Example #815 of how there's excess capital everywhere...Jobster lands ANOTHER $18mm!

It's a GREAT time to be an entrepreneur...a GREAT time. Why? Because the ecosystem is overflowing with capital. Sounds like a gross exaggeration you say? Consider:

• NEA and Oak Investment both raised $2B+ venture funds in Q2; the two largest VC funds in history
• Blackstone Group raised a $15.6B buyout fund, the largest in history
• Texas Pacific raised $14B recently, as did KKR is in the process of a similar raise
• Hedge funds have barreled through the $1 TRILLION asset mark, with more than 7% of those assets allocated to private equity
• Public companies have record levels of cash on the balance sheet

While that's good news for people looking for money, it's not such good news for the LPs putting their money into private equity vehicles. More money means more competition for deals, bloated valuations and plenty of good money being put to work after bad.

I couldn't help but think about this as I read about Jobster's latest $18mm raise on SiliconBeat. I don't know if Jobster will end up a winning company or not, but I do know enough to raise a skeptical eyebrow when I read that they've now raised $50 million and carry a $100mm post-money valuation. This in a market that is CROWDED with startups (Simply Hired, Indeed), established online companies (Monster, CareerBuilders) and plenty of adjunct job-related resources (e.g., craigslist, LinkedIn).

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Comments

[Phillip Bogle]

Hi,

I'm the CTO at Jobster, thanks for your post.

Though there a number of different players in the jobs space, Jobster has both strong momentum and a fairly unique market position.

We nearly 400 customers under contract, including more than 15% of the Fortune 100. We added 135 customers in Q2, doubling our Q1 revenues.

Unlike a number of innovators in the market, Jobster has direct sales relationships with employers and realizes subscription and transactional revenues, rather than relying solely on advertising. Unlike a established players such as Monster, Jobster innovates in areas such as targeted, distributed advertising for jobs, and social job search, combining vertical job search with user generated content and social networking.

We're excited by the potential our Reed-Elsevier relationship offers in terms of international expansion and partnerships with the Reed-Elsevier network of sites and publications.