Jay Hopper of Gigit Jobs
How did you start your business?
I started out sketching out concepts on the workbench in my garage. After I had transferred the ideas from my head to paper, I took the pile of chicken scratch to my trusty MacBook Pro, where I mapped out the vision, goals and a plan for the business. Then I began designing and developing the product.
With a ton of coding help from my brother-in-law Greg Warner, the vision finally became a reality. On July 3, 2012, we invited our early signups to take a peek at what we created.
How did you come up with the idea for your business?
After exiting my second start-up, I found myself looking for a “real” job.
Having a family rooted here in Cincinnati, I couldn’t just pick up go to Boston, Austin, Silicon Valley, New York or Miami -- and I didn’t want to. I needed to find all the innovative companies here in Cincinnati, places I would want to work, but I came up short. There was no single place to find that all the local creative and tech opportunities in one spot. I had to sift, sort and filter through lots of trash across all the giant job boards. It was a pain.
I knew there had to be a better way, and I knew there were many talented folks here in the city having the same problem. That’s how the idea for Gigit was born.
What resources here did you take advantage of and how did they help?
During the past year, I’ve reached out to many folks in the creative and tech community here in Cincinnati. Everyone has been extremely supportive and they’ve given me great feedback, insights and advice. A local resource I also highly recommend is the
Cincinnati Web/Tech Drinkup held monthly at Nicholson’s downtown.
What inspires you?
Faith, family, simplicity, balance, design, art, technology, music and community.
What’s next for you and your company?
We’re gearing up to launch our job board, gigitjobs.com. We’re also working on tons of valuable content to help creatives and techies in their careers and to showcase the talent in the region. In the coming months, you’ll see us form some strategic partnerships and join forces with folks who share our vision of showcasing, retaining and attracting talent to the region.
Interview by Robin Donovan