‘What Startup Life is Really Like: A Day Behind the Curtain at HourlyNerd’

HourlyNerd, an offshoot of the Harvard Business School. The startup offers many opportunities for customers to find a consultant specific to the needs of their business. Mark Cuban is an investor in this rapidly growing organization that started with 12 employees and now has 40 employees. The company currently has more than 10,000 consultants that are featured on the site with more 4,500 companies using the service including Microsoft, GE and American Apparel.

The article offers a day-in-the life perspective of five employees in different departments at the startup including Holy Cross alumna, Angie Malerba’08, sales associate. After graduation, Malerba, took a position at a small PR Agency in Boston for six years, her clients were mainly startups in varying stages. Upon hearing her agency was shutting down she started her job search and came across a business development opportunity at HourlyNerd and thought her PR Skills especially in prospecting might be a good fit for the company and would naturally be transferable to a sales role.

A typical day for Malerba at the office includes a morning sync up with the sales team where they collectively decide on one goal they hope to accomplish for the day. This could be reaching out to a new account or closing one. Malerba then starts her research for prospective clients which she finds from sources LinkedIn and digging through SEC filings.

Malerba has had the opportunity to interview many sales associates since she started with the company last fall as HourlyNerd will be expanding the team with the addition of three new sales associate positions. Malerba says “Only one of them has a sales background, everything else can be learned in training. We’re just looking for people who are eager to learn, passionate and well-spoken.”

Read the full article here.

This “Holy Cross in the News” item by Kelly Ethier.