Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ghai: Nectar usage increased class grade averages by a full letter
“Every single class that used Nectar Was able to increase the class average by a full letter grade.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ghai: Nectar generated a $35M sales pipeline in just 8 months
“Eight months ago, we launched Nectar to the World, and since then, I, as our one-woman sales and marketing team, have built a thirty-five million dollar pipeline, and we've already closed five campus-wide contracts from that, and now we're here to raise our th…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ghai: Nectar organically signs up 6,500 new UCSB students annually
“For the last three years that we've been on that campus, we get all 6500 new students to sign up with no marketing whatsoever.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Ghai: Nectar will reach $2M ARR by Q4 2025 worst case
“Based on our projections, that thirty-five million dollar pipeline, worst case scenario, gets us to two million ARR by Q-four of twenty-twenty-five.”
Insight
Ghai: Neurodivergent minds create the perfect storm for founding a company
“I think that it is the perfect storm to be able to start your own company, because our brains are built to do what has never been done before, to think in a way that no one has ever thought before. It is a perfect opportunity to utilize those skills to create …”
Assertion Partly supported
Ghai: Stanford and Harvey Mudd use Nectar with their own custom LLMs
“So schools like Stanford, Harvey Mudd, they're actually using this with their own LLM.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Ghai: Slack penetrated only 6% of higher ed institutions pre-COVID
“Slack before COVID had six percent of higher ed institutions using them. That number has not increased much after COVID.”
Disclosure
Ghai: Nectar rejected a $15M pre-seed valuation to prevent down rounds
“On the last pre-seed round, we got offered three million at 15, and we turned it down because we said it's twenty-twenty-one and This is crazy, the valuations people are getting, and I don't want to set myself up for a down round. So we said no, and we took th…”
Assertion Supported
Ghai: Long Journey and Banister led Nectar's seed round with $1M
“Long Journey Ventures and Cyan, she's putting in her own personal check as well. They are going to be leading the round at a million dollars.”
Insight
Ghai: Founders shouldn't shortchange their own valuation if investors don't demand it
“That was a very good life moment of don't cut your own legs off if you don't need to. If nobody is selling you short, don't be the one to short yourself.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ghai: Nectar fully subscribed its $3M seed round following The Pitch
“With all of the checks that we got from the pitch and from our previous follow on, without even those now 13 funds that we have interested, we are fully subscribed at three million.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ghai: Nectar raised $1.4M directly from investors on The Pitch
“We are at 1.4 million just from the pitch.”
Assertion Open · timeframe Apr 2024
Ghai: UCSB deployed Nectar to 26,000 students for $60,000 annually
“A year later, we got all 26,000 students at UCSB using Nectar in almost every single class, with the instructors being the champion of it. And we got UCSB to pay us 60,000 dollars a year for it, so we got our tuition back.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ghai: 79% of Nectar usage comes via its LMS iframe integration
“So what we've built, essentially Slack for schools, it sits actually housed inside of the LMS, and we see 79% of our usage come directly through that.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ghai: Nectar achieved a 34% reply rate on first cold outreach
“The way that we were able to get a 34% reply rate, 17% meeting booked rate on our first cold outreach ever was we decided to go the hyper-personalized route.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ghai: Nectar conducted 1,000 user interviews prior to building its AI assistant
“So before we even built Soma, we did a thousand user interviews with faculty, staff, admin, and students, anyone who would take our call.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ghai: Nectar generates $80,000 in revenue across five university contracts
“Nectar is a dollar per student per month, so 12 dollars per student per year. So we're at 80 K in revenue, and that is four contracts that are under 20 K, and then UCSB's at 60 K.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ghai: Nectar raised a $2.25M pre-seed at an $8M post-money valuation
“Our pre-seed round, we did two and a quarter and an eight post”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Ghai: UCSB signed a 10-year contract with early-stage startup Nectar
“Yeah, UCSB is on a 10 year contract right now.”
