Looking for a Technical Co-Founder — Full-Stack Web Developer for SciGen



SciGen is an AI-powered marketplace for researchers, PhD students, academic mentors, and domain experts. The platform helps researchers monetize their expertise through paid research services, mentorship, academic support, digital content, and AI-assisted knowledge tools.



I am looking for a technical co-founder with strong full-stack web development experience to help build the MVP and take ownership of the product’s technical architecture. The ideal co-founder should be able to design and develop a scalable web platform with user authentication, role-based dashboards for Teachers and Students, service listings, order/booking workflows, messaging, payments, admin tools, and AI-assisted features such as paper upload, PDF Q&A, service generation, recommendation, and quality moderation.



Hard requirements: hands-on full-stack web development experience; backend experience with Django, Django REST Framework, FastAPI, Node.js, or similar; frontend experience with React, Next.js, Vue, or similar; database design experience with PostgreSQL or MySQL; REST API development; authentication and authorization; Git/GitHub; deployment experience using Docker, VPS, cloud platforms, or similar; and ability to build an MVP independently. Payment integration experience with Stripe, Stripe Connect, PayPal, or marketplace-style payment systems is strongly preferred.



Contact:  m.shoaib.0591@gmail.com 

MS

Muhammad Shoaib Malik

Details

SciGen combines AI assistance with verified human research expertise in one marketplace. Unlike generic freelance platforms or informal academic support groups, SciGen is designed specifically for researchers, PhD students, academic mentors, and technical experts. AI handles repeatable first-layer research help, while human experts provide high-value judgment for papers, coding, statistics, methods, reproducibility, and academic mentoring. The long-term vision is to build a creator economy for researchers where experts can monetize their knowledge through services, content, mentorship, and personalized AI assistants.

SciGen will be developed as a web-based AI-powered marketplace. The core platform will include user registration, role-based dashboards for Teachers and Students, research service listings, order and booking workflows, messaging, payment processing, admin verification, reviews, and dispute handling. The AI layer will support document upload, PDF text extraction, paper Q&A, RAG-based research assistance, teacher/service recommendation, AI-generated service listings, and moderation or quality checks. The preferred implementation stack is Django or Django REST Framework for the backend, React or Next.js for the frontend, PostgreSQL for the database, and cloud deployment with Docker.

The technical co-founder salary is expected to be around €2,500 per month. For the early MVP phase, the expected cost falls under €100,000. Compensation may combine monthly salary, equity, responsibilities, and milestones. Additional costs may include hosting, AI API usage, payment processing, legal setup, and design.

A realistic MVP can be built in approximately 3–6 months with a committed technical co-founder. The MVP should validate the core SciGen marketplace workflow: user registration, Teacher and Student roles, Teacher profiles, research service listings, search/browsing, admin approval and basic payment tracking or payment integration. To demonstrate SciGen’s AI differentiation, the MVP should also include a lightweight Teacher AI Assistant v0. This assistant would use each Teacher’s profile, expertise, service descriptions, and uploaded materials to help Students understand the Teacher’s expertise and ask basic questions. Fully personalized Teacher LLMs, advanced RAG pipelines, long-term memory, automated moderation, and complex recommendation systems should be developed after the core marketplace is validated.

Target Customers

About me

Muhammad Shoaib Malik

This is your elevator pitch, the brief summary about you and your professional journey. Share more details about yourself, your experiences, and your skills.

I am a PhD student working on artificial intelligence and biomedical deep learning. My work involves building and evaluating machine learning pipelines, developing research prototypes, writing academic papers, and working with data-driven systems. I have experience with AI/ML model development, deep learning workflows, data preprocessing, evaluation pipelines, technical writing, and academic project development. Through my own research and collaborations, I have seen how difficult it can be for students and early-career researchers to find reliable support for coding, paper writing, statistics, reproducibility, methodology, and technical problem-solving. For that reason, I am currently developing SciGen, an early-stage startup idea for an AI-powered marketplace where researchers, students, academic mentors, and technical experts can offer paid research-related services.

This is where you specify the industry or sector you're interested in. Are you all about tech, hooked on healthcare, or fascinated by finance?

AI startup, EdTech startup, research marketplace, knowledge platform, SaaS marketplace, academic technology, full-stack web development, AI-assisted research tools.

Please select the field that best describes your expertise or professional experience. This helps startups identify how your skills can complement their team.
Choose the industry you have the most experience in or wish to work in. This helps startups understand if their sector aligns with your interests and career goals.
Choose how and where you'd like to work. Are you all about that digital nomad life or do you prefer the energy of an on-site team? Perhaps a mix of both? Let us know here.
Use this section to differentiate yourself by highlighting your unique skills, experiences, or attitudes that you believe would be advantageous in a startup setting.

I bring a strong research background, product vision, and deep understanding of the problems faced by students, researchers, and academic mentors. My experience spans AI and biomedical deep learning, academic writing, and technical project development. This gives me a clear view of how fragmented the current research-support ecosystem is and why a focused platform like SciGen is needed.

Here, detail the type of startup you are seeking to join as a co-founder. What skills, experiences, and qualities should it possess? Talk also about the industry, the startup's growth stage, the company culture, and the type of problems you would like to solve.

I am looking for a committed technical co-founder to build SciGen, an AI-powered marketplace for researchers. The ideal co-founder should have strong full-stack web development skills and be able to build a scalable MVP using technologies such as Django, Django REST Framework, FastAPI, Node.js, React, Next.js, PostgreSQL, Docker, and cloud deployment tools. Experience with marketplace platforms, payment integration, AI/LLM APIs, RAG, PDF processing, or SaaS products would be a strong advantage. The opportunity is best suited for someone who wants to build a real startup from an early stage, take technical ownership, and work on a meaningful product in AI, EdTech, and research knowledge monetization.