James Albis, a USC adjunct professor and alumnus, developed the idea for an app designed to pair customers with service providers offering their skills.
The idea started after Albis created a snow-plowing business in his home state that he said worked as “the Uber of snow plowing." Albis explained that the app functioned much like Uber, except instead of drivers, it connected people willing to shovel snow with homeowners who needed the service.
Now, JobSnap operates on the same concept but has expanded far beyond snow removal to include a variety of jobs.
People offering a wide range of services can use the app to connect with customers, said Stephen Francy, JobSnap’s head of PR.
“If you're a person that knows that salsa dance, and you want to teach people that and earn some money on the side, or you're multilingual and want to tutor, or anything that you have a skill set for,” Francy said. “You can get on the app and publicize and advertise about it.”
Some popular jobs people offer on the app include power-washing, furniture moving, rides to the airport, home improvement projects and more.
Fourth-year biological sciences student Jack Edwards has been able to run his own businesses through the app.
“This app provides us a great opportunity to really find connections and extra jobs,” Edwards said.
Edwards is his own kind of entrepreneur, starting three small businesses back in high school, such as his first power-washing business.
"I've been doing this since 2020, and it's really the only job I've ever had, and I will say that I will never go back," Edwards said.
Back home in Connecticut, Edwards was able to find jobs through the connections of people he knew and local groups. However, when he came to South Carolina, he didn't have those connections due to the fact that he didn't know many people. Then he found JobSnap through a guest speaker who came to one of his entrepreneurship classes.
Since joining, Edwards has also gotten several of his friends signed up and working through the app as well. He said the platform creates valuable opportunities for students like him who need to make money on the side while managing a busy class schedule.
Albis said his goal for the app is to offer transparency for both customers and service providers by including features such as background checks. The app also requires customers to upload photos of the work they need done so providers know exactly what to expect.
"The reason why we built this is because there's a lot of information that isn't really available to people, so they end up accepting jobs or doing jobs when they don't really have a full picture," Albis said.
For Francy, what makes JobSnap stand out is the freedom it gives students to earn on their own terms.
“I think it's great to college kids that don't necessarily know exactly what they want to do, even if they have an idea of it, so it allows them flexibility to try a whole bunch of things out and learn what it is to be your own boss, to set your own price," Francy said.
Francy and Albis also said the app is a great way for students like Edwards to set themselves up as entrepreneurs.Such as Edwards, who came to college on track to be pre-med but is now planning to run his business full time.
"Through this, I've really understood that being able to make your own hours, run your own company, build your own thing, is definitely something that really just seems valuable, and I'd recommend it," Edwards said.
JobSnap is available for download on the App Store.