00:29:10 · Leon Li, Krish Bajaj
[00:29:10] S0: Welcome to the on call room. My name is Leon. I'm here with Krish of Roam. Krish, how do you think you did on the pitch? [00:29:17] S2: I think it was good. Well articulated. Maybe a bit long winded in certain aspects. That's a takeaway I had before hearing what they have to say, but it's definitely helped with some introspective feedback on how we can improve going forward. [00:29:33] S0: So so Roam was built out of a pain point that you personally experienced. I'm an international student. I experienced it. Can you share a bit more about your experience in terms of being an international student at NYU? [00:29:44] S2: Definitely. So I got here in 2021. We were the first batch right after COVID. Took me and everyone else I knew close to three weeks to get set up with the absolute bare essentials required to live in this country. Bank accounts, SIM card, insurance. All because we had to go in person to get these things set up while domestic students could do everything online. Not having an SSN was a big, big, big issue. And a lot of these service providers aren't built to serve immigrants. And that led to me going on a hunt to find affordable services that were immigrant friendly and could offer high quality service for all these different things that one needs to live in a country. And that's how Roam came to be.
00:29:44 · Krish Bajaj, Leon Li
[00:29:44] S2: Definitely. So I got here in 2021. We were the first batch right after COVID. Took me and everyone else I knew close to three weeks to get set up with the absolute bare essentials required to live in this country. Bank accounts, SIM card, insurance. All because we had to go in person to get these things set up while domestic students could do everything online. Not having an SSN was a big, big, big issue. And a lot of these service providers aren't built to serve immigrants. And that led to me going on a hunt to find affordable services that were immigrant friendly and could offer high quality service for all these different things that one needs to live in a country. And that's how Roam came to be. [00:30:34] S0: If we could touch on the main talking point that was discussed on the pitch was the business model in terms of revenue stream. The judges seem conflicted in terms of... Affiliate marketing is great for the short term in terms of developing revenue stream. But in terms of the judges were conflicted in terms of whether to go straight to direct to consumer because you could turn on that switch and get revenue straight off the bat with your with your supply, or go direct to universities and partner with them. If you could shine some more light in terms of which angle you would see Roam going down down the line.
00:30:34 · Leon Li, Krish Bajaj
[00:30:34] S0: If we could touch on the main talking point that was discussed on the pitch was the business model in terms of revenue stream. The judges seem conflicted in terms of... Affiliate marketing is great for the short term in terms of developing revenue stream. But in terms of the judges were conflicted in terms of whether to go straight to direct to consumer because you could turn on that switch and get revenue straight off the bat with your with your supply, or go direct to universities and partner with them. If you could shine some more light in terms of which angle you would see Roam going down down the line. [00:31:07] S2: I think d to c is great. The only shortfall we've had with that despite half a million students reached every month organically is the lack of trust. When you're in a new country, oftentimes you are scared of being scammed. You wanna be extra careful about who you're going to to get these services. Now while they might trust Roam as a platform, a lot of the providers we list are targeted to international students and hence don't have the same presence as an AT and T or Chase or names they're familiar with. [00:31:46] S0: Right.
00:31:46 · Leon Li, Krish Bajaj
[00:31:46] S0: Right. [00:31:46] S2: Hence, it made a lot of sense for us or makes a lot of sense for us to focus b to b, whether that be through universities, but also through study abroad counselors and stakeholders in the home country, people who they trust and know are going to guide them to the right services. And by laying Roam on top of these people or these entities, it helps us establish a very strong base and a degree of trust which then we could leverage tomorrow to go D to C. So b to b at first and eventually move that to D to C. [00:32:26] S0: Interesting. Well, Coeus Collective have been in contact with you for over a year now. You guys started developing in America, in American University specifically. How has the growth into Australia, like you mentioned, and internationally, how is it different than those businesses and partnerships working with universities here in The States?
00:32:26 · Leon Li, Krish Bajaj
[00:32:26] S0: Interesting. Well, Coeus Collective have been in contact with you for over a year now. You guys started developing in America, in American University specifically. How has the growth into Australia, like you mentioned, and internationally, how is it different than those businesses and partnerships working with universities here in The States? [00:32:44] S2: That is my favorite question to answer. Reason being, in Australia for example, everything is extremely regulated. There's a very small group of universities, only 40 in the whole country. There are no more than three to five providers in every vertical, of which only a few are approved by universities. For us to build the chain of the student journey, going to Australia becomes extremely easy because we have fewer people to work with. And unlike The US where every school has different insurance requirements, in Australia it's all standardized. So one provider can offer services through us to virtually every student going to the country without any fear of non acceptance by the institute they're attending for whatever service it may be. [00:33:44] S0: And another pain point you said you're raising to address is you're trying to figure out a way to churn... Develop churn in terms of your customers and develop a lifetime LTV for your customers. How do you... Once you do raise or if and when you do raise, what are some methods for you to address that concern?
00:33:44 · Leon Li, Krish Bajaj
[00:33:44] S0: And another pain point you said you're raising to address is you're trying to figure out a way to churn... Develop churn in terms of your customers and develop a lifetime LTV for your customers. How do you... Once you do raise or if and when you do raise, what are some methods for you to address that concern? [00:34:05] S2: A shortfall that we have currently that I've noticed every other business, whether service or product based has, is a sales team that excels at nurturing leads and taking all the inbound traffic and value flowing through their ecosystem and converting it to revenue. While we have an exceedingly strong tech and business development team, we are falling short on a sales bit. Now we know there's enough demand for each of these services across the entire student life cycle because we see the clicks going to these partners of ours. But there is no follow-up or nurturing of that lead. And hence, we lose out on the potential revenue from the interested party who's taken the effort to find us and click on that. So a sales team would be a very, very big boost. Along with that, of course, automated processes to prevent any leakage in this pipeline of people who display interest.