Being an international student is hard. Now, imagine being a high school senior who has never been to the United States and must consider a million questions: What will they ask me during my visa interview? Am I allowed to get an American credit card? Why the hell are phone plans so expensive?
Questions like these follow international students through every stage of their life — college, graduation and even the workforce. They may not always be familiar with American culture or how U.S. financial and legal systems work, and it’s often overwhelming and confusing to have to parse through dozens of websites just to find the best options for them. Technology startup roam believes no student should have to experience the stress that comes with being an international student alone.
Founded by Stern senior Krish Bajaj, CAS alum Ansh Mundra and Cornell University senior Adler Weber, roam is a digital marketplace that compiles the services international students might need for a successful life in the United States. The startup helps individuals navigate pricing plans for every necessity one could think of, including SIM cards, bank accounts, health insurance, scholarships, student visas, work visas and even meal prep. The all-in-one platform makes information about these necessities accessible and digestible, such as outlining the exact steps to fill out a health insurance application and comparing Mint Mobile’s perks to US Mobile’s.
As the U.S. dollar appreciates against most foreign currencies, life in the United States also gets expensive. Roam hopes to save money for international students by partnering with affordable vendors for its services, especially aiding those who come from low or middle-income backgrounds. As an international student from Mumbai, Bajaj knows all too well the costs associated with everyday expenses.
“There are about 1.1 million international students studying in the U.S. and approximately 40 to 45% of them take out some form of student loans,” Bajaj said. “These loans all have very high interest rates. Net, you’re about 15% for every dollar you spend, which is absolutely crazy. Some people are privileged enough to come here and be able to pay $50 a year for a phone plan, but for others, it hurts, and they can’t afford it. These are the people we’re primarily solving for.”
Aside from the marketplace, the startup’s most valuable tool is an artificial intelligence-powered F-1 visa interview coach named Sonia, tested by over 5,000 users in its first launch over the summer. As incoming international students whose first language is not English sometimes spend hundreds on consultants to prepare such interviews, roam’s technical team has trained Sonia to accurately simulate a visa officer so that students can exercise unlimited practice for free.
Before joining roam as chief growth officer in June 2024, Mundra had freshly graduated from NYU and was an emerging content creator who shared insights on the stock market, self-care and life as an international student from Dubai. One day, he posted an Instagram story about how he believed the international student market was ready for disruption, which caught Bajaj’s attention.
“He saw that story, he swiped up on it — I didn’t know who he was,” Mundra said. “He didn’t know who I was, but he still said, ‘let’s chat. I’m building roam.’ At the time, I was already engaged with other things, other projects of mine, so I wasn’t that interested. But he was just so persistent and eventually he sold me on the vision.”
Bajaj also met and recruited chief technology officer Weber while attending Y Combinator’s Startup School East in Boston — a one-day event that unites founders and investors from all across the country. Weber, who had experience building software for Cornell’s virtual campus tour guide system, was immediately hooked by Bajaj’s vision and handed him a paper copy of his resume.
After just six months, Bajaj, Mundra and Adler now lead a full team, including two software engineers, three interns and a product designer. Roam has seen rapid growth within a short period of time in part due to its viral social media presence consisting of about 26,800 Instagram followers and 2,000 newsletter subscribers.
Roam’s Instagram posts upbeat, casual interviews in the middle of Times Square and Washington Square Park, as well as sit-down explainers by Mundra on topics relevant to international students, including “How to get an H-1B without the lottery” and “Post-completion OPT employment types.”
However, both Bajaj and Mundra heavily emphasize the importance of conversions from social media viewers to website users. Since roam employs multiple vendors for its different services, such as Kimber Health by NYPWG for health insurance and Visible by Verizon for phone plans, the co-founders are laser-focused on generating a steady user base for their vendors and not over-relying on social media growth.
“Followers and views are fine, but at the end of the day, revenue and conversion is what matters when you’re running a business,” Bajaj said.
As an early-stage startup with a main goal of growing its user base, funding and vendor partnerships, one thing will never change in roam’s mission: to listen and serve the real needs of international students. Especially at a time when the future of international students in the United States faces uncertainty, the co-founders aim to become the support system they wish they had when they were starting at NYU.
“That was one of the biggest problems we saw, is that when a student comes here, they have so much to navigate and they often get overwhelmed, because there’s no one source of truth,” Bajaj said. “There’s no voice for them. We want to be that voice.”
Contact Andrea Lui at [email protected].
