Siddharth Singh x’27 Builds Startups and Community Through Code

February 12, 2026

By Karen Barrett-Wilt Siddarth Singh came to UW–Madison to build a technical foundation for entrepreneurship, not expecting to dive into startups so quickly. In the conversation that follows, he explores choosing CS as a launchpad for building companies, pivoting quickly when ideas don’t work, and finding community in the process.

Where are you from originally?

Dubai, UAE. I moved to the US for college, and UW–Madison ended up being the best fit for what I wanted to do.

You’re majoring in Computer Sciences with an Entrepreneurship certificate. What made you choose CS?

I always knew I wanted to build my own startup. Business felt like something I could learn through experience, but technology felt foundational. Studying computer science gives me a way to deeply understand how products are actually built. Even if I’m not a software engineer long-term, having a CS background helps me communicate with technical teammates and make better product decisions. And practically, I can build early minimum viable products (MVPs, or first versions) myself instead of waiting on someone else to get an idea off the ground.

Was there a specific moment that hooked you on it?

I wouldn’t say there was one specific moment that hooked me. What excited me over time was the ability to tinker with ideas I had and actually make them real. Computer science let me turn something that lived only in my head into a scrappy, working prototype.

Why UW–Madison?

I was deciding between UW and another university while wrapping up a startup I’d been working on for about two years in high school and preparing to move to the US. I talked to people at both schools, and UW kept coming up as the place where I could keep my entrepreneurial side alive while doing CS seriously. That mattered to me.

I’m guessing you got involved with the startup scene here pretty quickly?

I didn’t expect to get so deeply involved in entrepreneurship while still in college. I always wanted to start a company. I assumed I’d wait until after graduation and spending time in industry to really pursue it. Early on, Transcend UW looped me into events and conversations I would not have otherwise been exposed to. I met mentors like UW alum Tim Nott, and then through CS NEST participation, Program Manager Grant Watkins. That exposure snowballed into building decks, pitching to investment committees, and thinking about products from a user and business lens—not just a technical one.

When did it click that you were actually going to delve into entrepreneurship now, not later?

Summer 2025. I had a flight booked home to Dubai and canceled it days before leaving to keep working on my startup. That was the moment it stopped being theoretical. Then that fall, my cofounder Slava Iudenko and I flew to a Y Combinator hackathon in San Francisco in the middle of midterms. It was a 48-hour sprint, and we won a subtrack. Those experiences made me more decisive and more willing to take calculated risks.

You’ve worked on several projects through CS NEST. What has that journey been like?

Each semester was different. In Fall 2024, I revisited a food-waste idea inspired by Too Good To Go. I interviewed over 60 students and talked to cafes around Madison. There was curiosity, but not enough traction, so I stopped. In Spring 2025, I worked on EduExplorer, a mentorship platform, helped scale mentors and sessions, and pitched to an investment committee. I also did the Level Set accelerator at StartingBlock Madison, which helped me think more clearly about early-stage execution and going from zero to one. By the end of the summer, I wanted to try something new—and instead of starting with a problem, I started with a person: Slava. That collaboration became MottoNote.

Tell me more about MottoNote. How did it evolve?

We started with a real-time meeting translation bot because we were working across regions and accents were a pain point. Mentors helped us realize translation was a feature, not the product. We zoomed out to meetings more broadly—context is fragmented, people ask repetitive questions, and flow breaks. MottoNote joins meetings like a participant; you can feed it context ahead of time and tag it in chat to get answers without interrupting. After becoming finalists in CS NEST, we learned that people were already used to very similar tools, and we noticed pull from investment teams. So we pivoted. In December 2025, we built a platform that consolidates information across tools and makes it searchable for investment write-ups. In January 2026, we did over 25 discovery conversations with venture-capital firms in a week in San Francisco. We also met a number of founders and operators. Since then, we have continued running discovery, working with a thought partner, and iterating quickly based on what we are learning from users.

Have you had any classes that really shaped how you think about building products?

CS 571 on user interfaces in Fall 2025. It pushed me to think about how products feel, not just whether they work. That’s been huge for MottoNote—UX matters when you want people to actually adopt what you build.

You’re president of Transcend UW now. What keeps you coming back?

The community. Being around people who are innovating is how you see what’s possible. I’ve learned a lot from mentors and peers, and even from freshmen who ask great questions. Helping fundraise, running events, watching students pitch ideas they care about—it’s energizing.

How else do you think the department could support entrepreneurship?

The technical coursework is strong. I’d love to see more classes that intentionally tie CS to entrepreneurship and count toward core requirements. If those pathways were academically recognized, more students might think about users, markets, and impact—not just resume projects.

What’s the plan after graduation?

Ideally, I’ll have a startup off the ground. That is where most of my focus and energy is going, and it is what I am most excited about long term. As an international student, I need a backup plan because of visa constraints, so I’m keeping industry roles in mind. But my priority is building something meaningful and giving it a real shot.

Last question—what do you do when you’re not in startup mode?

Gym, walks, and YouTube videos about how things are made. I like behind-the-scenes stuff about factories, food, and random everyday stuff.