What began as a personal project by Ralph Rouhana to accelerate his own note-taking while studying computer and electrical electronics engineering at the University of Waterloo has blossomed into a Y Combinator–backed startup. Stempad, now part of the YC S24 batch, is developing an online text editor and platform designed for fast scientific writing and note-taking in STEM fields. (Y Combinator is the incubator behind everything from Airbnb to Reddit.)
Rouhana, who has coded for about a decade, created the foundation for the company while addressing his own frustrations with existing tools. “I always struggled with handwritten notes in class,” he explained. “Doing illustrative scientific writing digitally was incredibly clunky. There was no tool that made it fast, intuitive, or offered an all-in-one platform.”
Existing options required juggling multiple software programs, often with hefty licensing fees and steep learning curves. “Even LaTeX, while powerful, has a barrier to entry with its plugins and syntax,” Rouhana added, referring to the formatting language for creating scientific documents. “There’s nothing really streamlined for doing fast scientific writing digitally with your keyboard.”
A digital canvas for scientific thought
Rouhana saw an opportunity to make a difference for students and researchers. “The possibilities are endless for a scientific writing tool that’s caught up with 2024,” he said. “That’s what I eventually realized, but the original reason I built it was for myself, for taking notes in class.”
Stempad aims to streamline the process of documenting and sharing scientific ideas across contexts and disciplines. The company is creating a unified virtual canvas to capture scientific thought. Unlike traditional word processors or even LaTeX editors, Stempad offers an integrated environment where different elements of scientific work inhabit the same space.
Built for speed and collaboration
Stempad’s innovative approach addresses the limitations of traditional scientific writing tools. The platform offers a range of features designed to enhance productivity and foster collaboration. Researchers can jot down notes, draft equations, sketch diagrams, insert code snippets, and visualize data all within a single document. The company’s website shows the ability to plot mathematical functions with Python, render equations, draw and edit molecules and circuit schematics as well as scribble diagrams. By freeing users from switching between applications, the software can bolster productivity and workflow.
Early traction and user feedback
Despite being in its early stages, Stempad is gaining momentum. Rouhana shared, “We’re still really early. I only launched a month ago. But we have around 1,000 signups now and 30 paid subscribers. That’s on the individual side. We’re still building traction with businesses like schools, research teams, and pharma companies.”
Ralph Rouhana
The feedback to date has been “very positive,” according to Rouhana. “A lot of it is, ‘Oh, I wish it had this or that feature.'” He said the feature requests are “understandable because it’s still new.” Examples of such requests include the support for LaTeX export, voice-to-text, and handwriting recognition. “All sorts of ideas,” he said. “There are so many different use cases and disciplines to cover, and I’m moving as fast as I can to address them.”
The genesis of Stempad
Stempad’s origins trace back to Rouhana’s time as a university student: “This actually started this January while I was still a student at the University of Waterloo. I created it for myself because I always struggled with handwritten notes in class,” he said. “That was really the only main solution for me because doing illustrative scientific writing — there’s no tool that makes that fast and intuitive, and has an all-in-one platform to do that.”
Traditionally, scientific note-taking has been something of a patchwork process, often requiring researchers to stitch together a hodgepodge of tools and workflows. The process has involved a variety of different software with different licenses. “It gets really complicated,” Rouhana said. “The learning curve is slow.”
Current feature set for Stempad
Stempad offers a suite of features designed to enhance the workflow of anyone involved in scientific writing and research. As a cloud-based platform, users can access their work seamlessly from anywhere with internet. Stempad’s design enables versatile visualization, enabling researchers to switch between different forms of technical content. Equations, graphs, code snippets, and diagrams can coexist within a single document. It can “speed up your scientific notes with your keyboard and being able to do that in a multidisciplinary way,” Rouhana said.
In addition, Stempad prioritizes keyboard-friendly input, allowing users to capture ideas with speed and precision while retaining the flexibility of traditional note-taking. Rouhana envisions an array of use cases. Researchers collaborating on documents in real-time, streamlining the process of sharing findings, receiving feedback, and co-authoring publications. Beyond research, he sees it being used in educational settings, where it provides more than taking notes tools but also support for drafting research papers, creating and grading assignments, and conducting remote exams.
Future features and development
As Stempad continues to evolve, Rouhana is actively listening to user feedback to shape its future development. A highly requested feature, particularly among researchers, is the ability to seamlessly convert documents to and from LaTeX. While Stempad prioritizes speed and ease of use, Rouhana recognizes the importance of LaTeX compatibility within academic and publishing circles.
Other features on the horizon include the ability to add comments directly to documents to support collaboration and feedback within research teams. Rouhana is also exploring the potential of integrating voice-to-text capabilities.
Additionally, a dedicated biology support is high on the priority list. “So that should be on the roadmap in the near future, the ability to create biological diagrams,” Rouhana said.
The road ahead
As Stempad evolves, Rouhana is focused on expanding the platform’s capabilities to meet the diverse needs of the scientific community. “We’re still building traction with businesses like schools, research teams, and pharma companies,” he said. “There are so many different use cases and disciplines to cover, and I’m moving as fast as I can to address them.”
Currently, Rouhana is the sole developer behind Stempad. “But I will be hiring soon,” he said. “There are a lot of people who are engineers who have done masters and PhDs and have dipped into the research side of it too, along with the engineering and application side. They would actually be perfect to work on and learn from this product because they’re the ones that would also use it and benefit the most from it.”
