Small and medium size enterprises as well as startups are faced with limited resources when developing new projects. For tech companies or companies looking to get into the tech field, this bottleneck is usually acquiring the engineering talent needed to work on projects at a price point the company can afford.

On the other hand, universities and post-secondary schools are filled with students eager to get applied learning in the fields of their degree. However, despite having the necessary prerequisites and being highly motivated, most students do not know how to get experience or where to look to find it.

The Talent Network team was founded when two of the members met near the ASU Tempe campus. Tommy (a founder) was looking for a web developer for his company, but had no idea how to find a good one. Without any guidance as to where to look, he took to asking students on the streets of Mill Ave if they happened to be an engineer with web development experience. By chance, he shouted at Max (another founder), asking him if he had any web development experience. Tommy got lucky that day, because Max had a plethora of web development experience and was willing to help him out. But, this chance meeting got them thinking that although yelling down the street had worked this time, how could companies like Tommy’s and students like Max find a better and less risky way to find each other? They figured there must be a better way for motivated students to get experience before graduation, and small businesses to find access to talent and skilled student engineers to work on their projects. But that way of connecting didn’t seem to exist anywhere. The need was there. The solution was discussed, customers were interviewed, other team members joined, and with that The Talent Network was born.

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Through talking to companies and students around the Tempe area, The Talent Network has recognized the need for a service to connect highly motivated students with local tech businesses eager to consume new talent. Our solution is comprised of two parts, a company for selling business to business consultation services, and a student organization for assessing and recruiting talented students from affiliated universities.

The company, The Talent Network, is currently operating in the Tempe Arizona area in conjunction with the first affiliated student organization SPARCe (Students’ Projects and Research Consulting in Engineering, website: http://SPARCe.org), pronounced "sparky" at Arizona State University.

Here's how it works:

STEP 1: TALK TO COMPANIES
The Talent Network talks to the companies to get the project details, form project deliverable, determine required skills for students.

STEP 2: SELECT STUDENTS
Based on the required skill sets, the student organization, SPARCe, selects the students from its pool who would be a good fit. The students are then screened/interviewed and the best ones are handed over to the companies to work with.

STEP 3: COMPANIES GET S#!T DONE
Once they get the students, companies finally get s#!t done! :)

We completed our MVP trial run that started in late February, 2015. In total, The Talent Network MVP had 11 projects from 6 companies with more than 40 students working on these projects.

Apart from these we have gathered more than 15 leads so far and are working to convert them into paying customers. One of them has already paid us up front and two others are in the process of signing a legal contract with us. We are still in talks with others and we are sure we will have a much higher conversion rate.

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Our customer archetype is a typical local web/software based startup/small business.

Bigger companies usually have a lot of money and an existing system in place to hire interns, or full time contractors to do the work for them. Unfortunately smaller companies are usually tight on their budget and cannot afford to hire people to do the work for them.

We offer affordable web/software services to these companies by leveraging the amazing university student talent. From our customer discovery process we found that most of our customers fall into category - those who want students and those who want work done.

In the first category, the companies want students to join their existing development team. We do precisely just that. We charge the companies a flat rate for every student they want. The more students they want, they get higher discounts.

In the second category, the companies are usually looking for the entire work to be done by students. The companies are charged on the complexity of the project. In this case, we form student teams on campus using the student organization and micro-manage the projects ourselves. Every team will have a student project manager who will be responsible to get the deliverable finished.

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We need the first $1000 to cover our initial legal expenses.

Operating agreement formation: $750
Company registration: $120
Initial MoU/contract formation for early customers: $130

Sorry couldn't reach 200 words, but there really isn't much to write here! We have already validated our idea and getting lot of leads. All we need is legal help and grow! :)

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Team Members:
Mayank Prasad, mayank.pd@asu.edu, 480-878-9227 (Max)
Edward Andert, eandert@asu.edu, 928-533-8750 (Eddie)
Thomas Verderame, tverdera@asu.edu, 203-804-8123 (Tommy)
Karan Sharma, ksharm15@asu.edu, 480-559-5322
Yanzhe Xu, yanzhe.xu@asu.edu, 480-526-0225 (Josh)

How did we meet?
Tommy and Max met on Mill Ave (story mentioned in question 1). Max and Eddie were classmates at ASU. Karan and Josh joined the team via the FSE 501 (Technology Entrepreneurship) class taught by Brent Sebold.

Max is a Computer Engineering Masters student and is the founder of another startup, maxEmbedded. He has experience leading teams and is well versed with the Tempe startup community. Eddie is also a Computer Engineering Masters student and has been at ASU for more than 6 years, and has lots of experience running student teams. Having past web/software development experience, together Eddie and Max talk and coordinate with most of the leads and customers.

Tommy is a recent graduate of School of Sustainability and is the acting business arm. He leads another similar student organization at ASU for sustainability and brings in his experience and expertise from there. Karan is a Mechanical Engineering Masters student and has international project management experience from over 4 countries. Josh is a double Masters student of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and owns 16 patents! He coordinates with the lawyers for legal stuffs.

Everyone is passionate about working with The Talent Network because we want to help students and local small businesses at the same time! We want to create a difference in the lives of fellow students and help grow the local business community.

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Small and medium size enterprises as well as startups are faced with limited resources when developing new projects. For tech companies or companies looking to get into the tech field, this bottleneck is usually acquiring the engineering talent needed to work on projects at a price point the company can afford.

On the other hand, universities and post-secondary schools are filled with students eager to get applied learning in the fields of their degree. However, despite having the necessary prerequisites and being highly motivated, most students do not know how to get experience or where to look to find it.

Talent Network team was founded when two members met near ASU. Tommy (a founder) was looking for a web developer for his company, but had no idea how to find a good one. Without any guidance as to where to look, he took to asking students on Mill Ave if they happened to be an engineer with web development experience. By chance, he shouted at Max (another founder), asking him if he had any web development experience. Tommy got lucky that day, because Max had a plethora of web development experience and was willing to help him out. But this chance meeting got them thinking  although yelling down the street had worked this time, how could companies like Tommy’s and students like Max find a better and less risky way to find each other? They figured there must be a better way for motivated students to get experience before graduation, and small businesses to find access to talent and skilled student engineers to work on their projects. But that way of connecting didn’t seem to exist anywhere. The need was there. The solution was discussed, customers were interviewed, other team members joined, and with that The Talent Network was born.

=========
We need the first $1000 to cover our initial legal expenses.

Operating agreement formation: $750
Company registration: $120
Initial MoU/contract formation for early customers: $130

Sorry couldn't reach 200 words, but there really isn't much to write here! We have already validated our idea and getting lot of leads. All we need is legal help and grow! :)

And sorry for repeating it over and over, I had no choice, it wouldn't let me submit otherwise. :(

=======

We need the first $1000 to cover our initial legal expenses.

Operating agreement formation: $750
Company registration: $120
Initial MoU/contract formation for early customers: $130

Sorry couldn't reach 200 words, but there really isn't much to write here! We have already validated our idea and getting lot of leads. All we need is legal help and grow! :)

And sorry for repeating it over and over, I had no choice, it wouldn't let me submit otherwise. :(

========
We need the first $1000 to cover our initial legal expenses.

Operating agreement formation: $750
Company registration: $120
Initial MoU/contract formation for early customers: $130

Sorry couldn't reach 200 words, but there really isn't much to write here! We have already validated our idea and getting lot of leads. All we need is legal help and grow! :)

And sorry for repeating it over and over, I had no choice, it wouldn't let me submit otherwise. :(