Ypulse Interview: Austin Lavin, Co-Founder/CEO MyFirstPaycheck.com
Posted by anastasia on 08-15-2008
I love the concept behind MyFirstPaycheck.com, a jobs board and content site for teens looking to find paying jobs. Founded by Austin Lavin and his teen sister Celeste, the site has taken off and become a real business — spreading the message that teens DO make good employees in the process. I did a short email interview with Austin to find out more…
Ypulse: How did you and your sister get the idea for the site?
Austin Lavin: Learning how to search and apply for jobs are not skills teens learn in school, and often not skills they gain at home. The biggest challenge for most teens is figuring out where to start, where to look, how to apply, and how to prepare. One of the reasons myfirstpaycheck.com has been so successful is that we offer advice and tools to facilitate the job searching process, along with a hyper-local job board.
YP: What has surprised you since launching the site (about the experience, teens using it, employers, etc.)?
AL: We knew that myfirstpaycheck.com filled an important niche, but we could not have imagined how popular our services would become. Everyday, we receive emails from teens across the country asking us to find job listings, or recommend places to work in their hometowns. It's been hard to grow fast enough!
We've also been surprised at the hesitation some companies have shown to advertising on our site because of a belief that teenagers don't make good employees. Not only do teenagers provide affordable and enthusiastic help, but companies cannot buy better brand ambassadors. Our research has consistently shown that teenagers are more likely to spend money at places that hire their peers, and listing jobs (or simply advertising) on myfirstpaycheck.com is a great way of spreading the word to teenage consumers.
YP: How have you gotten the word out about the site — to teens? And to employers?
AL: Our key competitive advantage is the knowledge of our target audience. Like many successful companies, myfirstpaycheck.com is being developed by people in the demographic group most likely to use the service. The critical component to our entrance into the market is a great product, and a successful word of mouth campaign. We are efficiently using our advertising budget on internet communities like facebook.com that allow us to reach a specific target market, while also developing partnerships with local high schools, community groups, and other teen-focused websites like gradeconnect.com to build awareness.
We have utilized a variety of methods to spread awareness of myfirstpaycheck.com to employers and advertisers, including everything from smiling and dialing to email solicitations, but we've also experienced success identifying and connecting to employers and advertisers using the social networking site LinkedIn.
YP: What is your advice for Ypulse readers/media and marketing professionals trying to reach youth (being one yourself!)
AL: It's important to add content and features that teenagers are looking for or else they are going to fill the need themselves. When my sister and I started we were 16 and 23 and didn't have any real tech experience or financial resources to speak of. But we saw a need that wasn't being filled by the big job boards, newspapers, or any independent companies and were able to build a job board specifically for teenagers that is used across the country.
YP: Anything else you think Ypulse readers should know?
AL: We're working hard on continuing to grow myfirstpaycheck.com. We're looking to add more sponsored content (for example what to wear to an interview (and where to buy it) brought to you by a clothing company) and we're looking to spread awareness of our job listings by increasing the number of websites posting jobs through our job widgets.