Startups may need help recruiting online just like more traditional companies, but when it comes to also finding advice, getting feedback or seeking early partnerships, it’s not easy to meet these needs in one handy location. Chris McCann and Brendan McManus, the co-founders behind the Startup Digest email event newsletter, may have solved this dilemma with their newest project, Help a Startup Out (HASO). HASO is a Craigslist-like classified forum where people can find various entrepreneurial listings, including startup jobs, events, office space and advisors, just to name a few of the available categories.
McCann and McManus say the need for HASO arose out of the flood of emails they began receiving in response to their newsletters asking where to locate these various resources. HASO was born to meet the growing needs of their community that were “falling through the cracks,” they say. “Whenever that happens, the startup ecosystem suffers. We can’t let that happen, so we are asking you to support each other.”
HASO, like Startup Digest, began as an email newsletter, but has quickly morphed into the classified directory available now. McCann and McNaus say they will continue to publish the HASO Digest and will feature the ten most interesting posts in their email to their community of over 40,000 subscribers.
Most of the categories on HASO are free to list on, with the exception of jobs, office space and service provider listings. Job postings and service provider listings cost $100 per post, and office space openings come in at $50, which is likely to keep the spammers out and the serious startups in. It’s still in the very early-stages, but HASO could quickly evolve, just as Startup Digest has, into a large community and a valuable resource for startups.
