Submitted
Financial Inclusion Challenge

RISE-Pocket Counselor

Team Leader
Aakriti Jain
Solution Overview & Team Lead Details
Our Organization
Rise Higher Education Inc
What is the name of your solution?
RISE-Pocket Counselor
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
Rise is a free SaaS-based platform empowered by seasoned counselors offering holistic, data driven and unbiased admission solutions to dream universities worldwide
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?

Lets dig deeper into the problem statement. Statistics show upto 68% of tertiary education applicants opt for private counseling.  Market research for student discovery revealed that 79% of services users have described them as incomplete, misleading, time-consuming, and expensive. Even after spending 200$/Hour for premium counseling and   approx. $10-12000 for Test preparation classes, students and parents put a combined effort of 200-400 hrs in this exhausting exercise of perfect university course selection and admission application. Students have to hop from one service provider to another in search for complete set of services. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that low-income students are often steered toward commission-yielding or less-selective colleges, even if they have the academic qualifications to attend more prestigious institutions.

On the other hand, Universities often discover a mismatch among students expectations and their offerings. Institutional audit reports are now detecting increasing number of incomplete and misaligned applications resulting in unsuccessful attempts. Upto 38% of seats in universities and colleges run unfulfilled each year. Not to forget, millions of $ are spent on marketing of programs in anticipation of reaching out to qualifying applicants as well.

What is your solution?

What if we built a product that bridges this gap between students expectations and counseling services. We are talking about a student-centric platform empowered by seasoned counselors and coaches offering holistic, data driven and unbiased admission solutions to dream universities and colleges worldwide.

 and did I mention that it is Free, students can actually save a fortune and utilize it towards paying for their Education. 

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Value for Students and parents:
Financial benefit: Est Savings: Upto 10,000$
Time Savings: Estimate 100 Hrs.
Unbiased from Human decision making and knowledge.
No dependence or wait for appointment.
Anywhere Anytime counseling
All services under one platform
Comparative Analysis of all University and courses
Savings Money on Application fee and Test Registration
Value for Universities and Colleges:
Access to eligible and polished applicants
Faculty/marketing team addressing to target pool of applicants
Save time and Marketing money
All their database more user friendly and simplified ready for students use.
Value to Counselors/Education Enthusiast:
Remote setup- Resources can leverage their residence to continue helping students
Non-Sales platform letting counselors focus on quality of services
Societal Impact
All students under one platform treated equally. Letting them explore their profile
potential, motivate them to aim high, prepare and polish their profile to maximize their
chances.
Domestic + International- Worldwide
Playing an Honest role in most important decision of their life-Higher Education 

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

Aakriti Jain – Founder & CEO The founder being an awarded pioneer Education Counselor will be utilizing all her decade and a half experience and skills owing to accreditation and certification from PIER, ICEF, IDP and British Council to lead a team of seasoned experienced counselors and continue helping students achieve dream of studying in Top Tier Universities globally.

Kunal Vijan – CTO Technical Co-founder working as UI Architect hailing from 16 years’ experience in web development is all committed to offer data driven solutions facilitating international and domestic admissions.

Advisory Board- CFO, Data Scientist and Angel Investor with 3 exits

We will be hiring team of equally enthusiastic individuals. Majority female Our Founders Team will include: Research Team: 23 + Interns (5) US, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ, Dubai/UAE, India Germany, Asia, Europe ROW Process Expert (5 + Interns) US, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ, Dubai/UAE, India Germany, Asia, Europe ROW College/University Partnership and Engagement Specialist (1+ Intern) Scholarship Database Associate (2) Education Loan Specialist (2) Finance Team (to assist in Offer Acceptance and tuition fee payment) (1) Visa Team (1) Ticketing and currency Exchange (2) Editors (SOP/LOR/Essays) (2) Job Portal (2) Mentor/Buddy Connect Technical Team:9 (1) Dev Ops (1) Architect (1) Testers (4) Developers (1) Designers (1) Project Manager Marketing Team:5 (1) Content writers (2) Social media and Outreach Manager + Interns (1) Video Creator and Editor (1) University and Organization marketing Business Team: 5 (1) Founder/ CEO (1) CTO (1) CFO (Finance and Legal advice) (1) Media and Outreach manager (1) Business Analyst With this we foresee to being and increase employment in US, increase our wonderful female equally or more talented education industry employment, reduce gender biased income disparity, increase education sector reach.


Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
  • Provide new ways to accurately assess credit-worthiness of MSMEs and individuals, including methods that reduce bias against borrowers who have traditionally lacked equitable access to credit
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Charlotte, NC
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
  • United States
What is your solution’s stage of development?
  • Pilot: An organization testing a product, service, or business model with a small number of users
How many people does your solution currently serve?

200

Why are you applying to Solve?

Being in EdTech, Higher Education is a second child. While first K12 is getting all attention and scope.

Now, in order to help more students gets the benefits of quality counseling, we had to digitalize our services. 

I have bootstrapped all stages of the Offline Pilot and startup setup till now we are in product development stage. I am self learning and applying my knowledge to built this impeccable product which beats the one sided revenue motive of counseling businesses. But this counselor needs support, there is an ocean of unexplored obstacles which I am solving one by one but is taking time.

Seeking education enthausiast who are ready to solve the admission complexities once in for all students worldwide. 

Bootstrapping has really tied my hands, and maximum resources are diverted towards exploring and understanding, with SOLVE team's support, I can save time and effort in exploring in all aspects.

In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
  • Business Model (e.g. product-market fit, strategy & development)
  • Financial (e.g. accounting practices, pitching to investors)
  • Human Capital (e.g. sourcing talent, board development)
  • Legal or Regulatory Matters
  • Monitoring & Evaluation (e.g. collecting/using data, measuring impact)
  • Product / Service Distribution (e.g. delivery, logistics, expanding client base)
  • Public Relations (e.g. branding/marketing strategy, social and global media)
  • Technology (e.g. software or hardware, web development/design)
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Aakriti Jain
More About Your Solution
Solution Team:
Aakriti Jain
Aakriti Jain