Four weeks ago, Alex, Samir, and I made the best decision of our lives: we decided to start a company together. Our decision was fueled by a shared passion, a vision that ignited our hearts, and a desire to create something truly impactful. Today, as I sit down to write this update, I can’t help but reflect on the whirlwind of experiences and emotions that have shaped these initial weeks.
Let’s rewind.
Samir and I met in 2020 during grad school. Although we came from different backgrounds and focused on different areas, we found ourselves in the same statistical learning course. It wasn’t long before we discovered that we shared a deep love for cracking complex problems and a knack for thinking beyond the obvious. And just like that, a friendship was born.
Late-night chats about the boundless possibilities of machine learning unveiled more. We both felt that entrepreneurial itch—the itch to create, innovate, and push the boundaries of what’s possible.
After graduation, life took us in different directions.
Samir joined a bank as a software engineer, I ventured as a data scientist. The itch went unscratched.
For the next year and a half, we saw firsthand the friction that exists within companies when it comes to information flow. Leaders had questions, teams had answers, but the process to bridge that gap could take anywhere from minutes to months. It was draining.
In January, I had a chat with a friend who works in Hollywood. He shared how time-consuming it is to read through stacks of movie scripts. I couldn’t help but build a solution. I called up Samir, and we built prescene.ai. When we launched Prescene, something clicked.
We could create value for others.
Without hesitation, we quit our jobs and committed to solving people’s problems.
By February, we were looking for ways to accelerate our growth. Enter Buildspace. We joined Nights & Weekends s3 on a whim, and a few months later, I was on a plane to San Francisco. That’s where I met Alex.
Alex and I instantly clicked. It was the feeling when you meet someone and you just know that they’re on the same wavelength. Alex was a pure-bred entrepreneur who dreams big. The moment we started talking, it was clear that his mind was wired for innovation and his heart was set on creating something extraordinary.
Funnily enough, it didn’t occur to either of us to start working together—we just naturally began helping each other with our products.
All of a sudden, Samir, Alex, and I found ourselves in nightly brainstorming sessions. But something was still missing. Each of us took pride in what we had built individually, but we had a shared hunger for more. We wanted to tackle bigger problems, help broader audiences, and leave a mark on a larger canvas. Amidst this confession, a common thread surfaced:
Each of us intimately understood the pain of inefficient information flow within companies, but from different perspectives. Alex as a CTO guiding data teams and making decisions for the company, Samir as an engineer building information pipelines, and me as a data scientist conducting analysis and building an auto-insight engine. This gave us an unfair advantage in solving this problem.
The problem
Companies waste billions every year trying to figure out what the hell is going on inside their businesses. About 90% of the time, the data is at their fingertips; the hurdle is retrieval and analysis. Phrases like “Let me check with my team” or “I’ll provide that figure by the day’s end” are commonplace. Data teams are stretched thin, resources are constrained, and outcomes delayed—everyone knows this. So what do companies do? Usually one of three things:
- Divert internal resources (data engineers + scientists) to conduct ad-hoc analyses.
- Hire fancy analytics consultants to build million-dollar dashboards (which often are too rigid to be used practically).
- Nothing.
How we are solving it
We look at all internal data—databases, files, communication channels—to understand the business. This enables executives to use natural language to build dashboards on the fly, and answer hard questions—ones that used to take days, in seconds.
As three technical founders, we dove into product development right away. However, we recognized from the start that the “chat with your data” market is highly saturated. What sets us apart is our unique problem-solving approach. We began by building a simple interface that can answer the questions with the highest friction. In just one week, we demo’d our insight generation engine to prospective clients. It took us four days to secure a design partnership and close a $50k deal.
Now, we’re refining our V1 and in discussions with potential new customers. Alex flew back to Germany so we can incorporate and navigate securing a visa for him (why does the US make this so hard?).
Meanwhile, Samir and I are putting in hard work from our makeshift home office.
We have never been this excited in our lives.
Goals and Milestones Ahead
✅ Make $1 (by August) (beat by $49,999)
✅ Get a customer (by August)
🔲 1k MRR (by September)
🔲 3 customers (by September)
🔲 5k MRR (by October)
