FOUNDERS
Two bootstrapped founders build a feed designed not to maximize engagement
ScrollEd, a Palo Alto startup competing in the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt on October 13-15 in San Francisco, converts text files, PDFs and textbooks into a vertical feed of AI-generated video, audio, text and quizzes. Co-founder Utsav Gupta bootstrapped the company this year with co-founder and wife Rebecca Neff, and it runs a freemium model with a paid ScrollEd Pro tier and annual institutional licenses.
Gupta framed the product around a stated refusal: to be deliberate about the format and choose not to maximize engagement on the platform, with swiping sideways taking a learner deeper rather than pulling them onward. Two students, one at Stanford studying AI and human purpose and one at the University of Pennsylvania studying computer science, set an end point first and let the revenue design follow it.
Source: TechCrunch Startups · September 20, 2026