How to Make $250,000 While 'Temping'

Who says the day of the dot com millionaire is past? Well, maybe it’s harder to become a millionaire during these frugal times, but there are still dot com quarter millionaires – and the latest to join that venerable club is Penina First of Givat Ze’ev, who just scored a $250,000 prize package, after winning the Exit’09 startup contest.

I wrote about Exit’09 a couple of months ago, when the contest first started in mid-July. Several dozen Israeli entrepreneurs (many of them armed with just ideas) participated in the contest organized by Israeli software developer Sergata; winners were to get $100,000 in cash and $150,000 in services after eight weeks of a “Big Brother” style online website/application competition. Entrepreneurs survived each subsequent week by garnering votes from visitors to the Exit’09 site, and later by getting approved by a panel of judges, which included top execs from Google and IBM Israel, among others.

Besides the cash, the winner was to get patent advice and support from law firm Luzzatto & Luzzatto, Business planning, start up support and accountancy services from worldwide giant KPMG, marketing and branding help from Guery’s Nascent, services from Israeli PR pros Doran Tikshoret, legal advice from Israeli “white shoe” firm Shavit, Bar-On, Gal-On, Tzin, Nov, and Yagur, hardware from Sun, middleware and worldwide introductions from IBM, and other goodies.

And while it was a wild ride for the thirty-some entrepreneurs who enrolled in the competition, the final decision is in – and winner is Penina First’s Day-Job, a service that will allow people who are looking for short-term help to connect with a large workforce of temps who need some quick cash, but don’t want to make long-term job commitments.

Like all good ideas, First’s Day-Job comes from experience. “My sister-in-law was in this position, looking for some temp work to raise cash, but unwilling to commit to a regular job,” she says, adding that as a student (she is currently working on a master’s degree in biotechnology), she has lots of friends and acquaintances in the same boat. She’s also seen the problem from the other side as well. “My husband runs a computer lab, and he’s stuck on the days that the technicians can’t come in,” she says, searching high and low for temporary replacements for his regular staff. “I wanted to create a platform that would enable people who need someone to help out for a couple of days, or just a couple of hours, to connect with people who have some time to spare – but not too much – and want to devote that time to making some extra cash,” she says.

Day-Job will run like this, says First: A seeker of services – say, a restaurant short on wait staff, an office where the secretary has called in sick, a store in need of extra sales help, etc. – will be able to go to the Day-Job site and fill out their request. Registered workers in each category will then be sent an SMS message indicating the hours and pay for the job – and the first one to respond gets hired. The fee for the service is paid for by the employer, via reverse SMS charges (similar to the charge you pay when you download a ringtone, for example). First is already hard at work upgrading the Day-Job site and application, and has a target date of January 1, 2010 for her launch.

At first glance, First’s idea is certainly a practical one – but not the kind of thing you would expect to win an internet startup contest. The reason she believes she won out over the other venerable ideas – many of which were submitted by seasoned internet entrepreneurs and featured all sorts of advanced programming bells and whistles – was because of her income model. “Most of the ideas depended on advertising to make money, while mine follows a ‘pay for play’ income model,” she says, a fact that impressed the pros who, along with much of the internet world, have come to realize that the advertising pool, while deep, is not bottomless.

Not that collecting money via SMS is without its hazards as well, says First. The cell phone servicer providers keep a large chunk of the money they collect for services and products, so she’s still trying to determine how much to charge employers for the Day-Job service. She’s working now on various arrangements and deals with schools, cell phone companies, and other interested parties to make the service as affordable and profitable as possible.

And while the 22 year old might also seem to be an unlikely winner of a contest like this – considering the more considerable experience of many of the other competitors – First says she now realizes that she, too, has always been a serial entrepreneur – and was sort of waiting for Exit’09 to happen to her since at least her teenage years. “I’ve always had ideas, and once when I was 17, I went to a lawyer to review some of my business ideas to see which ones would have the best chance of succeeding,” she says.

The idea for Day-Job has been floating around in her head for quite awhile, to the extent that she actually discussed a very similar iteration of her current idea with potential partners. “They were willing to invest, but only a small amount, for which they wanted too many rights. I realized that the idea was worth a lot more than they were willing to pay, so I dropped the partnership plan,” she says, putting Day-Job back on the shelf – until Exit’09 came along, when she realized she had a potential winner.

Although $100,000 sounds like a lot of money, First plans to be as conservative as possible in spending it, in order to make sure it lasts. “I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback to the idea,” says First. “I appreciate all the help I’ve gotten from the contest’s sponsors, and I hope I can prove they made the right choice.”

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