HYDERABAD: At the turn of this century, ‘social networking site’ was a term that most Indians would scratch their heads over. But in 2024, do you know how many apps that little pocket computer of yours has? Technology has indeed come a long way.
And just like each of us gravitate towards our areas of interest online, be it fashion, food, celebrities, racecars, or horse-riding, there are tech enthusiasts who pine for news that satiates their thirst for tech knowledge and want to connect with similar minds. So, Bhanu Kiran Mergoju, along with Srinivas Siliveru and Bhanuprasad Thandra, founded MadScientist, incubated at T-Hub in Madhapur.
Tech-ing it up
Now, you may picture a mad scientist as a cartoon character with Einstein-ish hair and goggles, surrounded by test tubes and colourful liquids that could, well, kill you. But the idea behind Bhanu’s platform keeps the excitement around technology alive.
“Tech enthusiasts, startups, engineers, researchers, developers, and students can read and discuss the latest developments. They can also create a profile and get jobs, internships and other opportunities,” says the founder.
Bhanu states that after the USA and the UK, India sees high demand for tech news. “This is an industry which requires people to constantly upskill. In one hour, five new research papers on innovation come out.
The hot topic yesterday is cold news today,” adds the founder, who, along with his then team of five, launched the web platform in August last year. Currently, his team of 13 caters to over 8,000 users across 20+ countries.
A ‘code’ apart
For Bhanu, ‘boring’ was never an option. “We laid special focus on visualisation; while you can post and view images, audios, and videos on other platforms, people can share a 3D visual of, say, robotics, on our platform directly. This isn’t all — we are also planning to venture into Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) soon,” reveals the founder, adding that they will be launching a phone app by March 2025.
The soul of science and technology lies in innovation, which wouldn’t materialise without discussion. And so, the founder points out, “On other sites, you can start a new post and share your thoughts individually but on our platform, you can co-author articles on science and tech with people around the world,” explains Bhanu, adding that an eight-member team is currently working on AI and building a tool called RIS.
“Real-time Information Synthesis. Public developments in science and technology around the world will be on your screen in just an hour. It is all factual and genuine information,” he underscores.
The platform is also a good stop for jobs and internships. Niranjan, an AI engineer who joined the platform in January this year, says, “Other platforms are cumbersome and there is no niche content. But when I went onto MadScientist, I was able to easily find people to collaborate with and who I could hire for my startup.”
A tough road
As with most startups, getting the ball rolling was an arduous task for MadScientist. “Initially, we were criticised so much. But just when we were losing hope, T-Hub embraced us with the support we needed. We kept pushing because of our passion for science and technology,” expressed Bhanu. After an initial angel investment of Rs 30 lakh, the company is in the pre-seed funding round, seeking $600,000.
“Recently, Clem Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face, a $4.5 billion-computational deployments application, retweeted our post on how you can link your Hugging Face account directly to your MadScientist profile. This was a very gratifying instance, after which so many techies from the Silicon Valley joined our platform,” says Bhanu, adding that the company is in talks with the
Telangana government, research organisations, and top universities in the world for collaborations in emerging technologies.
Such is the ongoing startup tale of MadScientist, which is helping people around the world in the science and technology space. Oh, innovation — it runs the world and literally keeps the world running.