How does a chemical engineering PhD student end up building an AI startup

How does a chemical engineering PhD student end up building an AI startup, go to YC, and raise investment to digitalize the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry?Well, that’s my story:

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by chemistry and ‘making molecules’ that I can actually hold in my hands.

This passion took me from chemistry electives in high school to a PhD in chemical engineering, touching on total synthesis, continuous flow chemistry, and finally machine learning for optimizing chemical reactions.

Along the way, I interned at various pharmaceutical companies, where I saw firsthand how drug manufacturing processes could be improved. But something always struck me:

→ Decisions often seemed purely driven by experience or trial-and-error.

During my PhD, I spent countless hours writing code to make chemical experimentation more efficient.

I realized that the challenge wasn’t the algorithms themselves — it was making them accessible to chemists without coding backgrounds.

That thought of bridging this usability gap became the seed for ReactWise, but launching it hasn’t been a straight path.

Early on, we faced setbacks such as a rejection by YC, over 100 unsuccessful calls with investors, and endless rejections by clients as we were working on a new solution in an industry that is dominated by legacy software.

But those hurdles taught us resilience.

We adapted, refined our offering, and doubled down on building a solution that speaks directly to chemists’ needs.It’s why we’re here today — with a working product, client interest, and even a recent public demo that marked a major milestone for us (more about it soon, so make sure to follow!).

We’re on a mission to make advanced data-driven optimization accessible to every chemist and manufacturer.Our ambition is to drive efficiency and sustainability in fine chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing by leveraging AI.

We’re just getting started, and we’re excited to collaborate with industry leaders who share our vision.This journey wouldn’t have been possible without my co-founder Daniel Wigh, the support of mentors, and everyone who believed in the vision of Reactwise.

It’s been a rollercoaster ride, but one thing is clear: the future of pharmaceutical manufacturing needs data-driven solutions, and we’re here to deliver just that.#Let’s build the future of chemistry, together.

Let’s build the future of chemistry, together.