San Diego-based Portfolium began as a solution to the problem that many students face as they near the end of their schooling and look to join the real-world workforce. How do you create a persuasive resumé or LinkedIn profile if you’ve been a full-time student and don’t have much professional work history?
Founding CEO Adam Markowitz created Portfolium as a Web-based social network that enables students to create a personal profile to showcase their academic skills, projects, experience, and community service for prospective employers.
Instead of putting bullet points on a Word document, Portfolium enables students to create multimedia accounts that can include recommendations, contact information, and be shared on LinkedIn, Instagram, and other social media networks.
Users can upload their website with the work they are most proud of—such as an art project, engineering design, legal brief, video, or slideshow—and an update will be sent to companies with open positions in their field.
The startup was founded at the beginning of 2013, moved into the EvoNexus incubator in downtown San Diego in late 2013, raised $900,000 in seed capital from angel investors last summer, and signed a contract to provide student accounts for all nine campuses in the University of California system. In September, Portfolium reached a separate deal to provide a branded network for California State University San Marcos (CSUSM).
Like Facebook, students anywhere can create their own Portfolium accounts for free—and they can continue to use their accounts for free even after they graduate.
The startup generates revenue by
