By Priyanka Gupta

Copyright india

AnswerThis is an AI powered research tool designed to seamlessly integrate into a researcher’s workflow. Whether it’s identifying research gaps conducting literature reviews or finding the right papers AnswerThis simplifies and accelerates the process.
The platform was co-founded by Ayush Garg and Ryan McCarroll who first met on their very first day at the University of Richmond. What started as a chance encounter evolved into a partnership that would span multiple projects. By their junior year they realized their ambitions extended beyond building individual careers they wanted to transform the way science itself is done.
From curiosity to conviction.
Ayush Garg grew up surrounded by research. With both his parents being professors science became second nature early on. By his teenage years he had already published peer-reviewed papers won and judged multiple hackathons with projects that automated research tasks through open-source Python libraries for mining scientific literature as well as built apps that were shown to the president of Singapore. A self-described generalist with expertise across physics mathematics and computer science Garg’s entrepreneurial drive pushed him to pursue projects with an altruistic edge. Guided by his mentor Dr. Peter Murray-Rust of the University of Cambridge a pioneer in open science Ayush co-created Pygetpapers an open-source platform for downloading research papers and Docanalysis a tool for analyzing scholarly texts. Today both are used by tens of thousands of researchers worldwide.
Meanwhile Ryan McCarroll was carving his own entrepreneurial path. In high school he co-founded Crackin’ Coffee a subscription service offering specialty blends from Northern Irish roasters. Later he shifted into marketing and sales working with entrepreneur Alex Commera to scale Instagram account management services for a diverse global clientele. By the time Ryan arrived at Richmond he had already built a reputation as someone who could turn complex ideas into products people wanted.
When Ayush and Ryan met their shared passion for innovation and problem solving sparked a natural partnership. They began experimenting with a variety of projects quickly realizing that their complementary skills created a rare synergy one that would eventually give rise to AnswerThis.
During their freshman year Ayush returned from the European Innovation Academy in Portugal with an idea for an AI-powered research platform: AnswerThis. As they continued to work on other shared ventures and projects Ryan assisted Ayush in marketing this new start-up. Following the launch for AnswerThis Ryan joined Ayush as a co-founder at the beginning of their junior year.
Their motivations complemented each other well: Ayush was obsessed with how knowledge could be processed faster and Ryan with how to bring their product to the world. Both were impatient with incrementalism and eager to develop and scale AnswerThis.
Building AnswerThis
AnswerThis began with a simple but powerful question: could researchers cut the time it takes to write literature reviews from hundreds of hours to just minutes? Ayush envisioned a platform that would unify the fragmented landscape of research tools creating a seamless workflow for scholars at every stage of their process.
When Ryan and Ayush began developing AnswerThis they tested early prototypes with friends and faculty. The response was unanimous and enthusiastic this was solving a problem nearly every researcher faced.
What sets AnswerThis apart from other more fragmented platforms is not only its vast database drawing from over 200 million papers but also its design around the natural cyclical flow of academic research. With AnswerThis users can discover the latest publications in their field visualize how sources connect organize and manage their references and generate comprehensive literature reviews faster than ever before.
The platform has quickly proven versatile: professors use it to draft and refine grant applications PhD students rely on it to find and analyze resources for dissertations and healthcare professionals employ it to conduct systematic reviews.
Growth and Recognition
From its beginnings within a small community of early academic adopters AnswerThis quickly spread through word of mouth. Professors began inviting Ryan and Ayush to run webinars for their departments sparking institutional interest and demand. Fast forward two years and more than 150000 researchers around the world have used the platform. AnswerThis was also selected for the RIoT Accelerator Program where the founders received mentorship on scaling a product that was clearly resonating far beyond the scope of a student project.
Ryan and Ayush hope their journey demonstrates that meaningful research infrastructure doesn’t have to emerge from corporate labs or government initiatives it can come from two student entrepreneurs building with conviction speed and a clear vision.
Ayush describes his mission in simple terms: to accelerate humanity’s collective progress. For him AnswerThis is just the beginning the first step toward enabling people everywhere to learn synthesize and generate new knowledge at the speed of thought.
Ryan views the mission through the lens of reach. His focus is on ensuring that what they build doesn’t remain confined to academic circles but extends to anyone working with complex information whether researchers consultants or professionals.
A Broader Impact
Today AnswerThis stands alongside tools like Zotero Word and university library portals as an essential part of the modern research workflow. Unlike generalized AI assistants or search engines AnswerThis is purpose built for researchers who demand precise citations and a streamlined accelerated research process.
This focus combined with the founders’ relentless drive explains why adoption is spreading so quickly across academia. With a rapidly growing user base and universities now exploring institutional agreements Ryan and Ayush are showing that innovation in research software doesn’t need decades of committee deliberation. It can emerge from two determined students who identified a problem joined forces and built a solution now relied upon by researchers around the world.
Finding cures for diseases exploring the edges of the universe and advancing scientific discovery is all becoming much quicker with AnswerThis.
First Published : 10th January 2025