College2Startup Blog

Selling to Businesses

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 23:01:59 -0500

Most startups are either B2C or B2B companies and a few actually combine both. I had never done any B2B selling prior to starting College2Startup, so I did make a lot of mistakes in my first few months. Infact, I tried to shy away from the B2B side and focused on acquiring end users. I am good at that, B2C is what I’ve always known and was comfortable with. C2S is one of those startups that is 2 pronged, i.e. I have to sell the service to businesses and I also have to sell it to consumers. I need both sides of the table working well for C2S to be successful. To get the gist of this article, you’ll need a brief summary of C2S – it’s a platform for startups to post specific jobs (engineering, design, sales and marketing), and I send those jobs in an e-mail to job seekers who have subscribed. I have to missions:

i. Get startups to post jobs (B2B) and

ii. Get job seekers to subscribe and ultimately apply for jobs.

Prior to C2S, I did user acquisition/growth hacking for a startup that resold unwanted gift cards to people at a discounted rate. I did that for a few years and so I became good at it. I added a number of viral hacks to the process, 1 user was bringing in 3 each quarter (of a year), sales were beyond our pre-set goals and I was happy. In the first 15 days of C2S, I had over 14k subscribers, I knew how to get them but alas I had a lot of trouble getting businesses to post jobs. The only reason there were any jobs in the first 2 months was because of TechCrunch and TheNextWeb. I didn’t know how to sell to businesses.

Today, I see an average of 5 new posts per day, each getting more than 50 qualified applicants. It doesn’t sound like a lot to most people, but to me, that’s reasonable and very welcomed growth from 1 post per week. In fact, that’s 3500% growth. Here’s what I’ve learned about selling to businesses:

1. Research a lot, do data analysis a lot. When you are just starting out, don’t spend money on adwords just yet. Take a few weeks to understand who needs your product, what industry they are in and how they can be reached. Spend some time looking at how they’ve worked around the problem (that you are looking to solve) in the past and create data on how that has worked out for them. In the next column, indicate how your solution compares to the past. Is it saving them more money to use your product? Are they getting something of better quality? Is yours helping them spend less time doing what they don’t want to do? List it all in your excel or wherever your data is. It will come in handy. In my case, I found I had to focus on seed funded startups or bootstrapped ones initially. Here’s why

- These startups have only very few people working there and most likely don’t have an HR department. The founder is probably overworked and doesn’t have too much time to spend looking for applicants. C2S will bring him the applicants and he only has to spend time interviewing.

- These startups are relatively unknown and so their ‘jobs’ page isn’t bombarded with unsolicited applications. I wasn’t going to go pitch dropbox, there’s no point.

- They are seed funded, so they can afford to pay a small fee to find quality talent. I didn’t go looking for one man teams built by a college sophomore living on campus.

2. Get better at interacting with people. I’m not here to be your yoda or ask that you join life classes, but if you are selling to businesses, you must have good people skills. Confidence is key, believe in your own ability and in what you are selling. This can even only be possible if your product works well. After the “TechCruch effect” started to diminish and there was barely 2 jobs posted every 10 days, I knew I had to start reaching out to startups asking them to trust me to find them good candidates. I wrote many emails, jumped on several calls, even a 1.5 hour skype chat with some lady in San Francisco at midnight her time (3am for me), just to get her to post a job. I desperately needed people to start posting jobs but I knew I had to convince them since they had no idea what C2S was or who I was. People trust you more when you convey confidence and seem to know what you are talking about.

3. Price Doesn’t really matter, is the product good? I’m not saying you should slap a $500 price tag on something worth $50 - $100, don’t do that. People will run from you. What I’m saying is, if you have a product that should go for $5 and you are selling to businesses, then sell it for $5. Don’t drop it down to $2.5 because you don’t want to “scare people off” with the price. I’ll tell you what, if a company is going to buy that product, they’ll buy it. If they’re not going to buy it, they wouldn’t. So dropping the price will only cost you $2.5, you still won’t have seen the benefit of an additional buyer. Dropping the price tactic may work well in B2C, I know it has worked well for me, but it doesn’t make much difference in B2B. If a company is really in need of that product but truly can’t afford (which is rarely the case), they will get in touch with you to try to negotiate a deal. Price doesn’t make people buy or pass, the quality/benefits of the product does.

4. Testimonials and Referrals go a long way. A lot of your follow on success could depend on how well you’ve done with your first few hard-earned customers. Usually if your produce worked well, they will be inclined to tell other companies about this new discovery. When I first got my first two “Thanks we hired someone from your site” e-mails, I immediately asked the startups if I could use their names in my e-mail pitches and “success stories” and perhaps place them on the homepage. This tells other people that you have credibility and goes a long way in converting cold pitches. These days 55% of jobs posted on the site come from referrals and word of mouth. I’m not funded so I can’t buy ads. What I can do is work very hard to make sure the product works and them customers can be my evangelists.

5. Always follow up. Few months after launching, I noticed a deep in applications to posted jobs. I had just decided to start following up with these companies 1 month after their job post to see how things went. I found that these companies were no longer getting as many applications per job post as they got before, infact some had decided to stop posting jobs. Something was wrong. They also suggested that they wanted to get more personal with each applicant and didn’t just want to get generic resumes. Several weeks of A/B tested ensued and in a short few months, we were getting even more posts than before. I listened to them, I had now started listing these job openings on the site and not only send them directly to people’s emails. I had also added a few questions to the application form and offered the applicant a chance to include a 2-minute video pitch for themselves. It worked well. It’s a always a learning process, it continues.

Drop me a line: @genystartup

When looking for a job at a startup…

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 18:10:29 -0500

Be Creative. Always be creative. Nothing stands out to a startup founder than a potential hire who shows he/she knows how to use limited resources to get big results. I’ve worked at 2 startups in the past 5 years and have seen a lot of applications in that time. The guy that usually gets the call back is the one who talks about that one cool hack he did in college or the one time she put together a group of seniors in high school to make an exhibition that raised awareness for the local orphanage. A giant list of degrees from several schools doesn’t push you up to poll position, what you’ve done in the past does.

Here’s why:

Startups are about doing. For a startup to stay alive, things actually need to get done, stuff needs to be sold, apps need to be downloaded. That’s how money is made in this industry. Yes at a traditional company, you get paid to look at data and tell others what you think of it. Here you look at data, tell yourself what it means, then use that information to acquire users and ultimately sales/downloads. In this space, there’s usually no time to ‘train’ a new employee, that’s why 80% of job descriptions you see from startups have this line clearly placed in the Requirements: “Must have the get sh*t done attitude”. They all want someone who does, not someone who knows.

When sending in an application, spend less time highlighting all your degrees, your GPA and curating a lengthy resume. Spend more time showcasing the things you’ve done, the side projects you and your roommates are working on, that high school project you did that people kept talking about and most importantly how you will grow that startup if they bring you on board.

I personally like seeing videos (see this guy) , I like checking out the applicant’s github (if you are a coder), LinkedIn and short write-ups of all previous projects. Believe it or not, your cover letter goes a long way in attracting employers than your resume. Consider it your chance to “pitch”.

Have questions? Tweet me @genystartup.

Startups: Here’s A Calculator For Funding And Equity, Courtesy Of SmartAsset

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:10:54 -0400

f you’re a first-time entrepreneur, there can be a lot of confusing financial jargon to deal with — especially when you’re raising funding. If you don’t want to get screwed, some things are probably worth fighting over so that you don’t get screwed, but others probably won’t make a difference. Which is which? You can find plenty of viewpoints online, but now Y Combinator-backed startup SmartAsset has released a Startup Economics calculator, which shows you exactly how each financial decision can affect the money you make when you sell to Google (or, you know, whatever).

The calculator basically takes you through each event that can affect the division of a company’s equity. First you start with the founding — entering the total number of shares, each founder, and the equity that they receive. Then you enter employees and advisors and their equity. You can add multiple funding events and their details, and the eventual exit.

Some of this, of course, is fantasy math. When you’re raising a seed round or a Series A, you don’t know when or if you’re going to be acquired. But that acquisition is when questions like valuation really come into play, and when all that negotiating you’ve been doing hopefully pays off. SmartAsset helps you understand that ultimate financial outcome, displaying how much each party would make off a given deal, and, more importantly, how changing the terms of the deal would affect how much you make. For example, SmartAsset co-founder and CEO Michael Carvin says the calculator illustrates that trying to raise an $18 million valuation to $20 million probably won’t make a big difference, while the liquidation preference might.

Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/17/smartasset-startup-economics/

Hiring (Mark Cuban's 2 cents)

Sun, 13 May 2012 22:42:10 -0400

“As an employer I want the best prepared and qualified employees. I could care less if the source of their education was accredited by a bunch of old men and women who think they know what is best for the world. I want people who can do the job. I want the best and brightest. Not a piece of paper.”

- mark cuban

Full article:

http://bit.ly/KDsB6A

Companies die from not being eaten by their competitors, but from self-inflicted wounds. They don’t...

Thu, 10 May 2012 10:34:06 -0400

Companies die from not being eaten by their competitors, but from self-inflicted wounds. They don’t have discipline. Their best people get frustrated. They chase all these shiny objects that aren’t core to the business. They become complacent because of early success.

- Drew Houston (Dropbox founder)

For those working at a startup/tech company, how did you get your job? What do you do?

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:05:48 -0400

We are doing a research as to how most people in the tech field found their jobs. So for the purpose of this blog, simply comment telling us what you do and how you found/got the job.

Why are we doing this:

As you know, college2startup is about helping connect hiring startups to qualified candidates, we want to explore as many options as possible to find the right fit for both parties involved.

What it's like to work at... 10gen

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:14:00 -0500

How did you get a job at 10gen?

My name is Brandon Diamond, and I’m a Database Kernel Engineer at 10gen. I’m very active in the startup community having served as the producer of the NY Tech Meetup; I’m also involved in several other groups including the Hacker Union (HackerUnion.org) as well as the Brown University NYC Meetup.

The emphasis I’ve placed on community activism has helped me to build a great network of friends and colleagues; it has also afforded me the opportunity to learn a great deal about NYC startups and organizations. Over the course of the past year, I became friends with a number of engineers at 10gen; I even began to use MongoDB in a number of my own startup projects.

When I decided it was time to start a new job, I reached out to some of the friends I had made at 10gen and asked them about open positions. Between the engineering-oriented company culture, open source MongoDB code base, and 10gen’s strong ties to the startup world, I knew that 10gen would be a great fit for me. I came in for an interview and started the following week.

What does your job entail?

The Database Kernel Team at 10gen focuses on the MongoDB database server and related systems. We construct features, implement improvements, and address bugs along with other user feedback. We also help troubleshoot unusual behavior in user’s MongoDB installations.

Working on the Database Kernel Team has proven to be a fantastic learning experience. I spend a great deal of time working with low level aspects of a wide number of systems; the code itself is well architected and efficient. Importantly, there are a great many people who enjoy using MongoDB; it’s great to work on an interesting, complex project that directly impacts so many diverse — yet technical — users.

What is it like working at 10gen?

10gen offers a uniquely awesome startup experience. The culture is technical, casual, and meritocratic. Between the fully stocked snack bar and the weekly office lunches, working at 10gen doesn’t quite feel like… well, work. The team is friendly, outgoing, and passionate — everyone is excited about what they’re doing and eager to share what they’re working on.

Hierarchically speaking, the company is largely “flat”; the CEO and CTO sit alongside the other engineers and both write a significant amount of code nearly every day. The emphasis is on progress, community, and great software engineering.

All in all, 10gen is a fantastic place to work if you’re a startup-minded engineer who doesn’t want to compromise on tech or miss out on the startup experience. I couldn’t be happier with my choice of employer.

Wanna work at 10gen? check out our most recent newsletter or contact us: support@college2startup.com for an intro.

URL: http://www.10gen.com/

Apply to become a Junior at 10gen Now: http://college2startup.com/apply/info/198

Financing For Startups

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:54:29 -0500

Found this brilliant read about how startups are getting funded nowadays on Business Insider:

There are lots of trends people have been talking about in tech financing—“superangels”; delayed IPOs; secondary market sales; and more.

But so far, few people have been putting the dots together: the entire financing landscape for companies is changing.

And, excitingly, it’s increasingly not just technology companies.

There are many new financing options for growing companies that weren’t available a decade ago.

Here’s how we break them down (we’ll visit each one in turn):

Crowdfunding

Accelerators

Super-angels

Late-stage private equity

The long-delayed IPO

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-way-companies-are-getting-financed-is-completely-changing-2011-11#ixzz1eY3hdL2H

Making Changes...

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:17:32 -0400

We’ve seen some significant growth over the past few months since our launch and have been featured in some top tech publications, we’ve also worked with some excellent startups and have helped them find prime talent. We’ve been absolutely pleased with how things have been going lately and in a bid to keep users happy, we had put in place an open door policy. We asked and encouraged users to write to us (support@college2startup.com) and give us feedback on what we could be doing better, and what they will like to see on college2startup.

There were three things in particular that kept coming up, and we are happy to share our response to all the feedback. We have implemented those suggestions in a way we felt will be most beneficial to the product.

Job seekers wanted:

i. Ability to browse through all the jobs we had submitted on the site. We have implemented a ‘jobs’ section where you can see some featured jobs, but not all. In order to have access to all the jobs we have, job seekers will still have to subscribe to College2Startup.

ii. Shorter job descriptions in the newsletters with a link to the full job description. Done.

Startups wanted:

i. A more comprehensive overview dashboard in their accounts. They wanted to be able to see previous jobs posted, what’s been applied to, how many applications have been received to each job, ability to close the job if it’s been filled etc. We have implemented majority of these changes as we feel are appropriate right now. Over the next few weeks, we plan on making more changes in this area.

Thanks again for all the feedback! keep ‘em coming.

What Unemployment? Nothing like that in United States of Software

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:05:42 -0400

The New York Times recently reported a zero job growth in the US in August 2011 with surveys finding that job growth over the past 3 months were at 35,000, a far cry from the 90,000 jobs expected to keep up with the growing work force. Don’t mention this in the software industry especially startups, the situation is almost the complete opposite with demand for qualified engineers more than twice the supply. Many jobs are being phased out since they can now be automated, and several others are constantly outsourced because the labor is much cheaper. If there is one thing you don’t want cheap labor for, it is building software and that has contributed to the boom in the industry. Not too many people predicted this and those who did never cared to encourage young students to consider careers in Computer Science, and now the supply of talent coming out of our universities CANNOT keep up with the demand.

We have seen this first-hand at College2Startup and it was a big reason why the startup was created in the first place. Why are there so many software engineering jobs and not enough candidates? why don’t parents and universities encourage more students to get into Computer Science & physics knowing for a fact that in a few years most human activities will be run by computers? How can we get the software jobs into the hands of the right candidates?

In the past week alone, there have been 3 different startups who have indicated in their job submissions to us that they are going to pay you $10,000 if you refer your qualified (software engineer) friend or family member that eventually gets hired. That’s how competitive the hiring space is for startups. They all want the best people and they know every other startup out there wants the same, so it’s game on. One college2startup user who got hired in early August by a NYC startup came out of college in May not knowing how he would go about finding a job with his Computer Science degree, he had planned on working for the Government but also wanted to start his own startup down the road. Two weeks after receiving a job post in his e-mail, he was on his way to NYC from his college town at Urbana champaign to start a new $82K job as a software engineer at a VC-funded startup. The jobs are there in the software industry, but not enough of the matching talent.

Are you in college and bothered about the job market ahead of your graduation, should you consider switching majors? maybe. The industry is booming and doesn’t look like it will be slowing down anytime soon. In the middle of all the unemployment, maybe we can take solace in the never ending demand for Engineers.

Looking for your feedback.

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:23:44 -0400

First and foremost, we want to thank everyone who reads this blog, subscribes to receive our jobs and the startups who trust us with their job openings. It’s been an amazing 2 months so far and things are going great. College2Startup wants to be the number 1 destination for anyone looking to work at a startup, and we believe we have started well.

We value the input of our users and always want to make the service that much better. To this regard, we are openly asking for your feedback, advice and thoughts on how we’ve served you so far. Simply e-mail us your responses to support@college2startup.com.

Your ideas are highly appreciated.

When your city doesn't have a lot of 'startup talent'

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:20:27 -0400

When it comes to startups, there are some cities that just completely outshine every other city in every department: number of startups, available engineering talent, groups of investors, community of early adopters and press etc. San Francisco bay area and NYC are the top two in the US at the moment, infact it is pretty evident even on College2Startup. About 70% of the jobs submitted to us are in those two cities, while the remaining 30% is unevenly spread out between the other cities.

Startups are built in many different cities, however, just like plants, they need the right combination of ‘aid’ to blossom. This is why we see a lot of startups relocating to parts of the country that are considered to be more startup friendly in pursuit of bigger success.

We got an e-mail from a founder who was about to post a job with the hopes of finding a Ruby on Rails engineer to join his startup in a rather remote city in Iowa, but wondered if there was even a chance of convincing a ‘top talent’ to move there. Overall, he was looking for up to 6 employees to fill the startup jobs he had open but didn’t want to move to a different city to do it.

Finding ‘employees’ could be easy, but finding the right startup talent isn’t. You don’t just need skill, you need a specific type of attitude and mentality. This is why College2Startup focuses so much on exploring the background and personality of everyone applying to a job opening we post. So what do you do when there isn’t a lot to choose from in your city?

1.) Consider Telecommuting. 37signals is a prime example of a company whose staff telecommutes and does it effectively. As long as you are able to designate and review the work done properly, having your employees in different cities across the country isn’t such a bad idea. Take it or leave it, most of the best startup talent are those who have gone to schools with a very active startup community or know people in the space and are interested in it. Often times, they are in cities where the supply of talent is much higher than the demand for it. It might be a little tricky convincing them to move away from where they’ve always known (just because startups are so risky), but getting these people to telecommute could solve a lot of problems.

2.) Start a tech/startup event. There are many tech meetups around the country, there’s probably one every day in Palo Alto, whereas some cities don’t have that luxury. As a founder, you may need to take it upon yourself to start a meetup and try to unearth those hidden gems. Some really talented people may be in your area, who are absolutely keen on working at startups or even building one, but have no clue where to start. Some of these people may even just need to see someone else do it to ignite a passion in them. Before you know it, your meetup is growing from 2 to 5 to 10 to 20 members.

3.) Career fairs and College campuses. Most of the prospectives who subscribed to receive startup jobs mailed to them have come from these two places. We have been pretty active at career fairs, college entrepreneurship/tech meetups etc. We have also tried to be as visible as possible online, especially on a site like Hacker News where we like to say “our target market predominantly resides”. If you can’t find the right people, going to career fairs and setting up a table isn’t a bad idea. You get to enlighten people about startups and may even find one or two people who could fit the bill.

Finally, we also get a lot of questions about our demographics. In terms of location, up to 45% of people who have subscribed to receive jobs are in the two main cities: San Francisco and NYC. But our list spans the entire country. So regardless of where your startup is located, you will certainly find a few people in that city or atleast around it who are on our list.

5 things to keep in mind when hiring for your startup.

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:13:00 -0400

More startups are hiring everyday, infact there are more than 2,000 startup jobs posted on Craigslist alone - not to include other job sites. Competition for the best available talent in sky high and startups need to get creative and really dig deep to find people who can deliver when the chips are down. Hiring for startups has become so difficult, that we have started noticing a trend where some more established startups even acq-hire other startups just to get access to their staff, it’s nothing new these days.

To help you along in the hiring process, we have a number of things we believe you should pay close attention to.

1.) While “rock-star ability” is great, it shouldn’t come at the expense of team chemistry. Most startups often begin with very small teams, 1-5 people and as such, complimentary skills and being able to get along is very important. It is comparable to a team sport like soccer, having a player with amazing skill and ability can win you games but it will never win you the league title. It is a ‘team’ that wins you titles. Focus on getting people with the ability to do the job who can also fit into the company groove without causing a break in unity.

2.) It is never easy to find the best people. I have heard many HR people and startup founders who I talked to and surveyed before building and launching College2Startup talk about how difficult it is to find the right people and convince them to join. Just like you are chasing these crop of talent, there are hundreds of other startups after them too. It takes hard work, a long time to land these people. One big advice I will give is this: you must be able to sell your vision to anyone and get them to buy into it to. If you are able to do this, number 2 becomes less difficult all of a sudden.

3.) The best hires aren’t always those with 5+ years of experience. It bothers me a lot when I see all these startups posting jobs and for each listing, they require 5+ years experience as an absolute marker. Some people happen to believe that if you’ve been writing code for a company for 5 years, you are automatically better than one who is just graduating college. This may be true for certain positions, for example, a PR position. Often times, the 5 year veteran has honed their skill and also built a long list of contacts that could come in handy. However, there are some jobs at startups that don’t necessarily have to follow this route. Being a code wrangler at a company for 5 years doesn’t always mean you are better than the kid who just graduated. It’s a skill thing. Because a player has been playing professional basketball for 5 years doesn’t make him better than every rookie coming into their first season. Look at skill rather than number of years, consider projects done rather than number of full time jobs held etc.

4.) Target a larger (but targeted) pool of prospectives if you really want to capture the best. Most startups today find their new hires based on referrals of people already working there or referral of friends. There are only so many people you can reach out to by doing this. Targeting a bigger group always means you are increasing your odds of getting better talent on your team. This is why we started College2Startup. There are currently over 7k highly targeted people looking for startup jobs on the site and growing. That’s 7,000 prospectives to select from. Your odds of improving the quality of your team is better.

5.) The best talent out there want to see potential for growth. Show that you aren’t running a lifestyle startup for life. Very few of the most gifted web developers, designers, marketers etc will settle for ‘startup pay’ and ‘lifestyle’ forever. Their biggest motivation is often the desire to grow a small project from alpha to it’s best possible valuation and/or exit. Show you and your company can do that and you improve your chances immediately.

Have you hired for a startup in the past or currently doing so? what are some important things you’ve considered during the process?

Why your startup needs to use College2Startup

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:19:06 -0400

Let’s face it, majority of startups don’t know where to go to find potential hires. As a result, most resort to trying to tap up other companies’ engineers, go on Craigslist to post jobs, send job descriptions out on Monster and CareerBuilder, and what do you get in return? tens to hundreds of junk applications or resumes from job seekers who aren’t qualified. The problem is this: There is too much “noise” on these job boards. Startup jobs are different from corporate jobs, the office culture is different, approach to work is different and mentality is rarely ever the same. Startups often look for a specific skill set, and there really is no avenue for them to find people with these skill set…until now.

College2Startup works extremely hard to find the right set of people with the required skill set, who are willing and able to work at startups and have opted-in to our mailing list in order to receive notifications when startup jobs become available. The difference is that with College2Startup, you are reaching out to a highly targeted group of people with skills you want for your startup.

1.) It’s quick and easy. Reaching out to thousands of highly targeted and skilled potential hires is the dream of any startup, you want the best of the best but you also don’t want to jump through too many hoops to do it. With C2S, all you do is create an account, and start posting jobs from your account. Once we receive your job and agree that it meets the criteria for what our subscribers are interested in, the job gets included in the next set of jobs we send out in a newsletter. Simple as that. Within a few minutes of the job post, you will start receiving job applications.

2.) You won’t have to sort through junk mail. The people on our mailing list are opt-in and specifically want to work at a startup. They know what startups are like and understand the dynamics.

3.) The interview process starts with College2Startup. We are a startup too and we’ve worked at startups for a long time. We know what is required of a potential hire, and so we ask the right questions in their first application, so you can immediately cut down your list to the closest fit. For engineering jobs, we ask them to provide their github profile link, ask about the languages they code in, projects they’ve worked on etc.. just to give you an idea of this applicant before you even set up an interview.

College2Startup wants to create a “noise” free avenue for startups to find their rockstars.

How To Stand Out from other Startup Job Applicants

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:31:40 -0400

With startups, things are usually done differently. The hiring process is different, office culture isn’t the same as you’ll find at megacorps and most times the work hours are tougher. Rarely do you find startups that abide by the 9-5 rule, infact in the job description sent out at most startups, they tell you “You must have the entrepreneurial spirit and willing to make this startup your life”. For those who don’t understand, I’ll break it down:

- You must have the entrepreneurial spirit: This is where they are indirectly telling you to be ready to share the pain when the pain comes…and more often than not, the pain comes. They are also telling you to NOT be passive and NOT be a follower. Entrepreneurs are known as risk takers who see problems and go all out trying to solve them. When you work at a startup, even without being told, you are expected to sniff out problems (potential wrong turns, competitors etc) and solve them. If you can’t do this, working at a startup may not be right for you.

- You must be willing to make this startup your life: This is where they tell you in clear terms that you are not promised 100% of your nights and weekends. They are also conveying that you need to be an ambassador for the brand everywhere you go. This should be your priority! nothing else.

Now for those of us crazy enough to still want to work at a startup, finding a good startup fit is hard but getting hired is even harder. Most startup hires are based on referrals just because there really wasn’t a good way to find talent…until College2Startup came along. With several thousand people receiving the same job openings as you, how can you stand out from the crowd? How can you make sure your application makes the cut? Here are a few tips:

1.) Pay attention to the jobs we send to your inbox.

College2Startup is very particular about what jobs and what startups we accept. We make sure they have something to offer our subscribers before we send those jobs out. When you see a job you like, take the time to research them, see what the company is about, who are the founders, what reputation do those founders have etc. There’s nothing that puts an employer off more than an ignorant applicant.

2.) Answer the questions we ask you.

There is a reason why we are asking applicants for an engineering position questions like: what languages(s) do you code in? what is your github profile url? etc or we are asking a marketing applicant about SEO. We want the employer to know you better and find what your true substance is. Resumes are fine, but they don’t jump out quite as much as well crafted and creative responses to startup-specific questions like this. Take the time to answer ALL the questions and craft them properly. Grab the startup’s attention right off the bat.

3.) Take advantage of the video.

Videos are cool, infact videos are awesome. Most startups have less that 10 people working as a close group. If they are hiring, they want someone who they can relate to and who will fit the culture! They can get a better idea of that on video. Also videos go a long way (much longer), than text. It conveys a message that no one else can covey in writing. Sell your self with the video and let them know what you are all about.

4.) Follow up with the startup.

Most startups have a Twitter or Facebook presence now. After you’ve sent in your application, send the startup or the Founder a tweet, remind him/her that you’ve sent in an application throught #college2startup and you will love to be a part of the team. It shows interest and keeps you on their mind.

How have you stood out in the past?

New startup series

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:28:38 -0400

We want to share the startup story with everyone who cares to listen, and many of us are always keen to see what it’s like working at a particular startup. We are launching a new series called “What it’s like working at my startup”, where employees of various startups share stories about where they work. We want the juicy details: what the team does to relax, the office culture, the jokester(s), the perks and anything else that makes your startup cool.

If you work at a startup and will like to share you story with us, shoot us an e-mail: college2startup@gmail.com.

-Tolu.

No need to stop school for a startup dream

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 09:27:43 -0400

There has been a lot of argument for and against stopping school to start a startup. Getting an education has always been prestigious because it opens doors for you, it helps you get a great job, it gives you immediate ‘substance and credibility’ in the eyes of most people you interact with. So why all of a sudden has it started losing it’s prestige and got people wondering if it’s only a waste of time and money after all?

In this generation, some of the most successful people have been men and women who chose to either not go to college at all, or drop out after only a few years. They have been well celebrated in the media and across tech circles: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg come to mind. The success that these two in particular, amongst a slew of others like them have achieved certainly struck a note with many young, aspiring Entrepreneurs. The lure is simple, going to college doesn’t make you successful anymore, if anything it wastes your time, and often times you are playing ‘catch-up’ to those who dropped out earlier. Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems tweeted in favor of this argument when he said “Gates, Ballmer, Jobs all dropped out early, I finished my Harvard/Stanford degrees. I ended up chasing them my entire career. Just saying..” last month.

The honest truth however is that these successful dropouts we always hear about make up about 0.5% of the population that dropped out. No one will come out and say they dropped out to start a company and failed. Even if they did, the media won’t care enough to announce that to you. It’s a “no story”, they will say. No one finds that interesting at all. What is interesting is that 0.5% who beat the odds to quit and were successful. 9/10 startups fail! Education provides a cushioned landing if you end up failing.

In argument for getting an education, it’s noteworthy that the college environment provides a great avenue to start a company because of the people you meet, the connections you make and the already available resource you can tap into for mentorship and seed funding - in the shape of your school’s alumni network. Startups, investors, Co-founders are always looking for the ‘best talent’, so much so that they will merge or buyout other startups just for their staff. Sometimes, or most times actually, an education and the quality of it is what really sets you apart from the crowd.

Agree? Disagree? Let’s discuss it.

The two types of startups: Lifestyle and growth

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:20:35 -0400

There are two types of startups essentially: Lifestyle and growth. Deciding which one you want to join or start is important before even going into it. Some people start companies because they want it to support them and bring in a salary for them, basically supporting their lifestyle. That’s what is referred to as a Lifestyle startup. On the other hand, there is the startup that is built to grow big and set up for big exits, that’s the growth startup. Facebook, Pandora, Groupon are all examples of growth startups.

The main noticeable differences between the two is the amount of funding brought in. Typically, a lifestyle startup rarely takes outside investment. It is often bootstrapped and caters to the needs of the founder. There is no board, no big investors making decisions for the company and often times they are local. A growth startup on the other rounds takes in rounds and rounds of funding, they are always looking to scale up and take over their niche in every country in the world, they have several outside investors sitting on their board and making important company decisions.

Going into a startup, you must first decide what type of employee you see yourself as, or what type of founder you want to be. Do you just want to build a company that supports you and your family? or you are more keen on the big exits? When you start applying for startup jobs, these are questions to ask the founders or whoever is interviewing you.

How To Find A Job at a Startup

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:18:06 -0400

When we first created College2Startup, our primary objective was to make sure we put as many startup jobs in front of as many eyeballs as possible. We also knew right off the bat that we needed to educate people on a lot of intricacies of the startup world. Finding a job could be an easy decision, but finding ‘a startup job’ is a much different proposition. I once heard a founder address an audience at a Baltimore tech meetup and compare the search to a young man looking for the perfect bride, “it’s like marriage” he said. Choosing to join a startup could mean making a huge sacrifice financially, freedom-wise and in terms of job security.

Before applying for a startup job from the list of opportunities we send to your e-mail in our newsletter, the first decision you must make is to conclude on what stage of the startup ladder you are comfortable slotting into. Are you fine being the third employee and sharing a table with the two co-founders in a shared co-working space? or are you more comfortable joining the team after they’ve raised a seed or series A round? These are questions you need to ask yourself and answer first before applying.

For some people, it really doesn’t matter what stage the company is in, be it early or funded. Once you have settled on the preferred stage, you can then start sorting through the job openings we’ve sent over.

Choosing the right one:

There will be many opportunities that you might find yourself able to fit into, however a lot of startups are so small and close-knit that company/team culture plays a huge role. We advise that you take the time to ask around and do some further research about these startups. Study how the company has be portrayed in the news, tech blogs and amongst their local startup community. It really is not enough just reading about the founders, learning about the other employees, future plans etc wouldn’t do you any harm.

That being said, if you are looking to work at a startup, tell us here, and if you own or work at a startup and are looking to hire, get the word out.

The Battle for Startup Talent. What gives

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:42:25 -0400

Startups are always looking for qualified employees, startup jobs are very different from most jobs be it technical or non-technical and as a result the demand for the very best has always been sky high. A few weeks ago we read another story of a startup offering new employees up to $10,000 upfront and some other excellent perks. It’s not surprising. With startups (early stage ones), it has always been the case. Potential employees are getting lured by attractive bounties like free gym membership, beer on tap, cars, computers etc.

It is even more of a battle at the top with the bigger “startups”. A report in Business Insider sometime in April suggested that Google offered two of their most prized product managers $50million and $100 million respectively to turn down the advances of Twitter. We also often see stories of startups either merging with other startups or acq-hiring just for the talent pool that will be available.

When we came up with the idea for College2Startup, we wanted to come up with an avenue for startups to have access to a larger collection of talent that they didn’t know existed before. Many undergrads and recent grads be it at college level, masters or MBA level have shown serious interest in venturing into startups rather than take traditional jobs. There has however always been the problem of finding the startup jobs that match their skills. We then decided to take the HARO approach and collect all these startup job openings and send them to all the potential employees who have subscribed to receive these jobs.

I recently read a story on BusinessWeek that talked about how MBAs are approaching the working world upon receiving their degrees. In the past, we’ve seen more situations where these MBAs go on to work for traditional companies and take up management roles, but recently, there have been more of them willing to go into entrepreneurship albeit after a few years.

The article suggested that most MBAs (about 70%) who were interested in the whole startup culture either as a founder, an employee or a VC, were also more interested in waiting a few years before taking the plunge.

Even traditional companies are now after the entrepreneurial type - startup talent. With companies like GE, Unilever etc dangling incentives in front of the same talent startups are after, the battle for the smartest minds isn’t slowing down anytime soon. So it begs the question, how do smaller/early-stage startups keep up? how do they find the best talent to take them from 100k revenue to 10MM revenue?