Student Entrepreneur - Najam Tariq '26 (ParaAI)
Written on August 28th, 2023 by Naser
This post is part of a student spotlight series highlighting the work of exceptional students. The series aims to facilitate knowledge sharing among students on topics such as internships, jobs, entrepreneurship, and graduate school. Today, I have the pleasure of talking to Najam Tariq ‘26, who will tell us about his new AI startup ParaAI.pro/.
Naser: Tell me a little bit about yourself and your startup. What is the main problem your product solves?
Najam: I am a rising sophomore here at Colby College, majoring in CS. My startup is dedicated to creating an AI co-writer that will refine AI-generated content, enabling it to resonate with a more human-like tone. This addresses the often robotic and impersonal nature of AI-produced texts.
Naser: When did you come up with the idea for this venture?
Najam: I came up with the idea at the end of my freshman year, at the time when ChatGPT was gaining significant traction. While ChatGPT is immensely powerful, its writings can sometimes come off as monotonous and hard to follow due to the model’s intentionally generic training - I wanted to infuse a more human touch into such outputs.
Naser: What were the main technologies you used to develop your project, and how did you learn them?
Najam: I built the ‘alpha’ version using a Python-library called Streamlit, which I would highly recommend for someone just starting out. However, since I wanted to achieve faster loading times and greater control over the front-end, I transitioned to using Flask for the backend, and vanilla HTML, CSS and JS for the front-end, which I learned through free online tutorials.
Naser: What are the current stats of your startup in terms of users, funding, and any other metrics that you would like to share?
Najam: The site was made public less than 15 days ago and has garnered over 500+ active users, including 65+ people who have signed up for more intensive usage of the tool. As for funding, I’d recommend the Microsoft Founders Hub program to anyone starting out; they offer a great deal of benefits if you get accepted.
Naser: In your opinion, what are the most important skills for new entrepreneurs today?
Najam: Persistence is paramount: entrepreneurial journeys come with inevitable lows, moments of doubt, and uncertainties–it’s during these challenging times that your belief in your idea should fuel your resilience and drive.
Naser: What advice do you have for people thinking about becoming entrepreneurs but maybe they are hesitant about it?
Najam: If you’re a student like me, you’ve got a huge advantage: nothing to lose. Dive in. Start immediately. No need for all the flashy tech out there; start simple because it’s highly likely that you’ll need to tweak and reiterate over your initial implementation a lot of times before you find a fit between your idea and what the market wants.
Naser: Thank you for sharing your experience Najam, and good luck to you in your venture!
Najam: Thank you!
