Print
Email
Print Edition Stories
MHT Staff Photo
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Pitch
Propel Careers aims to match interns and entrepreneurs
MHT's Efrain Viscarolasaga: How social networking is changing business
MHT managing editor Rodney Brown on NECN: 22 tech companies give back to community
Flash Slideshow: Mass High Tech All-Stars Thought Leadership Roundtable
Lauren Celano met Omar Amirana at the Massachusetts Biotech Council’s investors meeting in December 2008. They got to talking about how difficult it could be for students and startups to find one another in the life sciences industry.
Celano, a graduate student at Boston University, and Amirana, a venture capitalist at Oxford Bioscience Partners, founded Propel Careers two months later, in February. The company wants to make it easier for students to find internships at entrepreneurially minded organizations — and for those organizations to reach students.
Celano said it can be difficult for both parties in that equation to find each other. To that end, Propel is partnering with colleges, incubators, trade associations, industry networking groups, tech transfer offices, and biotech, medical device and software industry executives.
“A lot of companies want talent, but don’t know how to find it. For the students, to find small companies for an internship is very time-consuming,” Celano said.
Propel is looking for $200,000 to expand its website and increase its budget for travel expenses, marketing and hiring. The startup is looking for grants, but also hopes to raise money the old-fashioned way, as revenue. Propel plans to make money through advertising, and so far has five sponsorships sold, Celano said. The company is targeting law firms, accounting firms and other service providers that want to sell their wares to the startups that use the site to find talent.
Propel competes with companies including VentureLoop, Startuply and Glocap, although Propel says none of those focus on the life sciences industry, Propel’s initial primary sector. Propel also plans to serve the software and cleantech industries and may expand later on.
Celano will finish her MBA, with a focus in entrepreneurship and health sector, in December, and plans to focus on Propel full time. In addition to Celano and Amirana, Jonathan Lee, formerly of LEK Consulting and Cambridge Associates, is a co-founder of Propel.
Headquarters: Boston
Founded: 2009
Co-Founders: Lauren Celano, Omar Amirana, Jonathan Lee
Web: www.propelcareers.com
Email: Lauren@propelcareers.com
The Pitch: Propel is looking for $200,000 for marketing, hiring and website improvements.
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
RSS Feeds
