Atharv Kotekar

Yoo, I’m Atharv

I’m 18, from Kolhapur, Maharashtra, a self-taught coder-designer-filmaker. I'm currently a gap year student, building cool things from localhost Delhi Hackerhouse.

What drives me

I started by fixing a dusty old PC in my storage room using YouTube tutorials. That turned into weekends spent repairing 350+ laptops, setting up WiFi networks, installing, and building gaming rigs at a local shop. Later, I started designing interfaces after realizing my first pharmacy app was ugly, and built 30-foot-wide mud forts every Diwali just to see how far I could push myself and my friends.

Every project pulls me into something new, and I guess that’s what excites me.

Things I’ve built

• Kolhapur Forever (16 y/o)
  Local football score-tracking app. Hit 21k installs in a month organically until I accidentally racked up server bills on my dad’s credit card. I built it because people were always asking, “What’s the score?” but nobody was posting updates.

• Learning App for Neurodiverse Students (NYAS Junior Academy)
  Researched with 400+ students and teachers. Designed and developed a classroom tool that adapts to different learning needs. Won 1st place out of 142 international teams.

• A Map that thinks (in progress)
  A context-aware, memory-based map extension that remembers your preferences, understands your circumstances, and feels more personal than generic Google/perplexity search.

• E-commerce App (10th grade)
  Built from scratch for a local vendor in 8 weeks. Integrated payments, trained his staff, and kept the store running online for over a year.

• Pharma Data System (9th grade)
  Built a no-code app to replace handwritten registers at a pharma company. Walked into their boardroom alone at 14 and shipped it in 10 days.

What I’m good at

• iOS Development (SwiftUI): Rapid prototyping, scalable architecture, and production-grade app deployment.

• Python Backend Engineering: API design, LangChain pipelines, VectorDB integrations for context-aware systems.

• UI/UX Design & Interaction Engineering: Human-centered interface design with accessibility and usability optimization.

• AI Prompt Engineering & Automation: Crafting prompts for deterministic outputs and workflow automation.

• Storytelling & Multimedia Production: Scriptwriting, cinematic direction, and post-production for technical demos and narratives.

Why I built

It started by saying yes to everything, even when I had no idea how. Over time, it became creative freedom, exploring, building, and solving real problems that people actually use gives me a kick.