00:06:44 · Michelle Kwok, Krish Bajaj
[00:06:44] S3: So what's the business model? Is it the partners pay you to be on the platform? [00:06:48] S2: So we have three revenue streams. First is affiliate revenue. Partners pay us to be on the platform and we get a cut per student that converts. Second is we trade in commodities like SIM cards and any product on this platform that can be traded, we keep a margin and we move it in bulk. And third, we have subscription revenue coming in from global access, which is the model through which we work with institutions to give them access to the local [00:07:15] S3: So are you a services business right now? [00:07:16] S2: Yes, we're a services business right now. [00:07:18] S3: So what's your strongest revenue stream? And could you share numbers?
00:07:18 · Michelle Kwok, Krish Bajaj
[00:07:18] S3: So what's your strongest revenue stream? And could you share numbers? [00:07:22] S2: We got started with two of these revenue streams just about two months ago. In the trading vertical, we are currently averaging about a $150,000 worth of volume with a blended rate of about 8% monthly. And with the subscription business, we're looking at contracts ranging from about a 50 to $100,000 a year with each institution. And that's recurring revenue. So that is the traction we have in terms of numbers, in terms of revenue that we've been able to put up with these revenue streams. The biggest stream is yet to be unlocked, which is integration, where we start to natively offer the services. So with HSBC, we're working on creating a platform that would be the the lowest cost Forex money movement way for students to pay for housing, for tuition, for anything it is wherever they choose to study. In that case, we keep 50% of all Forex. So that's where it really starts to scale.
00:08:23 · Michael Nogen
[00:08:23] S4: First of all, I think you're you're tackling a a massive pain point that you've lived through. I've actually done it the other way as a American studying abroad, and it's like, okay. How do I do... You know, set up a bank account, do all these things? So I know it's a pain point on both sides of the of the ocean. I guess I'm trying to get a sense of when do you hit people... Like, when does this become top of mind? And is this either... Is it a seasonal business? Because, again, if you talk about, like, people go back to school generally in the fall or spring. For international, it's probably gonna be, like, at least a year or so. It's probably gonna be fall. And then once they've engaged with the platform and they set up a bank account and they have housing and so forth, what gets them... Keeps them back on the on the platform? So it's not a one and done, like a one off. Because I think about, like, CAC. Right? So you're acquiring a a customer, but how do you then continue to have that customer on your platform that just doesn't become almost like a seasonal business?
00:09:28 · Krish Bajaj
[00:09:28] S2: That's a great question, both of them. So to answer your first, yes, if we were only serving one country, it would be a seasonal business. But if you look at the year, the calendar, students leave for The US between June and August. Then UK starts in September going to November. Australia only begins in January, February, March. So given that we're serving students going globally, yes, in technical terms, is seasonal by country, but we have business year round from different parts of the world. So we've created the list of services such that it completely aligns with the student life cycle, wherein at every stage we have value to offer and the service providers we work with are by far guaranteed to be the most affordable, the best offering out there for what it is you come to search. So if I were to just give you a layout of the life cycle including where we first plug in become top of mind, The second you secure your admission, the study abroad counselor who's helped you get to that point, their job is done. Then actually moving to the new country and starting a life, there's no one to help you. That's the gap we found when we personally experienced this. And that's where we plug in. So this distribution network we've created, most of it consists of these study abroad counselors whose service offering ends when the student gets in. Now we've given them a new way to earn more revenue by adding our service offering on top of what they already offer. So that bridges the gap to help the student actually get set up before they leave home. And in terms of life cycle, talk about the essentials, your bank account, SIM card insurance, that's phase one. Phase two is let's say you need a job. We have international only job boards, we have resume tools, we have everything you need to curate your experience to go out there and land an internship. And then talk about loan refinancing. Let's say you get a job, now you can take that 12% interest rate down 9%, we can help you with that. Let's say you're getting off the f one onto an h one b or an alternative visa. We have about eight different visa partners who can help you with these different visa types. So anything you need, we've got you covered.
00:11:46 · Michael Nogen, Krish Bajaj
[00:11:46] S4: So I guess it sounds like probably one of the biggest challenges is the education piece. Right? It's like how do you you get the college counselors or guidance counselors or these, you know, how do people find you? How are you addressing that? Are you doing seminars? And are you outreach to various universities? [00:12:06] S2: Three ways through which students find us. The biggest one is our media presence because we realize that this shared trauma really pierces through everyone and they feel this emotionally. So we've built a big enough social presence where we reach about half a million students a month organically with $0 spent, and that is a huge revenue... Huge lead channel of organic support to bring people to the marketplace. Second to that is the distribution we've amassed in South Asia through which we're able to reach all these study abroad aggregators, whether that be schools, counselors, test prep agencies, lenders, anyone who deals with students before they leave home, we have access to them and we incentivize them to push these services forward to students. So yes, part of it is in person seminars, but it's all done by the person who the students already trust. So we don't have to reestablish that connection. They've already been working with said person for an extended period of time, making that person appear better for helping the student get set up with everything. Meanwhile, we benefit by offering them the platform to do so.
00:13:17 · Michelle Kwok
[00:13:17] S3: So I I am this student. So, like, I had this exact problem. I'm wondering... You you said you've said you've done a lot of different things, and I had this exact problem. I went to different companies for that. And now there's, like, my great mate, which is that job board. There's, like, Lighthouse or Lighthouse Labs that's doing the visa aspect. Like, each of those things that you've mentioned that your company does seems like a different company. So how are you guys the, like, pinnacle of all of these different things that people have built full companies on and how do people know that they can trust you with all of these different things that you really need to have like deep expertise and trust?