Get To Know: Interstride

What inspired you to found Interstride?

Part of it was a personal drive to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors, which came from family background. No one in my family had a traditional career pathway, they were all entrepreneurs, so I didn’t have role models pushing me to be the VP of Finance or another corporate route.

But the other part of it is that I was forced into the corporate side of things due to immigration regulations. I came to the U.S. for college but I wasn’t allowed to stay in the country and start a company after graduation from undergrad or my MBA. If I wanted to stay here, I had to get a job that would continue my visa.

International students contribute $45 billion to the U.S. economy each year. However, the international student experience today is extremely challenging. From immigration to career placement, there are pain points at every step of the journey.

17 years later I am finally a citizen, but before that I had been on an F-1 student visa, an L-1A Intracompany visa, an H-1B specialty occupations visa - I’ve explored the whole immigration alphabet soup.

After struggling with “big company” life, I started talking with my best friend who I got an MBA with about solving similar immigration challenges for other international students, and gradually it became Interstride.

What were the early points of traction for Interstride?

I moved to SF in 2016 after traveling a bit and started exploring the idea in 2017. I went to my alma mater at Berkeley and began speaking to international students. My cofounder and I had our own personal experiences that validated our concept and the next generation of students were still experiencing the same problems. Now we work with over 100 universities and are on our way to supporting the more than one million international students in the US.

What do you hope to get out of Lighthouse and acceleration?

As MBAs, we relied heavily on our education and we’ve had successful traction to date engaging universities.

The goal of joining a program like Lighthouse Labs is to build out the next phase of the business - building employer relationships and generating new revenue streams which is key for sustainability. We have the universities and the students, now we need the opportunities for them after they graduate.

“No one in my family had a traditional career pathway, they were all entrepreneurs, so I didn’t have role models pushing me to be the VP of Finance or another corporate route.”

— NITIN AGRAWAL FOUNDER

What are the most exciting moments of your entrepreneurial journey thus far?

Every time we launch a new university, we gain the ability to support hundreds more students. We may be early in our journey but we are already adding value to these students - I’ll get messages on LinkedIn from students after webinars who feel so much more hope for their future thanks to Interstride. International students go through so much anxiety during this process and being able to help them makes me motivated to keep doing what I’m doing.

Our 50th university milestone, our 100th, when we signed up Arizona State (an enormous school with a huge international population), and when we got Harvard - all of these milestones have been exciting and the journey continues.

Nitin’s best friend and cofounder - Christian Eder

What have been the most challenging moments of your entrepreneurial journey thus far?

I mentioned that I first talked about the idea with my best friend from. business school, Christian. Before Interstride, we were both working in startups and had heard of so many cofounder stories - of conflict with others. We felt so lucky, our temperament, patience, and vision were all aligned as cofounders.

On Memorial Day weekend in 2019, Christiansuffered a cardiac arrest episode and passed away at 35 years old. It was completely unexpected, he had no prior health problems, he had a family and children. It was the same day his alma mater, University of Southern California, signed up.

At first I was in total shock, for a month at least. But over time his energy helped me through this journey. It can feel like I am raising the business as a single parent after this loss but he has been with me in spirit even if not in person - he is still a huge part of Interstride.

What is your big vision for Interstride?

The bold vision of Interstride is to make international education inclusive for everyone. International students aren’t getting financial aid so, by default, you are attracting based on ability to pay rather than talent.

If you would normally struggle to pay international tuition but there are better post-graduation opportunities, or you are studying data science and you know you will make the money on the backend, or you have a company pay for it in advance - it may make sense to take the risk and come to the U.S. for school.

As a country, we want to continue to attract the best and brightest. Interstride will help us do that.

How can someone support Interstride?

If you are connected to a university or an employer who hires recent college graduates, we’d love to connect with you - you can reach out at interstride.com or contact@interstride.com!