great video! have you thought about whitelabeling it and selling it as a solution to universities themselves, possibly with some custom/admin features?
@zushizack - thank you and yes - that's a long term play as our core value proposition is bringing top talent and industry together. Some of the universities started supporting our efforts (USC and Berkeley) in some way or the other. So our focus is on building value to students than universities at the moment!
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I created a tag cloud of the last 500 posts of the Facebook group 'Delhi Startups', and the most common words were looking and hiring. I'm not to sure about the U.S, but Indian startups are having a major problem in finding the right people and this product can be massive for the ecosystem
Malcolm Gladwell suggests finding the highest achievers in any school, not the average talent from the elite schools. i.e.
Ranking of talent according to Gladwell with cost.
Harvard top student: $$$$$
Tier-2 university top student: $$
Harvard average student: $$$$
Tier-2 university average student: $
I wonder if sites like this could make it easier to find and attract those top achievers from tier-2 universities that outperform the average Harvard students. Given how hard it is to find them at the moment, it is easier to hire anyone from Harvard, but new systems should be capable of making it easy.
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Not sure about others, but I hate the word 'elite' and would be turned off this site from that alone. Having worked for three companies, all which lead their field and hire plenty/majority of their employees from Harvard and similar schools, the word elite would annoy / put-off many of them.
@mcbennett - Great points, in fact you brought a fresh perspective to the discussion going on here. As I mentioned in some of my above responses - it's not fair for every student to be treated otherwise based on their degrees and not skills. Unfortunately, industry still value degrees as a standard process. But it's going to change very soon.
Ex: Follow this Quora question for industry's perspective on getting a Harvard MBA - http://www.quora.com/Is-it-worth...
At Meed we are trying to develop a transformational technology that values skills more than general parameters like GPA and university degrees. We are starting with a focused set of students for the segments we picked. And coming to the word 'elite' - it is purely meant to be as a best match for your requirements than anything else. But I do agree it could get controversial.
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@raviformative@mcbennett
I come from a design background which is driven by portfolio more than CV. For most companies, it depends on what is available, and currently there is not a reasonable alternative to making judgement based on where one studied other than the portfolio professions. On tech talent, I guess some companies look for Github profiles.
"Elitism in education is not to be confused with excellence. Elitism is about privilege. It came from the Latin eligere, meaning "to elect", and became a noun meaning "the chosen or elected". However, over the years, it has been twisted to mean the exact opposite - an unelected group who claim moral superiority because of their inherited social status."
Many will think of that last sentence when they see the word "an unelected group who claim moral superiority because of their inherited social status." To most startups, this is quite simply against their meritocratic culture. There are other words you could use that are less controversial but I would recommend that you test it rather than simply assume either my advice or that it is a non-issue. All depends on who you are targeting and if they care.
Hi, I am Ravi, co-founder/CEO of Meed. We are currently exclusive to top 28 U.S. Universities.
We have been improving our talent product over past year to make it really easy for companies to access top student talent. Signing up, building a company profile and posting jobs are free and simple.
The best part of Meed platform is when you don't have to wait for the applications to arrive, instead start inviting students you like from our curated matches.
Fellow entrepreneurs and startups - You might have so many tasks to be completed at an economical cost. Post your part-time jobs or internships on Meed today and get help from top talent!
@raviformative Streamlines the process for employers AND students -- love that! Any plans for expanding to other universities? What are your thoughts on super talented kids you might be missing out on (unable to pay to attend elite schools)?
@lejlahunts - Great question and thank you for the support.
Our mission is to provide students with career paths that they deserve. It's a tough problem to solve and we've set several goals to achieve it.
Our current goal is to fix some of the fragmented processes that created a gap between industry and academia. We are trying to achieve it by closing the product to an initial focused set of students. This is from our philosophy of building best products by learning and quick iteration which will soon be ready for use by everyone.
For example: we spent 8 months in designing layout for Meed's student profile after research from recruiters and their ATS (applicant tracking systems). And this was couple of years ago.
We've picked 28 universities that are strong in the segments we are going after. It might give an impression of discrimination but our data shows that not every student from these universities are successful right from the start. For example, I am one of them and only I know how many challenges I faced out of college to get the job I love.
And this is changing. Changing at a faster pace. We want to be part of that transformation and add value to the system as we are aware of the depth and breadth of the problem we are going after.
Thanks again for the question and please watch out this space for some interesting updates this fall.
Love the video! Great website - clean, fresh, easy to use and informative. Think you folks can have a real impact helping students and new grads find great opportunities! All that said, I agree with James M., that your use of 'elite' is a bit annoying. As an employer who could potentially use your site, I thought the following language on your website - 'short list elite profiles and discard the rest' was a bit off-putting. Fortunately that's just language, and easy enough to fix. Also, I agree with Lejla B, and James M., and wonder if limiting yourselves to 28 'top' schools is the right strategy? Seems like every company and startup is chasing the graduates of the schools on your list. Given the shortage of tech talent in the industry, why not 'cast your net' wider? But love what you guys are doing!
Great initiative @raviformative , both startups and fresh grads can benefit from this. Any plans of including top Indian universities, as it will benefit startups not just in India, but also in US and Europe, in attracting top talent at limited budget.
We have been working with Ravi and team at Meed since they were Resu.me, and looking for funding. Their team is incredibly responsive and helpful with support around posting jobs, responding to product requests, and updating our company profile on their site. We have been able to successfully target the right student population we're hiring for (computer science), at the best universities and get them to apply for our jobs! It's a great platform for branding your company and finding great talent!
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