Official ProspectLinker Blog

What's our value proposition?

2009-05-17T13:49:00.044-04:00

ProspectLinker is a community driven website that helps you get insight from professionals who are outside of your network.

The beta site we are working on will provide the easiest, most efficient place to get linked to a community from which you are interested in getting viewpoints.

Major communities that are currently growing on ProspectLinker include Consulting, I-Banking / Finance, Marketing, Media / Entertainment, Technology, and Venture Capital / Private Equity.

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Here is an example of the value proposition offered by ProspectLinker:

A Senior Associate from a major Financial Institution was recently looking for professionals in the media and entertainment industry that could provide answers to the following questions:

What is your opinion on the current investing climate of the media and entertainment space in emerging markets such as Africa?
Viewpoints from: Marketing guy, Sr. Financial Analyst at Warner Music Group

What is your position on the current debate regarding free music streaming over the internet with the likes of Pandora and its implications on the music industry?
Viewpoints from: Sr. Financial Analyst at Warner Music Group, Start-up Founder

Is music streaming substitutional for sales? If so, shouldn’t artist and songwriters get paid by music streaming service providers?
Viewpoints from: Start-up Founders, Sr. Financial Analyst at Warner Music Group

Do you know of any venture capital and or private equity funds that primarily invest in the media and entertainment space?
Viewpoints from: Private Equity Professional, Sr. Financial Analyst at Warner Music Group

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ProspectLinker ultimately linked this person to media / entertainment professionals and others, who answered his questions and were very helpful in providing him with resources.

If you've ever asked the question -- "Do you know any people in a particular industry (that is outside of your network) who can provide answers to my questions?", then you will find value in ProspectLinker.

Here's an invite to join -- http://bit.ly/3v1Uq

Regards,

Andre Charoo
President
ProspectLinker
--

Learn more on our blog || http://prospectlinker.blogspot.com
Follow us on Twitter || http://twitter.com/prospectlinker
Website || http://prospectlinker.com

How would you make ProspectLinker better?

2009-05-11T17:20:00.023-04:00

Kent Fenwick, our Chief Code Magician, recently asked a great question that I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on --

How would you make ProspectLinker better?

As we've mentioned before, we are working on a beta release that focuses on one concept -- facilitating professional conversations. As a result of your conversations, you have the opportunity to meet people outside of your personal networks, in industries that you may not have access to. Some of the industries currently represented on ProspectLinker include:

- Advertising & Public Relations
- Management Consulting
- Finance / Hedge Funds / Investment Banking
- Marketing
- Media / Entertainment
- Real Estate
- Technology
- Venture Capital / Private Equity

So, as we focus on our revised site, your feedback on this question will help us determine what you think is important for us to implement in our release.

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Here are a couple recent suggestions:

"Daily digest that pulls together all/or a selected bunch of new conversations that have been started in areas that people identify as personally interesting..."
From: Management Consultant

"Great opportunity for perhaps fostering mentor relationships, but maybe you need to bring that more to the forefront?..."
From: Masters Student

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Check out more suggestions by signing up here -- http://bit.ly/3v1Uq. Share any ideas you have and vote for the best.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks for your interest and support.

-The ProspectLinker Team
--
Website || prospectlinker.com
Learn more on our blog || prospectlinker.blogspot.com
Follow us on Twitter || twitter.com/prospectlinker

Recent on-going conversations on pL

2009-04-22T14:30:00.036-04:00

While we are working on publicly displaying conversations that are being discussed on pL in our next major release (approximately 1-2 months from now), in the interim, we will post some of the current conversations on our blog so visitors can learn the type of discussions taking place on pL.

Here are some recent conversations:

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Future of Hedge Funds
What is the future of hedge funds given the recent turmoil with Madoff, Ponzi schemes, and other "SHADY"...

Contributors: asset manager, trader

Acquiring large, but un-monetized services
Do you think the days of acquiring companies, specifically internet properties, that are large, but not...

Contributors: management consultant, venture capitalist, start-up founder

Twitter apps vs. Facebook apps
I've been discovering really cool Twitter apps that are springing up. PhotoBucket just launched TwittGoo...

Contributors: aspiring marketer, technologist, undergrad

Nigerian Financial Institutions
Any thoughts on the state of financial institutions in Nigeria? While the American credit crisis has sent shockwaves throughout...

Contributors: management consultant, investment banker

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What's your take?

Join the community now to:

1. Start conversations on issues that matter to you and get viewpoints from contributors that you are looking for.

2. Contribute what you know to current conversations and see what others have to say

We look forward to seeing your conversations.

-The ProspectLinker Team

--

Learn more on our blog || http://prospectlinker.blogspot.com
Follow us on Twitter || http://twitter.com/prospectlinker
Website || http://prospectlinker.com

A community for professional conversations!

2009-03-31T00:00:00.033-04:00

What is ProspectLinker?

A community driven website for professional conversations.

What is our vision?

ProspectLinker believes that there should be a central location where great thinkers and doers can share and get feedback from each other.

What is the problem?

Professionals and leading students desire high quality sources of information and advice (i.e. ideas, feedback, viewpoints). They desire this quickly, in large quantity, and often times, from individuals who are outside of their own network.

On the Internet, there are very few choices available to have high quality, rapid, and free professional conversations. Destinations like Yahoo Answers, Facebook, and LinkedIn do not facilitate this effectively on their own.

For example, if a student, who is an aspiring investment banker, would like to ask a question to an actual investment banker, but does not have any personal contacts, where would she go? Or, if a management consultant wanted to get ideas on new growth options for a company and wanted to interact with a community comprised of MBAs, VCs, and Private Equity managers, where would he go?

What is our solution?

We want ProspectLinker to be the premier destination for leading minds from various fields to share and have conversations.

What makes us different?

Professional nature
Focus on encouraging high quality, rapid, and free professional conversations among different groups of people
An existing community of technologists, designers, architects, investment bankers, financiers, product managers, consultants, engineers, marketers, advertisers, venture capitalists, asset managers, Ph. D's, students (undergrads and grads) and more.

ProspectLinker is a community where professionals and ambitious students share information about themselves and communicate frequently with each other. Very importantly, we envision it as a destination where large amounts of people are having high quality conversations on a variety of professional topics.

The ProspectLinker community currently comprises of people from top companies including Facebook, IBM, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Google, Blackstone Group, Citigroup, CNN, Deloitte, Ogilvy; and top schools including Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and more.

Join our professional conversations now.

Cheers,

Andre Charoo
President
ProspectLinker
--

Learn more on our blog || http://prospectlinker.blogspot.com
Follow us on Twitter || http://twitter.com/prospectlinker
Website || http://prospectlinker.com

The Definition of ProspectLinker

2009-03-28T10:43:00.034-04:00

To ensure that we are clear about what ProspectLinker is, I would like to define the company name for you first.

What does ProspectLinker (for short, I'll use "pL") mean?

I would like to focus on the word "prospect" and a couple of the meanings in the photo above (cited from dictionary.com):

Definition: A potential customer or candidate -- pL is currently a community of smart people who include technologists, designers, architects, investment bankers, financiers, product managers, consultants, engineers, marketers, entrepreneurs, advertisers, venture capitalists, asset managers, Ph. D's, students (undergrads and grads) and more. These people are all potential customer types and / or candidates.

Definition: A view or outlook on a subject or situation -- The pL community will provide their views and outlook on any subject or situation that people are interested in.

This leads me to answer...

What is ProspectLinker?

ProspectLinker is a community that links people who share their views, ideas, and thoughts with each other. People engage in conversations with professionals, who could be inside or outside of their own personal networks, to gain each others' insights and viewpoints.

For example, you might need the viewpoint of a potential customer for your business, who happens to be out of reach and is outside of your network. In this situation, where do you turn? Social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook?

Often times, it's difficult and unduly time-intensive to get introductions to specific people who are outside of your network, especially if it's just to get their viewpoint, thoughts, or ideas regarding an issue you are experiencing. This is where pL can help. ProspectLinker establishes a platform for people to channel their ideas, expertise, feedback, and thoughts on issues into a forum that may be easily accessed by others seeking insight.

Join our community now to:

(1) Start a conversation amongst a wide range of people from whom one can gain insight;

(2) Give your take on current conversations and see what other smart people have to say; and

(3) Invite others who have been requested from your network into conversations to help add perspective and value to the community

Thanks in advance for your interest.

Cheers,

Andre Charoo
President
ProspectLinker
--

Learn more on our blog || http://prospectlinker.blogspot.com
Follow us on Twitter || http://twitter.com/prospectlinker
Website || http://prospectlinker.com

The pL community is evolving!

2009-03-27T11:08:00.021-04:00

I would like to thank everyone who has joined ProspectLinker to date. As a result of your feedback and more importantly, your usage, we realize that there is a much more compelling and exciting use to the site that we've created. And in fact, it's the origin of why we started this journey in the first place -- to create an amazing source for sharing each others' ideas, advice, issues, and thoughts.

ProspectLinker has attracted very smart professionals and students from a wide range of industries and backgrounds who are interacting and having thought-provoking conversations with each other around interesting ideas and thoughts. These people include technologists, designers, architects, i-bankers, financiers, product managers, consultants, engineers, marketers, VC's, Ph. D's, and more.

ProspectLinker is quickly becoming a community that links smart people from top companies and schools together.

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So, how can ProspectLinker help you?

(1) Start a conversation amongst really smart people from whom you can gain insight

(2) Give your take and see what other smart people have to say about it

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Over the next few weeks and months, we will be working very hard in ensuring that our site is conducive to providing an easy and quick way to provide your views, thoughts and advice within a group of smart people.

Join now and see what these people are talking about!

We look forward to having you take part in the community.

Thanks,

Andre Charoo
President
ProspectLinker, Inc.

--
Learn more on our bog || http://prospectlinker.blogspot.com
Follow us on Twitter || http://twitter.com/prospectlinker
Website || http://prospectlinker.com

Be a Company Ambassador and win a LG 47 inch Plasma HDTV

2009-02-16T14:30:00.021-05:00

As many of you already know, ProspectLinker is an online career oriented community that links leading companies and top prospects together. On ProspectLinker, company Ambassadors can interact one-on-one with students to get to know them better. Through online conversations and online profiles and resumes, the goal is to help employees recommend high quality potential candidates who are best suited for their organization. Over the past month, we have generated over a couple hundred prospects from various educational backgrounds. As a result, we have decided that we want to give people who are working at leading companies, a great opportunity to use the site and win an awesome prize at the same time.

ProspectLinker is giving away a LG 47" Plasma HDTV to the Ambassador with the highest number of visibility points by March 6, 2009.

Visibility points are a measure of how active you and your Company are on the site and in the student community. You get points for various actions on the site (ex. answering questions, inviting other ambassadors, etc.).

Here are the details:

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Contest Timeframe:
- February 18 - March 6, 2009

To be eligible for the contest:

- You must currently be an employee at a company.

- You must use your company email address to sign up to ProspectLinker.

To win the contest:

- Have the highest number of visibility points of all Ambassadors using ProspectLinker by March 6.

To have the highest number of visibility points:

- Complete an Ambassador profile to 100% visibility.
- Answer questions asked by students (Prospects).

- Reply to direct messages from Prospects.
- Ask questions to Prospects in the community.

- Invite new Ambassadors and Prospects to be on the system.

Contest Rewards:
- 1st prize: LG 47" Plasma HDTV
- 2nd prize: iPod Nano
- 3rd prize: $50 Starbucks card
- Company prize: The company with the most cumulative points from Ambassadors will also win a prize courtesy of ProspectLinker.

If you are interested and would like to participate, please send me a message at andre.charoo@prospectlinker.com.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers,
Andre
http://www.prospectlinker.com
http://prospectlinker.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/prospectlinker

ProspectLinker Visits Queen's Engineering Career Fair

2009-01-20T23:54:00.005-05:00

On Wednesday, January 21st, 2009, ProspectLinker will be making its presence at the Queen's University Engineering Career Fair held in Kingston, Ontario. Companies slated to attend include: IBM, GE Canada, Procter and Gamble, among others.

We are happy to be introducing our site to a large audience of Queen's students. We also look forward to providing them with a platform to keep a continuous dialogue with the company representatives they meet at the career fair very soon. At the same time, this presents a great opportunity for companies to get to know the star candidates who are best suited for their organization.

We encourage students with a computer science and/or engineering background to attend the fair and sign up on ProspectLinker.

Keep an eye out for the ProspectLinker booth, which will be set up alongside the various companies' booths at Grant Hall.

Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Time: 10:30am -2:30pm

Location: Grant Hall, Queen's University

View Larger Map

We look forward to seeing you there!

- The ProspectLinker Team
prospectlinker.com
prospectlinker.blogspot.com
twitter.com/prospectlinker

Facebook is hiring developers using ProspectLinker!

2009-01-15T02:18:00.013-05:00

Hey Students!

The holidays are over and reality has started to sink in. Internships, jobs, classes, midterms... let us lighten the load.

Over the next few weeks, ProspectLinker wants to give students the best chance to get hired by Facebook.

As we gear up for our launch in the next few months, we want to give students the opportunity to land a great internship or job, or at the very least, a connection with real people working at Facebook.

We have developed a close relationship with the recruiting managers at Facebook and as a result, for the balance of January, the first 30 students to complete a compelling profile will have their resumes reviewed by Facebook. Consider it a personal recommendation from us, ProspectLinker, to Facebook.

During these times, we understand students are struggling to find opportunities. So, we are here to help students land a great job, to start a conversation with the companies they want to work for, and soon, show students companies and opportunities that they might not have ever considered or heard about on their own.

If you are a student looking to get hired to a top job, we think there are two important criteria in making that happen:

1. Showing companies that you are qualified; and

2. Getting noticed by a company's key decision makers.

This is exactly what ProspectLinker let's you do.

We look forward to helping students realize their career goals!

-The ProspectLinker Team
www.prospectlinker.com

Facebook using Prospectlinker to build relationships with top students

2008-12-09T22:37:00.006-05:00

Tonight, we have privately invited a few hundred students on to Prospectlinker. With our system, these students will now be able to interact one-on-one with the people who work at Facebook.

For those invited, we encourage all of you to fully create your profile and share your background, experience, and strengths, upload your resume, and begin asking questions. The more effectively you do this, the greater the likelihood that Facebook will hire you.

For those of you who were not invited yet, we will be inviting you in the new year. We are constantly working to bring on other companies that you may be interested in interacting with. Please leave a comment below with some of the companies that appeal to you.

In the interim, sign up with a valid school email address and we'll be inviting you soon.

Thanks for your interest and support.

-The ProspectLinker Team!
http://www.prospectlinker.com

ProspectLinker helps to change the world!

2008-11-12T12:54:00.019-05:00

This Saturday, November 15, 2008, we are introducing ProspectLinker to thousands of students in Toronto. Andre Charoo, Co-Founder of ProspectLinker, has been invited to speak among a great list of achievers at Changing the World (www.changingtheworld.ca /about), a conference about inspiring youth to innovate and better our world.

In conjunction with the conference, Facebook will be using our platform to better engage with the students who attend the conference for recruitment purposes. So, if you are interested in working at Facebook, this is a great opportunity for you. We would encourage any students with a computer science or engineering background to make sure you attend and sign up on ProspectLinker. The conference is FREE for students.

Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008
Time: 9:00AM - 4:00PM
Location: Convocation Hall, University of Toronto

View Larger Map
www.changingtheworld.ca/logistics

ProspectLinker will have a table at The Bahen Centre at University of Toronto (corner of College St. and St. George) where you can also sign up.

We look forward to seeing you there.

- The ProspectLinker Team
www.prospectlinker.com

Welcome to ProspectLinker!

2008-08-25T15:06:00.006-04:00

Over the last little while, we've worked on emphasizing the benefits we intended for users to receive from our site. As a result, ProspectLinker is born.

For Students
The goal has always been to connect students with the right people who can help advance their careers. We believe the individuals who are best suited are those in the actual positions students aspire to be in and who are not too removed from their current issues at hand. Consequently, we are working to bring on the companies that students seek to advance their professional careers. To become a prospect, sign up here.

For Companies
The goal has always been to get high quality candidates who are best suited for their organizations. We believe the best way to achieve this goal is to connect company representatives with relevant students to help identify the best fits for their organizations. To become a registered company, contact us at info@prospectlinker.com.

ProspectLinker
ProspectLinker improves company's insight into the student community so they can hire the ideal candidates. In turn, students are linked to professionals who can help advance their careers.

-The ProspectLinker Team!
www.prospectlinker.com