Idea
ApplyBoard: colleges make 3x more from international students
Shaan describes ApplyBoard (now a billion-dollar-plus company) which exploited the insight that colleges make 3x more from international students, signing success-fee deals to deliver applicants from Malaysia and the Philippines.
“This was the company I was— I could have invested in at the seed. It's now a billion-dollar-plus company, um, and it's called ApplyBoard. And what they do is they, they went to the colleges and they basically realized this one insight, which is colleges make 3 times more from international students than domestic students.”
Steal thisFind a buyer with a hidden willingness to pay a success fee, then become the channel that delivers the high-value leads.
Take
Don't wait until you're rich — think of yourself as an investor on day one
Shaan's biggest angel-investing lesson: the excuse 'I don't have capital' is false. If you're resourceful and persuasive enough, you can access other people's capital, so start treating yourself as an investor immediately rather than waiting to be wealthy.
“the number one advice I would give to you is don't wait until you're rich to do it. Because at that point, you know, the financial returns, it will just be a part of a broader portfolio. It's not going to be that exciting. But if you really want to do this, start thinking of yourself as an investor from day one and find ways to access the capital.”
Steal thisDecide you're an investor before you have money, then go source capital from people who want deal flow.
Idea
ApplyBoard: charge colleges $1k-3k per admitted international student
Shaan describes his friend Martin's ApplyBoard, which signs up no-name colleges desperate for applicants to pay $1,000-3,000 per admitted student, then runs lead gen on the huge pool of international students wanting to study in the US.
“they were like, hey, we will pay you $1,000 per admitted student. $3,000 per admitted student. So he was getting 3 grand per admission in contract with all these different schools, and then he just had to do lead gen on the other side for students who want to go to school in America, which is actually a big market of people who are searching for it.”
Steal thisMatch a high-paying buyer (colleges starved for applicants) with an underserved searcher pool (international students) and bridge them with lead gen.