December 24, 2007
A New Spin on Internships
Chicago Sun-Times, by Brad Spirrison
TECH MATTERS | Brill street appeals to tech-savvy college students so everyone gets
more out of the experience.
If west Loop-based startup Brill Street + Company executes
on its business plan, college interns across the country might never be asked to
fetch coffee or aimlessly push paperwork again.
If West Loop-based startup Brill Street + Company executes on its business plan,
college interns across the country might never be asked to fetch coffee or aimlessly
push paperwork again.
For decades, the deal between interns and their employers has been pretty clear.
Students toil away on random projects for peanuts in exchange for workplace exposure
and credit toward their degrees. Two years ago, David Frej and wife Nancy Lerner
founded Brill Street to more systematically place interns and part-time college
students with employers genuinely in need of their services.
"There are a lot of internships out there that are not career-building, which is
a waste for students who do not get paid," Frej said. "Companies also need a better
way of tapping into the college work force without sifting through a bunch of resumes."
After receiving $825,000 from angel investors (including $200,000 in founder's capital)
in 2006, Brill Street recently closed on $2.75 million in its first institutional
round of venture capital financing. Chicago-based OCA Ventures led the Series A
round, which also included commitments from the Evanston-based Ceres Venture Fund
and Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Tgap Ventures.
Proceeds from the round have already been used to hire industry veterans Gilles
Tanneur and Matthew Rausch, both formerly of global staffing firm Adecco. There
are also plans to expand the Chicago-focused service to Minneapolis within the next
six months and move into as many as 10 markets by the end of 2009.
Additionally, much of the company's on-demand job placement is done virtually at
http://www.brillstreet.com. Prospective students are asked to post their interests
and information on an online questionnaire. Once screened, interested employers
are guided by Brill Street through candidate profiles. OCA principal Edward Lou
said the company will also incorporate Web 2.0 technologies to appeal to its tech-savvy
constituency of college students.
In addition to founding Brill Street (so named to convey brilliance and street credibility),
Frej and Lerner also own and operate marketing and design firm Otherwise Inc. (http://www.otherwiseinc.com).
Otherwise shares office space with Brill Street at 1144 W. Randolph.
OCA Ventures is also an investor in Warrenville-based open source software developer
Univa UD and Chicago-based grid storage provider Cleversafe. Cleversafe recently
raised its third round of funding, and recruited former Motorola CEO Christopher
Galvin to its board of directors. Ceres is a women-owned company that has closed
on four early stage investments since its formation last year.