When you talk to Shashank, Founder of Vasco Tech and the mind behind Allecta and Rankr, you don’t feel like you're speaking to a typical startup founder. His story doesn’t begin with pitch decks or hackathons, it begins with boredom during COVID, a deep curiosity about AI, and a simple problem he wanted to solve for himself.

“I needed accurate information… so I built the tool I wished existed.”

While helping a friend with a startup, Shashank found himself digging deeper into the AI world, reading research papers, listening to AI podcasts, and constantly exploring models. But the spark came from a very real frustration:
AI hallucinations.

To verify information, he used to open 5–10 different AI models simultaneously, ask each the same question, compare the answers, spot inconsistencies, manually merge the best parts, and then create his own document.

“It became a hassle,” he says.
And then the thought hit him:
Why can’t something do this for me?

That question became Allecta.

Allecta: The Layer Above All AI Models

Unlike traditional systems that route your question to one “best-fit” model, Allecta asks every model the same question, compares all their responses, debates the reasoning internally, and gives you one grounded, verified answer.

“No one was building the layer that connects them all,” he explains.

Companies chase bigger and bigger models.
Shashank chose to build the brain that unites them.

He calls it the reasoning layer.
The category did not exist before.
Now it does.

Launching Without Fear (and Without Waiting)

Allecta wasn’t launched after months of planning.
It dropped on an impulse.

“We realised someone else will build it if we wait,” he laughs.

After beta-testing with friends and developers, he launched. And within days, Allecta crossed 70 organic users, all through word of mouth. People loved how “measured and thoughtful” Allecta’s answers were.

He wasn’t chasing perfection.
He was chasing momentum.

A Founder Who Built It (Almost) Alone

Most people think AI startups need large teams.
Shashank disagrees.

He built Allecta himself, with the help of just one engineer.

Today, the two of them are building both Allecta and Rankr, an AI-powered personalised learning tool for JEE and NEET aspirants, with plans to expand into CAT, UPSC, GRE, SAT, IELTS, and more.

He’s not in a hurry to hire.
“Skills matter. But loyalty and vision alignment matter more,” he says firmly.

Rankr: Because Every Student Learns Differently

Shashank wasn’t the “ideal student” in school, and he says it openly.
He remembers stressful tuition marathons and feeling lost in crowded batches.

Rankr aims to fix that.

With Allecta as the “brain,” Rankr will offer:

• personalised learning

• concept clarity through examples and videos

• adaptive difficulty

• affordable access

He wants Rankr to help students across Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities who cannot afford expensive coaching.

Why Big Tech Won’t Build What Allecta Builds

When asked why OpenAI, Google or Anthropic aren’t solving the “memory” and “multi-model reasoning” problem yet, he smiles.

“They don’t need to. Not right now. Their focus is bigger models, not better reasoning.”

He believes Allecta fills that gap perfectly, and early.

YC Dreams and a Clear North Star

Shashank isn't racing for funding.

He applied to Y Combinator not for the cheque, but for the knowledge and ecosystem.

“We can bootstrap. What I want is to learn from the best.”

His long-term vision?

Allecta should be the interface people use to talk to any AI.
Not just ChatGPT, not just Claude, all of them.
One place. One brain. One trusted answer.

A Message for Aspiring Founders

His advice is simple and sharp:

“Stop overthinking. Start building.
AI tools today are so good, you can build an MVP yourself.
If you know what you want, you don’t need a big team.
Just start, the path reveals itself.”