Image via CrunchBaseFeature Story is fascinating company started by a buddy of mine, Rajeeb Dey. I met him at the St Gallen Symposium last year and has been thoroughly impressed by his accomplishments at a tender age.
Rajeeb (24) - who has been named as one of the UK’s “rising stars of the business world” by Spectator Business Magazine and “among the most high profile” young entrepreneur by the Financial Times - graduated with First Class Honours in June 2008 from the University of Oxford in Economics & Management. Whilst at University he was the longest serving President of Oxford Entrepreneurs, one of the largest networks of student entrepreneurs in Europe. He was also President of the Oxford Majlis Asian Society, founded in 1896 as a political forum for Indian independence and the second oldest society at Oxford University. Former presidents include Mrs. Indira Gandhi and K.P.S. Menon, who went on to serve the subcontinent with distinction.
Rajeeb has been heavily involved in social entrepreneurship/youth participation from an early age. At 17, Rajeeb became the Founder & Chairman of the English Secondary Students’ Association (ESSA) – the first national student run organisation empowering secondary school students, giving them a voice in education.
Rajeeb’s work in entrepreneurship has led to him being invited as one of the first Ambassadors for the “Make Your Mark Campaign” – helping to promote UK entrepreneurship. Rajeeb’s other roles include being a Trustee and Investment Committee member of UnLtd – the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs; Trustee of the Phoenix Education Trust; a Commissioner on the Carnegie UK Trust’s Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society; Education Advisory Board Member for Channel 4; and an Advisory Board Member of the UK-India Business Council (UKIBC), which involved being part of Gordon Brown’s Ministerial visit to India in January 2008.
Rajeeb’s work with ESSA has led to him being presented with an award by Channel 4 & NESTA’s “Bedroom Britain Campaign” (recognising young entrepreneurial talent in Britain), a Wavemakers Award (from Sir John Major); an UnLtd Level 2 Award; the Bank of England’s Windsor Fellowship in 2005 (a prestigious Leadership Development programme); as well as being awarded the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Award in 2006 and Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts (as part of the RSA Young Leaders Award). In 2008 he was selected as one of twelve people globally to be given the accolade of “Architect of the Future” by the Waldzell Institute and one of twenty globally to receive the YouthActionNet Global Fellowship. He is a member of The Observer / Courvoisier Future 500 network – ‘an exclusive network of rising stars across the UK’ and has been chosen as one of four within the network to be named as “One to Watch in 2010”. He has also been invited to join the British Council’s Trans-Atlantic Network 2020 – a network of emerging leaders from around the world.
Rajeeb is also the Founder & CEO of Enternships.com, a service providing “entrepreneurial work placements” by connecting talented students and graduates to start-ups, SMEs and “intrapreneurial” firms worldwide. The site launched in public beta in May 09 and has already been recognized as a promising new start-up by becoming a Top 3 Finalist in the Esquire Magazine / Philips New Business Challenge; Finalist in the Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 “Life Academy” Awards and for which he has been named the 02 X Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2009. Enternships has already secured global media coverage in The Sunday Times, CNN, The Daily Telegraph, ABC News, Business Week, Wall Street Journal amongst others. Rajeeb was profiled by the Institute of Directors as the Director of the Month in March 2010 and as one of the UK’s Top 30 Entrepreneurs aged Under 30 in Real Business Magazine (April 2010). Enternships has also been recognised by the UK Trade & Investment’s Global Entrepreneur Programme (UKTI GEP) as a “Technology of Exceptional Potential” and Rajeeb is the youngest entrepreneur to have ever been admitted onto the UKTI GEP initiative.
In April 2010 Rajeeb was featured in a National Lottery funded exhibition, alongside India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto and other prolific individuals as one of ten “Oxasians” - illustrious graduates from the University of Oxford of South Asian origin.
We interview him over email here:
What do you do or make?
Enternships.com is a jobs portal which connects students/graduates to start-ups and SMEs who provide entrepreneurial work placements (“entrepreneurial internships”). SMEs struggle to find talent and lack the recruitment budgets of "blue-chip firms" to undertake the traditional ‘milkround’. Enternships therefore provides these companies with visibility on campus and serves as a central place for start-ups to reach out to talent. Up until now small companies have had to rely on classified listing services such as Gumtree or Craigslist where often they would be spammed or inundated with irrelevant enquiries; Enternships provides them with a centralised system to manage recruitment in a more targeted manner.
What's new, interesting, or different about what your company does?*
"Route to market: There is currently a major disconnect between small business and universities. Careers services in the UK are unable to engage adequately with small businesses as they are set-up to cater to the needs of large corporations. Our research and feedback gathered from SMEs has been that interaction with careers services has been negative in most cases, with many not knowing who to approach or talk to in order to advertise opportunities to university students. Enternships therefore helps bridge this disconnect and provides a direct link to students on campus, working through student entrepreneurship societies across the UK.
Whilst listing sites like Gumtree and Craigslist provide volume of applications, small businesses do not have the time to filter and respond to all applicants. Enternships therefore provides a centralised online system to manage the entire recruitment process from filtering candidates, messaging, accepting/rejecting so that the business owner is not over-whelmed with correspondence to track in their email inbox.
Changing industry attitudes: Enternships is trying to change industry practice and attitudes in the graduate recruitment market both on the side of candidates and companies.
Start-ups/small business have not been seen as traditional ‘graduate recruiters’. This may be due to lack of a simple way of attracting these candidates or because they do not see the 'value-add' of graduates (maybe they themselves did not attend university) or feel that they have the financial resources to attract top talent. We encourage them by showing examples of successful placements and the benefits students can add to a firm; letting them know that top talent is interested in small business is particularly important now with the graduate jobs crisis we are facing. At the same time we provide a low cost, time-saving recruitment solution (e.g. CV filtering/interview scheduling etc) for these firms to advertise short-term/full time vacancies.
Until recently students and graduates on campus have only been exposed to large corporations such as the blue-chip professional services industry who are the ‘traditional’ graduate recruiters. In reality a very small percentage of students get these roles – what should the rest do? We are also seeing “Gen Y” increasingly disillusioned by the traditional work opportunities on offer in large institutions, seeking alternatives. We want to connect these candidates to the millions of smaller businesses out there who can provide extremely valuable experience. In the current market we are also seeing interest from ‘career changers’ who are leaving the city to pursue more entrepreneurial paths – a great asset for start-ups who are able to attract more experienced candidates.
Just as bankers, lawyers, accountants etc do ‘internships’ , those who want to be entrepreneurs / join a small business should be able to do an ‘enternship’. A deliberate attempt has been made to create a strong brand and new word which hopefully in years to come will enter the dictionary so that doing an ‘enternship’ in a start-up will have the same kudos as doing a corporate internship.
Global marketplace: We have global ambitions at Enternships. The current trends and increased mobility in the student population means that there is tremendous value for a portal to be able to connect students in one country to work placements in another. For example the international student population at London School of Economics is approximately 70%; whilst you may study at the LSE you may live in China and thus when going back home during holiday periods you may wish to find a work placement. We would like Enternships to be the platform for students to find exciting roles around the world and to ignite the entrepreneurial ambition in the next generation. We realise that whilst there may be job board/websites which focus on one geography there are very few with international opportunities. In the globalised and connected world we’re in today many students/graduates are keen to travel for the right opportunity, likewise dynamic start-ups in India for example may be keen to hire a graduate from the UK if they’re looking at ways of breaking into the UK market. We already have a team of Ambassadors who act as liaisons for particular regions and so far we have attracted companies in all major continents including Africa, Asia, Middle East, North America, South America and of course Europe who have posted roles on Enternships.com.
Given 20-20 hindsight, what would you do differently?
I would have recruited a technical Co-Founder in the first instance. Running a web startup without the technical expertise in house can be extremely challenging and a lot of time has been wasted by me chasing developers and waiting for things to happen. Especially if you're bootstrapped (like myself) your development can be hampered by the lack of in house technical talent.
What is your most memorable fund-raising experience?
I haven't undertaken any fundraising as yet; I will look to raise an angel round of investment between now and the end of the year so watch this space! We are completely bootstrapped to date.
Explain how the company will make money?
We will operate a similar business model to classified listing websites such as Gumtree ie charge companies to list job roles on the website. There will be a basic listing fee and companies can pay more to have 'premium listings' whereby their adverts appear in bold, at the top of search results, featured on the homepage as well as paying for newsletter mailshots and advertising. As of now the site is in a free beta trial to attract companies to use the website.
Why is the addressable market you are targetting interesting?
"On the one hand we are attract students and graduates to use the site; there are 2.3m students in the UK alone and the current unemployment crisis means they are on the hunt for work and any form of experience. More students are deferring their entry to the job market and thus we predict at least in the short term there will be a rise in those looking for temporary/short term work placements.
On the other hand our clients are the 4.3m SMEs in the UK which is growing; of this 4.3m approx 2.3m hire people and thus this is the target market. There is a growing number of start-ups and small businesses in the current climate and the vision for Enternships is to be a global jobs board and thus we are looking and launching international microsites in other countries/regions eg Middle East, Ireland etc."
Why should we choose your company?
"I turned down two job offers from reputable organizations – the Bank of England and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to pursue my dream of being an entrepreneur. This was a big risk and tough to reject lucrative starting salaries especially in the current climate where graduates are struggling to find full time jobs; however I have complete belief in the vision for Enternships and my ability to make a positive contribution to society through my startup at a time when it is most needed in the economy.
Research shows that a service such as Enternships.com is desperately needed. The Global Economic Monitor in 2006 found that following work experience with SMEs ""start-up expectations"" were boosted from 6.4% to 13.0%. Given that we are facing an unprecedented economic crisis with graduates entering what is probably one of the toughest job markets in decades it is imperative that we develop entrepreneurial skills in these people.
Thus, as a recent graduate and young entrepreneur I hope to inspire the hundreds and thousands of graduates who have entered the bleak job market this summer. I want to show my peers that they do not need to rely on getting a corporate job per se and can venture on their own and start a business or work for a start-up or small firm. I hope that by providing a portal to connect students to these opportunities in SMEs we can boost the entrepreneurial aspirations of thousands of young people, create new wealth and opportunities and thus boost economic growth/productivity in Britain and beyond.
Thus it is not just a jobs board we are creating – it is a culture change we wish to see.
