“My idea with 31Projects was to provide students this needed “foot in the door” in their field of choice while at the same time proving a substantial benefit to participating organizations in terms of affordable, highly talented assistance with their challenges.”

Interview by Kelsey Meyer of Make Me Your Ad
After attending undergrad at University of Virginia, getting his Master of Engineering Management with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from Duke, and a MBA Concentration in International Finance from European Business School, Jon Reifschneider knows what it is like to be a student.  He used his experience as a student to develop an amazing platform for businesses to connect with highly skilled students.  His company, 31Projects, started only five months ago, and is already a success

31Projects is an online platform for student projects and contests for businesses & social organizations. 31Projects works with organizations to help them define their challenges into consulting-style projects and crowdsourcing competitions and connect them with students from their nation-wide network interested in working on them.  The goal is to connect students with meaningful opportunities to put their skills to use helping organizations while themselves gaining hands-on experience in their field of interest.  31Projects signed its first fortune 500 company in November, and they were so impressed with the results of the initial project they signed on for two more.

MO:
Your education background is extremely impressive.  Can you tell us about what happened during your education that sparked the idea for this platform?

Jon:
I think the main thing that sparked my idea for 31Projects was observing the difficulties which my fellow talented MBA students around the world were having in finding employment in their ideal field.  It’s common knowledge that the best way to obtain a position in an industry is to find a way to get a foot in the door, yet for students it can sometimes be very difficult to do this.  My idea with 31Projects was to provide students this needed “foot in the door” in their field of choice while at the same time proving a substantial benefit to participating organizations in terms of affordable, highly talented assistance with their challenges.

MO:
It says on your site that you recruit highly skilled students for these projects.  How do you find these students, and what is the application process like on the student end?

Jon:
We’ve been working to grow our student network by reaching out to career centers at top universities to educate them about the opportunities through 31Projects and engage them in helping us spread the word to the students.  We’ve also been reaching out to associates at universities such as consulting clubs, entrepreneurship clubs, or social business clubs to engage their members.  Once a student is a registered member, which is free, they can view and apply to any projects of interest.  Application is very easy, as each student has a pre-existing profile, and sponsors then select a student or team based on their resumes/profiles, cover letter, and feedback from any previous projects they have done.

MO:
Are students compensated for their work on the projects?

Jon:
Yes, in almost all cases we require that businesses and organizations compensate students for their work.  The only exception is that we have been experimenting with some pro bono volunteer projects for select nonprofits.

MO:
Have you partnered with any Universities that could use this as a class project, or a requirement for the class?

Jon:
We would like to, and we’re in discussions with a couple universities to integrate the projects into courses or practicum programs.  We are working with one large university to help them build a practicum program which will utilize projects from 31Projects as the basis for the course.

MO:
What is the process like for businesses or organizations using your platform?  Are they heavily involved throughout the process, or do they simply sit back and wait for the students to present a great solution?

Jon:
It really depends how much the particular sponsor would like to be involved.  We encourage sponsors to stay very involved throughout the process, as we’ve generally found that the more involved the sponsor is, the greater the likelihood of a great project outcome.  We also have sponsors however who prefer to hand over all the needed information and then let the team work independently through the project.

The typical process for a business or organization is that they will register on the site and then use our project form to describe as well as possible the particular challenge which they would like help with.  We then work with the sponsor to define a project, and advertise it through the platform to the students.  After the application period the sponsor will select a student or team, and we will then kick the project off.  During the project we use a project workspace for the team and sponsor to track progress, and at the conclusion the team hands over all results and does a final presentation with the sponsor.

MO:
What do you imagine for the future of 31Projects?

Jon:
My ultimate goal for 31Projects is for it to become the go-to place for companies and organizations of any size to connect with the most talented students from universities around the world.