Two Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students who dropped out in 2021 have defied conventional wisdom, scaling their artificial intelligence startup to a staggering $300 million valuation in just two years. The founders, Selin Kocalar and Karun Kaushik, met as freshmen at MIT in 2021, bonding over a shared passion for AI and health technology.
From MIT Dorm Room to $300 Million Valuation
Their venture, named Delve, began in an MIT dorm room. The duo made the bold decision to leave their prestigious programme to focus fully on their startup. Their bet paid off spectacularly. In January, barely two years after founding, Delve announced a successful $3 million seed funding round. The company, which automates regulatory compliance using AI agents to save countless hours of manual work, is now valued at $300 million.
The "Worst Advice" and the Right Tree to Climb
In a recent, candid roadside interview with vlogger Viraj Ala, Selin Kocalar, who serves as Delve's Chief Operating Officer (COO), offered counterintuitive advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. She labelled the common mantra of "sheer grit and hard work" as the worst piece of guidance she ever received.
"Life is like climbing up trees," Kocalar explained. "If you put your ladder against the wrong tree, you might climb up, spend all these years doing hard work just to reach the top of the tree and then realise there was a taller tree." She emphasised that success is not guaranteed by effort alone; one must first ensure their approach and direction are correct. "To really reach your global maximum in life, you've got to first make sure your ladder is on the right tree," she stated.
The Time-Traveller Mindset and Doing the Opposite
Kocalar advocated for a generational, forward-thinking approach. "Pretend you're a time traveller. Pretend you're 5, 10, 50 years into the future. You're successful, you've made it in life. Looking backward, how would you act now?" she suggested. This mindset, she believes, forces strategic thinking about daily actions and long-term goals.
Her second piece of unconventional advice is to consciously do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. She shared a personal example: "When I had to pick a language to study, everyone took Spanish, so I took Chinese just for the sake of it." This philosophy, she argues, pushes individuals into challenges, forces them to learn new skills from scratch, and ultimately helps them discover their unique path. "As you figure everything out, eventually trust that things will click. Use the time traveller mindset and you'll find yourself," Kocalar advised.
Before her entrepreneurial leap, Selin Kocalar was a prolific researcher. Remarkably, she had eight academic publications by the age of 20 and even had an experiment deployed on the International Space Station, communicating with astronauts while still in high school. This formidable background in deep research, combined with a daring entrepreneurial spirit, paved the way for Delve's rapid ascent in the competitive world of AI-driven health tech.
