NextFour.ai is an online platform that provides students and families with data-driven insights and AI-powered tools to navigate the college admissions process, offering analytics on application strategies, extracurricular activities, and college selections. Pulse 2.0 interviewed NextFour.ai co-founder and co-CEO Samir Kothari to learn more.
Samir Kothari’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Kothari said:
“I have spent my career in the Silicon Valley technology industry as an investor, entrepreneur and operating executive. Throughout that time, my favorite experiences have revolved around a common theme of driving innovation and building new products/businesses. I have enjoyed the challenge of 0-1 initiatives, both within larger organizations such as Meta and Mastercard, as well as with start-ups.”
“I previously co-founded BillShrink, a fintech/data analytics company where I led product management for our award-winning application that helped millions of consumers save money via data-driven, highly-personalized recommendations on complicated service products such as wireless, cable/satellite, credit cards, etc. The core premise of BillShrink (later renamed to Truaxis and acquired by MasterCard) was to recognize the proliferation of data and leverage it to help users be better informed and ultimately make better decisions. That same ethos underlies NextFour, where we aspire to help our users leverage data for more confident and strategic decision-making for college planning and admissions.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Kothari shared:
“NextFour was born out of our firsthand experience – as parents of high schoolers – navigating the increasingly complex and stressful college admissions process.”
“We learned quickly that the bar for gaining admission to top-ranked colleges has never been higher, underscoring the importance of a thoughtful application strategy and prompting anxious families to seek guidance. However, with high school counselors facing overwhelming caseloads and traditional private counseling services often being inaccessibly expensive, many families struggle to find help that is reliable, easily accessible, data-driven, and affordable. As such, we saw a clear market need to democratize access to knowledge and tools that give students a critical edge in the college admissions process.”
“We then spent a year speaking with high school families – in our community and across the country – to deepen our understanding of the specific pain points, and leveraged those learnings and our technology backgrounds towards launching NextFour.ai. “
College Admissions Being An Important Focus
Why is college admissions an important focus area right now? Kothari explained:
“The college admissions landscape has become significantly more competitive and complex in recent years. Statistically speaking, acceptance rates at top schools have been steadily declining and have dipped below 10% for many elite institutions.”
“The downward trajectory for admit rates is simply a function of the continued rise in application volume coupled with effectively a fixed supply of slots in the incoming freshman class.”
“Moreover, the bar for ‘what it takes to get in’ is significantly higher than before. Back when I was applying to college, conventional wisdom suggested that strong grades and a well-rounded extracurricular profile were sufficient for admission to the top colleges. Now students aspiring for the most selective universities are expected to be more specialized and demonstrate commitment, impact and distinction in their chosen pursuits (on top of having exemplary grades and test scores!)”
“At the same time, the process itself is evolving rapidly—with changes in standardized testing policies, shifting evaluation criteria, and broader systemic changes such as the end of race-conscious admissions. This creates uncertainty and increases the need for informed, strategic planning.”
“As a result, the college application process often induces a high level of stress and anxiety. In fact, 73% of parents/students indicated the stress level from the college application process as “High” or “Very High” in the 2026 Princeton Review College Hopes & Worries Survey. This sentiment is compounded by families lacking access to high-quality guidance and being unsure where to get reliable and personalized guidance. NextFour was created to directly address those challenging gaps.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Kothari explained:
“The foundation of NextFour’s college planning service is a structured data analytics platform incorporating comprehensive information across the college admissions ecosystem. This proprietary information, which is aggregated from thousands of data sources, powers advanced metasearch interfaces, intuitive visualizations, and AI-driven guidance. These features analyze the user’s individual profile to provide personalized, evidence-based advice to help them make well-informed, data-driven college planning decisions.”
“Some of the specific topics the solution addresses include:
- Strategically selecting intended majors based on personal interests, competitiveness, and career outcomes
- Identifying extracurricular activities based on alignment with application themes and impact in college admissions
- Building a college list (and early application strategy) based on personal preferences, proprietary rankings, and individualized likelihood of admission
- Determining whether to submit SAT/ACT scores based on evolving school-specific test policies and benchmarks
NextFour provides users with a deep base of data-driven guidance and interactive tools. This suite of self-service, AI-powered capabilities is further complemented by seamless connectivity to humans with relevant domain expertise. For instance, the NextFour Advisors Network allows users to easily connect 1:1 with current college students who have recent, firsthand experiences with specific extracurricular activities, colleges, and majors. NextFour also offers a unique messaging-based Q&A service where NextFour experts are available to answer questions in near real-time at a fraction of the cost of traditional private counselors.”
“All of NextFour’s features are organized on a planning dashboard which provides users with a centralized resource to track status and receive personalized guidance along the journey towards college admissions.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Kothari noted:
“Since its initial launch, NextFour has expanded from a collection of data resources into a more comprehensive, personalized college planning companion.”
“Early versions focused on providing structured data, benchmarks, and exploratory tools. Over time, the platform has evolved to incorporate:
- More advanced AI-driven personalization, including a conversational AI agent interface
- A planning dashboard feature to provide strategic, context-aware guidance across the key dimensions of the college planning journey
- Enhanced interactive tools and visualizations
- Integration of human expertise through the Advisors Network and Expert Q&A features
This evolution reflects a broader shift from static information delivery toward dynamic, personalized decision support that adapts to each student’s profile and goals.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Kothari assessed:
“The NextFour college planning companion solution targets high school families who contemplate applying to competitive four-year colleges in the United States. NextFour’s service is expressly intended for students across their high school years (and therefore not limited only to seniors who are actually submitting college applications). There are an estimated 15M students enrolled in US high schools, of which ~44% immediately enroll in 4-year colleges. Of these ~6.6M students, NextFour is most directly focused on the subset that will be pursuing admission to more selective colleges (defined as colleges with an admit rate < 33%.) The rationale is that this subset will have the strongest need for a more strategic college application approach given the elevated admissions requirements at selective/higher-ranked colleges. This cohort of US students is joined by international students pursuing admission to the same set of selective colleges; in aggregate, we estimate there are about 2 million high school families in our core target market.”
“As another reference, we can also consider the size of the college counseling market, which is approximately $3 billion annually and growing, which reflects the trend of families looking for incremental support.”
Important Trends
What are the most important trends driving NextFour’s growth? Kothari pointed out:
“Several market trends are accelerating demand for NextFour’s platform:
- Increasing number of applicants to the top-ranked colleges, which in turns means declining admission rates and the associated statistical implication that it’s harder than ever to get into a top college. For instance, the Common App platform reported a 5% rise in total applications just since last year.
- Increased complexity in admissions policies, including test-optional dynamics and holistic evaluation, increasing the need for strategic planning, and prompting families to seek help/support with the college admissions planning and application process.
- Shift toward data-driven decision-making, replacing anecdotal (and potentially out-dated) advice
- Affordability gap in traditional college counseling, creating demand for AI-powered, lower-cost complementary and alternative solutions.
These dynamics collectively create a strong tailwind for solutions that combine technology, data, and inclusivity.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Kothari affirmed:
“NextFour differentiates itself through a hybrid solution that combines data, AI, and human expertise.”
“NextFour’s unique capabilities are enabled by our exclusive data analytics foundation:
- Data is aggregated across multiple sources and highly structured to enable a rich metasearch experience
- Data is more granular than what is typically available with other resources. For instance, many sites display a college’s overall admit rate, but we show admit rate broken down by gender and by application round. As another example, most sites will discuss college majors at a category roll-up level (because that’s easier to access) whereas we detail the actual majors that are offered at colleges and will be the options available on the application.
- Incorporates proprietary data not elsewhere available (i.e., extracurricular insights, metarankings, college aggregate safety index, etc.)
This data foundation enables a powerful suite of Web-based tools as well as a specialized AI chatbot interface to support users through the college planning journey. Users also have the option to seamlessly connect with human experts through a convenient messaging interface.
In summary, NextFour provides a differentiated experience anchored in data-driven insights, interactive tools, AI-powered personalized advice, and seamless connectivity to subject-matter experts.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Kothari concluded:
“Looking ahead, NextFour aims to:
- Further enhance its features and AI capabilities to offer personalized advice for students throughout high school
- Expand its dataset and coverage to incorporate additional schools, programs, and outcomes data
- Grow its user base to reach more students and families across the U.S. and internationally
- Deepen its expert network to expand access to advisors and mentorship in response to users’ most acute pain-points
- Continue democratizing access and make high-quality admissions guidance more affordable and widely available
Ultimately, the company’s long-term vision is to become the leading data-driven platform for college and career planning, helping families make better decisions, reduce the stress associated with the admissions process, and maximize the chances of students getting into their dream colleges.”
