MSAI Classmates Help App Users Bypass Lines

Anyone who’s been to a theme park or packed restaurant knows the worst part of the experience is waiting through stuffy lines, often with little or no seating and no end in sight. LineLeap changes that by offering a “fast pass” through an app that enables you to ​​skip the line, order drinks, reserve tables, and more for bars and other venues.

Jack Richard (MSAI ‘19) co-founded LineLeap in 2017 prior to enrolling in Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence (MSAI) program. The company added more than 100 new venues to its list of partners in 2021 and currently offers capabilities in 50 cities, ranging from popular destinations like New York City and Boston to college towns like Madison, Wisconsin, and Gainesville, Florida. LineLeap has 175,000 users, Richard said.

While in MSAI, Richard met Subrat Mahapatra (MSAI '19). Mahapatra went on to work as an artificial intelligence (AI) consultant at Deloitte after graduation, but in February 2021, Richard brought him to LineLeap. Today, Mahapatra is the vice president of engineering at LineLeap while Richard is the chief technology officer. 

The two recently reflected on their experiences in MSAI, how they apply lessons from the program into their day-to-day work, and what it means to work alongside each other once again.

 

How do you each describe your specific roles and responsibilities within LineLeap?

Jack Richard: A lot of our responsibilities fall under doing what it takes to push the needle each day and make LineLeap successful. On the tech side, Subrat and I tend to disassociate from the titles and approach every task as we would if we were still in a booth at The Garage. It is truly a privilege to be able to work with Subrat as we would if we were still in school together. It’s a lot of end-to-end product development from scratch.

Subrat Mahapatra: The culture really is designed so everyone can come together to solve a problem in the most effective way. LineLeap is still very early on in its technical roadmap. Currently both our roles focus on being as user-centric as possible.

Subrat, what about LineLeap appealed to you and pushed you to make the switch from Deloitte?

SM: I absolutely loved my time at Deloitte and really loved the mentors I made along the way. Deloitte was absolutely crucial in helping me develop a set of skills around communication and storytelling that can be rare in a purely technical role. I’ve always been entrepreneurial, even while I was at Deloitte, and when Jack approached me with LineLeap, I couldn’t join fast enough. The number one thing that attracted me to LineLeap is that we are creating a service that people previously didn’t know they wanted. 

Jack, what was it about MSAI that initially appealed to you?

JR: I loved that the program put so much emphasis on the relationship between AI and its potential impact on every industry. I was hooked when I heard there would be industry nights that had visiting AI leaders like Dave Ferrucci (IBM Watson) and Louis Rosenberg (Unanimous AI).   

In what ways do you incorporate lessons learned in MSAI into your day-to-day work?

SM: MSAI focused a lot on communication principles. We were asked not only to create the solution but also explain why that solution mattered. These skills are something we use every day here at LineLeap when we have discussions on technical strategies. 

How else did MSAI prepare you for what you're doing today?

SM: Data preparation really saves you time. During the classes we were always focused on data preparation and preprocessing. Taking the time in the beginning at LineLeap and really thinking about data ingestion and preprocessing saved us so many hurdles as they came up later. MSAI was also very flexible. The program allowed us to get fundamental exposure to various AI fields but also gave us the opportunities to branch out and get real practicums with super interesting companies. 

What advice would you give a prospective student considering MSAI?

JR: Get a side project going for fun. Beyond LineLeap and MSAI, I was always working on some fun project that was super over-engineered for some automation. It lets you polish your coding abilities while implementing what you learn in class. Also, save code snippets like you deserve to be on TLC’s Hoarders. You never know when a Python script will come in handy later! 

SM: Really take advantage of the small class sizes and get to know your classmates. There are a lot of cool people like you who got into the program and you should get to know them.