University applications are written in a language applicants do not speak
Fillo is a browser extension that explains university application fields in the applicant’s own language, right on the portal page. It never fills the form in. It never sends application content to a server.
The barrier is paperwork, not ability
A strong applicant from Kazakhstan does not get stuck on the essay. They get stuck on CEEB codes, class rank, FERPA release, fee waivers. Portals explain these only in English and only in a separate help centre. What is left is guessing, forum threads — or paying an agency for what amounts to translating bureaucracy.
The answer where the question appeared
The student highlights a confusing question; a button appears beside it, and one click opens a card in the page: what is being asked, which item from their own profile belongs here, the required format, and a link to the official source. The profile is filled once and stays on the device.
Tied to the field, not the topic
A general AI explains what GPA is. We explain this field on this portal — with its own answer options and character limits.
Answered from their own profile
The student’s real question is not “what does this mean” but “which of my answers goes here”. That is the one we answer.
The caution turned out to be the architecture
Portals treat AI-generated application text as fraud, and under Facebook v. Power Ventures a single letter from a portal turns a server-side product into a federal computer-fraud problem — user consent is no defence.
So the explanations ship inside the extension, and on known portals recognition happens locally — their content never leaves the machine. For an unfamiliar university the applicant can switch on AI help: a field label is sent, never their answers. Your data stays yours, and coverage is not capped at one portal.
What the product deliberately refuses to do
An application is a document the student signs personally. A wrong answer costs a rescinded offer, so the limits are enforced in code, not in a model prompt.
- noNever fills fields or writes essays — precisely what portals prohibit.
- noNever advises on visas: unlicensed immigration advice is a criminal offence in the UK and strict liability in Australia. The product refuses those fields and points to the government source.
- noNever stores family income or national ID numbers.
- yesReads only field labels — captions and help text, never what the user typed.
- yesStays silent when unsure: hand-verified explanations only, otherwise an honest “we don’t know” and a link.
Start where money already moves
1.5–2 million applicants pass through the target portals each year; 400–600 thousand are international or first-generation with no school counsellor. The beachhead is Kazakhstan and the CIS, where families already pay agencies and no portal publishes anything in Russian.
Who pays
Not the student. Agencies, whose counsellors can carry several times more clients with this, and schools — the model Scoir and BridgeU already sell into.
Why it is open
The closest analogue, the Ace AI extension, has roughly 160 users: the concept is technically proven and commercially unclaimed. Larger players live in their own tab and never touch the portal page.
What exists today
Immediate next steps
What we need
Access to applicants for interviews and testing; mentorship on reaching schools and agencies; and legal review of portal terms of service and of Kazakhstan’s personal data law. Funding goes to content operations: explanations are written and re-verified by hand every cycle — that is the actual work.