionals, all eager to cheer him on.

His name is Bryce, and he’s the creator of Space Badge: an open, co-op multiplayer, mesh-networked electronic game badge that sparked delight at DEF CON 33 and now, OWASP Global AppSec 2025. Thanks to Bryce, his innovation became the heart of the Endor Labs experience.

How Space Badge Found Its Way to Endor Labs

I first met Bryce at BSidesLV, right at the start of Hacker Summer Camp. If you’ve ever survived the whirlwind of events that week, you know it feels like running a marathon in 110-degree heat while trying to keep your brain, multiple badges, and hydration intact. It’s an incredible week, but also one of the most exhausting of the year.

So meeting Bryce right out of the gate set the tone for me in the best possible way.

An attendee walked past our booth wearing what looked like a tiny arcade game tucked into a little spacecraft, and I practically lunged toward him asking, “WHAT is that and WHERE did you get it?”

He smiled and said, “This kid made them and is selling them here!”

A kid? Making something this creative, this polished, this… joy-inducing? I was immediately determined to find him.

A little while later, Bryce wandered over to our booth and honestly, it felt like meeting a celebrity. I think I actually blurted out, “It’s YOU!” the moment I realized who he was. I proceeded to shower him with every piece of our best swag (lightsabers, Squishmallows, the works) because I wanted him to know how much I admired what he’d created.

At 16, I never would have dreamed of building something like this, let alone selling it to raise money for college. But that’s exactly what he was doing.

His Kickstarter tells the full story, how Space Badge came to life, how he taught himself to build it, and how he’s using his creativity to help fund his future:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/o-n/space-badge-the-next-generation-of-defcon-badges/description

So when it came time to plan our sponsorship activation for OWASP Global AppSec in D.C. a few months later in November, we worked closely with Jenn Gile, our Head of Community, to design something truly community-first, and full of the joy and creativity that Endor Labs is known for.

Flying Bryce (and his dad) to the conference with his Space Badges and putting this experience in the hands of 200 attendees was the easiest “yes” of the entire planning cycle. This wasn’t a gimmick or a marketing stunt. This was Endor Labs putting our money where our mouth is,  by supporting the community and quite literally, investing in the future of it.

We knew it would resonate.
What we didn’t know was just how much.

Space Badge quickly became a conversation starter, not just between us and attendees, but between attendees themselves. People who might never have crossed paths suddenly found themselves bonding over a shared moment of creativity, curiosity, and pure fun.

A Community Moment We’ll Never Forget

Space Badge reminded us of something important: the future of AppSec belongs to the builders, the people who experiment, share ideas, break things, fix things, try again, and bring others along for the ride. That’s the spirit our community was built on, and it’s the same spirit Endor Labs was founded on.

Because at the end of the day, our mission is to remove the noise, cut through the overwhelm, and give developers the clarity they need to build safely and confidently. We’re here to empower innovators,  whether that’s a Fortune 100 engineering team or a high school student teaching himself hardware design to bring a badge to DEF CON.

What Bryce created with Space Badge is what we want for every developer we support:

• The freedom to build.
• The clarity to focus on what matters.
• The confidence to ship something they’re proud of.
• And the community to cheer them on when they do.

In a way, Space Badge embodied the “why” behind everything Endor Labs stands for: helping people build securely without slowing them down, so creativity and curiosity can thrive.

Investing in the Future: A Scholarship for Bryce

That’s why, as part of this experience, we’re incredibly proud to share that Endor Labs is awarding Bryce a $5,000 scholarship to support his education as he enters college.

This isn’t just a recognition of Bryce and his Space Badge, it’s a recognition of the curiosity, passion, creativity, and generosity he brings to the security community. These are the values we want to see grow. They’re the values that keep this industry moving forward. And they’re the values we’re committed to championing at Endor Labs.

Supporting Bryce is our way of investing in the next generation of builders, because the future of AppSec isn’t just about tools. It’s about people.

What’s Next for Bryce, and for Us

We already can’t wait to see what Bryce builds next, and luckily, we won’t have to wait long. He’s already working on the next iteration of Space Badge, and thanks to an invitation he received right at OWASP Global AppSec, he and his dad, who has been a constant supporter, mentor, and co-conspirator in all the best ways, attended BSides Delaware to collaborate with an eager team of technical mentors who are excited to help him bring Badge 2.0 to life.

Watching the two of them together has been one of the most unexpectedly heartwarming parts of this entire experience. His dad was always insistent that this moment is about Bryce, about his creativity, his determination, and his voice, and never about himself. But his unwavering support, encouragement, and quiet guidance are undeniably part of what makes this journey so special.

And for us? We’ll keep showing up by continuing to invest in community events, in makers, in students, in dreamers, and in the people who remind us why this industry is special. This experience also reminded me personally how grateful I am to be part of the Endor Labs team, one that embraces creativity, trusts wild ideas, and encourages community-first initiatives that make our work feel meaningful.

Here’s to community, the next generation, and building the future of AppSec. Thankful for moments like OWASP Global AppSec, that remind us of the human side of it all.