How the company got started - I was the original founder of the company. It started when I went to the mall one day and noticed a group of university students with a stack of resumes in hand going store to store giving them out. From my background in computers I thought there must be a better way to do this. There was no website out there that focused on high turnover jobs. I came up with a few cool ideas like being able to find jobs by postal code. The fact that it was targeting a high turnover, I thought there would always be a demand.

I finished up university and the best job I got was working at the university’s career center. I created a small network for myself and heard from a lot of human resource executives at big companies. They listened to me and did an analysis of what they were looking for and I built a list of what they were interested in. I used my job to get market research to and build JobLoft.

The most difficult part of starting JobLoft was finding people to work with you when you do not have money. My only option was to give up sweat equity. I needed a salesperson and turned to a friend of mine (Sunny Mokha) who I thought would be a perfect fit for the role. A couple days later he agreed. Finding programmers was also important because you need people who could execute your vision. I had a friend (Lee Liu) who worked for NVIDIA as their web developer and I tried my hardest to get him on board. Lee was the first IT employee at NVIDIA to file a patent for the company. Lee also recruited his long time friend Andy Lai decided to round out the development team. JobLoft.com was born.

From September 2005 to our May 2006 launch we were developing our website based on the feedback from our future clients. Our strategy was to get as many clients as possible on board so we gave them the service for free to get the jobs listed on the site. We gave them free job postings to show them we could bring them traffic. We wanted 15 launch partners but ended up with 30. They posted over 2,000 jobs across Canada. Within those 9 months we knew we needed funding so we pitched to a lot of private angel investors. The general answer was no. They did not want to invest because it was high risk and we were too new out of university. They thought because it was on the Internet, anybody could copy it.

We almost gave up and then saw an opportunity online from the Canadian Youth Business Foundation which gives out $15,000 startup capital to young entrepreneurs wanting to start a business. We partnered with a recruitment company who got us off the ground and co-signed the loan with us. I raised another $15,000 from love money family friends and had $30,000 to launch. All the money that came in went to sales and marketing so we were running pretty lean. We streamlined our processes so that when we landed a big account we could scale on minimum manpower.

We launched on May 9 and received a lot of press coverage. It was a good story to tell. We were Canadian, fresh out of university, and were helping people find jobs. With postal code plugins and the ability to receive text messages to your phones we are plugged into the youth demographic. We wanted to disrupt the HR online industry and change the way companies post online.

From May we have focused a lot on online press, growing virally, and using tools like MSN, Facebook, and MySpace. Likeminded people stay together so that is how JobLoft is spreading.

We went on a TV show called Dragon’s Den where we pitched our idea to successful entrepreneurs. We went in July 2006, pitched and all 5 dragons wanted to be involved. We negotiated $200,000 for 50% of the company. We had $0 in revenues to date and already had a $400,000 valuation. It did not work out in the end because of a difference of opinions but we received a lot of private equity companies and venture capital interest because of the TV exposure. Some investors really try to corner you into how you run your company so we wanted to partner up with someone who saw our vision. We are currently in talks with potential partners.

Advice for startups - Have a business plan. It will act as your blueprint to how you want to grow. It will always change, you have to zig and zag with the changes of the business. It is not set in stone. Give an outline of your marketing plan and your service. What is the opportunity in your business and what are you trying to accomplish? What are the customer pains that you are solving? How much do you need to get started? What is your breakeven point? Set yourself milestones that you can reach for. These are all questions and issues that you should address in your business plan.

Network. You never know who knows someone who can help you. The majority of our customer contacts who came to JobLoft came through networking. Do not be afraid to ask – the worst they can say is no. If we gave up on our first no we would have gone under a long time ago. Go to entrepreneur events where you can meet like-minded individuals, share your story, and your pain. I met four clients through networking events including one of the head guys at Microsoft. We got all of our software given to us because of that event. We got featured on a couple of podcasts because of the networking events. From one networking event we got a podcast which got a TV spot and because of that TV spot we were asked to do two more TV spots. I love to ask for advice and feedback at these events. The people are so open minded and help you think outside the box.

View challenges as obstacles not as roadblocks. We had a lot of technical challenges with our coding at the beginning. We had to change the process of how we executed our online process. You need to be able to juggle a lot of things at once. One day I am doing finance, then support, then copy runs, then sales so we wear many hats and you have to be able to adapt to this type of environment. When you are so new you need to convey the message as to why you are good for clients. Many are not in tune with the Web 2.0 and need to be convinced. JobLoft will still be here in 2-3 years and not just an overnight story. We gained a lot of credibility because of the existing clients we have on board. Our biggest challenge was cold calling but now they are approaching us due to the great PR that we have been getting.

Surround yourself with great people. Our board of advisors is really great. We went back to our university to see who could help us out and brought on the directors of different programs. They helped introduce us in the different industries we are now involved in. If you do not know anything, do not be afraid to ask, you minimize your mistakes by learning from others.

Partner with your friends is not as bad as one would think. They say that you should not partner up with your friends but we have proven them wrong. We are still good friends to this day. They can provide you with the emotional support you need but make sure everyone has a specialty to focus on. It would not work if there were two of me. I want someone who does not have my skill set. It is challenging sometimes because when you are starting up it is hard when you do not see the initial success. Collaboratively as a team we work well together. There are up and down moments but you need to remember that everyone is out there for the common goal of making the business succeed. If I were to do it again, I would not change anything at all with my partners. We feed off of each other with new ideas, concepts and initiatives.

Mistakes to avoid - Have a good lawyer that can understand the nitty gritty legal aspects of business. We did not know anything about how to protect ourselves as a company. When it comes to closing deals with partners and investors you need a lawyer who will watch your back and make sure the details are fair.

Be prepared. Always anticipate growth. If you are going to make a website you need to have the ability to grow and scale so you are not playing catch up. It is important to be proactive and not reactive. Anticipate your larger scale growth for when the demand is there.

Pick your investors wisely. You are all in bed together. We embrace the HOT mantra – honesty, openness, trust. If you cannot trust them you should not work with them. Ask around and find references for your investors. The best thing we did was search on Google and we learned a lot about our investors to see if they were the real deal or not. Google can be your best friend to find answers to your questions.

If I were to start a new business... It would still be in the social community field. I see a huge opportunity in niche community websites – Facebook and MySpace are doing great but they are just the start. Another opportunity industry is UGC – user generated content. Sites like Digg and YouTube get their visitors to put up the content. If I were doing it again I would touch into these networks. Our concern starting up was having a revenue model that was not based on advertising. Now we know that an advertising revenue model can work.
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