By TIM RONALDSON | Business Trends
Imagine this: You’re a start-up company that could use a helping hand. You’re knowledgeable and motivated, and so are your partners.
What your company lacks, though, is proven experience, gained only through years of working in the field.
Enter JumpStart NYC, a New York City Economic Development Corp. program designed to help individuals who left jobs in the financial services sector apply their skills and abilities in opportunities beyond financial services. To boost the local economy, the city took its known quantity – the experienced financial professionals – and paired them with the unknown – its entrepreneurial firms – to not only get the professionals back on their feet and provide possible new career paths, but to grow what could be the city’s future at the same time.
“JumpStart NYC is a unique and proven program that pays a double dividend,” according to The Levin Institute, which developed the courses, events and seminars for the program. “First, it helps experienced professionals leaving the financial services industry to explore new opportunities in New York’s entrepreneurial sector. And, host companies benefit from the skills, wisdom and experience of a motivated professional.”
The EDC pilot tested the JumpStart program last spring, and from its success, has subsequently rolled out a program that began in December, and one that will begin in February. Each session includes a five-day “boot camp” for the professionals, where they re-learn to succeed in small companies; a 10-week “action-learning project” in an entrepreneurial firm; and a two-day wrap-up session to complete the successful transition.
Meanwhile, the firms get the benefit of having a proven professional, or a JumpStart NYC “consultant,” who has an average of 15 years experience in financial services, according to The Levin Institute.
“For a start-up, it’s amazing. It’s a nice gift,” said Tejpaul Bhatia, whose company, MediaMerx, was part of the JumpStart beta program last spring. “It was a really good opportunity for us to get someone with an outside perspective and experience.”
At MediaMerx – a technology company that provides media companies with custom video solutions, particularly those looking to reach companies on an international basis through online video – the JumpStart NYC consultant had a desire to get more involved in the media industry, so the fit was perfect, said Bhatia, the company’s CEO. As such, MediaMerx created a project around “his desires and our needs,” which included producing a six-episode project for one of their clients.
“We found a place where our interests aligned and made it work for us,” Bhatia said.
Matt Pressman, president of the advertising agency Project 2050, said he believes JumpStart “over-delivered.”
The company, which works with businesses such as Target and EA Sports, had a consultant for 10 weeks that helped with business forecasting and with the company’s finances. And Pressman said this “outside perspective” was very valuable in managing their business.
Pressman was so impressed by the work that was done that the consultant is still working with the company, even after the JumpStart program ended.
Going into the experience, Pressman said the company expected to receive some insight from the expert from another industry, but he didn’t expect the level of assistance and help that they received, and as such, he would recommend the program to other businesses.
On the flip side, Pressman believes the JumpStart program is also providing valuable experience to professionals looking for work.
“With the economic downturn, there were a number of financial industry experts who were looking for work, or looking to enter new industries,” Pressman said. “Some of these folks involved in the JumpStart program were able to learn more about another industry, and in some cases, were able to change career direction.”
For Michael Sid, CEO of Mediamorph, the two JumpStart consultants who were placed at his firm helped save “tens of thousands of dollars” that it would have had to pay for an outside consultant.
“It was very fortuitous,” Sid said.
Mediamorph, which helps film studios track and account for the distribution of their media through phones and the Internet, needed to complete an accounting audit certification, and that’s where the JumpStart consultants – one with 20 years experience from Citigroup and the other with Bank of New York – stepped in.
The process not only would have cost a lot of money to outsource, Sid said, but it also probably wouldn’t have been done a “tenth as well.”
“It’s a great thing to do to help people out,” Sid said of the program. “But from a selfish perspective, as a business who might be short on people or short on experience…it’s a boon of not only having an intern, but having an intern hit the ground running and actually do something.”
Sid focused on this aspect of JumpStart NYC as the most beneficial aspect to the businesses involved. Instead of either having to advertise and search for a prospective employee or having an intern not be able to handle all aspects of a project, the businesses get the luxury of being matched up with consultants who have years of experience. In return, the companies give back exposure to a different type of business and help people who may be down on their luck, Sid said.
Mediamorph is enlisting the help of another consultant for JumpStart2, which began in early December, and Sid is involved in refining the project for the programs going forward.
JumpStart3, which begins in February, will focus on people who have been displaced by the media industry, helping them to transition into new media, a subject that’s near to Sid’s heart since he’s been in the business for a while.
While the region’s economy is better now than it was nine months to a year ago, Sid said, the consultants are still flocking to JumpStart NYC, making a big lifestyle choice to learn about the entrepreneurial aspect of business, instead of applying for jobs as employees of big firms.
“I think it’s great,” Sid said. “That’s what New York needs – more people who want to become entrepreneurs.”
Want to participate?
Applications for JumpStart New Media, which begins in February, are due by Jan. 15. Participants must be residents of New York City.
More information can be found online at www.levininstitute.org or by contacting Kathleen Kane Bardolf by phone at (212) 317-3593 or e-mail at jumpstartnyc@levininstitute.org.
Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 2:05 pm
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