1) Researching my competition, I really would like to replicate the base of employees that my competition has. I researched primarily on Indeed.com, their employee based is large but that is due to their stature in the industry for a long time, but they did start with a big base of employees unlike regular startups, considering Rubicon will require one to one interaction a base of starting with at least 100 employees would be something I would love to replicate. While the second competition I listed was college/university career centers, one their best work is doing workshops by doing sessions where you teach students HOW & WHICH websites, they can visit in order to find opportunities. I would love to implement this feature by having our own workshop events where we bring in members, ex alumnis, from many schools to discuss their experience and how they found opportunities and how their experiences can lead the way for future students.

2) The deviation from the Indeed.com I propose is the interactive nature between our employees and consumers, where communicating (as required) with a particular student, will help us apply for jobs and look for opportunities ON BEHALF of them – as if they were to do it if they were self-serving. I want Rubicon to deviate from the nature of self-serving to provide the closest thing to outsourcing the task of application – (through frequent communication with our representatives). For example – Indeed.com an individual can put a resume and apply for jobs listed there – but with Rubicon they can talk/chat to a representative, they breakdown how this individual want their application done and for each application a certain representative will modify to fit the individual requirements accordingly.

3) The competitive advantage Indeed.com have is a large connection with companies through which they earn their money by enlisting their job posting on the site. Every view(click) or application is a source of revenue for them through those companies, and many companies find them to be a reliable platform to list their jobs because it’s simple and quick to find for people.

4) Yes, because the ultimate goal of Rubicon’s value proposition is to promote convenience as you search for jobs/internships. If we can make our platform easy to use for both companies and students – that could sway many to start using our platform.

5) One of the main reasons I DO NOT think it would be a good idea to move forward with my idea is because on theory, Rubicon could be a great platform if possibly done correct but in order to get to the structure and nature of what Rubicon is in theory it’ll take time. Question: is can we compete with the large job boards in the industry, career centers in schools? Who already have existing customers, employees, programs and capital? I would say no we don’t, in order to fulfill the value proposition Rubicon proposes it will require a great base of employees to start with, because to contact every individual that may sign up – face to face and modify accordingly and regularly for each job application, for a start up it may be improbable in terms of finance.