AMA: Founder & CEO of Passage

​Martin Basiri came to Canada in 2010 as an international student at the University of Waterloo. A few years later, he co-founded ApplyBoard in Waterloo’s Velocity incubator and grew it into one of Canada’s best-known unicorns. ApplyBoard raised more than $500M and helped over one million students from 100+ countries find their way to schools around the world.

​Now he’s building again. Passage is an AI platform that matches students with the programs, scholarships, and funding that fit them, and automates talent assessment and application processing for universities and employers. In August, ETS (the organization behind TOEFL and GRE) named Passage its exclusive strategic AI and technology partner. Through Passage Funding, the company also finances international students and refugees studying healthcare, STEM, and the trades, including Afghan women barred from education under the Taliban.

​The goal: change the lives of 1,000,000 people by 2030.

​We’ll talk about what it took to scale ApplyBoard from a student startup to a global platform, why Martin chose to start over with Passage, and how AI is changing the way students and institutions find each other. We’ll also get into building a second company after a unicorn, raising capital in Canada, and what founders can learn from building in a heavily regulated sector like education.

​This is an open AMA moderated by Joel Hansen, so bring your questions. Whether you’re curious about scaling a company globally, building with AI, or starting again after a big win, we’d love to have you.