This week I reached out to seven companies I think can give me valuable information on the job board industry from different perspectives, including the full-time and “gig” markets. Below are a list of the companies I reached out to and why:

Craigslist- I identified them as the first competitor simply because of the community they’ve created where members are open to finding a range of new opportunities. Although this is my first pick it is unlikely I hear back.

Indeed- Indeed has created a different type of “community” where it essentially serves as a search engine for jobs, not really focused on catering to the individual but because of the great supply of results, users are more likely to find a match, even if temporary. As the top platform for job-related searches in the country, I hope to hear back as I’m certain they have valuable insights to share, if willing.

ZipRecruiter- ZipRecruiter is currently number two on the top job search website in the country and number five in the world, making great strides especially since 2017 with the Google partnership. Although, like Indeed, they are top players, they might not be the biggest competitors to my specific idea which may be more similar to “gig” apps, although not exclusive to “gigs”.

Fiverr- Fiverr is not as new as other companies on my list so they might have more data for the gig space in the market to share, including drawbacks when entering the market and how new and older competition is handled as newer players enter the market space.

TaskRabbit- Similiar to Fiver, TaskRabbit is also an app within the gig space, coming into the market in 2008. Despite them targeting experienced professionals looking for a part-time gig, contrary to most inexperienced college students, I think a quick chat with them can be helpful to my search.

Drum- Drum is a startup company that I recently learned about, just entering in late 2019. At first it was hard to find them but when I looked on crunchbase I saw they made quite the entry with $11 million of funding during the first round of seed funding, more than double than what top players in the market have started with. They obviously know what investors are looking for right now so I’m glad I learned about them and am crossing my fingers to hear back.

Glassdoor- Last but not least, Glassdoor is another giant in the job search market, serving as a trusted tool among students and all types of users for navigating into the job search market from both ends, job seekers and employers. A company like this has an immense amount of data on what job seekers (mostly centered around students and young graduates) are looking for as a career and hopefully their end job. Although the space is somewhat different, they might be able to give a differemt perspective on current market trends.

I’m hoping to hear back from some of these companies within the next few days after sending more emails over the weekend, in the meantime I will reach out to more since it’s already been a week without hearing from anyone from my list. Come back soon for an update!