00:34:05 · Krish Bajaj, Leon Li
[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. [00:35:16] S0: Speaking of pipeline, I'm curious about the demographic Roam is trying to target. When you first talked about... With you guys about a year ago, you guys were targeting mid tier schools that are targeting maybe less so affluent clients and students. But now the judges bring up a point where if you go direct to consumer, you are able to hit that affluent demographic where you can charge $50 a month to provide all the services packaged to them. What angle are you trying to tackle and if you have any thoughts?
00:35:16 · Leon Li, Krish Bajaj, Vansh Langer
[00:35:16] S0: Speaking of pipeline, I'm curious about the demographic Roam is trying to target. When you first talked about... With you guys about a year ago, you guys were targeting mid tier schools that are targeting maybe less so affluent clients and students. But now the judges bring up a point where if you go direct to consumer, you are able to hit that affluent demographic where you can charge $50 a month to provide all the services packaged to them. What angle are you trying to tackle and if you have any thoughts? [00:35:45] S2: There has been a recent development we've experienced as well. There is definitely a market pull that we didn't see initially from people who would be considered affluent because initially we built Roam with the idea of helping students save thousands of dollars, making it more of a necessity than a convenience. Of late, we have seen people value the time being saved as something they'd be willing to pay [00:36:16] S5: for. Right. [00:36:18] S2: In that light, we are experimenting with what we could do to create a D2C recurring revenue stream. Perhaps make some sort of subscription based service where students or parents could gain access to some sort of resources that they would benefit from. [00:36:42] S0: Krish, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Before we go into the studio, is there anyone you would like to plug, anybody you would like to reference for your journey to building Roam?
00:36:42 · Leon Li, Krish Bajaj, Michelle Kwok, Michael Nogen
[00:36:42] S0: Krish, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Before we go into the studio, is there anyone you would like to plug, anybody you would like to reference for your journey to building Roam? [00:36:52] S2: Shout out to Adler. Adler is my CTO. Adler is our CTO and my cofounder who's built all the awesome tech and the platform that has been seen by tens of hundreds of thousands of students and has helped plenty of them save thousands of dollars, loads of stress, and tons of time as they start their lives abroad. [00:37:19] S0: Well, Krish, it's been amazing to follow your journey. Can't wait to see what the judges have to say. This has been the On Call Room. My name is Leon. Now back to the studio. [00:37:29] S3: Hi. Welcome back. [00:37:30] S2: Thank you for taking the time to hear me pitch today. We are currently raising a $4,000,000 seed round to capitalize on the value moving through our ecosystem and continue selling our services to universities. [00:37:42] S4: So first of all, great presentation. Really enjoyed hearing more about your own, you know, personal background and and dealing with this, you know, huge problem. And and I think we we talked about before, this is a a massive problem. I guess my first question is you just said you're raising 4,000,000. What's... What are you using the money for?
00:37:42 · Michael Nogen, Krish Bajaj
[00:37:42] S4: So first of all, great presentation. Really enjoyed hearing more about your own, you know, personal background and and dealing with this, you know, huge problem. And and I think we we talked about before, this is a a massive problem. I guess my first question is you just said you're raising 4,000,000. What's... What are you using the money for? [00:38:05] S2: We're using money on three fronts. One is to replicate the distribution capacity we've built in South Asia, now in East Asia, including China, which would then make us one of the largest... Which would then give us access to one of the largest student focused distribution networks in the world. Second to that is we're using it to create a team of x key decision makers at different universities who have longstanding relationships with these institutes to plug ourselves in as a service provider to their ecosystem and enable service offerings through Roam to all the students who attend. Lastly, we'd be using part of the funds to natively offer certain solutions, more so on tuition payments and student housing as these are the two problems we've seen go unsolved amongst every service offering that we've come across as the marketplace. [00:39:04] S4: Gotcha. Well, I think knowing who your customer is and and solving a a real pain point sounds great and and sounds like with the with the raise, you're focusing on the trust, which is... Will be a very important factor. I guess my last question is, what are you looking for aside from, the 4,000,000? What do you need from an investor?
00:39:04 · Michael Nogen, Krish Bajaj
[00:39:04] S4: Gotcha. Well, I think knowing who your customer is and and solving a a real pain point sounds great and and sounds like with the with the raise, you're focusing on the trust, which is... Will be a very important factor. I guess my last question is, what are you looking for aside from, the 4,000,000? What do you need from an investor? [00:39:28] S2: Definitely a synergistic alliance when they have an understanding of how to monetize marketplaces, perhaps see how or guide how marketplaces can integrate into verticals and capitalize on an ecosystem or distribution that exists. And yeah, I would say someone who has experience going from an ecosystem to a native product offering. [00:39:56] S4: So why I'd love to, you know, be helpful. I think this point is probably a little too early. But I love what you're going after. But it's just not the right investment for me right now. [00:40:09] S2: I hear you. Thank you. I appreciate the time.
00:40:09 · Krish Bajaj, Vansh Langer, Michelle Kwok, Leon Li
[00:40:09] S2: I hear you. Thank you. I appreciate the time. [00:40:13] S5: I think based on what you've told me, like there's definitely a business here. And I'd love to see that flourish. I think you're spreading yourself too thin with all the different pathways that you're trying to do this. I don't know the business, so maybe I'm wrong. But from what we've heard, like, you've got two arms. So... And there's 18 ways you're being pulled in this business. So I definitely think you need to tighten that up, figure out exactly what the core competency of your of your company is. Mhmm. And then maybe at that point, there's a business worth invest... That's investable. As of right now, I would have to decline. But I do wish you the best of luck. [00:40:52] S2: Thank you very much. I appreciate that. [00:40:54] S3: Yeah. I'm I'm pretty much in the same boat because, obviously, I resonate with this problem so much, and I really want you to succeed because I'm I'm, like, right there with you. I totally get it. Like, I I I dropped down here, and then I was like, I need to go to Verizon. I need to find a SIM card. Oh, I don't have an SSN. Or... You know? Like, I need to do all these things. I need to figure this out. It is a difficult problem, and it's a clear problem. But I think you need to discover clarity in your revenue streams and clarity in your team before you're able to be venture backable. [00:41:29] S2: Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Best of luck. Thank you so much. Thank you. [00:41:38] S0: That's it from the studio, but don't hang up just yet.