BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : FEBRUARY 5, 2001 ISSUE
FRONTIER -- FEATURES California Dreaming 5.25.98 After five years of hard work, RACHEL S. BELL and SARA W. SUTTON recently sold JobDirect.com, their online employment service for college students, to Korn/Ferry International for $30 million in cash and stock. So the childhood pals, who started their company with $60,000 from friends and family, are on their yachts, sipping champagne, right? Alas, it didn't quite work out that way. By the time the deal closed in July, 2000, two rounds of venture funding had whittled the founders' ownership stakes to just 2%. Sutton and Bell, both 26, walked away with an estimated $600,000 each--a pittance compared with the undisclosed amount received by Scripps Ventures, the New York firm that held 25% of JobDirect. Nonetheless, the duo is hardly bitter. ''Starting a company was a pivotal experience,'' says Sutton. ''The money was the icing on the cake.'' The pair adds that by bringing in more experienced management, they were able to concentrate on building the resume database and generating site traffic. They eventually created a bank of 1.4 million resumes and nearly 600 subscribers. As for the future, Sutton left the company in December, 1999, to work for San Francisco's Myfamily.com Inc. Bell left in August and has been prospecting new opportunities. Since they're on opposite coasts, a future collaboration is unlikely. But their friendship is as strong as ever. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Where Are They Now? Spin Master Plays to Win Even Cowgirls Pay Their Dues The Art of the Startup A Seat on the Roller Coaster Broken Headbone He's Got Ink in His Veins An Emu in Every Pot? Now He's Talking California Dreaming It Wasn't About the Money The Crunch at Emergency Solutions ONLINE EXTRA: For a Candymaker, Success Is Sweet ONLINE EXTRA: Questing for Profit in Child Care ONLINE EXTRA: A Bicycle Builder Peddles Her Own Wares ONLINE EXTRA: A Web Designer's Minimalist Approach INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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