Focused on the Code: Startup Aims to Allow Developers More Time to Develop

For developers, one of the biggest headaches isn’t writing code, but keeping Application Programming Interface (API) documentation up to date. Creating clear, accurate instructions for users can consume up to 20% of a developer’s time, costing companies as much as $45,000 a year per developer. This tedious and repetitive work pulls focus from building the product itself.

Devscribe, a startup founded by business administration graduate Gianni Hart and computer engineering graduate Samuel Solano, aims to solve that persistent challenge.

Their platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically generate and maintain documentation directly from a company’s codebase. Their software helps developers reclaim valuable time, reduce costs and give end users access to documentation that is always accurate and up to date.

Samuel Solano of Devscribe, center, works in the HotHouse during the Summer Accelerator. (Photo: Ruby Wallau for CIE)

, the technical mind behind Devscribe, never saw himself solely as a coder. In high school, his first taste of entrepreneurship came not through technology, but through music. As a member of a band, Solano has extensive experience throwing shows, selling merchandise and handling marketing for his group.

“With that experience and my time in Thomas Katona’s entrepreneurial senior project, it’s been insightful learning skills that will help me start my company outside of my engineering background,” he said.

At his previous internship at Amazon, Solano encountered the inefficiency of documentation firsthand. He spent days of his internship not building, but writing and rewriting instructions, leaving him frustrated with why developers were stuck doing something that could be automated — planting the seed for Devscribe.

Hart’s entrepreneurial spark was fueled by a lifelong passion for building. Throughout his childhood, he was constantly creating, whether it was assembling Lego sets or taking apart his mom’s toaster and figuring out how to put it back together.

“I always wanted to move into coding or web development, but I didn’t yet have the technical skills,” Hart said. “With advances in AI and the support of a technical co-founder, Devscribe became the perfect way to bring my ideas and aspirations to life.”

Working on Devscribe during their senior project, Hart often found himself immersed in the work for hours without noticing the time fly by.

“That was my green light moment—realizing this is what I want to do with my life,” he said.

Their journey as co-founders began in Thomas Katona’s entrepreneurial senior project class, where Devscribe first started to take shape as they discussed challenges they had encountered in previous internships experiences. Once their initial idea took off, Solano and Hart decided to apply for the Cal Poly Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) Innovation Quest (iQ), a high-stakes competition where Cal Poly students pitch their innovative business ideas and prototypes to a panel of judges in hopes of winning thousands to fund their startup.

Their experience at iQ gave them critical feedback on their pitch and validation from industry experts that their product was genuinely needed, encouraging them to move quickly in building their startup.

“We knew that the CIE had the resources and people in charge to make that happen,” Solano said.

“Creating a company can be very lonely and confusing, and the Accelerator gives you the structure to start and send you on your way.”

Gianni Hart

The team then applied for the CIE’s Summer Accelerator, an intensive 12-week program that provides Cal Poly students and recent graduates with the resources necessary to turn their innovative ideas into full-fledged startups. Participants in the Accelerator receive $10,000 in seed funding, as well as access to expert mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops and a dedicated workspace in the HotHouse, the CIE’s office located in downtown San Luis Obispo.

“The CIE has helped us by giving us a blueprint foundation to start our company,” Hart said. “Creating a company can be very lonely and confusing, and the Accelerator gives you the structure to start and send you on your way.”

Together, Solano and Hart form a complementary partnership. Solano leads product development and manages a team of six interns working on the platform’s architecture, while Hart takes on customer discovery and development and marketing.

The key to their partnership, they explained, is trust.

“From the start, we’ve trusted each other completely,” Hart said. “Since we work in two areas that don’t overlap much, we know that what needs to get done will be completed on time and with high quality.”

Devscribe is now focused on launching its platform and product line in the coming weeks. The team hopes to get the base platform fully operational, allowing users to connect their codebases, generate documentation automatically and deploy it seamlessly for their customers.

“Our goal is to one day make Devscribe so autonomous that the only time teams interact with it is the very first time they sign up,” Hart said.

Watch Devscribe and our six other Accelerator startups pitch live at Demo Day here.

The Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship helps students and community members acquire the tools, develop the skills and cultivate the mindset of an entrepreneur so that they may create economic and social value throughout the world.

Give now