Number
Universities paid ApplyBoard $5K–$10K per international student admitted
ApplyBoard helped foreign students apply to US universities, which charge international students roughly 3x in-state tuition. Founder Martin Basiri got schools to pay a $5,000–$10,000 affiliate bounty for every student they admitted through the platform.
$10K
University bounty paid to ApplyBoard per admitted international student (upper end) · USD/student
“There's a reason they love international students is because they charge them 3 times the price to go to school and this to the same school, get the same education. So if you're a state school, you'll obviously charge less for in-state tuition, out-of-state tuition. And then there's a third tier called international tuition. That's crazy. 3 times higher. And so he went to the schools and he got the schools to say, yeah, I'll pay you $5,000 or $10,000 per student that we admit, like as a, as an affiliate fee, as a bounty.”
Steal thisFind the buyer who overcharges a captive customer segment and get paid by them to deliver more of those customers.
Story
Shaan's cold feet cost him a first check into ApplyBoard
At 24–25, Shaan verbally committed $25K (basically his whole annual savings) to ApplyBoard after a 13-year-old 'scout' emailed him the deal. He got cold feet, never followed up, and missed what became a multi-billion-dollar company at a roughly $5–10M valuation.
“Well, guess what? A day later, your boy's got cold feet. I'm like, oh man, that was a lot. I shouldn't have said that. I felt stupid coming down. I was like, you know what? Do I go back to him and say $5,000, $10,000? That felt stupid. And you know what I did? I didn't back out, but I just didn't say anything. And like, I didn't follow up and he didn't really follow up. And some time went by and then I got unavailable. And anyways, I missed out on this deal. Applyboard today, I think it does over like $1 billion a year in revenue or something crazy.”
Framework
Option Drop: grant stock options on the spot for the behavior you want
Martin Basiri, who works 8:30am to midnight, gets his team to stay late and go above and beyond by announcing an 'option drop' — instantly granting 20,000–50,000 share options to whoever does something great, or to everyone still in the office at 10pm. Shaan notes immediate, specific, concrete rewards reinforce behavior far better than values on a wall.
“He goes, option drop. I said, what? And, and he is like, option drop. I said, what's an option drop? He goes, at any time in my company, if anybody does something awesome, I just say option drop, 50,000 options. I just give them share options in the company on the spot. Like if somebody has a great idea, they go above and beyond for a customer, they solve a problem in the meeting right there. Option drop.”
Steal thisWhen someone solves a big problem or goes above and beyond, reward them with equity immediately and publicly, then have it papered afterward.