Meet the founders
We are not educators by training. We build things, and Mascot is the one we built for students. Below is where we studied and what we have spent our careers making.
CEO
Pranav has spent his career building resilient cloud infrastructure and AI-powered products. At Mascot AI he leads the company and the product, which he built to give students real guidance and the confidence to apply to the school they choose.
High school
Mission San Jose High School
Fremont, CA
Bachelor's
University of California, Santa Cruz
Master's
San Jose State University
MBA
UCLA Anderson School of Management
COO
Nikhil has spent his career building hardware, along with the automation tools that engineers use to design it. At Mascot AI he runs operations, and he works on Mascot so that every student can get good guidance.
High school
Monta Vista High School
Cupertino, CA
Bachelor's
University of California, Berkeley
Master's
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Our mission
Many students get little or no guidance on their applications. Others are tempted to hand the essay to a chatbot, and the result sounds like everyone else. We wanted a third option: a counselor that knows the process, listens, and asks the questions that help a student find their own story. The AI does not write. The student decides and the student writes.
Mascot asks questions and gives feedback. It does not write essays or hand over sentences to paste in.
A student should be able to say "this is mine" and apply to the school they actually want.
Good counseling should not depend on what a family can afford.