Student startups: StormWater.Ai

In this column, Tuntreet comes into contact with various companies and startups that have their roots from NMBU. In this year's first edition of Tuntreet we meet Uzair Aftab, the man behind the company StormWater.Ai. By having a desire to create a technology within stormwater analysis, he and his team received the Stud-Ent million in the summer of 2024. In addition to StormWater.Ai, he has started several other companies.

Journalist: Jardar Nikan Alaei
Translator: S. Faseeha F. Gillani
Photographer: Nicolai Terland

The origins of entrepreneurship

With a smile, Aftab tells us about the time he started at NMBU to study a bachelor's degree in Environmental Physics. “On my first day at NMBU, I had a plan and that was to get into McKinsey,” a well-known consulting firm in strategy and management. He says that this was his goal until he saw the presentation by Eik Lab during that year's grass course, which sparked his interest. He felt he had to visit Eik Lab and since then he has not left again, he says. “When I started at Eik, the idea was to fill out my CV so I could get into McKinsey.” But after testing out various projects, he found that it was actually fun to have his own workplace, and during the pandemic he decided to create a company together with a fellow student. “The motivation was to have fun working with technology and coding, while being able to work at your own pace and on your own terms.”

From idea to practice

After observing roads under water caused by the extreme weather "Hans", Aftab felt that better urban planning was needed for the future. The work within StormWater.Ai is to ensure that cities are better equipped to deal with stormwater based on the knowledge they have in physics, mathematics, water and sewage. Together with other former students, they wrote an application for the Stud-Ent million. He says that it is a competition where you apply for up to 1 million kroner from Innovation Norway, and this year's application deadline for the Stud-Ent million is February 13th. "This applies to master's students, PhD students and students who have graduated with a master's degree within the last year. It is an application where you fill in your team and idea, while also setting up an account. We suddenly got a call from Innovation Norway saying that we had advanced to pitching". During the pitching, Aftab says that they lost the internet and had to connect to 4G in the middle, but it went well. Aftab says that starting a company has been a slow process. “In reality, it has been tougher than I imagined, but at the same time it is very rewarding”. He says that so far the team has worked on creating a website, transition models, PDFs and calculations. “It takes longer than you expect and the industry you are trying to get involved in tries to work against change”. He believes that this is due to habits that are formed over time. Everyday life involves a lot of work within customer projects and development within the startup. He says that he likes to jump between projects to make the working day more varied, and he sets up much of the working day himself. After being asked if there is anything he would have done differently after gaining these experiences, he replied with a smile not to start with energy drinks. “What I would have told myself five years ago is to enjoy yourself a little more. I should have appreciated those evenings when I sat in the garage at Eik and worked on myself and my company, even though it was tough at the time”.

Aftab's other companies

In addition to StormWater.Ai, Aftab has helped start the companies Njord Technologies AS and Polymath. “Both Njord and Polymath started when I was a student because I love technology and programming. I would say that I have an eye for programming, and an easy way for me to convert the knowledge I have into something I can make a living from is through a consulting company.” Polymath and Njord are two consulting companies that Aftab ran together with a fellow student where they tried to focus on sustainable quick solutions for businesses, so that they solved problems in a future-oriented way. “It was also a learning project on how to set up an AS and how to keep accounts.” Aftab hopes that Polymath will be further developed in the future.

Tips and the plan ahead

Aftab encourages those who want to start a company to be curious. “Be curious, try to explore and do a lot. I took on many projects at Eik in the beginning with many different things, everything from electronics, soldering and batteries”. The most important thing is to explore a lot to find out what you don’t like and based on what you don’t like you will find what you like. Then you will find your first company page. When it comes to the plan ahead with the companies, Aftab says that he is working on scaling his companies. The plan for StormWater.Ai is to prepare a product and get a sale of the service. Ultimately, he says that “the goal is to solve a real social problem”.