Throughout the next couple of weeks, we will be highlighting winners of the Discovery Stage of the E-cup competition who took a Social Entrepreneurship angle to their ventures. The Discovery Stage is the second stage of the competition, where finalists percent how their product/service aligns with customer needs and “de-risk” their idea. We are proud to have changemaker classmates among us and want to celebrate their efforts as they continue forward to build their businesses with newly-acquired funding. Read on below to get to know College Contact, a college advising tool for high school students across the globe!

Who is on the team?

• Sophie Smith, CEO & Founder, McIntire School of Commerce 4th year, studying Marketing and Information Technology with a track in Business Analytics and a minor in Innovation Entrepreneurship (hometown = Jupiter, Florida) 
• Leah Guesman, Chief Operating Officer, McIntire School of Commerce 4th year, studying Economics and Marketing (hometown = Los Altos, CA)

What is the problem you are trying to solve?

The dream of a collegiate education in the 21st century is becoming more of a reality for Americans across the country. In 2020, 37.7% of the American population was recorded to have earned an undergraduate degree, a huge jump from 7.7% recorded in 1960. While this is positive news, the skewed nature of college admissions has changed at a much slower rate in comparison to national graduation rates. This is due to systematic resource inequalities for admissions guidance.

Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon for the public. Recent documentaries like “The College Admissions Scandal” on Netflix and debates about policies like Affirmative Action have highlighted the tremendous shortcomings of these competitive admissions processes. The result of the system is clear: wealthy children have an easier access to assistance for college admissions, aka. they have a better chance at success. With access to that knowledge about the ins-and-outs of college admissions, students are more likely to succeed in landing a seat at their optimal university. This has been a “tale-as-old-as-time” for students at elite boarding schools, or private high-schools where access to veteran college counselors is the norm. But for 75% of applicants each year who are underserved, have limited resources for expensive counselors, and are unaware of college admissions deadlines/processes- how can they compete with the former student?

The college advisory market is enormous, yet incredibly consolidated to accommodate wealthy families and their children. The vast majority of the industry lies in the private consulting sector, which in 2018 was estimated to reach $1.9 Billion in total revenue. A large part of this success is in the low-frequency, high-price service model that these businesses employ. They charge ridiculously high rates for “college advising packages” that compel the wealthy to purchase an all-encompassing “insurance” option for their children. As a tangible example, the current going rate in the market ranges between $250/hour - <$30,000 for an all-inclusive package. This does not even include SAT/ACT preparation. For students of low-income or first-generation backgrounds, these fees are nowhere near realistic.

What is your solution?

College Contact has been widely successful due to three unique value-adds that we bring to the market: everyone we onboard onto the platform is a current undergraduate or graduate student, we charge at 25% of the going market rate, and we offer fully-remote and accessible meetings via Zoom. We also personally match high schoolers with college students based on their interests, demographics and preferences. 

Although our solution may not seem novel at first, it is important to understand why these factors are driving so much demand from our target market. 

The fact that all of our counselors are current undergraduates at their dream universities is extremely compelling to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. They get hands-on real advice from students who just went through the admissions process. They have the ability to ask honest questions and receive transparent feedback about college campuses in the present moment. Most significantly, they are able to form relationships (and even friendships) with their mentors, who often mentor them beyond their acceptance letters. 

Second, our price point is something that they and their families can afford to pay. For an essay review, students can receive feedback for just $35. For a one-on-one meeting, our pricing ranges from $25-$75 depending on the length of the session. The majority of our clients are paying for these meetings themselves through minimum-wage jobs they have in-high school. 

Third, our services, essay editing and one-on-one meetings, are all fully-remote via Zoom and Google Docs. This does two things for our business model: we can assist clients from anywhere at anytime (we have lots of clients overseas!), and we don’t have expensive fixed costs like an office space. 

What is the progress you have made so far? 

Honestly, when I first founded College Contact it started out as an accident. I had posted a TikTok video for an internship I was working on for another EdTech startup, and immediately gained a lot of requests for additional college advising help. After experimenting with the TikTok algorithm and posting a few more pilot marketing videos, I had over 1,000 Google Form client requests. Over the past few years, that number grew to almost 3,000 students on a waitlist for our help. 

Currently, I have built a following of over 60,000 followers on TikTok, and our videos have been seen by over 10.1 million people around the world. I have built out an independent contractor team of 16 college students from around the country, but we have a waitlist of over 50 students who want to work with us as counselors. 

From a client perspective, we have helped over 1,000 students find an acceptance at their dream universities. Many of these students are now at Harvard, Brown, UVA, UCLA and local community colleges, honestly wherever we helped them find their best fit. 

Beyond these mini successes, I have developed out an extensive training course for our consultants, built out a team of high school interns who work with us, and gathered commitments from strategic advisors and experts to be on our board. Some of these advisors include Jerome Kern (Founder of OrangeTheory), Chip Ransler (Professor of Entrepreneurship at McIntire), Meg Pryde (Founder of Brandefy), and many others. 

We were also recently accepted into Darden’s iLab Accelerator program which was a huge step for the company. 

What are you planning on doing with your winnings and what next steps will you take?

We are working on scale and are scaling fast. Our biggest hurdle is developing out the platform and reworking a lot of our internal processes to be more automated and efficient using AI and machine learning technology. This will help me down the road with putting out “smaller fires” so that I can continue working on product development, marketing efforts, and partnership outreach. We will use some of the funding to hire a few software developers to help us build out our internal capabilities, but also pay for premium services from our no-code tool providers like Teachable (where our training course is). 

I am also thrilled that I can now afford implementing an automated payroll system, since I am still doing payroll and our accounting systems manually!  

The key to our businesses success lies in our scale. Traditionally, each consultant works with around 30-50 students on average each year. If I can operate our systems more effectively and develop out a more robust training program, I will be able to start taking potential counselors off the waitlist and tap into the market demand that is bursting at the seams. 

What were the main challenges and successes you encountered during your process and what have you learned?

Being a student founder comes with an incredible amount of time-management skills. I have had challenges with learning how to manage school work and my venture whilst also prioritizing my friends and other commitments on grounds. However, the work has been more than worth it. 

The greatest part about founding and leading College Contact is the impact I have already made on the UVA community and the broader college advising community at large. My company is a triple-win for all of my stakeholders, which makes it something more than worthwhile. For my clients, the win is a chance at acceptance into their dream universities, something which 5/6 of our students actualize after working with us. They are able to work with students their age, build friendships, and feel confident about their applications and their decision to pursue higher education. Many of our clients are even at UVA right now, a dream they never thought would achieve. 

Second, it is a win for my independent contractors. I am sure you remember your own college days of being “college broke” or maybe even having to bag groceries or bartend for side money to pay for books or ramen dinners. I am so grateful that I am able to provide my peers with part-time jobs at a rate of $35/hour, so that they can work on something they are passionate about while making side money. 

Third, it has been an enormous win for me. Not only have I made revenue to help my family with tuition, but I have complimented my McIntire education with a “real-life business textbook.” Being a founder has taught me how to manage, hire, support, and work with stakeholders across the board.