I'm glad I wasn't the only one who doesn't get why this is so "turned on its head."
Why all the hoopla over junior roles? It seems to me that startups need experienced people who are nonetheless excited about the startup environment and energy, and willing to go the extra mile. People like that might be harder to find, thus warranting a dedicated service. I'd be interested.
Yeah, I'm confused about it as well. It seems like the candidates are the ones getting most of the value out of the program, so they should be the ones paying, right? And that "founder associate" role they hype up, it sounds like it's more like a "founder's assistant" gig than anything, which still sounds misleading, because I'm sure these people get little to none of the upside of being a founder.
I think that getting startups to pay helps align everyone. Otherwise there might be a conflict of interest between Jumpstart, candidates and said startups. This way, startups can make sure that Jumpstart works for them, fulfilling their needs.
This is important given the value prop, it's definitely a lot more risky to take on juniors in these kinds of environments. If juniors were paying, Jumpstart might be incentivized to help them despite it not being a great fit for the startup.
Companies which focus on vetted skilled individuals have more flexibility if the brand is trusted. They can charge candidates, ask for % fee of 1st year salary etc. while still providing an acceptable risk.
They've placed all of 270 people, "in junior roles within startups, across ops, sales, marketing and their niche: the founder associate role".
And these very early start ups are paying Jumpstart? For access to a handful of vetted ... jr. people?
People want to pay them for that?
The larger question is of course if / how Jumpstart finds these quality candidates, and are the candidates paying Jumpstart too or something?