Although his journey in QUEST has just begun, David Molot (Cohort 35) has already exemplified principles of design thinking with his startup hotglue. hotglue first started off as a project by Hassan Syyid, and David joined the team this past March as his co-founder. At a high level, hotglue is a data integration tool to get customer data into business to business (B2B) apps.

David is a sophomore Marketing and Information Systems major, and Hassan is a sophomore studying Math and Computer Science. The two met through University of Maryland’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (EIP) and became closer through mutual friends. When speaking with Hassan and David, their cohesive dynamic was apparent. David explained that his role is more so developing hotglue’s strategy and business vision, while Hassan is focused on technical development. However, David emphasized that it’s important to receive Hassan’s input while making business-focused decisions. Similarly, Hassan values David’s insight on technical development decisions. 

As for hotglue’s technology, Hassan described it as “a tool for developers built on the Python ecosystem, which provides a data pipeline without worrying about maintenance.” Hotglue started off as a tool that users download and maintain themselves, but has since shifted into a more seamless experience where the backend is managed for users. The inspiration for hotglue first came in the summer of 2019, when Hassan was collaborating with the developer of an accounting software startup and identifying solutions. Following, he took over the startup, transforming it as his own and later asked David to become his co-founder. 

There is a lot of promise regarding hotglue’s future, and the two are willing to do the work necessary for success. While managing being full-time students and both having summer internships, they still put consistent hours into its growth each week. Hotglue has been recently accepted to be debuted on AppSumo, which is a company that partners with tech companies and provides deals on their products. Because of AppSumo’s popularity, David and Hassan are anticipating to receive a lot more customers, and in turn, invest more of their time into hotglue. A dream for the pair is to have hotglue become a full-time job in the future. They are hoping to get accepted to Y Combinator down the road, a tech incubator in California known for funding companies such as Dropbox, DoorDash, and Airbnb. This additional funding would be a large step in making David and Hassan’s dream a reality. 

The QUEST community proudly recognizes David’s accomplishments as a part of hotglue and will be here to support him through its continued development. Check out hotglue’s website here,and be on the look out for their release on AppSumo!