00:17:13 · Vansh Langer, Vansh Langer
[00:17:13] S1: Alright, judges. Now it is time for the judges debrief component of the show. How are we feeling about the pitch? [00:17:19] S5: It's certainly an interesting idea because I... It's... Obviously, I'm not an international student, so I've never had to experience any of that. But I can imagine that as an international student, it would be, you know, challenging to get all these things set up. Like, I've certainly imagined that. I think they're spreading themselves kinda thin. There's way too many channels here, and that needs to be tightened up, I would say. That's probably what I what I would say to them was to tighten up their business model. Because it was a very... It's a great pitch, and it sounds like it's, you know, a big circle that everything connects to. But there are so many spokes here that, like, it just... You know, you can't possibly do all of them that well. [00:17:59] S1: It seems like Roam is a service aggregator for a captive audience. To what extent can a business like that be venture scaling?
00:17:59 · Vansh Langer, Michelle Kwok, Vansh Langer
[00:17:59] S1: It seems like Roam is a service aggregator for a captive audience. To what extent can a business like that be venture scaling? [00:18:07] S3: That was my question. That was my question. It was like, is the service... Not only is the service aggregator, but it seems like they're also a services business at the same time. And they felt like they had to be a services business to to top up the revenue streams because they weren't sure which revenue stream was actually gonna be their revenue stream, and there wasn't a lot of clarity around that. And then so they were like, okay. If we don't have a very clear revenue stream, then let's also be a services business. And as an as an international student myself, like, I've totally had this problem, and I do think there needs to be a services aggregator here. But I'm curious why they need venture money, I guess. If they've already aggregated all of these services and you have all these services in a marketplace... I don't know. A lot of the a lot of the businesses that I've I've interfaced with as an international student, they're all just... They're services businesses that are doing really, really well, and they're not venture businesses. [00:19:03] S5: Right. Only thing I could say... Only, like, kind of assessment I could make is that more than the venture funding, you would... They're looking for the the value add of getting... If if they were trying to get to the universities, then there's... VC funding is not the worst way to, like, get more of intros.
00:19:03 · Vansh Langer, Michael Nogen
[00:19:03] S5: Right. Only thing I could say... Only, like, kind of assessment I could make is that more than the venture funding, you would... They're looking for the the value add of getting... If if they were trying to get to the universities, then there's... VC funding is not the worst way to, like, get more of intros. [00:19:22] S4: I think that there's a a huge opportunity. I'm not as familiar with the... His competitive landscape because I don't know who... I know there are different verticals that are taking... Well taken care of, but I don't know. I think to answer your question from a venture, like, how venture backable is this? I think it's gonna... Still gonna require a significant amount of money in terms of marketing and just awareness. You know, I think it's not... I would not assume that this is just coming through, you know, partnership channel and and the college counselor. This is a brand new, you know, new workflow, new platform, new tool. I also would, you know, expect this business to also maybe focus on a certain region first and do it really well and become the player. And that way, then you can replicate the model elsewhere. I don't know the nuances or how diff... How diff... Difficult or different it is, you know, if you're servicing North America market, Canadian versus US versus, you know, Germany versus Australia.
00:20:28 · Michelle Kwok, Michael Nogen, Vansh Langer
[00:20:28] S3: Yeah. They are very different. Like, I think US is probably a huge market, and you'd probably make the most money off of it, especially what... The way that he was talking about it, especially with the Visa, like, that... I resonate with that a lot. Like, the Visa aspect, the getting the new SIM card, it's impossible to get housing here as an international student. There's definitely a market here. I just... I don't know. There's a... There's definitely a cap also to how many international students are coming to The US. And so it's more... In terms of being a venture backed up business, it's like, is this a billion dollar business, I guess, is more what I'm asking. I think I agree. There... I think this needs to be a business. This needs to exist. It needs marketing dollars to get out there, but I don't know how it gets to a billion dollars. [00:21:18] S4: Is that limited because of this potential, like, one time use? Because that's what also I'm getting Yeah. Stuck on. It's okay. You go there, you discover, but what keeps me on that platform and just not think there [00:21:30] S5: is a thing to keep you on the platform there. Right? Like, once you get all the services set up. [00:21:35] S3: It's one time. Yeah. I did it one time.
00:21:35 · Michelle Kwok, Michael Nogen, Vansh Langer
[00:21:35] S3: It's one time. Yeah. I did it one time. [00:21:37] S4: So you're spending a lot of money to acquire a customer. I... Who knows? I mean, it's... The business is too young to figure out, like, what's the actual LTV, but, you know, I I don't know. I think to make this really venture scalable billion dollar business plus, maybe it's like, how do you keep people on the platform or get them again? Like, just... It can be like a one and done. [00:22:00] S5: Yeah. That where you gotta... I mean, you have to capture the universities. That's who you... That... That's the revenue you need because a student... [00:22:08] S3: Yeah. Because then they'll be recurring for sure. [00:22:10] S5: Yeah. Like, if NYU is gonna give you a million bucks a year to, like, be the provider for all this, then that, you know, there's there's a use case that every... Theoretically, every university that has Internet international students and mass would do something like that. [00:22:24] S3: But there's also a cap on how many is... How many universities have that have enough students, like critical mass that they're willing to pay for it.
00:22:24 · Michelle Kwok, Michael Nogen, Vansh Langer
[00:22:24] S3: But there's also a cap on how many is... How many universities have that have enough students, like critical mass that they're willing to pay for it. [00:22:31] S4: Or the platform becomes almost like, it's the, you know, it's like the razor razor blade type of thing. So it's like you you you have a a model. So using the NYU as an example, you saw in the NYU, and it's like, let us build... Be your platform for all new students that are coming in. Let the university push it out, which goes to the parents, which are big decision makers, the students. But, essentially, it's like... It's it's... You're creating, like, a tool, and then you can replicate that same tool and sell it across to any university. And there are lots of colleges, universities. That's... I mean, that's how... What... Even when [00:23:08] S5: he first mentioned it, that's exactly how I thought it was this... Where it was going. And, I mean, like, you can obviously have a paid version for students that are going to, like, say, you know, a small school that wouldn't need the school to have this. You could have, like, a $20 or $30 option for those kids. But, yeah, like, if I'm if I'm if I'm I'm I'm the, you know, the the board of chancellors or whatever at at Harvard, I'm like, have, you know, 20% of my incoming students are international, then I would wanna make it as easy as possible for them, especially given everything that they have to do. This would be a a justifiable and usable expense.