I launched my first startup

Two weeks ago, I launched CVFish - a job tracking app for recent graduates. It was my first “startup”, and if you’ve been following along, I’ve been making content about it over at marcsfieldnotes (on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok).

I spent 2 years as a part time Career Coach at my University’s Careers & Employability office. During that time, I got to understand students, understand their problems and identify what tools (i.e. competition) already existed. Therefore, I felt like this was a good place to start.

Since launching, CVFish has had some tremendous stats: 👉 18 users 👥 (5 if you exclude the friends I’ve told to sign up and test accounts)

👉 A bounce rate of 87% 🤩 (53/62 people left the site after visiting with an average time of 20 seconds)

👉 £0 made 🤑

So what have I learned?

There is no shortage of job search sites that exist (I knew this very well coming into this). The only reason I picked this project, was because it was a nice introductory “starter” project to get the ball rolling. However, I’d still like to give this my best shot.

The most important bit of feedback I’ve been asked is: “Why should I care?”

And that is extremely valid. I’ve not provided enough value to the right people yet. Instead, I’ve cast a wide net trying to win over any grad from any part of the world. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that you should start small.

So, I’ve given it some thought and I’ve come up with a different angle that I think has some potential - this time dedicated solely to grads from select UK universities seeking a job in finance.

I’m going to aggregate job listings from many of the job sites I’ve found over the past 2 years (some more obscure than others) - and provide a CV tailoring service, specific to finance.

If you’d like early access to this, just send me an email or reach out to me on socials.