ASOSHI - connecting high school students with similar ambitions

ASOSHI is a digital platform for connecting high school students with similar ambitions.

To get started, users will log onto the swiping page, our main feature, which allows them to swipe through different user profiles. These profiles will consist of more than just a name, age and nationality: they provide users with insight on other people’s interests, accomplishments and aspirations. Users also have the option to interact with their potential project partners so that they can get to know each other on a more personal level. “We have too good of a team to not make something out of it. Doesn’t even matter about the product, it’s the team that makes this company work!” - Leo Dong

We created ASOSHI because we all have had our fair share in struggling to find the right person to start an initiative with. For example, the person could have the right attributes, but live too far away; they could have a great personality, but not the exact skills you currently are in need of. Not only that, but finding the right person takes a lot of time. So, we wanted to find a way to save everyone from these troubles. Lo and behold: ASOSHI.

To develop our idea even more, our group interviewed over 30 high school students from mainly Vancouver and the Bay Area. We asked them questions such as “What's the hardest part about reaching out to potential project partners? What do you do now to deal with it?” and “How does the idea of starting a project make you feel?”. For the proof of concept, our group created a Google Form which consisted of profile making questions such as “what skills do you have?” and “what are your biggest weaknesses”. We then gave this form to high school students to fill out. During our beta testing, our group formed a manual service where we users would pay $4 to fill out a profile-making Google Form and be paired with a project partner. In less than a week, we had over 15 paying customers with a discord community of over 70 active users. The feedback after the paying users were paired was overwhelming! Almost all of them were satisfied with the new friend they had made. Now, the venture is also in talks with multiple investors about partnerships and investments up to $2,000

Our revenue model is based on a freemium upsell where users can have up to 15 free daily swipes. For $3.99, users will have unlimited swipes and reverse swipes. However, there will be many features in the coming months! One of them being an explore page where all users can view opportunities using filters, post about their initiatives and much more. To learn more about ASOSHI check out our demo day video here!Through the five week, and counting, we have grown immensely as an individual and as a team! We would like share some of our biggest takeaways and advice: Team Members: Julia Choi, Leo Dong, Johnny Ni, Jasmine Ren, Kevin Zhang

1. “Having that good team chemistry from the start is key to a successful startup. Startups are hard work, but make sure to take time to have a fun team bonding session!” - Jasmine Ren
2. “Never give up! Every second is your chance to shine, why waste it?” - Leo Dong
3. “Be flexible” - Johnny Ni
4. “There’s nothing more to say than to step up and take initiative” - Julia Choi
5. ““Failure is just one chapter of the success story” - Kevin Zhang