I wasn’t trying to build a company.
I was just trying not to forget my own story.

Hi, I’m Rishi Bhargava.

Like thousands of high school students, I thought the hardest part of applying to college would be writing essays and submitting applications. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The real challenge was remembering four years of my life.

When exactly did I volunteer? Which Science Olympiad competitions did I participate in? What leadership positions did I hold? Where did I save all my certificates? How many volunteer hours had I completed? Which colleges matched my interests? What were the deadlines?

The answers were everywhere — Google Drive, school emails, spreadsheets, notebooks, browser bookmarks, screenshots, and sometimes only in my memory. Every day I worried that I would forget something important.

One evening, while jumping between documents and trying to piece everything together, I stopped and asked myself:

Why doesn’t something exist that remembers all of this for me?

That single question became the beginning of what is now Aroha.

I didn’t want to build another website that simply listed colleges. I wanted to create something that could stay with a student from freshman year until the day they submitted their final application — something that remembers achievements, keeps track of deadlines, organizes activities, and guides students one step at a time instead of leaving everything until senior year.

Today, Aroha helps students discover colleges that fit their goals, explore majors, organize activities and awards, build résumés and brag sheets, prepare essays, and manage every stage of the college application journey. More importantly, it helps students feel prepared instead of overwhelmed.

I’m still a student, which means I’m still learning. Every feature I build begins with one simple question:

Will this make another student’s life easier?

If the answer is yes, I build it.

My hope is that students won’t remember Aroha because it had the most features. I hope they remember it because it made one of the most important journeys of their lives feel more organized, less stressful, and a little more exciting.

If this platform helps even one student feel more confident about their future, then every late night spent building it was worth it.

Thank you for being part of the journey.

— Rishi BhargavaFounder, Aroha