From Scratch to Sups, Samir Walji innovates

By Adhira Tippur     10/1/24 10:55pm

When Samir Walji first started coding Scratch games in middle school, he never imagined he’d run a startup used by students in over 138 countries one day. Now studying computer science at Rice, Walji has turned his passion for building things into Sups, an award-winning, AI-powered college application platform.

“I’ve always found building things really fun,” Walji, a Lovett College senior, said. “The idea that you can take something on your computer, on your laptop, and build something and then share it with the world is so powerful.”

This led Walji to develop Sups alongside his co-founder, Rehan Rupawalla, a ’24 University of Texas at Austin graduate with a degree in mathematics. 

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The web platform uses a large language model, trained on thousands of college applications, to provide AI-generated feedback on how to approach and outline college essays. The plans range from free to $29 a month.  

Walji said his inspiration for Sups came from personal experience. 

“Last summer, my little sister was applying to college, and she kept asking me for help with her supplemental essays,” Walji explained. “Maybe that makes me a bad older brother, “but I wanted to automate that feedback process.” 

His inspiration coincided with his research in AI and large language models, and Walji said he saw a need to democratize college application guidance.

“It’s insane how much money college application advisors cost,” Walji said. “Most kids in the U.S. can’t afford it, and this is even more true for many students outside of the U.S.

“My goal was to leverage the power of software and AI to build a platform that would let anyone around the world have access to world-class college application guidance,” Walji continued. “Education is not a privilege. It should be a right, and everyone should have access.”

Sups recently won first place and a $40,000 prize at the TCU Values and Ventures Competition, a national startup contest for college students. The experience, Walji’s first pitch competition, provided valuable momentum for his work, he said.

“It was super cool validation to be able to advance to the finals and win first place,” Walji said. “It was awesome to meet other driven student founders from around the world.”

Walji’s entrepreneurial journey has been supported by Rice’s Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He participated in FIESTA 2023, Lilie’s Festival of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Science, Tech & Art, where he connected with other student innovators and mentors in the field. 

Walji said Kyle Judah, the executive director of LILIE, gave critical guidance. 

“[Judah] has real experience as a startup founder in the field,” Walji said. “He’s been a tremendous mentor for me.”

Beyond his startup, Walji was president of the Rice South Asian Society and co-founded the Rice Pickleball Club. Walji planned Dhamaka, an annual South Asian cultural showcase, alongside co-president Kaylah Patel. The SAS event sold over 1,000 tickets and was awarded Rice’s 2024 Program of the Year.

“Samir is a very easy person to work with,” Patel, a Hanszen College senior, wrote in an email to the Thresher. “With SAS, we had a very open communication, and we both worked on tasks that were more suited for our talents: mine was planning and finances and his was primarily networking and marketing.” 

As he approaches graduation, Walji is focused on scaling up Sups to help more students. The platform has already helped users gain acceptances to every Ivy League school and 48 of the top 50 schools in the U.S. Reflecting on his journey, Walji said other Rice students interested in entrepreneurship should take the leap. 

“Just get started,” Walji said. “Don’t get paralyzed waiting for the perfect idea to come to you. There’s no better time in your life to start a company than as a college student. You can take a lot more risk [right now] than you can after you graduate.”

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