Gen Y start-up in focus: BuddingUp

I like seeing young entrepreneurs who overcome the obstacles they face and beat the odds to make a working project of a brilliant idea. In focus today is BuddingUp by a ‘budding’ gen y entrepreneur Robin Speziale. I actually do like the concept of the start-up so I thought I’ll share Robin’s words, to inspire other entrepreneurs.

Buddingup launched April 2009 in Waterloo, Canada – home of the Blackberry. Buddingup was born from the gap in the job marketplace, Sure, there are those old players such as Monster.com and Workpolis.com – but what can they offer in today’s new internet era of social networking? At the University of Waterloo, I have worked at 6 different companies for co-op/internship. However, even though my placements were exciting and fun, the job search process was dull and unfulfilling. This pain brought forth brainstorming. How can I improve the job search so
that it is fulfilling? The answer was social networking. What if job hunters
could connect with each other and help each other land a job. Or even
better, what if job hunters could connect with recruiters in real time
and discuss job openings and prospects. That would add great value to the
job search.

From that point, I focused my target audience to students and new graduates.
I realized there are not many job sites out there that help students and new
grads land a job. If you go on any large, established job board, you’ll
frequently come across jobs that require “5+ years of experience”,
“managements background” etc. Us students are left in the dark.

Buddingup solves all these problems.

Buddingup did face turbulent winds. One challenge was identifying and
refining a platform for the website. I experimented with various social
networking components coupled with Joomla, Elgg, and Drupal. However, I
finally approached the new Google friend connect technology
and integrated that into the website. Google Friend Connect provides all the
social networking aspects a community on Buddingup would require.

Also, interface design and developing content was a challenge. Buddingup has
gone through several upgrades. I now understand how important keeping an
open mind is. Because in the end, the end user is the one using your site
and you must offer them an enjoyable experience if they are to return and
spread the word. So, I have asked friends for feedback and implement those
suggestions directly into new versions of Buddingup.

However, the biggest challenge of all is website marketing, namely
attracting students and new grads to Buddingup.The saying “build it and
they shall come” doesn’t seem to work with websites. If you build something,
and nobody knows about it, they won’t come. So I went through a month
submitting Buddingup to directories, search engines etc. and spreading the
word to friends on Facebook.

My goal going forward is to attract and foster a large community of students
and new grads on Buddingup who connect and network with each other. I will
also be getting in touch with large U.S. and Canadian employers shortly to
offer free advertising, $5 job postings, career page submissions, and to
motivate employers to join Buddingup. I also hope to develop a state of the
art resume system in the future where students and new grads can upload
resumes and where employers can identify great candidates for the job.

All in all my vision is for Buddingup.com to become the first spot students
and new grads come to find a job. I hope Buddingup fosters a strong job
hunter community and that Buddingup motivates employers to create
more opportunities for new grads, co-op students and interns.

Robin is on twitter! http://twitter.com/buddingup