Duke University students Mark Ghattas and Rahil Verma met in a Costco last year through mutual friends. They subsequently bonded through a study abroad program, where they also realized they weren’t as informed about current affairs as they’d have liked to be.
The 2024 U.S. presidential election was in full swing, and Ghattas and Verma had no time to catch up with the news, and so couldn’t easily form their own opinions. Constant questions from peers about the U.S. political climate sparked the idea for a digital tool that could address lapses in awareness and provide simplified answers.
“The news cycle is very, somewhat toxic,” Verma said. “It can be biased at times, and you don’t know if what you’re reading is someone’s opinion or facts 100% of the time.”
This thinking led Ghattas and Verma to found Auxiom AI, a budding startup providing a platform to make it easier to find proper news and avoid misinformation.
The Auxiom platform provides its users with curated podcasts, newsletters, and articles surrounding topics of interest. Ghattas and Verma programmed it to target consumers who don’t frequent the traditional news cycle, but want to be more informed about what’s going on in the world and their governments.
Auxiom operates the same way a responsible journalist would—by sourcing information from various primary data sources. It analyzes sources such as legislative bills or research papers, which are then indexed via an API.
The API then sends them to the AI, which compiles the information into a clear and digestible format for those who may lack the expertise required to make sense of complex reports or documents.
Ghattas and Verma noted that this AI does what most ordinary people don’t have time for: reading and analyzing long-form records.
As of this writing, the primary service Auxiom provides is its podcasts, which generate weekly on a given user’s chosen day with a variety of topics or areas to filter from. Each podcast spans about five minutes.
“As you’re reading your articles and listening to your podcasts,” Ghattas said, “our journalists are growing with you, learning what you’re interested in, and learning what you like to learn about.”
Auxiom’s business model
Auxiom operates via a freemium model allows users to choose one of two plans. The base plan is free of cost and includes a weekly podcast, emailed straight to the user’s inbox; the Plus membership costs $5/month and will ultimately provide a longer podcast (8-10 minutes) with access to a conversational AI journalist.
The AI journalist is still in the works and will be released in the near future. It is a more humanistic mode of receiving information, which according to Verma will feel something like a phone call.
“It’s a new paradigm for what we think news should be, which is being able to talk back to your journalist,” he said. “It’s not just a story, it’s a conversation.”
Funding and future
Before its official launch this past April, Auxiom was one of 12 finalists at the Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship Startup Showcase. The founders were able to pitch in front of a room of startup ecosystem professionals and received $5,000 in grants from the Melissa and Doug Entrepreneurs program.
Aside from that $5,000 influx, Ghattas and Verma have bootstrapped the startup so far.
At the end of July, Auxiom will launch a mobile app for on-the-go access and boost customer acquisition. For now, their focus remains on enhancing the website’s interface.
QUICK BITS
Startup: Auxiom AI
Co-Founders: Rahil Verma, Mark Ghatta
Founded: 2024
Team size: 2
Location: Durham
Website: www.auxiomai.com
Funding: Bootstrapped
Ghattas and Verma’s outreach is mostly word-of-mouth, but they are grateful for the Entrepreneurship program since it helped bring more customers to the AI platform.
“I think our booth was pretty popular,” Verma said. “But our online presence is still based mostly on people telling their friends. People tend to like the platform and tell each other [about it].
Sign up is available with a valid email on the Auxiom AI website.
