🎬 Behind the scenes

• Founders Julian Wells, Grace Murphy, and Jonathan Cook attend the University of Victoria
• Cooking since February 2023 and in Victoria, British Columbia CA
• Currently engaged on 7 projects to secure 2,434 units of new housing

🌍 Problem

TLDR: Life is expensive and there is a serious housing shortage going on in Canada as we speak which is negatively affecting students across the country.

Since 2011, a combination of minimal construction, accelerating population growth, and government policies favoring homeownership has led to the average Canadian home doubling in value.

Where does this leave university students?
Well… sort of like trying to play musical chairs, without any chairs.

“[The] majority of institutions built no new student residence spaces during that 2014-15 to 2021-22 period.”

University students unable to snag dormitory spots or commute from home are thrown into the competitive rental arena. 

Plus, most students face a limited credit history and modest income which often makes renting a tough sell to landlords who are often faced with hundreds of applications for a unit.

🤖 Solution

The Student Housing Initiative bridges the gap between students and decision–makers that impact housing in Canada. 

Their focus lies in aggregating and presenting the student’s experience when it comes to housing, providing a window into their world–or more accurately into their packed, 4 person 1 bedroom apartments.

This is done through…

• Conducting surveys to understand housing needs, decision–making, and perspectives of students. 
• Drafting reports that analyze and share the survey findings with people in the real estate industry, policymakers, and institutions.
• Providing consulting and strategic advisory services to developers and government officials on how to better incorporate the student viewpoint into their projects.

📈 Catalysts

Taking a look at the team and their strengths in this field we see many…

• For Students, By Students: They have a first–hand understanding of housing issues impacting the student demographic
  
• Experience: The team has internship experience and involvement in projects and can speak to relevant industry knowledge
  
• Intentionality: No other organizations are focused on amplifying the student voice and perspective in the way that S.H.I is
  • Others operating in this space tend to have a more investment–focused lens
    
• Network: Julian’s founding of the Real Estate Club at the University of Victoria has markedly amplified the potential for establishing connections with student networks across multiple campuses
  • Also, closely connected with vital stakeholders for impactful change via the club and previous experiences

🛒 Current Market

After doing some digging there is only one other indirect competitor when it comes to the shortage in student housing specifically.

• UTILE (specializes in student housing throughout Quebec)

There seems to be a gap in the market of organizations that are focused on solving this problem specifically related to students. 

The Student Housing Initiative can enter this gap by providing first–hand insights to key players in the game of making this solution a reality.

🚀 Path Moving Forward

Looking into 2024 the Student Housing Initiative has its eyes set on…

1. Expanding survey impact across Canada 
2. Creating more relationships with industry leaders
3. Potentially developing a student housing marketplace 

💡Studentpreneur Insights

A word from our founder:

“The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is to be creative, be unique, and stand out. Don’t always do the same thing as your peers. When you’re just getting started, don’t worry about making money right away. Prioritize building meaningful relationships and being the dumbest person in the room.If you have a vision for an entrepreneurial project, don’t wait for long… just start building. That’s the hardest part, but if you just start doing it, it only gets easier from there.” – Julian Wells

🎬 Behind the scenes

• Founders Abdullah Khan | Lin Hlaing are Working with a team of 9 
• Launched in Q4 of 2023 with the co-founders located in Canada and New York
• Servicing 125+ users in less than 3 months of operation

🌍 Problem

Bulk email outreach can fall short in effectiveness, and the task of personalizing each message can be exceedingly time-consuming.

🤖 Solution

Grafo is an AI-driven platform that reduces the time you spend on scaling your personalized outreach efforts. 

They combined the latest AI technology with their own proprietary software to provide customers the ability to seamlessly personalize their outreach efforts.

This tool is something that statistically improves the efficacy of cold outreach for anyone by 3.5x; from individuals seeking employment to large corporations running global marketing campaigns. 

🚀 Catalysts 

Taking a look at what’s cooking for this company…

Cold email outreach isn’t going away anytime soon 

• 80% of buyers prefer to be contacted by email
• 1.5x more people use email over social media platforms
•  37% of brands are increasing their email budget 

Key Features of Grafo

• Bulk Imports: Grafo provides you the ability to manage high-volume campaigns by simply uploading a CSV file
• Customization: Being able to tailor the tone, length, and style of messages gives a personalized approach for both the recipient’s and sender’s brand
• Rollover: Their business plan users benefit from the flexibility of unused credit rollover, ensuring they receive full value

🛒 Market

Looking at the market today we find alternatives including…
**(monthly subscription price)

• Smartwriter ($50 – $350) 
• Lyne (free plan or $120) 
• Warmer ($59 – $279)

GrafoAI (Free plan or $33 – $99)

Risk: Google and Yahoo’s new policy (starting in Feb 2024) may alter cold emailing strategies which could lead to a decrease in companies budget for this approach.

📈 Path Moving Forward

Taking a look ahead there focus lies on two main objectives:

1. More Plugins: Incorporating more opportunities for their software to gather data on individual prospects is key for realistic personalized emails; being able to incorporate apps like LinkedIn will improve the quality of messages even more.
   
2. Boosting Processing Speed: AI is pretty quick for individual tasks, but prompting personalized messages for up to 300 email addresses takes much longer—the team is working hard to make this quicker and more efficient.

💡 College Entrepreneur Insight

A word from this week’s founder

Starting a company in college is challenging with the balance of school, work, and career opportunities.

However, it does offer a degree of freedom allowing you to experiment with less at stake and have a compelling reason to reach out to industry experts.

🎬 Behind the Scenes

• Founder Katie Calderon is taking charge with a few interns & mentors with along with an advisory board of ~5 industry leaders 
• Launched in Houston TX in September of 2022 
• Has around a half a million followers over multiple social media accounts
• 5+ years of industry experience including multiple internships with Calloway 
• Recieved funding through various pitch competitions and grants

🌍 Problem

TLDR: Gender-based golf club design mismatches user needs in the sales process 

When it comes to producing womens clubs, big brands typically went with the “shrink it and pink it” strategy which is not sutiable for most players due to various factors that make womens golf swings different from mens.

Remember when your ex insisted, ‘I’m not like other girls’? Well, that may be debatable — but in the world of golf clubs that is pretty accurate — one club design doesn’t fit all and that’s where large manufactures have fallen short. 

Some argue that there shouldn’t even be a distinction between mens and womens clubs since some women are better off playing mens clubs and vice versa. 

Overall, labeling the clubs male or female doesn’t change the difference between a particular flex and weight that is optimal for someone’s swing.

🏌️‍♀️ Solution

That’s where Club Girl Golf comes into the scene, or should I say course.

Katie has been designing putters for the last few years while documenting her story on Tik Tok and Instagram which lead to a very sizable audience. 

Her company is planning on starting off with a putter that incorporates proprietary technology and manufacturing processes, over the next few years.

Currently, there is a patent pending on her club design which means the specifics of the club itself have to stay on the low. (will be giving an update to this as soon as it can be acknowledged publicly)

📈 Catalysts for Club Girl Golf

Some of key drivers in Club Girl Golf revolve around Katies engineering background and experience working at Calloway with club design, the personal brand she has leveraged for marketing, and the overall trends in womens golf…

• Since 2019, the number of female golfers have increased by 800k, a 14% jump
• There has been a rise of 900k junior golfers over the past 3 years

Overlall, Katie has a lot of things going for her especially through college and social media, many professionals and experts in the industry have reached out to help.

🚧 The Road Ahead

The golf club production industry is quite different than most due to the higher barrier to entry in the manufacturing process.

In total, there are ~50 different golf club manufacturers, four of them being bigger than most…

• Calloway (Innovative, diverse range, ideal for beginners, intermediates)
• Titliest (Superior craftsmanship, precision, for experienced golfers)
• Ping (Ergonomic, customizable, comfort-focused design)
• Taylormade (Leading in driver innovation, advanced technology)

There are other independent manufacturers that are better known for their focus on womens clubs, these include…

• Cobra 
• Adams Golf 
• Tour Edge 
• Wilson  

Regardless, Katies advantage lies in her first hand experience designing golf clubs and time playing golf, along with her personal brand on Tik Tok and Instagram which will come in handy once her clubs hit the market 

📈 Path Moving Forward

Club Girl Golf is still in the R&D stage of things with local players testing out her clubs. With this phase of testing almost complete, Katie is ramping up for national, possibly global, testing period before their desired launch in November of 2024.

Starting with putters was the best move for her as it is the only club that players use on every hole and on average accounts for 40% of a golfer’s game. From there, plans are being thought up about releasing a full set of clubs over the next few years  

💡Studentpreneuer Insights

“Engineering has helped make me a better golfer, and golfing has made me a better engineer.” – Katie Calderon

As a student, you have access to a wealth of resources. These include University offered programs, mentorship, and funding opportunities.

📸 In The Media 

• LinkedIn – 1.8k 
• Instagram – 120k 
• TikTok – 335.7k
• Amazon Page
• YouTube
• Merch
• Podcast Feature

🎬 Behind the scenes

• Team of five female electrical engineering founders
  • Lauren Fegan | Emma Stephenson | Kathryn Morrison | Caitlin Mone | Zara Wilson
• Feminatech started in September of 2022 in a course at the Queens University of Belfast
• In talks with multiple healthcare institutions who are interested in supporting the team with trials in the future. 
• Secured financial backing from four respected pitch competitions
• Still looking for ~4 thousand dollars to finalize their product

🌍 Problem

13 million women in the UK are experiencing menopause right now, with many being left to deal with the emotional and physical symptoms on their own. This can be attributed to a historical lack of research on women’s health concerns and women being underrepresented in the clinical research process.

Pair that with the available solutions lacking efficiency and are requiring women to manually input their symptoms.

1 in 10 women exit the workforce early due to menopause symptoms.

✅ Solution

That’s where Feminatech steps in with their software application M-Power.

M-Power combines the concepts of a physical tracker and a menopause app, going beyond just symptom tracking by integrating with users’ existing wearable fitness devices to provide more accurate interpretations of symptoms

Key Features

• Wearable Tech Integration: Tracking heart rate, temperature, and sleep by syncing with users’ fitness devices
• Symptom and Lifestyle Tracking: Allows users to input additional symptoms and lifestyle changes, like diet and exercise
• Personalized Advice Algorithm: Analyzes data to offer targeted suggestions for managing and alleviating menopause symptoms
• Community and Education Features: Includes a chat function for user support and an information hub with symptom insights
• Enhanced Healthcare Triage: Provides users with detailed health profiles for more effective doctor consultations

📈 Catalysts for Feminatech

Overall, the Femtech sector is a growing market that is set to be worth USD 20.59 billion by 2030…

• Growing Market: The Global market for menopausal products is set to grow at a 5.37% CAGR from 2024 to 2030, driven by an aging population
• Valuable LTV: A rough calculation gives ~$1,500/user assuming they stick around for the average length of Menopause – (10.5 years)
• B2B Relationships: Feminatech is in talks with multiple possible partners…
• Confidence in GTM Strategy: Research done by this group through their university gives this team a solid target customer base of over 22,000 in the next 2 years
• Innovative Software: Their M-Pal algorithm finds the relationship between wearables data, the tracked symptoms, and lifestyle changes. to provide a proprietary approach to alleviating symptoms

🚧 The Road Ahead

While menopause tracking apps are not a brand new concept, only one other company is utilizing wearable fitness technology in their approach…

• Midday (The only other firm using wearable tech for symptom relief)
• Health and Her (Menopause symptom tracking w/ research articles)
• Balance (Resource aggregator & educator w/ a mobile app)

Feminatech stands out in a market where most competitors are focused on manual tracking of symptoms.

By integrating health wearables with clinical research on menopause, they have developed a unique solution that is currently only matched by a new company in this industry.

📈 Path Moving Forward

At the moment, Feminatech is working with software engineers to design their app. The first stage of development will continue for 6-9 months.

The aim after this is to run trials to further improve its product market fit for the application. 

Feminatech’s post-launch strategy involves boosting direct-to-consumer sales with targeted advertising and offering its app to businesses. This revenue generation will allow further expansion into the Android market and eventually entry into the U.S. market through its established business relationships.

💡College Entrepreneur Insight

When chatting with the team about their experience as student entrepreneurs, a recurring theme was unearthed: the mentorship and funding opportunities provided by their school helped get Feminatech off the launchpad last year.

📸 Milestone Montage

• Queens University of Belfast (2023)
• Catalyst (2023)
• BelTech Award with Techstart (2022)

🎬 Behind The Scenes

• Founders Isuka and Ryan are leading the way with a team of 13
• ATAR Saver started in 2022 and has helped 50+ students achieve their testing goals
• Faculty of ATAR Saver are academic weapons all with rankings in the top 10 percentile in Queensland
• Not seeking funding due to their type of business

🌍 Problem

To better understand what this company does and why it’s important, It’s best to untangle our understanding of the ATAR ranking system. And no, it has nothing to do with video games.

ATAR 101

The ATAR, similar to the ACT and SAT in the states, is a percentile-based ranking system that is used in college admissions for students in Australia. It is usually based off of a student’s highest-scoring subject during their senior year in high school.

Problem

Students in Australia can struggle with getting their ideal score; With some parents even starting to prep their kids as early as second grade. 

This rank can make or break futures for students. So, parents are more willing to spend an extra buck or two to help seal the deal on helping their kid get into a desired program.

✅ ATAR’s Solution

As I said earlier, ATAR Saver is not hardware for your ATARI. Instead, it’s a tutoring program for students who hope to boost their odds of getting into their dream school during their final years of high school.

Their offerings…

1. Online accessible tutoring
   • Users choice between 11 different tutors at prices ranging from $45-$70/hr and between private or group sessions
2. Assignment editing 
   • Assignments are ~2,000-words in length and their assignment editor allows students to get feedback quickly
3. Extra resources
   • Discord community 
   • Customized assignment trackers/practice problems 
   • YouTube Channel

🚧 The Road Ahead

I think we all know this service is a great idea, and that’s the thing: A lot of people know it. Looking at the competition, there are a ton of alternatives that offer similar services…

• KIS Academics (Individual/group sessions, score forecasting, discounts for friends)
• ATAR Advantage (Tailored sessions, in-home tutoring, resource packs, flexible pricing)
• Clueylearning (33,000 users, exclusively online, for grades 2-12 with flexible pricing)

Given the crowded market, this company is prioritizing quality customer service while providing an alternative to the larger tutoring programs.

📈 Catalysts for ATAR Saver

Even though ATAR Saver doesn’t have an IPO on their horizon, they are still uniquely positioned to carve out a place in their niche. Several key areas contribute to their approach…

Relatable Staff

Many competitors fall short in having tutors who have, themselves, recently navigated the ATAR testing process with outstanding outcomes.

 With that being said, their tutors are only a few years older than the learners giving them the ability to provide more applicable and relatable advice for a better overall experience.

Quality > Quantity 

ATAR Saver is working with a smaller number of students. This gives them the advantage of closer quality control for their user experience. This is something that competitors often forget about when dealing with thousands of tutors and learners.

🔮 Path Moving Forward

Big things are coming ATAR Savers’ way in 2024.

There are plans of creating online courses that students can follow which will be priced out on a monthly basis. 

This is paired with a large question bank that students can access 24/7 to refine their answering abilities. 

Lastly, they are aiming to help financially constrained students through free tutoring initiatives, raffles, and partnerships with local charities, broadening their service accessibility.

💡College Entrepreneur Insight

During my talk with Isuka, he mentioned two main takeaways from his experience running ATAR Saver… 

Uniqueness and Innovation:Ordinary strategies lead to ordinary results. 

Whether it’s to receive the highest ranking or achieve something great, Isuka stressed that doing unique things is key for outlier results. 

Diversify and Deliberate:Variety unlocks potential

Doing things differently also applies to how many things you do. Whether it’s to receive the highest ATAR score or find your dream career, trying a bunch of different things is key to discovering your talents and interests.