The Exchanges

Q And so how do you charge it? Don't tell me what Samsung specific pricing is, but what do you charge brands like Samsung to access your, your student base?

A So, um, the charge is basically, um, cost per application, so it's a result-based cost depending on how precise it is, how targeted it is, and, um, you know, like, what are the actions that, uh, the consumers need to do in order to, uh, to apply. So it kind of ranges roughly between, like, um, dollar 20 to 30 dollars per application, depends on, on various, uh, metrics and so on. And part of that, uh, of that budget goes towards promoting the campaign itself. And part of it goes toward a scholarship that goes to the students. So kind of that, that is split. Um, and we take care of like the whole process of earning the scholarship. Like we have, um, our own kind of five, one, two, three entity that helps make it tax deductible. I mean, when was the last time you heard of a marketing campaign that actually gives you tax benefits?

AI assessment note: “the charge is basically, um, cost per application... dollar 20 to 30 dollars”

Q And what do students pay to use your subscription tools?

A So on the, on the consumer side, on the student side, we basically offer many tools that help them, um, Kind of highlight where the highest chance of winning a scholarship is like, uh, uh, optimizing the application process, adding a bunch of transparency into that. They pay 15 dollars a month, um, for the usage of the overall premium, uh, features. So like things like, uh, they know that like an applicant count, they know exactly how many other people apply to a specific scholarship. So they know to invest the time where they have the highest chance of winning. Uh, we give them a lot more, um, kind of tracking over the application post itself. So they know that the brand on the other side actually reviewed the application and actually, you know, uh, accepted it or who, who is the winner. We make sure they know that there is a winner, right? Like in the scholarship space, there's quite a bit of like scams and lack of transparency and all of that. So we kind of, our premium product takes away all of that. You know exactly what happens. What are your chances? You have predictable, like we make the whole process predictable transplant.

AI assessment note: “They pay 15 dollars a month, um, for the usage”

Q And what do students pay to use your subscription tools?

A So on the, on the consumer side, on the student side, we basically offer many tools that help them, um, Kind of highlight where the highest chance of winning a scholarship is like, uh, uh, optimizing the application process, adding a bunch of transparency into that. They pay 15 dollars a month, um, for the usage of the overall premium, uh, features. So like things like, uh, they know that like an applicant count, they know exactly how many other people apply to a specific scholarship. So they know to invest the time where they have the highest chance of winning. Uh, we give them a lot more, um, kind of tracking over the application post itself. So they know that the brand on the other side actually reviewed the application and actually, you know, uh, accepted it or who, who is the winner. We make sure they know that there is a winner, right? Like in the scholarship space, there's quite a bit of like scams and lack of transparency and all of that. So we kind of, our premium product takes away all of that. You know exactly what happens. What are your chances? You have predictable, like we make the whole process predictable transplant.

AI assessment note: “They pay 15 dollars a month, um, for the usage of the overall premium”

Q And so how do you charge it? Don't tell me what Samsung specific pricing is, but what do you charge brands like Samsung to access your, your student base?

A So, um, the charge is basically, um, cost per application, so it's a result-based cost depending on how precise it is, how targeted it is, and, um, you know, like, what are the actions that, uh, the consumers need to do in order to, uh, to apply. So it kind of ranges roughly between, like, um, dollar 20 to 30 dollars per application, depends on, on various, uh, metrics and so on. And part of that, uh, of that budget goes towards promoting the campaign itself. And part of it goes toward a scholarship that goes to the students. So kind of that, that is split. Um, and we take care of like the whole process of earning the scholarship. Like we have, um, our own kind of five, one, two, three entity that helps make it tax deductible. I mean, when was the last time you heard of a marketing campaign that actually gives you tax benefits?

AI assessment note: “ranges roughly between, like, um, dollar 20 to 30 dollars per application”

Q Okay. Got it. And let me ask you, why do students keep paying you after you help them get the scholarship dollars once you have a massive term problem?

A So, uh, the thing is that, um, the common misconception is that students need scholarships only when they're just applying to college. But the reality is that students actually need scholarships more in the first year of college and the second year than Uh, in high school, because many of the financial aid that they get is only for the first year, and, um, they can use private scholarships to pay for a board for books and other things they need in college as well, and there's no limit to how many scholarships you can earn throughout your whole education. So, um, it's true that the majority of our, um, users today are high school seniors, but, um, Basically, um, many of our users are between the ages of 16 and 26.

AI assessment note: “students actually need scholarships more in the first year of college and the second year”

Q Okay. So you've grown the business from three to six without having to give up equity. What is that? Like, how do you think about a lot of David, a lot of founders like don't think about what their equity is worth. I mean, how do you think about the sort of equity you've been able to save by using venture debt?

A So I want to add that it's Like, the growth from three to six, I mean, while it's quite impressive in and all of itself, what for me personally is even more impressive is that we could, without taking external, like, you know, like equity funding, We were able to launch a completely new product, build new development teams, build a sales team without any, uh, you know, without giving out any equity for funding. And that's a huge win, right? Even if we decide eventually to maybe go, you know, and bring in, uh, VC funding, our value now is so much higher. And I, in a negotiation point, if we decide to go to the VC out at some point, We're not coming from a point of weakness when we say, well, if we don't raise now, we will die. We're not there at all. We come from a point of strength when we say, well, this is what we did with no VC funding. We know we can scale it a lot more. Now, are you as an investor going to bring us value as a strategic investor or like to your connections or your knowledge and so on? Because if it's just capital, we don't need you. And that negotiation is so much more powerful, right? Especially, like, if you look at the last three years, like, I know a lot of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs who lost their companies or, like, who failed or, you know, or had to do a down round because they didn't hit their projections or whatever. We never worried about any of…

AI assessment note: “Even if we decide eventually to maybe go... our value now is so much higher”

Q 20 engineers. And so what are they building? What, what is the most technical thing about this product?

A I mean, first we have two products. So far we've talked only about the student side. We also have a scholarship app, which is the, uh, CRM for brands and organizations to offer scholarships. And, um, our product actually is very tech intensive. I myself, before scholarship power, I was a senior engineer at Google. So I come from engineering and, um, Uh, the whole process of matching and finding the scholarships and leveraging, you know, they will leverage also machine learning and AI to find the ones that you have the highest chance of winning. Uh, and there's many different ways to apply to different scholarships to, uh, you know, to leverage all this huge amount of data that we already have in order to, um, Basically, instead of the student applying to hundreds of different scholarships, we want him to apply to three scholarships a week, but that he has the highest chance of actually earning.

AI assessment note: “matching and finding the scholarships and leveraging, you know, they will leverage also machine learning”

Q That's awesome. Well, no, listen, we're, we're enjoying obviously supporting your growth and love how you're sort of pivoting and growing the business. Um, what do you most, before we wrap up with the famous five here, how do you plan to continue to use sort of AI to help more students earn more sponsor revenue and more brands connect with the right applicants?

A All right. So, um, we're already very good when we need, you know, to do very wide campaigns when like anybody can apply and that's it. Um, the thing is that on those campaigns, when you have, like, 50,000 applicants to a specific scholarship campaign, like, the chance of this, like, the student winning that is, like, one out of 50,000, right? Chances are very small. On the other hand, our engine today is able to kind of target a student down to, like, a specific zip code, right? So anybody can earn a campaign on our platform. Like, you know, we have local dentist offices. We have, like, Uh, a law office in Texas signing a campaign to, you know, bring in students, uh, like, adding a scholarship. Because essentially, um, Gen Z is kind of the level that this, the point where the first decisions are being made. So somebody who chose the lawyer when they're like in, in the first year of college, they're going to stay with him for 30 years. I mean, the value is crazy. And, uh, What we're working constantly, like our constant chase is to improve our algorithms and matching to be as precise as possible. I'd like to pinpoint the, the specifically the audience that you are looking at, knowing when the person is about to go to the, you know, to think of a lawyer and having them apply to a scholarship at that point. Um, so It sounds simple, but it's actually pinpointing that and, and kind…

AI assessment note: “our constant chase is to improve our algorithms and matching to be as precise as possible”

Q 20 engineers. And so what are they building? What, what is the most technical thing about this product?

A I mean, first we have two products. We, so far we've talked only about the student side. We also have a scholarship app, which is the, uh, CRM for brands and organizations to offer scholarships. And, um, our product actually is very fact intensive. I myself, and before scholarship, I was a senior engineer at Google. So I come from engineering and, um, Uh, the whole process of matching and finding the scholarships, uh, leveraging, you know, they will leverage also machine learning and AI to find the ones that you have the highest chance of winning. Uh, and there's many different ways to apply to different scholarships to, uh, you know, to leverage all this huge amount of data that we already have in order to, um, Basically, instead of the student applying to hundreds of different scholarships, we want him to apply to three scholarships a week, but that he has the highest chance of actually earning.

AI assessment note: “matching and finding the scholarships, uh, leveraging, you know, they will leverage also machine learning”