I Decided to Organize the Chaos of Crossing Borders, This is Why

Let me start with a story.

When I was six years old, I got scolded in front of my entire class. My crime? "Helping" collect donation money.

In Grade 1, our school had a small donation campaign. A senior student was supposed to come collect money from our class. She walked in, looked at us like we were a room full of tiny, financially irresponsible humans, and clearly did not want to go bench to bench picking up cash.

She asked, "Can anyone do it?"

Inside my head, something jumped. I didn't think. I just stood up.

"I will do it. I want to do it."

I went around the class, collected all the donations, wrote down everyone's name, made sure every student was included, and tried to keep everything neat and proper. I was treating this Grade 1 donation collection like I was the CFO of a Fortune 500 company.

Then my teacher saw what I did. Instead of "thank you," I got: Why did you take over? Who told you to do this? This was not your job.

I got scolded. In front of everyone.

Maybe that’s the reason I learned ‘leadership’ this well. I saw a gap, I stepped in, and I got punished. And honestly? If you put me back in that classroom, I would do it again. Because when I see chaos, I can't help myself. I have to organize it.

And, I remember, also I know, somebody always has to take the “Lead”.

I decided to organize one of the biggest, messiest, most broken processes that millions of people face every year: the study abroad journey.

I've been there. When I applied in 2021, I visited highly recognized agents like IDP. They all followed the same script: they asked for my budget, then handed me a university list pulled from their partner universities, not from a truly global search. It felt like talking to a salesperson, not someone on my side.

And the worst part? You feel completely helpless. You're making one of the biggest decisions of your life, spending your family's savings, and you have no way to verify if what you're being told is true. You can't fact-check the agent. You can't compare properly. You're just expected to trust and pay.

At some point I asked myself: why should students visit these so-called consultants if everything is just "budget + partner list"?

So I decided to self-apply. I applied to 50+ universities on my own.

When I started doing it myself, I saw the same patterns again and again. University websites were confusing. It took hours of clicking just to find the real tuition breakdown, and I still wasn't sure whether I truly fit the profile. I kept wishing I could just talk to someone already there and ask, "How did you actually do this, and was it worth it?"

At the same time, I watched friends trust agents, pay fees, and end up in colleges far below their potential. They were never shown scholarships that actually matched their profile. No one told them that a slightly different approach could have saved their family millions of taka. They only realized the alternatives after meeting other students abroad.

I saw the helplessness in their eyes when they'd ask me, "Did I make the right choice?" after it was already too late to change anything. That feeling of being trapped in a decision you were never fully equipped to make, carrying the weight of your family's expectations and money, wondering if you got played.

Those stories stick with me because this isn't just about confusing websites or too many forms. This is chaos that changes lives. It drains families, locks students into paths they didn't fully understand, and hides better options behind someone else's incentives.

And when I see chaos like that, I can't help myself. I have to organize it.

We've launched a bunch of products to solve issues like these. Currently, we're working on AbroadMates and ApplicationMate because I want students to have clear, honest information instead of hidden incentives, real peers and mentors instead of aggressive sales pitches, and tools that respect their potential, not just their budget.

I don't want students to feel like they're "lucky" if they somehow find the right university. I want them to feel in control.

In the next 10 years, I want our products at The Abroad Company to become the default infrastructure for crossing borders. So that when a student in Dhaka, Tokyo, Lagos, or anywhere else decides "I want to study abroad," they don't have to go through unwanted hassles. Instead, they'll have a clear path, a transparent system, and people who've done it before on their side.

I was that six-year-old who got scolded for taking responsibility. Now I'm just doing the same thing on a bigger stage. I still see chaos. I still can't help myself. And I'm still here to organize it. Because somebody has to do it.

This is where I'll be sharing what I do to reach that goal.
Also if you're here, thanks for being a cheerleader.