Slingbox, which enables people to control their TVs via the Internet. Williams says he did most of the design and development of Jobzle himself, and has financed the small operation with his own income and contributions from family and friends. He, Durfee, and Mathews plan to raise about $150,000 in a seed round over the next year or so to expand to other colleges and universities in the Northeast, Williams said.
While there’s good reason to wonder whether a student-led operation like Jobzle will ever reach primetime, the startup has done well drumming up plenty of support from the entrepreneurial community in Providence. Williams—who went to high school in New Zealand after moving there from the U.S. with his family when he was 10—said he has been working with mentors at the Providence startup incubator Betaspring, which I wrote about in some detail last month. (Jobzle was not in Betaspring’s startup program this summer, but Williams said he is considering whether to apply to participate in one of the incubator’s future programs.) Brown is also lending its support to the startup by serving as an early employer customer and allowing Williams to spend a quarter of his study time focusing on the venture, he said.
Williams said he would be willing to leave Brown before he graduates if he attracted enough investments to expand Jobzle next year. I suppose that means that with any luck he won’t graduate on schedule in spring 2011.
