High School Tech Prodigy Transforming College Admissions with AI
Aug 18, 2024
Have you ever struggled to write your college essays?
It's a challenge nearly every high school student faces: crafting the perfect essay that showcases their strengths, individuality, and unique quirks. Some students even turn to specialized college consultants, investing thousands of dollars JUST for that extra edge.
Daniel Rupawalla, a high school senior from Texas with a passion for coding and entrepreneurship, realized there was a significant gap in the college application process. "We noticed that many students at my high school and in the surrounding area couldn't afford essay counselors," he explained. This inequity in the college application process inspired him to cofound his thriving startup, Sups.ai.
For today’s PluggedIn blog, we interviewed Daniel, co-founder and CTO of Sups.ai, to learn more about his extraordinary journey. Daniel isn't your average high school student. He's a national debate champion, a national Model UN champion who has spoken at the United Nations, and he sold a startup from middle school for six figures. Sups.ai is not his first go around.
The idea behind Sups.ai was to assist students in crafting their college essays using AI. It would act as a “virtual writing buddy,” available 24/7 to help brainstorm and edit essays, integrating features that mimic the guidance of a consultant, often inaccessible due to their high cost.
Starting with just an idea, Daniel turned it into reality. The backend was initially developed using a TypeScript stack but soon transitioned to Python to enhance AI capabilities, integrate advanced tools like Langchain, and allow for more complex prompt engineering. They trained their AI models using essays and data from previously admitted students, focusing on designing a scalable model to cater to students of diverse backgrounds like MBA and PhD applicants in the future as well!
After developing their MVP, they soon launched a clunky platform called Plato.ai. However, it just wasn’t clicking with the market—they struggled with low conversion rates and user engagement, but they knew they were on the right track. Through extensive customer feedback interviews, they cleaned up their service, rebranded it as an integrated document editor for college essays, merged with another startup, and launched Sups.ai.
Today and the Future
Today, Daniel’s startup, Sups.ai, has some impressive stats!
- Active in 138 countries
- Over 12,000 active students on the platform and 10,000+ followers on Instagram
- Helped students gain admission to all Ivy League schools and 42 out of the top 50 schools in the US
- Received a $40,000 grant from Texas Christian University
- Worked with several startup accelerators in Austin, Texas
Daniel doesn't plan on stopping there. They're expanding the platform to include features for brainstorming extracurricular activities and connecting applicants with students at their dream schools for one-on-one advice. With each new feature, they are taking steps leaps forward on their journey of growth and success.
Daniel’s dream is for Sups.ai to become a household name. Just as “Google” has become synonymous with searching the internet, he hopes “sups” will become the go-to verb for improving college essays with AI. The team aims to reach 50,000 to 75,000 active users by the end of December and continue expanding its features.
About Daniel
As crazy as it sounds, Daniel isn’t new to the world of startups. In middle school, he founded a social media startup on his own that allowed influencers to advertise their accounts and facilitated over $100,000 in transactions. Daniel shared how he built the platform through React JS, contained user data in Firebase, a “super cool” Google database, and integrated Stripe into his platform as the middleman for payments. His startup was later acquired for a low six figure amount.
Another fascinating project he’s been working on is digitizing the mental health curriculum at local facilities in Texas. Many facilities were using old textbooks and research, so Daniel condensed the research and created a digital curriculum to help counselors and therapists easily and more efficiently access the information. He ended up reaching over 10,000 people through his curriculum and has made a significant impact in his community.
And on the other end, when he's not working on startups or winning national debate or Model UN competitions, you might find him boxing, running, or learning!
At the end of our interview, Daniel shared some insightful thoughts that really captured his passion and vision.
He spoke about how his love for learning and exploring new ideas keeps him motivated every day: “I'm willing to work until 2 or 3 AM, even on school nights, if it's something that excites me. I love tackling new challenges and solving problems. So, whenever we encounter a development issue or a bug, it often means I have to learn new libraries or discover new ways to address it. That process is just super thrilling to me.”
And Daniel shares the reason why he builds so many projects is because the idea of novelty, creating new things drives him.
His journey is not just about building a successful startup; it's about making a lasting impact and creating opportunities for students everywhere.
Thank you for reading this far! As a token of our appreciation, any parent or student here in the college application process can get a 30% discount off Sups.ai using code DevNotes.
If you’re interested in reaching out or supporting Daniel or his work at Sups.ai, connect with him below: