On November 17, 2021, seven finalists will compete for $22,500 in awards in the Fall 2021 Skandalaris Venture Competition. In anticipation of the SVC finals, we are publishing a Q&A series with the finalists. Today’s featured team is Oystar.
Oystar creates access and opportunity for students all over the world seeking higher education in the United States. They create individualized matches for students to universities, taking the guesswork out of searching for not only colleges in the United States, but colleges that are best suited for each student. They do this by assessing a number of input data points from each individual student then, using their unique matching algorithm, they identify and deliver a handful of best fit universities, upon which the student can learn more.
Through one of our founder’s journey in looking for universities in the US, he realized that there was a problem and inefficiency in the recruitment of international students. What that meant was that talented students were losing out on opportunities only because they didn’t know they existed. It also meant that colleges had no idea that this talent existed. Seeing this, a few MBA students put their minds and experiences together to solve it. Oystar was born.
The Oystar Team includes:
Lungile Tshuma (MBA ’21), Kevin Ko (MBA ’21), Tim Brandt (MBA ’21), and Abhinav Gabbeta (MBA ’20)
What problem are you solving?
(From Lungile Tshuma) Because of our CEO and Co-founder’s confusing and frustrating experience to find universities outside of his home country, we found a big problem. Current recruitment strategies are not optimized, inhibiting university admission teams from effectively tapping into the global candidate pool, limiting the diversity and revenue potential. Oystar is two-sided platform that you can think of as a LinkedIn for Higher Ed, granting transparent access to both universities & students.
What do the next 3-6 months look like for you?
We are on the verge of releasing our student side of the platform in the African continent. Our goal is to acquire a user base of 1,000 students in 3 months using the partnerships we have developed during our discovery process. At the start of 2022, we are going to begin building the college side of our platform alongside college partners that we have been talking to. We are also going to increase our marketing and sales footprint to acquire more students and universities.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned since starting your venture?
When you are building a solution, make sure to check in with who you are building it for. That is why customer discovery is crucial. It is for them, not for you.
What do you love about being an entrepreneur?
The thrill of building something from scratch that will alleviate someone’s pain point. The process itself is not paved, there is no checklist for it, and it is truly yours to manage. So when you deliver something that the customer uses, that whole uncertain process is validated.
What words of advice do you have for those starting a business?
Do it. There is so much you can learn from the experience that goes beyond whether the idea works or not.
What activities, student groups, professors, or classes had the biggest impact on you during your time at WashU?
The groups I participated in was in or kept close to were EVCA, Olin Africa and SLII. The Professors that made the biggest impact on me during my time at WashU were Prof. John Horn, Doug Villhard, and Peter Boumgarden.
Website: https://oystar.world/