Brand-Yourself

Brand-Yourself.com is the world's first online reputation management platform for job applicants to establish, maintain and monitor a professional web presence that gets them hired. Its tools help job seekers transform themselves from “net nobodies” to visible, credible, proactive job applicants.

The company was created and developed by iSchool student Pete Kistler ’10, CEO;  iSchool alumnus and current graduate student Robert (RJ) Sherman ’09, G'11, CTO/CFO; Whitman School of Management student Evan Watson ’11, Chief Evangelist; and Newhouse School of Communications alumnus Patrick Ambron '09, CMO.

The company has already attracted a lot of attention.

In March 2010, Brand-Yourself.com was named one of 10 semi-finalists vying for $200,000 in New York’s Creative Core® Emerging Business Competition. The competition, sponsored by M&T Bank and New York Business Development Corporation (NYBDC), seeks the most innovative and growth-oriented emerging business in the twelve-county Central Upstate region. The team was one of five finalists in New York’s Creative Core Emerging Business Student Competition in April 2009.

Brand-Yourself.com won second place and $10,000 in the Whitman School of Management’s Panasci Business Plan Competition in spring 2009.

Also in April 2009, the Kairos Society named Brand-Yourself.com one of the top 100 most innovative student startup companies in the country and recognized the team with the Best Marketing Award.

In March 2009, co-founder Sherman was named one of Syracuse University’s first ever Engagement Fellows, a yearlong program supported by the Kauffman Foundation that contributes to paid employment locally and arranges remitted tuition for courses at SU and professional and faculty mentors. The fellowship will enable him to stay in Syracuse to continue developing Brand-Yourself.com at the Tech Garden and call on a well-developed network of support and resources.

Brand-Yourself.com is one of five start-ups selected to participate in the Student Sandbox at the Syracuse Technology Garden in summer 2009. Throughout the summer, the students received technical, legal, web development, and business support to prepare their ideas for the marketplace while maintaining ties with the University’s faculty expertise and the local business community. The expectation is that these student-initiated businesses will then move into incubator start-up space in the Tech Garden or into commercial properties throughout the city. The Sandbox is part of the Syracuse Student Start-Up Accelerator, a multidisciplinary Syracuse University Chancellor’s Leadership Project.

Follow Brand-Yourself

web: http://www.brand-yourself.com

acclaimed blog: http://blog.brand-yourself.com

twitter: http://twitter.com/Brandyourself