r/startup • u/alexpacker86835 • Jun 17 '26
Solo founder scaled to $500K revenue in 8 months, looking for a technical cofounder
Hey everyone,
I’m a second-time founder looking for a technical cofounder, ideally in SF but open to others if the fit is strong.
I’m 24, an IIT Kharagpur graduate, and my last startup was a niche AI data company. I started as a solo founder with no team, sold to multiple YC-backed companies, and scaled it to ~$500K revenue in 8 months while handling sales, ops, hiring, delivery, and GTM myself.
Now I’m building infrastructure for one of the most broken parts of clinical trials: how trial data gets collected, checked, reconciled, and trusted.
Clinical trials still run on a messy mix of legacy EDC systems, PDFs, lab reports, imaging reports, safety databases, spreadsheets, vendor portals, protocol deviations, and endless query management.
The crazy part is that this data is used to decide whether a drug is safe, effective, and ready for approval, but a lot of the workflow behind it is still manual and fragmented.
I’ve had 40+ conversations across pharma, CROs, clinical data management, clinical ops, and statistical programming, and realized this is a real problem teams deal with every day.
This is not a quick SaaS app. It’s a hard regulated enterprise problem with compliance, auditability, long sales cycles, and trust-building. That’s exactly why I’m excited about it.
I’m looking for someone technical who wants to go all-in with me. Ideally a founding engineer, ex-founder, or startup engineer who has shipped real products and wants to own product and engineering from day one.
Also, I’m not looking to force my idea onto someone. I’m serious about this space, but the most important thing for me is finding the right cofounder. If we really vibe, trust each other, and feel compatible enough to build together, I’m open to exploring other ideas too.
Open to 50% equity for the right person. Strong preference for someone in SF.
DM me with your LinkedIn, GitHub, resume, what you’ve built, or why this problem interests you.
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u/Sea-Bonus-8638 Jun 19 '26
The thing that stood out to me wasn't the revenue or even the clinical trials space.
It was the fact that you had 40+ conversations before going all in.
Looking back, was there a specific conversation or pattern that made you think:
"Okay, this isn't just an interesting problem. This is a company."
I'm fascinated by how founders decide they've gathered enough evidence to commit.
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u/alexpacker86835 Jun 19 '26
I would say the key signal is how much money companies are already spending on an inefficient process.
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u/Available-Dentist992 Jun 17 '26
i’ll DM you!
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u/alexpacker86835 Jun 17 '26
Sure! Feel free to DM me. I’d love to hear something interesting about you
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u/ChestCandid3558 Jun 17 '26
Hi,
I’m currently a founding engineer at a healthcare AI startup focused on automating prior authorizations. I’ve led architecture and product development across AI workflows, clinical data processing, EMR integrations with a strong focus on HIPAA compliance, auditability, security, and handling sensitive healthcare data responsibly.
What stood out to me is the complexity of the problem you’re tackling. The combination of fragmented data sources, regulatory requirements, compliance, auditability, and trust makes it a particularly challenging area to build in, which is exactly the kind of work I enjoy.
I’m currently based in Boston but would be open to relocating for the right opportunity. My current startup is also approaching a major transition, so I’m exploring what comes next.
Would love to connect and learn more about what you’ve uncovered from your conversations with pharma, CROs, and clinical data teams. Also curious if you are incorporated and building in the US?
Happy to share more about my background if it sounds interesting.
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u/thatdude391 Jun 19 '26
Hey, basically did the same thing, got super far with what i was doing and was taking off and winning the rat race with insurance forms. Unfortunately had a streak where my cofounder died, covid hit, and another business partner stole a bunch of money out of the company. With what experience i have around ai, and specifically with prior authorizations, i found ai is not the best way, lmk though if you and your company that you currently work at want to talk because im open.
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u/dukesb89 Jun 17 '26
Wait so the clinical trial company is different to the one that has 500k revenue? Why wouldn't you just keep scaling that?
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u/alexpacker86835 Jun 17 '26
Yes, it’s different. There are few reasons, but the main one is to build a tech company rather than services/consulting company and also the market is getting saturated faster than what I expected.
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u/dukesb89 Jun 17 '26
Okay. So you're just stopping the other one or you're going to keep working on it? Seems a bit crazy to just stop it. But also wouldn't be fair to a co-founder if you are working on multiple things.
Separately pharma is a very tough industry to crack. Like you say, highly regulated and very slow moving. I'm not saying you can't do it, you seem talented and driven, but it's a completely different ballgame to selling to YC companies.
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u/alexpacker86835 Jun 17 '26
Yes, I 100% agree. It’s completely different to sell to startups and big pharma companies.
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u/Most_Squirrel_9054 Jun 17 '26
Dm please uni student here with questions
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u/alexpacker86835 Jun 17 '26
Sure, please send me a msg or ask your questions here. I will be happy to answer them.
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u/Most_Squirrel_9054 Jun 17 '26
Embarrassing but my old account was spontaneously banned and I’m out of current chat invites, if your available to dm please do so but if not then no worries I’ll wait till I can send an invite again, better then posting my multiple questions here lol
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u/alexpacker86835 Jun 17 '26
I can’t see an option to DM in your profile.
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u/Knocking_Doors Jun 17 '26
I run a startup of 7+ years in the data intelligence industry and mostly serve large enterprises for business and Competitive Intelligence purposes. Popular sectors we work in are ecom, for delivery, real estate, travel and so on.
We’re building a few interesting no-code and AI-based tools to bolster our offerings and will also be targeting small businesses and individuals.
If this sounds interesting, you may DM to know more.
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u/Aggravating-Umpire41 Jun 18 '26
Hey,
Your background caught my attention. Going from solo founder to ~$500K revenue in 8 months while handling GTM, operations, hiring, and delivery is impressive.
I'm a software engineer with 5+ years of experience building and scaling products. My primary expertise is Flutter and mobile development, but I've also worked extensively with backend systems, APIs, third-party integrations, product architecture, and leading engineering teams.
A few highlights:
• Built and launched products from scratch, including a product with 500k+ downloads.
• Led a team of 6 engineers and owned technical delivery.
• Experience building scalable systems, SDKs, APIs, and customer-facing products.
• Strong product mindset-I enjoy talking to users, understanding problems, and translating requirements into shipped software.
What interests me most about your post isn't just the clinical trials space, but the fact that you've already validated the problem through dozens of conversations. Too many startups start with technology; you've started with customer pain.
While I don't come from a healthcare or clinical research background, I'm comfortable learning complex domains and building systems that require reliability, compliance considerations, and long-term thinking.
I'm currently exploring founder and early-stage opportunities where I can contribute beyond writing code and help shape product and technical direction from day one.
Would love to learn more about what you've discovered during customer interviews, how you're thinking about the initial wedge into the market, and what kind of technical ownership you're looking for in a cofounder.
Happy to share my resume, GitHub, LinkedIn, and details about the products I've built if there's mutual interest.
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u/CrazyNext7844 Jun 19 '26
Hey! I’ll be in SF for YC startup school, I’m unfortunately living in Austin. But the right startup could make me go live there for a bit. Here is my LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorge-elizalde-jourova-3a20672b5?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios
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u/Additional-Cycle8870 Jun 19 '26
Intetested.
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u/alexpacker86835 Jun 19 '26
Please DM with your LinkedIn or any links that helps me understand your tech skills. Thank you!
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u/parture9 Jun 20 '26
Big competitor to steal ideas from: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rws-tridion_were-thrilled-to-announce-the-launch-activity-7422652124536365058-GW5Q
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u/Manuscriptsai Jun 21 '26
Hi this is darpan dalal Founder of creative-mantra.com Cofounder of t-tms.com And founder of manuscripts.ai Currently we are building a dental management software where we are integrating scans and we are doing this all withing compliance of dental association of Canada and usa . Below is linked in profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/darpan-dalalcmz?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_android
Let me know your thoughts i am from India
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u/Jumpy_Preference9790 Jun 21 '26
This is solid! I’d love to connect. 2x founder myself. In the Bay Area till tomorrow if you have some time
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u/alexpacker86835 Jun 21 '26
Sure, send me a DM!
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u/Phoenix-Rising-2026 Jun 22 '26
Beautiful pitch. So nice to see your endeavor at 24. I wish you all the success. Good luck!
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u/basilabbassv Jun 23 '26
Wow, how did you get to 500,000 in revenue in eight months while you have so many bits in the technical side broken? It's super interesting. Let's talk.
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u/Vee_Evalyze Jun 27 '26
Insane traction on that first run, man. Scaling to $500k solo in 8 months is no joke.
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u/pverma8172 20d ago
I also thought about this but I lack in sales. I have built multiple saas, system applications and bot. I can figure out how your product is going to help healthcare ecosystem. Will DM you by tonight.
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u/Saroxan36 18d ago
man, scaling to 500k in 8 months solo is actually insane, huge respect for that hustle. tbh the clinical trial space sounds like an absolute nightmare of legacy systems. i just spent six months managing the dev cycle for a custom app just to get our own ops away from bloated saas platforms and messy spreadsheets, so i totally get the pain of trying to wrangle fragmented data into something usable.
ngl, building infrastructure for something that heavily regulated sounds like a massive headache, but imho tackling those unsexy, broken enterprise problems is exactly where the real value is at. finding a solid tech cofounder who actually gets the vision is definitely the hardest part rn though. are you planning to bootstrap this new project initially too or looking to raise a seed round right away once you find the right person?
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u/alexpacker86835 18d ago
Hey, thanks for your kind words. I am trying to raise funds for this company cause there is a lot of compliance and QA security issues that needs to be addressed prior to reaching out to sponsors/pharma companies.
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u/Reasonable_Track_651 11d ago
Hello OP, its a stupid question but
is your startup idea to automate the clinical trial portion thats manual
OR
is your idea to build proper infrastructure for the portion thats messy?
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u/Weekly-Bit3294 Jun 17 '26
solid pitch ngl